The Awakening Shift

I have found that ceremonies are an effective way to attune to the eclipse and summer solstice energies. See New Earth: Calendars & Seasonal Cycles to learn more about the summer solstice.  To read about a very usual summer solstice celebration in Seattle see New Earth Summer Solstice Celebration Ceremonies are a way to return the sacred to our lives. They bring cleansing, celebration, and realignment as we move through life transitions. They open us to the rhythms of nature, to our intuition and center us in the now. They satisfy an inner longing for ritual and connection to each other and the Earth.

Everyone can perform their own ceremony. It does not require a spiritual leader or special talents. It simply involves opening your heart and mind to what is present.

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Flickr: from Thai Jasmine

As we move toward next week now is a good time to begin to prepare for the special energies headed our way on Monday, June 21, when the summer solstice occurs. This is one of Gaia’s seasonal cycles and honoring the cycles of the Earth is one way to acknowledge her aliveness and becoming more in sync with her.  More than any other time in history we are being called by Gaia’s spirit to acknowledge her aliveness.

Summer Solstice

As the Earth moves through her seasonal cycles, she expresses a certain energy that relates to that part of the cycle.   In New Earth: Calendars & Seasonal Cycles, I compare the four seasonal starting points to the cycles of a plant’s growth. The summer solstice represents the peaking of the cycle which the plants express as bursting forth with flowers.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best – the Earth laughs in flowers.

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Photo credit: Small Treasures

The seasonal cycles of the Earth are one expression of her aliveness. In this post, we’ll examine how the Earth’s natural cycles and our calendar are out of sync creating a disconnect in our subconscious. One aspect of waking up, in preparation for 2012, is to become more sensitive to the aliveness of the Earth. This is known as the Gaia Theory and states that the Earth is an alive sentient being. So let’s look at how we can do that.

The calendar is a major part of our everyday life and working with it creates an alignment with the concepts it represents. A part of our calendar is contrived. Consequently this puts us out of sync with the organic cycles of the Earth. Since our calendar is based on the earth’s 365 day journey around the sun, this aspect is in alignment with the Earth’s natural cycles.

However, our year is divided into 12 months, which are meant to represent the moon’s journeys around the Earth.  This journey takes 28 days and the moon makes 13 of these each year  rather than 12. So here, our calendar is not in rhythm with the moon’s cycles. This results in a blue moon like the one coming up on December 31.  A blue moon occurs when we have two full moons in one month. It is the extra full moon related to the 13^th trip of the moon around the earth.  Some years we have an extra new moon rather than an extra full moon.

Another feature that is out of sync is our calendar’s start date on January 1^st. In nature, the real beginning of the year is the winter solstice, which just occurred on December 21.  On the winter solstice, in the northern Hemisphere, the Earth has turned her face as far from the sun as she can, and on that day, she starts her journey back to the light. As the light returns – a new cycle begins.

Pagans and some indigenous people base their holidays on this cycle.  However at an unconscious level, it seems that all of humanity is attuned to this new beginning in nature. This is demonstrated by the many festivals of light around our globe this time of year – Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, and many others.

We can relate this cycle metaphorically to the growth cycle of a plant.  So Earth’s calendar looks like this:

• Winter solstice – beginning of new cycle – seed is planted
• Spring  Equinox – cycle expands – seed sprouts
• Summer Solstice – cycle peaks – plants flower and blossom
• Autumn Equinox- cycle ends – fruit is harvested, plant dies and returns to the earth

This natural cycle of the Earth is one aspect of her aliveness.  We can see how our man-made measurement of time as expressed in the Gregorian calendar does not support connecting with this organic cycle.

So what can we do to remedy this?  One thing we can do is to honor these seasonal cycles with a ceremony.  Ceremony is a powerful way to form new neural nets in the brain, which will then automatically cause an alignment with these cycles.  The more we do them, the more attuned we become.

Another way to form an alignment is to notice how our own body expresses this Earth cycle.  In the winter, like the seed, we want to hibernate. Spring comes and we feel fresh and alive just like the little sprout.  In the summer, our energy is at peak.   We go on vacation, do outdoor activities and enjoy the uplifting, outward flowing energy. Fall comes and we begin to pull inward. We focus back on work and harvesting all that we have been striving for all year long, knowing that the cycle is ending and we’ll soon be starting a new year.

So as you celebrate the holidays in your tradition, know that Mother Earth is also beginning a new cycle.