A Winter Solstice Meditation

(**If you enjoy music during meditation, I recommend you press the "Launch Pandora" button on the right. I have been enjoying a station I created by entering the term "Anonymous Four", but you may listen to what calls to you.**)

A Winter Solstice Meditation

This is a time for you. Find a comfortable, warm place to get settled. Take a long breath starting in your nose and drawing your breath deep, filling your stomach. Breath out slowly, releasing your breath from your stomach than your chest , throat and finally out of your mouth. Do this several times until you feel your muscles relax.

Sense your body- recognize that you are safe and comfortable. You are tethered to the Earth by a golden rope extending from the base of your spine to the heart of the Earth. Feel the golden, warm connection. This golden rope does not hinder you in any way. This golden rope keeps you connected and safe.

Once you are relaxed and connected, we will begin our travels. We go a long way to a mountain covered with snow. The tall evergreens hang with snow. There is no moon. There walking up the dark mountainside is a group of people walking slowly with faint, flickering light coming from the lanterns they carry. You are one of them or you are only an observer. As you get closer, you see that the group is lead by a woman. Her long dark hair falls down her back and is dusted with snow. All are well clothed for their trek- long thick coats embroidered with rich jewel colored thread., rich, deep boots on their feet and thick gloves of purple and amber and garnet on their hands. By the pace of their walk, they know where they are going and fully realize the work before them as the path is steep. The woman that is the leader knows that she is to meet with a messenger- what will be this messenger? And what will the message be? There is no giving into fear. The path leads us onward, forward, to where we need to be.

Above the snow covered trees, the stars glint in the black sky. There are more stars that you have ever seen. The pure coldness of the air and the vast sparkle of the stars take your breath away. Still you move on. After some time, you and the group come to a clearing. In the dim light a vague shape is visible. The group stops but the leader walks slowly forward. As she draws closer, she sees it is a fox dragging something along the ground. She moves forward- the fox snarls- but still she moves slowly toward it. Her message. It is the antlers and top of the skull of a young buck. It is for you- she knows it deep within her- but she must pay the messenger. She tosses the fox a handful of dried meat she had brought in her pocket. Silently, the fox releases the antlers, takes the meat and is gone like a sigh. She picks up the antlers and returns to the group. Another sits the antlers upon her head and secures them with delicately woven nettle ropes. The woman pauses a moment to look at the group and then turns to continue across the clearing and up over the final ridge.

As the expanse of the vast U-shaped valley spread before her, her heart fills with a deep love and wonder. She stands tall- the antlers drawing her up straight. Just vaguely in the far east, the sky lightens and changes. Others in the group prepare the fire with the wood they have carried on their backs. Silently, the woman stands by the cliff edge looking out at what she can not yet see, but that which she knows with all her being. She takes a deep, even, slow breath of the clear cold air. She is filled with the cold sure air. It tells her that all she is to be- all that she wants is within her. Her power spreads from the antlers through the top of her head, down her spine and fills her to her toes. She gives them the signal to light the fire which blazes up behind her.

The sun is rising! The sun returns! She raises her arms high in greeting. Raise your arms in greeting! Feel your power flush within you. You stand tall- the silhouette of a vibrant antlered Aruduinna against the gold of the rising snow. Now- dance and feel the joy!

As we slowly return along our golden rope, you carry with you the joy and the strength. They will be within you always- may they fill your soul.

Blessed Winter Solstice.

~Salvia

December 19, 2008

P.S. I have been thinking of these images for many nights as I lay going to sleep in my cozy bed. Only last night did the image of the fox and the antlers come to me. This morning, as I saw the image of the woman with antlers in my mind, I realized I have been carrying an image from a good friend's creation with in me. Thank, my dear friend Greenlee, for inspiring me with your beautiful Arduinna!!

love poem

Diana! Lucina! Selene!
You take my hand and begin the joyous dance.
You are my mother, my daughter, my lover.
You are dressed in the a dress the color
of sparkle of ocean spray
of tea in a silver spoon
of the orange glow of our hearts.
Let us dance!
Let us sing on this night of your fullness.
Diana! Lucina! Selene!

Discipline

How many blessings stream to you, my daughter? How many joys at this moment run through your fingers? You must breath and feel and understand.

But, how? How am I to feel anything beyond this feeling of rushing to oblivion?

Daughter! Enough! Why do you turn away from your power? You know that you are the sky and the sea and yet you act like you are nothing more than your body? You have the power of the earth at your feet, why do you fool yourself into believing less? Should you choose, you can run numbly to oblivion- so many do. But how can you allow that when you have worked so hard to see your power- your connection.

Release yourself from your own chains. Stand and allow yourself to feel the wind and the rain and the sunshine. You are pain. You are love. You are death. You are ecstasy.

other world

I think there is a whole other world out there. I catch glimpses of it at times. There is a crispness to this world that makes me feel as if I walk in a fog most of the time. When we die, perhaps our souls- our energy- return to this world of light,action, sleep and teeth. We leave behind the world of thought and feelings- moving back into the world of sweet decay and contentment found in a meal and a nest.

Now, in the mornings when I am able to take a jog, I give over to the pleasure of feeling my muscles and greeting the roadside plants. I watch them- see them bloom, ripen, decay and rest. As I pass them, I say their names in my mind: Raphanus raphanistrum (what a great name!)- Wild Radish- a treat now to see blooming white and lilac; Wild bramble rose- red hips hanging like garnets; an Apple tree still holding on to some of it's apples which fill the air with a smell of cider; poison oak putting on it's stunning red and orange autumn colors which fool the tourists into picking armfuls; and there- on the hill- wild grapes hang in the arms of the Hazelnut tree. What bounty! My friends, I am always happy to see you.

Where peace lies

It is in an image of green water that brings me peace these days. I wonder where it is? You walk through the woods to get there and there is a closeness and warmth that soothes.

Just last month, it all slipped through my fingers. I could look and see the sacred, but I could not feel it at all. All is chance and all is lost even before it is found. It was a lonely place.

Then this came to me- a message-a reminder- whatever, I needed it: "There is enough. There is enough love. There is enough time. There is enough forgiveness. There is enough strength." I believed it and I felt it. It was as if my heart opened again. There is enough.

Bridge to Autumn

The energy of this time pours and swirls. It can connect and it can befuddle. It builds until it sweeps me to a different place all together. The energy of this time of year is wild, but I trust it. I will let it flow through me.

I wake to wind and rain. A white egret was standing in the pond with a group of mallards around it. I want to dance with the leaves and meditate with the water birds.