Guest Post By Cinzia Sarigu
~ Full moon in Sardinia, by Cinzia Sarigu
In the midst of very powerful shifts in energetics as well as physical aspects of the world, I’ve been experiencing much sadness, tenderness and deep healing. It feels like clearing out a lifetime’s worth of stuff.
Recently I have been reading about shadow work and understanding the deep crisis I’ve been in for the last two years. It seems the deeper I go, the deeper it all gets. Since it’s dark down there, there’s no way to see where it stops, or if it does; therefore, sometimes it is hard to gage how to handle it, and when it’s time to come up for air.
Shadow work is explained in the oldest, major spiritual traditions worldwide as the most important one for integration and balance. This seems to have been severed in many modern traditions, where a pattern was then created of projecting one’s own darkness externally onto others.
There seems to be no reliable maps for navigating these realms, and so I have come to trust that the soul leads the way in the underworld as perfectly as it guides us towards the light.
I guess it’s ok to speak of darkness around the winter solstice, where the chasm is opening and ready to swallow up all fragments of the shadow that failed to integrate. Only that those fragments will bloom again in spring unless a heart centered practice of unveiling and integrating them is taken up during the winter.
I heard this solstice is different, as it is the completion of a 7-year-old cycle that began in 2012, when the wheel of time turned and opened the doors to the new age, or the new sun. There has been much movement since, and it continues to shake the boat. This solstice is also powered by the Full Moon (a rare occurrence that happens only once every ~ 80 years) and it has a strong gravitational pull, which has been felt for weeks in advance.
I wonder whether the portal is asking of us to dive deeper than ever into darkness and find the jewels that have been buried for thousands of lifetimes? Those that are waiting to be brought up into the light and integrated, as we walk whole into the new time.
More than ever I appreciate the value of what we are doing in circle. I see how the circle provides safe space and support for the individual to take that leap into the darkness of winter, the darkness of the soul, as we offer each other a helping hand to climb out and stand in the glory of the newly born sun.
Amidst the darkness that is gripping at this time, I’m preparing for the leap and looking forward to greeting the light of the new cycle, which may illuminate the consciousness of all who feel lost, isolated and powerless. So that we may all rise together, in love and in grace.
“Fire of My Life” Home Practice by Jane Large
I recently attended an event in North Bay to make lanterns for a Winter Solstice Community Walk. Here is a picture of the star lantern frame I was called to make.
The Winter Solstice is about celebrating the darkest night that ushers in the return of the light; a portal into inner and collective enlightenment.
This time of year invites me to tend the ‘Fire of my Life’, which is an important spiritual practice as any other.
I hear the need for simplicity and tending close to home, close to the heart. I see candles, lanterns, fires and the invitation for laughter and fun.
What stokes our Inner Flame?
What stokes the ‘fire of our life’?
What stokes the Fires of Connection, with our Self, with others, with our families?
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