Polish the mirror So we can see clearer Push back the clouds To reflect love superior Within the lotus It all comes in focus This love it ain’t hopeless It's no hocus pocus
~ Trevor Hall,To Zion on KALA
Only Breath Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen. Not any religion or cultural system. I am not from the East or the West, not out of the ocean or up from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not composed of elements at all. I do not exist, am not an entity in this world or in the next, did not descend from Adam and Eve or any origin story. My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless. Neither body or soul. I belong to the beloved, have seen the two worlds as one and that one call to and know, first, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being.
~Coleman Barks,Essential Rumi
Who are we, really? What do we have to offer this world in such seeming peril? How do we find ourselves again in the midst all of the chaos and drama of the myriad of events happening in the world concurrently?
When the Hermit comes into our reading, it is a message to go inside, to find the light within and reconnect with the holy well at the center of our being. The Hermit leads us there, back, or forward, into the cave where we can center, be with ourselves; she reminds us to re-member our specific connection to all that is sacred and holy within, to clean and tend, refresh, renew and refill our lamp at the Source, to reignite the fire so that we can bring our lamp out to light the way for ourselves and others.
It’s similar to what our sweet earth is doing this season on the northern hemisphere. It's time to come inside, dear ones, the nights are longer, the days shorter, the winter Solstice is approaching, that longest night in which we can fully rest in the sweet darkness. The journey to the center of ourselves to access our inner light and reignite the flame/spark of our inspiration, our wisdom our spirit; our “ness”.
As we come upon the winter solstice, as the earth goes inside, we too can take the opportunity to honor the minerals in our bones, along with the stones of the earth, to bless our hair as we bless the grass that covers the earth and to see the sacred in letting the soft, instinctual animals of our bodies love what they love. As we honor the sacred within & without, we come into right relationship with our humanity, that capacity for self reflection and the great responsibility we have for being stewards of the earth, and with this in mind and heart, we re-connect to spirit, to our inner light.
8 Ways to Take Care of Yourself While the Patriarchy Loses Its Shit
We are all the children of God/Goddess/Creator. When I taught Waldorf Kindergarten, at this time of year I told the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus, without using names. Instead there was the mother and the father in all of us, taking that archetypal journey to Bethlehem to give birth to our own baby, our inner child of light, born under a beautiful bright star in a stable. And also journey with our own inner 3 kings & shepherds who brought gifts to that child. The gift that birth brought into the world is the re-membering that each one of us is a child of the light, that we are each, as individuals, a perspective of God/Goddess/Creation, just as each drop of water is the part of, or in some way making its way back to, the ocean.
The river is flowing, Flowing and growing, The river is flowing down to the sea. Mother carry me, Your child I will always be, Mother carry me back to the sea…
At this time of year, most Waldorf schools offer an Advent Garden, or Advent Spiral which highlights this journey to the source. It is a beautiful sacred ceremony wherein a large spiral of evergreens is created and sprinkled with symbols from the mineral, plant, animal and human worlds (each represented by a subsequent week of the 4 weeks of advent). Children and adults, from all religions and walks of life, enter the spiral with an unlit candle, taking the journey to the center of the spiral (and to the center of themselves) and light their candle from the flame placed at the center / at the source. Then they journey outward, placing their lit candle somewhere along the spiral as they make their way out again.
The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara is offering an Advent Garden on Friday, December 2 this year from 5-7pm at the school at 7421 Mirano Drive in Goleta. I highly recommend attending, it is a beautiful experience and a wonderful opportunity to symbolically go inside and find our connection to our inner light and the light of creation, returning renewed.
We can connect with the Hermit at the very center of ourselves, during this darkest time of the year, and take opportunity to tend our lamp to prepare for the journey outward again, where we will hold up our lamp and light the way for ourselves and for others.
A dear friend of mine had a powerful experience of this during Halloween this year. As a part of the Halloween Journey at her daughter’s school she created a costume for herself filled with lights. Lights lovingly sewn into her dress and train and wrapped around an elaborate headdress she carefully crafted for herself as the personification of the Cosmic Source-ress. She gave out stars that were hanging from the ceiling to each child after reminding them that we are all beings of heavenly light.
...So, go forth like a star, shine your light for all, Embrace the world with open arms, Dream as big as the twinkling sky… Soar to the highest starry heights. Together we illuminate the night with our laughter, joy and spirits bright.
~ Sonja Lowell, Cosmic Source-eress/Cosmic Mother
After the school event, she wore the outfit out with her daughter and several other children in her rural neighborhood, up in the mountains, to go trick or treating. And funnily enough, she found that her lights were so bright, especially around her head, that in comparison to the darkness of the night, she couldn't actually see the way forward for herself. In order to move forward on the path, she had to follow the lit backs of the children who were moving joyfully, easily ahead in the light she provided.
The metaphor is so profound. Sometimes, as we shine in our own brightness of being, we ourselves are partially blinded by what we give to others; and so while we light the way, we sometimes also need to follow in order to find our way.
As difficult as it is to find time for ourselves during the busy holiday season, it's important that we do tend to our ourselves and our inner light.
This Little Light of Mine, I’m gonna let it shine, This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine...
~ Odetta “Holmes” Gordon,The Queen of American Folk Music
Please come and see me on December 23, (the 4th Friday in December) to see how we, breathing as human beings, together with the archetypes in the cards, can help unleash more of our light to share with each other and the world!
So much Love, Light & even more Blessings!!!
You are the only faithful student you have.All the others leave eventually.Have you been making yourself shallowwith making other eminent?Just remember, when you’re in union,you don’t have to fearthat you’ll be drained.The command comes to speak,and you feel the oceanmoving through you.Then comes, Be silent,as when the rain stops,and the trees in the orchardbegin to draw moistureup into themselves.~Rumi,Feeling the Shoulder of the Lion,Mathnawi V:3195-3219
