Well today is just a stupendous, fantabulous, delicious day. Not only is it our weekly Monday reading, but it is also the Summer Solstice (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the day when we have the longest amount of sun and the first day of summer) and Full Moon! This hasn’t happened for 70 years, so let’s utilise that energy and really create something amazing! I have prepared a very special reading for you to celebrate this day. (Warning, longer than normal post).
But let’s just ponder for a second, the moon, the symbol of the sacred feminine, will become full in the Night of the Summer Solstice, exactly when we celebrate the power of the sun, which is the divine masculine. Thus, on this day, the divine masculine and the divine feminine, are shown to us in all their glory and remind us once again of the harmony and beauty that derives from the union in and out of us, of these two archetypes. This beautiful courtship between the male and female energies becomes more intense at this time and vibrant with passion. The same passion with which we feed our lives, our plans, our dreams.
“Our ancestors built huge bonfires on this day to celebrate their tangible connection to the vital power of the immense burning star that keeps our planet bright, warm and alive. It’s a good time to remember that we, like the sun, contain the power to nurture and sustain, and that we have a responsibility to burn as brightly as we can.
“(It) is the time to invite fire into our lives fire to burn away all that we have outgrown and all that no longer serves us; fire that makes the wild things grow in us, for which our inner selves have longed.
“We are all connected people, planet, and sun. If we align ourselves with the power in others and in the natural forces around us, what we are unable to do with our own puny ego elves can be made to happen if it is attuned to the needs of the inner self and those upon which we are connected.” ~ Cait Johnson and Maura D. Shaw from Celebrating the Great Mother
Within these fires the nine solstitial herbs were thrown, and they were: Ruta, Verbena, Mistletoe, Lavender, Thyme, Fennel, Plantain, Artemisia and the grass of St. John. If you have any of these herbs in your garden you might want to burn them as a smudge in honour of this auspicious day.
So before we jump into the reading, let’s get clear and centred. I have also loaded this visualisation as an audio if that appeals to you, if it doesn’t keep reading.
I invite you to the sacred grove. To get there all you need to do is gently close your eyes down, breath a deep gorgeous breathe and release it.
As you take another deep breath in you see yourself standing in the middle of a beautiful grove in the woods. There is a gentle rain happening, but you don’t feel wet, your senses are filled with the fresh scent of the woods and you notice the floor of the grove is carpeted with colourful and unusual woodland flowers and there are bluebells all around you. As you look up to the sky you see the full moon is shining down upon you and lighting the grove with her glorious silver light.
There are fireflies dancing between the trees, looping through the branches and the leaves, swooping down to balance on the top of a flower for just a moment, and then moving swiftly in a twirling light to carry on their delightful dance. As you watch you realise these aren’t fireflies, they are the gorgeous people of the Fay and they are lit up so brightly with their joy, joy that you are here, joy of celebration, joy for life, joy for process. Magic abounds in this sacred grove. After watching them for a while you pull your eyes away from these gorgeous beings and you see in the middle of the grove a crone. She is dressed all in shades of grey and silver, reflecting the moonlight out and upwards. In front of her is a huge cauldron or crucible and she is stirring it with a large wooden paddle and there is a gentle orange light coming from it.
You stand wondering what to do and she smiles and invites you with her hand to approach. You can feel her deep, calm welcoming voice in your mind inviting you to place into the cauldron anything that you want to release, anything that no longer serves you and your highest good, any old grief, resentments or wounds that need to be released, any doubt, fear or limitation. You approach her and take another deep breath in and as you release it with a sigh, you find in your upturned hands small black lumps that look like coal. These are the things that no longer serve you you don’t need to explore them, you smile at the magic and you toss them into the crucible. As they hit the orange glow, flames rise up in homage to the moon and this day, you see your worries, your fears being burned away and transferred back to clean energy and released up into the sky to be absorbed by the stars. You feel light, pure golden and silver energy and as you smile the crone smiles with you. You have released and healed on this gorgeous sacred night of the divine feminine and the divine masculine. You take another deep breath in and as you open your eyes you are back in your gorgeous body feeling purified and clear. So trust yourself and feel free to pick as many cards as you are called to.
Have you picked? Now to see what guidance is coming to you on this gorgeous day.
1.SACRED FOOL
The fool is a great rebel, able to thwart convention and tell the truth without restraint. Your heart is a wonderful, powerful, sacred fool! It cares not for the right way to do things. It cares not for what the mind says is real and not real. It lives according to an inner wisdom that cannot be dictated to or controlled by anything. It loves, it lives and it is what is!
It’s time to take your offer to the world. Don’t try to be appropriate, don’t try to be socially acceptable and worry about what others may think – just be. If you want to wear a mad hat whilst doing so, fine.
It’s time to leave behind what has been because it no longer feels right to stay attached to it. Your mind is a monkey puppet on strings. More often than not, it is cajoled into fear when it could be playfully dwelling in the radical spontaneity of life. So, the sacred fool in you urges your mind to let itself be pulled into joy by your heart strings not into fear and doubt by media or anything else. It’s time for you to play.
It’s time for you to let life happen in a completely unreserved, unscripted way. Life wants to operate more radically through you so that you become the conduit through which miracles and crazy wild synchronicity can occur. If you find yourself making choices that have others questioning your sanity, then you are right on course. You are just approaching enlightened awareness. There is a moment – sometimes a rather long one – when we wake up to life, shed our attachment to mass opinion and float in a completely different state of being. Stay on your path, stay on the journey, remember to take nothing too seriously and it will all work out perfectly.
2. MANY HANDS OF THE GODDESS
The Goddess Kuan Yin brings blessings to multiple projects and many different parts of your life and consciousness. She is not limited to one task at a time. Do not be afraid to surrender into her guiding wisdom and creative genius now, for there is much that you can accomplish together and she wants to assist you.
We often create well when focusing on one project at a time, seeing it through to completion and then tending to the next one. Sometimes our attention might be stretched across numerous projects, especially if you have a lot of natural creative energy at your disposal. You may worry that you are being stretched beyond your capacity to be productive. Release your worries and intentions to Kuan Yin and then let her guide you. When you feel strongly to work on a particular project, do so. When you feel to step back from it and rest, do so. You do not have to worry about having too many logs on the fire, you just need to let Kuan Yin guide you and follow her impulses faithfully.
With the Many Hands of the Goddess assisting you through your trusting heart, you will accomplish more than you thought possible, assisted by the Universe in ways seen and unseen.
3. RECEIVING
You are so loved. Your every need is witnessed and responded to by the universe. However, you sometimes forget this. You become swept up in the momentum of habitual consciousness, and you forget to take a moment to stop, breathe and be. In that moment you can receive the love of the universe that is receiving you. It will nourish you with contentment and energy.
You have not done this enough so your soul is parched and drying out. Energy has been going out of you but there is not enough coming back in. It is time to bring something back in for you. It is time to bring something back in for you. To receive and be received. You are being offered a chance for restoration now, to feel nourished, cared for and loved. Accept it! You deserve it.
Do you know how much joy the universe gains from being able to give to you? When you delight in what you receive, when you openly embrace a gift and are so happy with it, the universe is fully received by you. In this space there is joyful communion between you and life, energy flows more freely and magic happens. You are a radiant sun in human clothing. An exquisite life experience is your birthright. Enjoy it! Soak it up. All of it. Including the restoration of sacred rest. Forget your worries for a while. Switch off. Do something else. Let it all go and it will all flow.
4. MOTHER OF MERCY
Just like a Sun that shines brightly casting a strong shadow, your growing spiritual power needs to be expressed with the awareness that it will have an effect on others, even if you are not completely conscious of that effect. To create peace in the expression of your power, we call upon the Mother of Mercy. Mercy tempers great strength and power with kindness, gentleness, compassion and caring. The Divine Kuan Yin brings the quality of mercy to you now as a divine gift, encouraging you to cultivate mercy in your dealings with others and to receive it for yourself now too.
Dispensations of Mercy come when we are without recourse. We have perhaps lost our way, become unable to find our way through or have caused some great effect, for better or worse, that we did not intend. Or perhaps our own guidance led us into darkness consciously so that we could learn something valuable and we are a bit stuck!
Divine Mercy from the Heavenly Mother brings us to a place where we can stop the cycle of manipulation, or being manipulated, of unkindness or unconsciousness. If you are in a situation, on either side of the story, whether you feel powerful or disempowered, where there is manipulation, fear, struggle, hurting or suffering, call upon Mother of Mercy now. Her gift will abate any karmic escalation and will even help to undo the negative effects of what has already unfolded.
5. BIG BOLD VISION
You were not born to play a small role in life. You have the ability to dream big. Even if you have absolutely no idea about how your visions can come to pass or what all the details may look like, you can access the heart and guts of a vision by tapping into your wildest dreams and surrendering attachment to exactly how it will all work out. The details are up to the creative genius of the universe. You are an active, contributing participant but not the sole player in your life journey.
You are being asked to remember that when something is right for you, endless synchronicities and support will flow your way, at the right time and in the right way. Stay open, receptive, playful and surrendered. You are about to receive or be invited to become part of, a grand visionary beginning. Trust your heart, be still with your choices and when the time feels right and truthful, leap! Trust in what you perceive.
Even if it conflicts with what everyone else around you is saying or the surface of things, trust your inner perceptions. Trust that things will be coming up roses for you. Even if everything seems to be a bit of a shambles now, it’s really just the essential mess before a truly spectacular success.
6. REVEAL THE PEACOCK BEAUTY
The beauty of the peacock is breathtaking, with stunning lush colour unfolding in graceful and proud display. You too are a great beauty. Within you resides glorious divine being of beautiful light, with an ability to create, as your divine birthright. The Peacock Beauty speaks to you of your creative energies rising to sublime, inspired new levels as you are accessing the power of your throat chakra for higher creation. Your intentions, decisions and particularly your words, are becoming more powerful. Enjoy the wise use of the growing creative potency to express the beauty within you, asking for Divine Blessing on all your plans, projects and words.
There is a stirring within you to create greater beauty in your life, to honour the creative ability that you have to express such sublime feelings that reside within you. You can begin to create divine beauty through your words and actions. As the power of the throat chakra grows, our urge to express ourselves in a uniquely creative way can become strong. This creativity is the voice of the Soul wishing to manifest itself in the physical world. The power of your Soul is starting to flow through your words and plans.
Whatever project, plan or purpose you have been contemplating is in alignment with the higher creativity of your Soul. Don’t worry if the details aren’t unfolding as you thought they would. Be clear with your intention and surrender the details to the Universe so that they can unfold according to a vision greater than your own. Don’t give up, but do let go.
7. TRUST YOURSELF
You are wise. You know how to grow, even without knowing how you know.
Like the ancient forests, spectacular galaxies and the acorn that becomes the oak, there is natural intelligence for growth that is beyond logic and reason. It just happens. You are growing. You really are. Don’t doubt it.
Even if you don’t see it yet, remember that so much is happening when the seed is still unbroken in the ground. It’s gathering up all its’ might, power and force that it will need to push above the soil and burst up into the light. Trust yourself. You know how to grow. Don’t over think things, it won’t help you. Don’t worry so much you are doing a great job in this game of life. When you trust yourself, you relax and you can heed your own wisdom.
You have a big destiny this lifetime and much to experience. Don’t resist any points of instability in your life. This even applies to your most treasured relationships or creative projects. That instability is just a growing pain because more consciousness, more love and more light wants to infiltrate and pervade all parts of your life. Choose to flow and grow.
8. CALL OF THE DANCING CRANE
Dancing Crane moves through waters and muddy marsh with elegance and grace. The mating call and dance of the Crane is full of beautiful movement and flow. There are times when the astral waters of our emotional life become stagnant and will benefit from the healing movement, grace and beauty of the Dancing Crane. The Call of the Dancing Crane is a reminder that Sound can be healing too. This is particularly so when your thoughts, beliefs and emotional patterns do not support you in living the spiritual destiny you were born to live.
When we put enough energy of habit into thoughts, emotions, beliefs and stories from our past that condition how we interpret current life experiences, we can get stuck in astral gravity, unable to let go of ways of thinking and reacting even if we really wish to do so. As we grow spiritually, we can outgrow our astral conditioning. Just like sifting mud out of water, so we can move more freely and gracefully like the Dancing Crane, if we accept healing energy to help us filter through our psychological programs so that our thoughts, beliefs and emotions can create new habits and patterns more aligned with what we would like to experience in our lives.
It’s time to stop believing in your own stories, your old habits and patterns and to realise that they are simply old conditioning. You are allowed to change them! You can choose to cultivate any thoughts, beliefs and interpretations of experiences that you like. Allow Kuan Yin to guide you to the perfect way for you to receive Her divine blessing and help so that your affirmations, your vision board made of inspiring images that you love and your choices to interpret incoming data as evidence that the Universe loves and helps you become more powerful than the pull of your past.
Have a wonderful Solstice and remember – talk to yourself as you would talk to someone you love.
