Integrity Archives - Jenny Heston

Summer solstice, also known as Litha, is the longest day of the year, but it’s only the very beginning of the summer months with the hottest weather yet to come.

Litha is one of the eight traditional Pagan holidays when daytime energies are at their strongest, radiating mega-doses of vitality and love.

The Sun, seen from an esoteric level, is all about love and wisdom. It’s the primary ray of energy from which everything else is created. It’s the Heart of creation. The Sun never fails to shine, always “rises” to meet us, and sustains life on Earth.

This year, Litha falls on June 21st – a time when those of us who practice magic speak of drawing down the Sun. This means connecting with prana or life force, both within and without.

To draw down or bring out the Sun means harnessing radiant solar energies in order to have the confidence to let yourself shine and be seen. It’s affirming that you’re strong, vibrant, loving, warm, and filled with light.

Litha is the Sun’s day, and the Sun is the center of our solar system. It brings us all back to our center, to our hearts, and the creative source of everything.

The Sun rules the passionate, creative, and proud sign, Leo.

Leo is motivated to share and lead from the heart and become the brightest, fullest version of itself. With the Sun at its maximum power, Litha’s the perfect time to recognize all the things, small and large, that you’ve created and shared with others.

It’s also time to honor the leader within you and how you continue to express more of your most authentic self.

At the summer solstice, a doorway in time opens, which our ancestors viewed as sacred and holy. Litha is a grand portal of energy, space, and opportunity – a chance to let go of fears, doubts, and insecurities.

After the Sun reaches its maximum power, it begins to decline.

Slowly, the night force will grow stronger until its peak at the winter solstice.

Litha is the last chance in our calendar year to activate sacred intentions before moving into autumn and winter, the natural seasons of harvest and rest. I

t’s a time to step out in faith and imagine what’s entirely possible for yourself.

Dream an expansive vision for your life that will sustain you as the darkness slowly returns with the fall.

5 Ways to Be Like the Sun

1. Be the Light

The Sun is a star, and its job is to shine! So is yours, in your unique ways. No matter what happens around you, you always have a choice to see, be, and share the light. What I mean by light is love. Whatever you’re doing and wherever you are, choose that love and give it away freely. There’s no prescription for how this looks, so get creative and just do you – in the truest, sincere, most authentic ways you know.

2. Take the Lead

Solar energy is motivating and naturally attracts attention. Use that power for good and be the best example you can. You may not own a business or directly work with large groups, but people look to you. Notice who they are and think about what they see. Every time your inner sun comes into someone else’s field, it makes an impact. It radiates its energy and infuses people, spaces, and places. Be a leader with your energy and set an example worthy of following.

3. Co-Create

The Sun represents the principle of co-creation and animates the entire zodiac. It doesn’t exist alone and wouldn’t mean anything without the rest of the solar system to interact with. In the tarot, The Sun card is about working with others in ways that inspire you and the world. To be like the Sun is to find people who share your passions and bring all that energy together to make something purposeful. Creatives need each other to stay creative. We’re not meant to do this alone. Find a way to connect and make something exciting happen.

4. Act with Integrity

What do I mean by integrity? I mean acting from wholeness by integrating body, mind, heart, and spirit. Most simply, you act with integrity when you’re true to yourself. It’s so easy to think or feel a certain way but act another, which causes a division within you. Some animals, like horses, are especially sensitive to this inauthenticity. They can feel the conflict and won’t trust someone who’s acting out of alignment with their emotional energy – like pretending to be tough when truly afraid. Integrity takes personal work, practice, and honesty. To act with integrity, you have to be honest about where you’re at and what you’re doing. When you know your ego is reacting, own it. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not or commit to doing something you’re not ready to do. Be honest about your feelings, even if it’s a little uncomfortable.

In astrology, the Sun is the planet of integration. Your Sun Sign is the energy through which you’re integrating yourself. If you’re a Libra, it all comes together through relationships, balancing extremes, and cooperation. If you’re a Sagittarius, it all comes together through searching to find more meaning and following your true path. We’re all in the process of integrating our higher and lower selves. With awareness and practice, you can align your thoughts and actions with your heart and higher mind.

5. Balance Your Solar Plexus Chakra

The Solar Plexus Chakra or Manipura color is bright yellow, like the Sun. This center is located just above your belly button and is the powerhouse of your energy system. Balancing this chakra helps you confidently stand and act in your power. If your Solar Plexus Chakra is underactive, you might feel powerless or uncertain. If it’s overactive, you might become overpowering and arrogant. Humility is part of this chakra’s medicine. True strength is humility. This chakra is also where you manifest all the things you create. You can think of your Solar Plexus Chakra as the Sun, radiating warmth and light into life. Activate this energy center to rest assured of your capabilities and to make things happen for yourself. Below are some tremendous Solar Plexus herbs, oils, stones, deities, and mantras you can work with.

Solar Plexus Herbs/Oils: Calendula, cumin, helichrysum, lemon, neroli, turmeric

Solar Plexus Stones: Sunstone, yellow aventurine, pyrite, yellow apatite, citrine, golden healer quartz, tiger’s eye

Solar Plexus Deities: Agni, Athena, Ma’at, Pele, Ra, Sekhmet, Xiuhtecuhtli

Solar Plexus Mantras:

“I am strong, capable, and powerful.”

“I stand in my power.”

“I am the leader of my life.”

In Closing

If you want to delve deeper into how to welcome Solstice and harness that energy, grab your copy of SASS.

However you choose to welcome summer, and long past it, I hope you’ll find ways to grow and feed the light for the benefit of us all.

May you feel on the deepest level how powerful you are – how your energy and the way you run it make an impact. May you use your light to inspire and empower others. May we all choose the wisdom of love. From my heart to yours, happy Litha.

Happy Marvelous, Magnetic, Musical, Merry, Mischievous, Miraculous, Manifesting Monday! Whoot! How are you delicious lovely? Have you picked your WOTY? How are you getting along with the theme this month of “If Not Now, When? If Not You, Who?”

Here in balmy Victoria we were hit with big snow – it was fantabulous! (Although many people who live here would totally disagree). But I loved it, there was a good couple of feet of it and the city ground to a stand still – ahhhhh, there is a certain quiet and beauty that snow brings. So I gifted myself the full day on Wednesday to do the Journey of Inanna. Sacred circle was set, I had a gatekeeper and off we went. This is not a journey for the faint of heart as there are 7 gates you have to pass through and at each one you are asked to release a part of yourself. For example:- how you show up in the world, how you communicate, your tribe, your material possessions and financial security and others. Until at the very end you give up your humanness. And at every gate you explore – who the heck am I without that piece, what does this look like, feel like. Raw is the word I would use. Then as you ascend back you choose what you want to pick up and what you are willing to release. Very powerful.

So this got my mind to perking (as you know it does). We have a New Moon in Aquarius on January 24th (Friday), which means the sky is dark and we set our seeds of intention, our desires, our light. Thus, a glorious mix of Shadow and Light. Yet I see so many people stuffing what they perceive as their “Shadow” pieces. The pieces that they don’t like, or that are judged by others as “not suitable for present company!” This in turn creates a fragmentation and a sense of not being whole, it also encourages people pleasing and mask wearing to fit it. So I say Bollocks to that!

Now as many of you know I facilitate a group called Soul Matters where we walk with a theme each month and explore it in a deep spiritual and personal way whilst looking at how it shows up in our day to day. The theme we are exploring for January is “Integrity”. So let me ask – what does Integrity mean to you?

The standard dictionary definition is “Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.” Hmmmm, most certainly but there needs to be more. I like the definition from Authur Gordon:- “Integrity: Basically, the word means wholeness. In mathematics, an integer is a number that isn’t divided into fractions. Just so, a person of integrity isn’t divided against him or herself.”

Most people look at Integrity as it’s about addition – build your character, get better at being honest, and all those pieces. It’s about being better, becoming more. But what if it isn’t about adding something on, but actually remembering and embracing all you are – a wholeness? Remembering the important life lessons that have come our way, such as: – I remember that masks that stay on too long will stick to my skin. I remember I always have a choice. I remember that if I am asked to keep a piece of me hidden, this is not where I belong. It’s about diving into your core values and living them.

As Rachel Naomi Remen shares – “Integrity rarely means that we need to add something to ourselves: it is more an undoing than a doing, a freeing ourselves from beliefs we have about who we are and ways we have been persuaded to “fix” ourselves.”

Integrity to me is not slicing myself up into different parcels for different places. It’s to know and to feel that I am showing up as my whole self in different settings. It’s bringing all the pieces of me to the table. Yes? It’s about allowing what we call our “shadow” pieces to be integrated into our being so they don’t need to squirt sideways and by integrating them we release the vast amount of energy that it takes to stuff them into a box in the back of the closet, and bring it back to ourselves to fuel our light. Which feels amazing!

So let me ask again – What does Integrity look and feel like for you? Are you willing to allow what you perceive as your shadow pieces some space? Are you willing to bring them into your being with love? If you do, the energy surge is positively delicious and then you start showing up in a state of wholeness and as the gorgeous authentic being you are!

So with all that in mind when I went to the cards and was just about to ask who wanted to guide this week I was gobsmacked as this glorious deck threw themselves off the shelf and spilled out all over the floor. So please let me introduce you to your gorgeous guides for this week, The Oracle of Shadows and Light. If you have never met them before, or worked with them:- Wisdom for Misfits, Mystics, Seekers, and Wanderers. Bittersweet..Unheard..Unconventional…Rebellious…Cheeky…Whimsical…Invisible. They’re not the words you often hear associated with the spiritual world, are they? Nevertheless, some of the most spiritual beings who have ever lived are those who have been most at odds with what we call the mainstream. They do not fit in. They have had moments of despair. And they know being truthful, and being real, is one of the greatest strengths and spiritual paths of all! They ask you to step out from the shadows, to no longer hide your light away, and to consult with an oracle that acknowledges your individuality and strange genius! How’s that for a warm welcome?

Thus with the thought of wholeness, reclaiming the energy that you use to hide pieces of yourself or your pain close your eyes down and just breathe. For those of you who want to go deeper there is a lovely guided visualisation for you and you won’t need a passport. Just breathe, trust and allow this all to swirl. Then when you are ready, pick the card or cards that tug.

Okay, are you ready to pick?

Now. Are you ready to look and breathe it in?

STORM ANGEL

This beautiful fairy is dressed in storms: energy around her crackles and sizzles, but she is calm and unharmed. Now it your time and turn to learn to deal with the energy that is around you, without compromising your own! She appears when energies with major differences collide: when intentions are vastly different, when techniques are worlds apart, and when incompatible belief systems meet up!

There is nothing wrong, at all, with difference: diversity is wonderful. Shadows and light are beautiful and necessary and can coexist in harmony. But certain kinds of differences do not blend…like oil and water, they separate and cannot coexist in harmony. Therefore, she brings change, and when comes, for some it is simple, easy and flowing; for others, dramatic, erratic, wild, and full of static.

She appears when two forms of energy collide; high and low. She appears to burn way the old and create a clear, fresh vibration, where all that is stale, and fearful, and unpleasant has been cleared away. The wonderful thing about this challenging collision is that while you’ll be nudged out of your comfort zone, you’ll also realise just how much has changed, and how far you have come. The results will be worth the pressure – trust me!

As the Storm Angel speaks: “When I appear, know that it is natural for people to feel tension, to become even more entrenched in their beliefs, and to refuse to let go. The only approach you can take right now is to clearly and powerfully remain in integrity. Do not compromise who you are out of misguided notion of being “compassionate”.

You must speak the truth that is in your heart and stay committed to that truth.

CARNIVOROUS FLOWER FAIRY

Pay attention! Look carefully at someone or a situation around you. Her beauty tempts people in, but the purpose of the flowers is to devour, making it difficult to escape unharmed! You may have been told such situations are “wonderful agents of change and growth”. But the truth is that you do not need to learn this lesson again. The plants in the beautiful yet faintly macabre, image represent someone or something that is attractive, yet dangerous.

There is a being who may feed off your energy, or even eat you alive. Watch for people who consume more than they give, people who bully and swallow others, who argue you out of your beliefs, ignore you, or constantly seek your approval and praise and then grow hostile when you no longer give it. If you are appeasing another instead of having an equal relationship, or if you are fearful of being consumed by an environment that is toxic, yet seductive, it may be that the Carnivorous Flower Fairy has come forth to show you clearly what you need to avoid.

Whatever and whomever the carnivorous Flower Fairy represents, it is a dangerous alliance to contemplate. Do not get too close. Observe and learn, if you must. Do not become an experiment. They will bite you, and they will try to take from you. It is their very nature.

PINK LOTUS FAIRY

You may love your guilt-free rants, staying up too late, and happily behaving badly, but you’re about to balance all that out with some very powerful new spiritual teachings and connections.

You are to meet a wise one who seems very still, very slow, and very peaceful. She will be tranquil and serene and immersed in a path that until now has felt too slow, or “foreign,” for you. But this teacher, who is represented by the Pink Lotus Fairy, will assist you in finding more of your soul’s true wisdom. Within this time of inner discovery, you will commit to disciplined new training in the mental realms: study and physical movement that is unfamiliar to you, all of which helps you to naturally choose thoughts that are empowering and enlivening, yet completely authentic and real.

You will learn to be still and to listen to the beat of your heart without giving in to restlessness, or the critical voice inside, or the cliches the ego loves to trip you up with. After you have learned more discipline through peaceful practice of meditation or exercise or mantras, you will nurture yourself more willingly, without guilt, and you will have returned to a place of tranquility, self-love and peace.

You will bring into balance your own shadows and light. Don’t worry – you will be happier and more peaceful, but you won’t be boring! You could never be!

There is a deep and true part of yourself that has long yearned for acknowledgement, fulfillment, and the nirvana that is on its way.

Wowzer. Those are amazing messages as we dance with Shadow and Light and practice Integrity that means Wholeness. Well Delicious Lovely I wish for you a week of inviting your “shadow” pieces back and integrating them into a state of magnificent wholeness. I wish for you the playfulness to share your whole being, with no attachment to what others think. And I most certainly wish for you a glorious New Moon, if you want to try out the Moon Bowl please do. Huge hugs, squeezes and love.

5 Ways to Be Like the Sun at Solstice.

It’s also time to honor the leader within you and how you continue to express more of your most authentic self.