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A Ceremony for the New Year, the New Decade, and a New Age

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(@deetoo)
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@laura-f, I love your humor!  Funny about running into Ollie North.  I used to work in DC and would often see Ralph Nader (usually with a scowl on his face).   Also once saw Newt G. standing in front of the Brookings Institution.  Funny story -- a few years ago I was at my local Whole Foods, in their health and wellness section of the store.  I felt someone standing very close to me, looked to my left and saw a green parka that read, "U.S. Senate."  Then I focused on the face of Orrin Hatch.  We were both looking at the digestive supplements.  


   
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 CC21
(@cc21)
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Wanted to share a beautiful solstice blessing/poem a friend shared online. It reminded me of the things we have been talking about here:

Winter Solstice Blessing ~ John O’Donohue

1
Somewhere, out at the edges, the night
is turning and the waves of darkness
Begin to brighten on the shore of dawn.

The heavy dark falls back to earth
And the freed air goes wild with light,
The heart fills with fresh, bright breath
And thoughts stir to give birth to color.

2

I arise today
In the name of Silence
Womb of the Word,
In the name of Stillness
Home of Belonging,
In the name of Solitude
Of the soul and the Earth.

I arise today
Blessed by all things,
Wings of breath,
Delight of eyes,
Wonder of whisper,
Intimacy of touch,
Eternity of soul,
Urgency of thought,
Miracle of health,
Embrace of God.

May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear of word,
Graciousness in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.

John O’Donohue, Irish poet and philosopher
“Matins” (Morning Prayer)
From To Bless the Space Between Us
https://johnodonohue.com/

Photo: © Ann Cahill

 


   
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(@jeanne-mayell)
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@cc21 Thank you for bringing John O'Donahue to us. His poem reminds me of this poem that soothes my soul and brings me  into the sacred:

There is an elemental love in the universe 
by which name we know each other 
and encourage ourselves to live.

There is a silver river that connects everything 
from which some part of us never leaves.



There is a mercy making its way
up through the ocean of the earth
to the shores of our feet.

There is a music so sweet it is almost unbearable
that is composed between the ear
and the heart which reminds us.

There is a diamond-glint, a seed of longing
in ourselves that recognizes the potential 
absence of gravity in another.

There is part of us that 
says it is never too late to be reborn
on the in breath each morning.

Somewhere there is a basket
 that contains all our failures.
It is a big basket.  It wants to know 
what to do with these.
 Mercy has no use for them. -- Stephen Levine in Breaking the Drought


   
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 CC21
(@cc21)
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@jeanne-mayell

Oh, that is beautiful, Jeanne. Thank you!


   
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(@villager)
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Thank you @coyote, @vestralux and everyone who has posted here.

This thread is a gift.

I am participating from Australia, where our beloved earth burns fiercely around us. It is our summer solstice today. I burnt some ancestral incense, which generated white smoke - considered healing and beneficial here, and envisaged an earth that heals, balance, and a global collective that cares for each other and the earth. Vestralux, I must have absorbed a little of the wisdom in your post! Thank you all - I wish you all the most beautiful of holidays, and increasing sunshine.


   
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(@vestralux)
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❤️ ❤️ ❤️ 


   
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(@coyote)
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Topic starter  

@jeanne-mayell, @cc21

Thank you for posting those pieces. Very poignant. They reminded me of a poem I wrote in early 2016, when the chaos and darkness brewing in the collective started becoming palpable (its since been published in a journal). Now that so many of us will be deliberately banishing that darkness tonight, I feel like we are enacting my final stanza:

A Natural History of the Mind

I create islands in my mind
spontaneously
according to random whims.
 
I conjure biomes and terrains,
raw landscapes
of saw tooth mountains cross-cut
with indiscriminate rivers
ejecting boulders and dragonfish
over basalt cliffs to a primordial ocean
by the second,
 
lands where strife unfolds
in its unremarkable forms
of predation on winter-stricken highlands
and hunger
on drought-dead plains
 
swept with dust,
low and abiding,
unfurling headlong
before the rain.
 
Then
I imagine lava rock teardrops
tossed across the sea like
accidents,
where the goatherd tends a flock
on clubmoss
among tortoise shells and pine cones
 
as salt dissolves
cairn stones, atom by atom,
cobbled haphazardly
atop a battered headland
beside a sun-bleached femur
 
above the gorge, where, now,
eyes open at dawn to dust
and light
shot through with the swell, the crash, the flaming edge
of time’s shore.


   
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(@lovendures)
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(@laura-f)
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Ok, my candle is lit. I had to do it 3 hours early at 5:19 because at 8:19 I will not be in a space to.

The candle should last a few hours. The southwestern most point of light in the US is holding the sacred space for the solstice, the winter, the coming months and 2020 and all of us!

Blessed Yule!


   
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(@bluebelle)
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@laura-f

My candles are lit and I am sending love and light into the world, praying that our highest powers heal our world and bring us justice and peace.  In my meditation before lighting the candles, I saw a light in the darkness, then I saw a few faces illuminated by the light, then gradually there were more and more faces in the light.  It is a metaphor for our world during the coming months as we move into the light again.  Love and peace to you all.


   
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(@jeanne-mayell)
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@bluebelle @laura @coyote Lit my candles and sat in meditation sending loving kindness to all of you, our whole community, to all of the light workers everywhere, to Pelosi and Schiff and all of the brave heroes bringing light to our world, to all the people in all of the countries, the animals, the trees, the oceans, birds in the sky and fish in the sea -- light to all, and light infusing the darkness so that all will be awakened and free. 

 


   
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(@triciact)
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To all: my candle was lit and I sent LOVING strength and white light to our nation and world. Thank you coyote for this thread. Merry Christmas and a very happy New year!


   
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 CC21
(@cc21)
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To all - I lit my candle last night as well. I envisioned myself above the world, literally holding a space for the darkness that exists (but smaller and off to the side) as it sputtered and raved, but viewed the rest of the world aglow in light that is getting stronger and brighter and spreading out in waves over the earth. Thank you all for the gift of this thread. I truly think it is literally infusing us all (and subsequently the world) with hope and patience as we wait for the light to grow.


   
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(@cindy)
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I had tried to meditate early yesterday morning, before my parents got up. It was hard to empty my mind with all that's going on. At one point I did see a giant broom sweeping over the White House. The dogs disturbed me after that, so I got nothing more. It was not a good day in the house, so my spirits were a bit dampened. 

I did get a list of things I wanted to see disappear from my life made, and it was burned outside shortly after getting my parents settled into bed for the night. The ashes still remain in the flower pot, and will hopefully help my springtime plants grow when I get to plant them. I got my candle lit a few hours early-8:30 or so, and tried my best to send light and love, but to be honest I was emotionally exhausted by the time I could finally do so. I allowed it to burn out naturally, so it should have still been burning through the solstice-tho I was sound asleep by that hour. 


   
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(@deetoo)
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Lit my candle at 11:10 pm as I sat in front of my beautiful Christmas tree.  I prayed first for forgiveness of myself and for all of humanity.   Prayed that we all may be led by wisdom, courage, and compassion as we enter this new year.  Sent targeted light to heal, comfort and protect the most vulnerable among us – all refugees, the homeless, sick and downtrodden, the animals, the earth itself.   Asked that for my remaining years on earth, I be an instrument of courage, peace and love.  I felt light slowly permeate my entire being, then grow and extend into my immediate environment, then move outward, into everyone and everything on our planet, and into the universe.   I felt so much light that it was blinding, and I actually became dizzy.  I glanced at the clock and it was 11:19 pm.   I knew I was feeling the unity of lightworkers everywhere, infusing our powerful prayers of light into the darkness.   And at that moment, I knew that absolutely NOTHING is more powerful than that light.


   
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(@febbby23)
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Hi everyone, I didn’t light a candle, too much wrapping paper around me at that moment, but sat in the light from the Christmas tree and reflected on all the beauty and strength I see here.   I also sent light, peace and strength to all those who are working towards a better world.  I’m so very thankful I found this site and you all.   Peace and blessings to everyone. ☮️?

 


   
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(@jeanne-mayell)
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@deetoo @febby @CC21 @tricia @cindy and all whose lights the way for us, waking to these messages this morning is so uplifting. Dear @Cindy, Your vision of a broom sweeping over the White House is glorious.  Even with all of the burdens you carry, you gave us a vision so bright it will help me endure.  Bless you! Deetoo, When I read your experience I thought, Yes! That’s the same experience I had -filling up with light and then watching it expand throughout the land.  I knew that so many others were helping.  Thank you for describing it so clearly. 


   
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(@michele-b)
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@deetoo

Beautiful and loving energies shared with all!

@cindy

My oldest daughter had her broom out and was whisking away all the old clutter and trash and negative energies of the past and as I reminded her this was a very big part of old celtic energies as well as modern ones and why we are drawn to seasonal cleaning. So bless you for whisking away for ALL of us and may today be a better day as the olde cranky energies face a new day of mirrors and reflections for all ?

It ended up as a wonderful day in spite of the dark and stormy rainclouds here on the 45th parallel. 

I felt like the crone,the mother,and even looked at photos from my wedding day 47 years ago when still a maiden. The high priestess in me called and cast a holy circle from the days of old as I white saged the highest rafters turning in the four quadrants and reciting the four directions as I have done in the past with house blessings incorporating winter solstice poems and blessings.

Room by room my abalone shell of burning white sage, with tiny chunks of frankincense and myrhh, a rock of gold and sacred resins--all gifts for the holy child within each of us--were shared and sent out into the world.

My candle burned on a solstice altar on an old piano bench with a hand embroidered linen cloth and along with Tibetan bells, Christian crosses (all faiths incorporated within my own beliefs) throughout my house and Christmas music playing the Carol of the Bells and other old songs of the season as my husband baked sweet breads with dried fruit and nuts for the season.

I was a twirling dancing dervish of light heartedness spiraling up and down the stairs and rooms and best of all--not one smoke alarm went off.

After a mediation, I went into a  deep sleep of hibernation,then woke to don my yellow rain slicker and slip on short boots decorated with black and white chickens--all very symbolic of the state of things and places of national lacking of their true power people and places I am sure--haha--but my usual whimsical fun.

I carried my big abalone shell and big all day candle out into the dark night of many soul's journeys going counter clockwise around our house amidst the winter trees and shrubs-- including a holly hush, of course and a great deal of ivy.

It felt just right for me and I knew my highest selves were adding in anything I didn't and of course every single one of you...thank you and bless you all.

All around the globe, millions of us were joining in from so many places, peoples, cultures, religions and all with abounding grace, goodness, and light.

Lovely, lovely joy, brightness of spirit, healing and light to all!

 

Footnote:

http://news.rice.edu/2004/12/13/carol-of-the-bells-wasnt-originally-a-christmas-song/

No accident I suspect that this song came on right as I began my day of rituals and I discovered it is an old Ukrainian folk song created and sung by the folk people of a tiny and very poor village  asking for all the things they wished to create for themselves.


   
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 Baba
(@baba)
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I had visitors all weekend and managed to wake up a little early before everyone else - just after the solstice time here. I started by doing a meditation in the dark about what the solstice means and what it might bring, then I lit a candle and observed how the flame jumped and sputtered in the beginning and it reminded me of all of the unrest caused by the current occupant of the White House. Then as the flame settled, it reminded me that nothing - even unrest - lasts forever and I thought it symbolic of things to come. Then I meditated and sent light to all those in need of healing, those who are bringing light and those who need light. I saw a large star with bright blue/white light over all of us who were holding hands and sending light. The dark receded and there was light over the Earth. It was a very beautiful experience. I am so glad that we all are celebrating the solstice in our own unique ways!


   
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(@laura-f)
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@Baba

Unique, but in Unity !


   
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