The Journey And The Way Theology Religion Essay

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

<Fig. 182 Mandala of the Year Image – Light – can play with graphics if you like>

Life is the Shrine,

the Journey and the Way. - Baul song

The center of the mandala is the bindu or human heart that connects with the heart center of our solar system, galaxy and all the universe. Contemplate the mind-blowing journey that is before us all: your circumambulation around the great fire of the sun. From where you are now in time and space, know that after 7,884,000 breaths, 365 sunrises and sunsets, 26 new and full moons, and the many changes the shifting seasons of the year will bring, you will return to the turning point of the year a different person.

Part 4 is an invitation to take this journey with full awareness of each sacred juncture of the year so that you may live vinyasa: in harmony with the solar and lunar rythms. This new calendar: the Solar-Lunar Mandala of the Year designed to help you envision your journey around the sun in tandem with the cycles of the moon, and to synchronize your own rhythms with the many holy days that are celebrated worldwide at new and full moons and at potent solar junctures of the year.

Your journey will begin at the nadir of the year, in the fertile darkness of the Winter Solstice, and from there will flow around the sun and the moon through the eight cross-quarter festivals, equinoxes, and solstices (represented by the earth in eights stations around the sun). Whenever you look at this mandala or sacred wheel of the year, try to visualize this journey you take. What phase are you in the flow of this journey?

<Fig. 183 Costa Rica dancing one from this year’s card

Dance of the Season…

 

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

 

All the hemispheres in existence

Lie beside an equator

In your heart.

 

Greet Yourself

In your thousand other forms

As you mount the hidden tide and travel

Back home.

 

All the hemispheres in heaven

Are sitting around a fire

Chatting

 

While stitching themselves together

Into the Great Circle inside of

You.

– Hafiz (Daniel Landinsky translator)

 

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<H1 Chapter 10: Winter Solstice—Rebirth of the Light - Edit

  

<Fig. 184 Find Image of the Earth and SunLight Turning – From Calendar>

I danced in the morning when the world was begun 


I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun

- Lord of the Dance Shaker folk song

At Winter Solstice, the darkest point of the year, light begins its journey of reemergence. This great cosmological rhythm sets our internal clocks, our biorhythms, to the subtle flow of slowly increasing light. In our spiritual and creative process, we begin our own gradual awakening and reemergence from dark, fertile soil of winter.

This biological and spiritual attunement to light is what has made the many cosmological temples, with their ritual periods of connection to the sun, so powerful through the ages.

Can you imagine the impact of the Winter Solstice less than a hundred years ago when we lived life primarily in natural light? At the nadir of the year, we were sustained by the living fire of candlelight and by bonfires when, in some places in the world such as Scandinavia, a day might consist of as much as twenty-three hours of darkness. And we were sustained by celebration—the twelve-day festival of Yule and other rituals of its kind—in which we came together and made merry and honored the promise of the lengthening days ahead.

We have marked the all-important sadhya of Winter Solstice, the rebirth of the Sun, with the literal birth of a son. Myths about the return of the sun king at this time of year have been recorded as far back as ancient Sumeria and Egypt. The birth of Christ and of the Lord of the Dance of the seasons reflects an extraordinary diversity of Winter Solstice holidays that celebrate the rebirth of the light through the mirror of human birth. In fact, there are more cross-cultural celebrations at this point in the wheel of the year than at any other time—from Scotland to China, from Tibet to Antarctica—as we turn to one another for comfort, solace, and the shared joy that comes from bonding together to celebrate the return of the light.

<H1>At the Point of Greatest Darkness, the Sun-son Is Reborn

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
 
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
 Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
 This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!! – Susan Cooper

The Winter Solstice ceremony of the Druid tradition is Alban Arthan: "the light of Arthur." In this ritual the Sun god dies and is reborn as the Celtic "son of Light." [1] Ancient ritual sites such as Stonehenge and Newgrange align with the sunrise on this shortest day of the year. C ontemporary ceremonies under the open sky or around symbolic altars echo these ancient ceremonies aligning our bodies with the cosmic rhythm.

<Fig. 185 Find an Image of Newgrange>

Caption: In Ireland, Newgrange the spiral at the end of the central chamber lights up with a shaft of the Winter Solstice sunrise.

<Fig. 186 Note: Find a better image of Stonehenge or see our temple folder Stonehenge ***** for caption *****paste in below and cut from text>

The Winter Solstice ceremony begins in darkness, mirroring the fertile darkness covering the earth. At Stonehenge, the departing winter sun sets through the southwest stone trilithon structure and is reborn through the southeast trilithon.

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<H2>Yuletide

"Nollaig Faoi Shean Is Faoi Mhaise Dhuit"
Knoll-ig f'wee haan ss f'wee shun-ah g-with
(A Christmas of Happiness and Joy to you) (old Irish Saying)

"May peace and plenty be the first to lift the latch on your door, and happiness be guided to your home by the candle of Christmas."

<Fig 187 Find a image for Christmas Celebration>

Yuletide is memorably described in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Yule means "wheel," and these twelve days are a ritual period set aside to celebrate the birth of the Son as Christ at a key turning point on the wheel of the year, a wheel symbolized by the sun in the center of our Solar-Lunar Mandala.

There is an unbroken stream of ritual and celebration connected with Christmas that dates back thousands of years, yet many of us are unaware that these traditions are so old. From the time of the Roman emperors through Martin Luther and Puritan culture, the merrymaking of the season and the bonds with the evergreen trees and all the old ways were nearly extinguished. Where they survived, they had often been reduced to shorter festivals. But we can view all of the holidays from December 21 through January 1—Solstice, Christmas, and New Year—as a continuum marking this period of turning of the solar yule.

Good health, every day, whether I see you or not!
May your cup overflow with health and happiness.
May all your days be happy ones.
We dance a jig for a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! – Gaelic Christmas Blessing

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<H2>Makar Sankranti—Rebirth of the Uttaranya Cycle

<Fig. 188 Find an Image of festivity from India>

Makar Sankranti is the time of honoring the emerging light when in the Hindu Tantric calendar begins on January 14 with makar sankranti. This day marks the shift into waxing light—the six-month journey of increasing solar energy—considered auspicious for creativity, growth, and all kinds of sacred manifestations. The Sanskrit sankranti refers to the transit of the sun from one sign of the Indian zodiac (one rashi) to another, such as the movement of the Sun from dhanu rashi (Sagittarius) to makara rashi (Capricorn). All over India on makar sandranti, the sun is celebrated with fire rituals, festivities, and feasts as an invocation of the kindling of enlightenment, prosperity, and happiness in the six months of growing light. While in India, Makar Sankranti has lots of variations of celebrating this growing season from honoring and ritually decorating cows for Pongal to bathing in the Ganga in Bengal. The Kumbha Mela always begins on Makar Sankranti as it is now the time to initate auspicious practices for the next six month cycle.

<Text Box>Personal Story: Winter Solstice, Spirals, Labyrinths, and Cowry Shells

<Fig. 189 Labryinth image>

On the morning of my Winter Solstice retreat in 2011 in Nosara, Costa Rica I woke up with unusually clear direction: "Collect 108 cowry shells." This seemed an impossible task, as before, in all my many travels, I had collected only a small number of cowry shells, less than a handful. I found a precious few in Bali, Brazil, and Kerala, and in Nosara, where we have made a pilgrimage for the past few years, and I had found another few during our New Year’s visits to Costa Rica in a magical place that is a sanctuary for turtle eggs.

I began my morning with a long ritual walk on the beach, a time for reflection. I walked for three hours. In between the ebb and flow of the tides, every few steps I found cowry shells. It was as if they had been strewn along a magic trail. Each shell was empty of its former inhabitant. Each shell seemed to me like a tiny yoni, a symbol of woman’s creative power. After the walk I had more than 108 cowry shells. I put them all in a case I bought in Bali as a place to gather offerings.

On the long walk back, I came upon a local artist creating a large labyrinth on the beach, an ancient pattern. He began it by drawing three lines at the center; these then expanded outward and returned to connect back to the center. This is a symbol of the spiral journey of our adult life, when we are unsure whether we are going forward or backward but always make our way to the center, with faith.

That evening my partner and I built our own labyrinth using the cowry shells as an offering. At the moment the sun dipped below the horizon, its final beams shone directly upon the center point of our labyrinth before winking out. We gazed at one another in astonishment.

When we begin our day of retreat prepared to open ourselves to whatever presents itself, we can never be sure what magic will unfold.

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<H1>The Sacred Rhythm: Reflection for the New Cycle

As we reach the end of a cycle, we feel the teachings of completion – what is dying to be reborn, an awareness of the shadow side of ourselves to be "composted" and transformed. The Solstice-New Year offers a mirror of every new cycle that will arise – new moons and changes in seasons. As people often make new year’s resolutions, we can reflect upon our seven fires as a way to complete the old and ignite seeds for the new cycle – not just for new year but in all the junctures ahead.

These new cycles are part of collective time synced with the greater alignment of the waxing-waning sun and moon to clear out the old and invoke the energy of the new. This is a time to refine our samkalpas—our will and our motivations—by holding and burning them in the fire of the heart.

<H2 Text Box: Fire-keeping Practice – Igniting a New Year-New Cycle Candle

During any new cycle but particular at the winter solstice-Christmas-New Year cycle, you can ignite a special candle that can last through the whole year (or shorter cycle) that is only lit during special holidays representing the concentration of your life-energy-fuel, intentions and dedicated tending of the fire through that period. You can offer this as a gift to others or yourself, making the candle or really enjoying the color, size, symbolism as a powerful offering to your altar and ritual life bringing continuity, passion, peace and clarity through the fire of consiciousness that you ignite on the Solstice, Christmas Eve or New Year’s eve-day. Create your own ritual way to ignite the new.

<H1> Renewal of Heart Fire Reflection—Tending the Seven Fires

<Fig. 186 Chart of the Seven Fires needs to be illustrated Kristen pull simple example from our charts with the chakras and fires…please design>

The seven fires of the seven chakras from Part Three provides a map for our refelction for the New Year or any new cycle. The chakras represent the movement from the foundation of our presence here upon the earth, to our capacity for creative manifestation, and the fires of love including our enlightened vision: a capacity to see through the veils and understand on increasingly intimate levels what the alchemical journey of the year holds for us.

Renewing our fires takes place at both cellular and symbolic levels. The New Year or any new cycle is our opportunity to be born again. We must listen deeply during this time of the emerging light and becoming quiet as the earth, engaging in a coiling, inward process of revitalization and renewal. The following reflection can be done at the turn of the year or at the beginning of any new cycle.

<H2>Tending Your Vital Fire—Muladhara Chakra

Feel into the state of you physical fire now, including your health and vitality. Reflect upon any imbalances you may find. What’s going on with your health? What do you want to stoke with your physical fire? What imbalances do you want to address? What do you want to transform and nourish within your physical fire? Establish your "seed goals" for your vitality and what you want to cultivate and write down one to three seed intentions for your physical fire in the new cycle to come..

<H2>Tending Your Creative-Sexual Fire—Swadhisthana Chakra

Meditate upon the state of your creative process, upon what is being born and manifested through you. What aspects of your creative-sexual fire, inner or outer, need to be ignited? What is calling to be nourished? What inhibitions or states of neglect are blocking your flow?

Write down one to three seed intentions for your creative-sexual firekeeping in the new cycle.

<H2>Tending the Fire of Awareness—Manipura Chakra

Write down one to three seed intentions for your manipura energy center and its heart connection in this new cycle.

<H2>Tending the Fire of Love—Anahata Chakra

In anahata chakra we move into our full emotional fire and the core cultivation of love within our being. What are you radiating out from your heart in your relationships, home, and community?

Now write one to three seed intentions for your heart center this cycle.

<H2>Tending the Fire of Expression-Speech—Vishuddara Chakra

Streams of butter flow from the ocean of the heart...our words flow together like rivers, made clear by understanding deep within the heart. – Vedas (Rea-Tompkins)

Listen within for what needs to be healed from any miscommunications or misunderstandings as well as what truths need to be spoken. What is swelling from the root and being drawn to be expressed? How can we use our voice for healing and moving forward? Who do we need to reach out to? Who are where in the world are we called to support? What do we need to give expression to reveal the more subtle layers of our inner world? Allow an outpouring or a subtle stream of expression to cyrstallize as one to three seeds intentions for the fire of our expression.

<H2>Tending the Visionary Fire and Spiritual Fire—Ajna and Sahasrara Chakra

Write down one to three seed intentions for manifesting your vision.

<H2 Mandala of the Year

Take a moment now and look back and what you have written. These are the seed intentions of your new life, guidance for your evolution in all of your aspects: the container of your body, your sexuality and creativity, your will, your loving heart, your expression in the world, and your connection to Source. These seeds are your samkalpas, your navigating vision and intention, synching your life’s rhythms with the deep knowing in the heart. Draw a circle-mandala with the sun in the center and visualizing the flow of the year. You can plant any "seed qualities" to gestate in the center of the mandala and any specific projects as radiating around the mandala to represent the natural progression of how the year may unfold. At every sacred juncture, you can reflect back to this to refine, change, evolve.

<Fig. 191 show a small representation of this as a diagram>

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<H1>Vital Rhythms—Ayurvedic Rtucharya: Nutrition and Lifestyle for Winter

The inward-turning season of winter is ideal for nourishing your inner fire. The early part of winter follows the path of autumn, in which vata and kapha doshas are predominant, so the cold and dry qualities of vata are present in the body and the environment. The latter part of winter initiates the cold and damp qualities of kapha. Winter therefore becomes a delicate balance between these two doshas requiring that we pay close attention to our environments—inner and outer—to find keep our inner fire from growing dim or wavering.

The gunas or qualities of winter that we seek to balance are

Cold with warmth

Heaviness with lightness of spirit

Static energy with circulation

Dullness with inspiration

Excess dampness with dryness

When these qualities are balanced, the winter season can be nourishing and fortifying. When out of balance, kapha qualities accumulate within body and mind, creating heaviness of spirit, weight gain, poor digestion, depression, lethargy, and weakness in the immune system that leads to colds and flus. These can all be exacerbated by diminished digestive fire (Agni).

Winter is the time to build and restore. Just as nature draws inward to rest and renew, so should we. Our bodies respond physiologically to cold weather by drawing our inner fire, agni, deep inside to protect the vital organs. We absorb nourishing lunar energy and agni is the "cook" that rebuilds and replenishes the body from the inside out. Use this quiet, dark, reflective time to nourish your fire.

<H2>The Essential Winter Rtucharya Rhythm

Note to designer – highlight these is a way that reflects the winter season in color of simple imagery of your choice

1. Your digestive fire is strongest and most powerful during this time of year, and this is the season to build ojas so eat nourishing and fortifying foods.

2. Avoid complete inactivity. This is the time of year to build strength and stamina without depleting your ojas.

3. Enjoy quiet time for introspection and meditation. Make use of the heavy qualities of winter to sit and read, write, contemplate. Cultivate plans for the year ahead and plant "seeds" that will sprout in the coming spring.

4. Nourish ojas, the moist lunar energy, so it will be available to you for the expansion to come in the spring and summer. Good ways to do this are through daily abhyanga, warm regenerative tonic teas or rasayanas, and warm ojas-building foods.

5. Stay warm and dry to protect the body from the excess kapha qualities of the outdoors.

<H3>Food Rhythm

To build ojas and strength, favor ghee, warm wholesome organic milk or almond milk, nourishing grains, and rich warm cooked foods. This is not the season to detox or lose weight but rather to rebuild and strengthen. Your body will actually want to gain or maintain your current weight at this time.

Favor sweet, salty, and sour foods.

Spices to favor: ginger, black pepper, pippali, cardamom, cinnamon, ajwan, cloves, licorice.

Honey is the best winter sweetener since it is heating and pacifies kapha.

For a kapha tea, add fresh grated ginger and honey to your favorite tea. Tulsi-ginger tea is another good hot drink that strengthens the pulmonary system. Ginger and cinnamon is another favorite combination.

Because the sun sets earlier now, it is best to eat your last meal of the day earlier. Avoid eating later than an hour after sunset.

Some winter favorite foods are yams, winter squash, cabbage, pumpkin, beets, Brussels sprouts, chilies, garlic, and tomatoes. For fruits, cooked apples, bananas, dates, and figs are great. Eat tangerines for sour and sweet tastes. Good winter grains are amaranth, oats, rice, and wheat.

The best herbs for controlling kapha in the winter season are punarnava, kutki, and triphala guggulu.

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<H3>Body Rhythm

The winter season is the best time for these Ayurvedic practices:

Sneha—oiling the body, nose, and ears in the evening is both nourishing and fortifying for the muscles and connective tissues. As our bodies are exposed to cold and wind, our pores and fascia tighten and roughen in response. Oiling the orifices of the head helps the sensory pathways stay balanced. Favor kapha massage oil, ashwagandha-bala oil, or sesame oil.

Do dry brushing a few times a week to invigorate the tissues and move stagnant lymph and blood.

Shiroabhyanga—friction rub the scalp to release dull, stagnant, heavy qualities of kapha in the head. Great to do in the morning.

Padabhyanga—oiling of the feet. Do this at night , using sesame or bhrami oil.

Good winter scents are rosemary, cinnamon, ginger, grapefruit, pine, bergamont, lemongrass, rose geranium.

<H3 Energetic Vinyasa for Winter Season

Kala – From the Winter Solstice onward, the winter season is the best time to synch with the sunrise (unless you are depleted and need to rest) and honor goint to bed after sunset.

Desa – Cultivate a warm place for practice the flame of your inner and outer altar, carrying the warm colors of fire, red, orange, ochre earth colors in your home and dress (hats, scarves and feet) to keep the inner fire alive

Bhava – Follow the sun and begin to gradually increase one’s outward energy and activity so as to store energy (ojas) and at the same time keep your fire (tejas) and life-energy (prana) circulating; calm, joyous, positive, inspired.

Dosha – The winter season is the most vulnerable time for those with dim fire or manda agni, Kapha dosha or those experiencing stagnant lifestyle, depression or lethargy due to less solar energy

Yoga Practice – Cultivate Vira and Sringara Rasa practices, a balance of solar and lunar practices to balance the fire-keeping within your body. Solar practices with the New Year, waxing energy and lunar practices with the evening and waning energy;

* Enjoy solar and lunar namaskars; Build stamina in heating but grounding ways such as long standing asana sequences, inversions (headstand, shoulderstand, handstand) and longer period in backbends to keep the lungs and chest stimulated and heated (to prevent excess kapha or pleghm); honor lunar energy in earthy forward bends and hip openers to store energy for spring.

      Heating pranayama such as bhastrika can help lungs and sinuses stay strong and clear during cold and flu season and release any excess kapha mucous from this area.

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<H1>Imbolc: The Six-Week Fire Festival Beginning February 1

<Fig. 192 Find an image of Bridghid or a celtic fire or fire with eight candles (if you can’t find we will take this picture>

Ancient White that covers All- 
Stars of Light that melt in sky-
Winds that howl, Oreads Sing- 
Keep your Candles lit and high-
Imbolc-tide but once a year, 
Make light the dell, enchant good cheer. - Aleaf Bacharous

Imbolc marks the first the six weeks of the new year, a halfway point between Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Seeds within the earth begin to stir, and buds emerge upon the seemingly dead branches of winter – the solarfire deep within the seeds slowly begins to emerge in the miracle of life.

In Celtic culture, Imbolc is the first of the sacred fire festivals of the year, dedicated to the Mother Goddess under her many names but primarily to Bridghid, the lady of the hearth. A ritual that follow honors the Mother by bringing together fire, symbolizing the emergence of life, and a container of water, representing the womb of the sacred feminine. The holy days of February include several festivals that celebrate love and union and call us to invoke the power of devotion that will keep the fires burning through the remaining months of winter—a time for the gestation that is required of all creative processes and generative acts.

Night of lit white candles darkness turned into light


"everything she touches changes"


feast of waxing flame


fire of heart and hearth
fire "she shines for all of us


she burns within us all"


Her candle is our only source – Diane Stein

<H2> Text Box A Firekeeping Ritual – Fire and Water

*** Fig. Find a image of candles floating on top of water.

Make a special offering on your altar with a bowl of water. Add eight floating candles, or place in it candles that are sturdy and tall enough to be above the water. These represent the eight junctures of the solar cycle of the year. Each person in your household can participate in lighting the candles while offering a prayer as a way of bringing the alchemy of fire and water and the fertile blessings of this first fire festival as the buds of spring coming just begin to emerge.

<H2>Personal Text Box: Fluid and Fertile Love Holidays – The Inner Fire of Imbolc – Saraswati Puja – Chinese-Tibetan New Year - Yemanja day - Valentine’s Day– Shivratri - Mardi Gras –Holi Kamadeva Sadhana—

<Figure 193: Find an Image of Kamadeva, Fig. 190 Find an love image of ShivaShakti or Radha Krishna, Fig. 191 Find and western lovers, and Cupid>

A sequence – vinyasa – of holidays from late January to early march – a 40 day sequence from Feb new moon to new moon in March that often encompass inter-related holidays as well as a sringara rasa sadhana of honoring Kamadeva the Tantric form of cupid visualized as the deity of human love or desire, represented as a young, handsome, winged man who wields a bow made of sugarcane, which is often depicted as a string of honeybees with arrows that are decorated with fragrant flowers. Trees dedicated to Kamadeva are often planted near temples as symbols of love particularly in connection with Krishna and Radha (the Vaishnav connection to Kamadeva) or as the great love Shiva who already had met Kamadeva through the fire of his third eye as one of Kamadeva’s flower arrows pierced the Mahayogin Shiva as Shakti in the form of his soon to be consort Parvati. As the arrow hit Siva’s side, his eyes of bliss opened directly into Parvati’s eyes who had been in deep meditation upon Siva with burning devotion for millions of years. As Kamadeva was incinerated by Siva’s third eye, the heat of Shiva’s lingam ignited in union with the great yoni of Parvati which continued with such force that the centerfuegal force of their union must find outward expression as the cosmic coiling between the two was bound to release. With Kamadeva restored from the ball of ash that was his body, Shiva and Parvati emerged as the eternal cosmic couple. The union of their heartbeat in creative union is part of the rhythm of sringara rasa which seems so apporpariate to the emerging quickening as spring begins to stir and be expressed in the various relationships to devotion, love and eros. Bginning with Saraswati Puja the day for honroing Saraswati Devi with the placing of your intstruments on the altar for a blessing, wearing yellow and chanting, dancing, playing music in the day who honors "She who flows".

Saraswati Puja (fifth day of the new moon all the way 40 days later with Holi is a period when lovers calling in their new love enter into a sadhana of Kamadeva mantra japa in sort form or gayatri form. This period is also when Valentine’s Day emerges – a wonderful kindling of the passion of lover embody in Kamadeva who is honored for stoking the fires of eros from the cosmic to the level of generated between lovers her on earth.

Kamadeva finds echoes in Cupid of Roman mythology and the Greek Eros. Cupid’s sweet arrows pierce the heart, and he the central figure associated with Valentine’s Day. Throughout the world there are holy days dedicated to love.

<H2>Ash Wednesday/Lent—The Forty-Day Period of Purification Leading to Easter

Lent is a period of purification and fasting with roots in the New Testament. Jesus is said to have fasted in the desert for forty days and nights before beginning his ministry, and at this time of year we take the same number of days to purify ourselves: to cleanse ourselves of actions and habits that impede our growth and that could inhibit our spirit’s resurrection. Prayer and sacrifice are hallmarks of this period. The root word for Lent is the Old English lencten, meaning spring, and this period of preparation is designed to move us into the fullness of that season in a more purified state.

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<H2> Text Box Firekeeping Ritual—All-Night Vigil for Shivratri or any cycle personal transformation. An all-night vigil candle is part of the spirit of Tapas.

<Fig. 194 Find an image of Shiva-Shakti Fig. 195 Find and image of Shiva-Lingam with candles>

This retreat can be adapted to any new or full moon or time of personal transformation.

Tapas can be translated as burning, unwavering devotion, and transformation through dedication. In tending the Heart Fire, a tapas practice is anything you dedicate yourself to for a cycle of transformation. Maha shivaratri is a tapas-oriented, night-long festival that has been celebrated for thousands of years by hundreds of millions of devotees of Shiva around the world.

Held on the night before the new moon in the month of February-March, Shivaratri honors the night (ratri means night) Shiva performed the tandava nritya—the dance of primordial creation, preservation, and destruction—and the night of the marriage of Shiva and Shakti. Householders stay up through the night chanting mantras, bathing lingam forms, offering puja, and in meditation for the Mahadev, King of the Yogis, Lord of the Dance, bathed in the light of lamps burning ghee. Devotees fast on water, milk, fruits, kitchari, or special fasting foods from sunrise until dawn the next day.

Shivaratri is considered an auspicious time for women. Married women pray for a long, prosperous marriage and the well-being of their husbands and sons. Unmarried women pray for a husband who is like Lord Shiva—spouse of Kali, Durga, and Parvati—considered the ideal husband for his devotion, virility, and loving, enlightened, wild, and fun ways of being, and for his ability to transform poison into nectar [2] .

This festival is an outer and inner pilgrimage, the tending of the lamp fire and the fire of consciousness through the night. All yoga practices are said to have emanated from Shiva, particularly those having to do with internal transformation, and shivaratri is a vigil of awakening consciousness.

<Text Box>Shivratri: The Night I Married Shiva

<Fig. 196 Shiva’s Shiva Statue>

The days before shivaratri, the darkest days before the new moon, can be intensely transformative. My first shivratri in India was in 1990 when I spent a year as an exchange student at Delhi University while also studying Odissi, an Indian temple dance form that blends the strong dynamic foot work of Siva’s tandava and the flowing form of curves and bends of Shakti’s lasya. When I came home from dance practice, my roommates greeted me at the door looking desperate and pale. One of my dear friends had just returned from a Vipassana retreat and was in the midst of a nervous breakdown—I was shocked to learn that she was trying to gouge her eyes out. Together we held her through this terrible, dark passage as further help came to her aid.

The next day as I was walking to the bus stop, I passed by a man lying dead on the street with his guts spilling out. My own body was on the edge, dealing with intestinal amoebas. I felt the death cycle everywhere around me and the dark days before the new moon shaking the ground beneath me. The world seemed surreal, hurtling toward dissolution. My father named me Shiva. It seemed I was fulfilling the name now in the aspect of Shiva’s meditation in the cremation grounds.

I felt fortunate to have Ramachandra Gandhi, grandson to the great Mahatma Gandhi, as one of my teachers. I continued on my journey and met him for tea, telling him all that had transpired and that I felt my world was embodying a dark aspect of Shiva right now. "Your name is Shivaaaa," he said, "pronounced with a long a. You are the wife of Shiva."

I left our tea with this reverberating in my heart and walked to the dance academy. A little shop caught my eye, and in the window I found the most beautiful murti, or divine image, of Shiva. He was meditating on a tiger skin with the most beatific expression. I felt the awakening in my heart of a primordial love, at the center of the center of my being: a sudden flash of recognition.

This became my first altar piece and along with a garland of flowers I brought it to my dance lesson. My teacher saw my murti and, more importantly, a shift within me. He beckoned me to place the murti on the altar and drape the garland over it. Then he said, "Ahhh. Now you will be married to Shiva, as tomorrow is shivratri, the great night for realizing Siva."

On that night, I stayed with my murti and I felt an effortless surge, my first intimate experience of chanting truly pouring from my heart in a flood of devotion. Namah Shivaya Namha Shivaya Namah Shivaya Jai Siva Shankara Nataraja!

The dark nights before shivratri often involved death or dissolution in some form, making way for the fire of rebirth and a deeper union to emerge out of the darkness. The all-night firekeeping of this special holy day is a threshold to transformation, to the reigniting of the fires of realization.

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Chapter 11: Spring Equinox—Remergence of Life

To say "yes" means to allow a thought or circumstance to flower, to let go and expand. The trees say, "yes" to every season. When spring comes, they say "yes" and they flower. Then summer comes, they say "yes" and become dry and thirsty. When fall comes, they say "yes," change color and are ready to drop their leaves. To say "yes" means to surrender-to every thought, feeling and emotion. It means let go, and letting go is a journey toward the heart. – Dr. Lad

The sun is Love.

The Lover,a speck circling the sun.

A Spring wind moves to dance

any branch that isn’t dead.

Something opens our wings.

Someone fills the cup in front of us.

We taste only sacredness.

- Jelauddin Rumi

The first signs of spring are the breaking open as death gives way to life: buds bursting from the trees, shoots leaping from the earth, a great rising amid the debris of winter. For nature, renewing herself through dying is the only way she can be reborn. And this rebirth is what links Easter, Passover, Purim, and the Goddess festival, vasant navaratri, to the Spring Equinox. There are both gradual and sudden metamorphoses of new light and life. Now is the time to give full power to the seed dreams you incubated in your Heart Fire during the darkness of winter .

The Spring Equinox is a powerful time to care for the earth.and shed any limiting or toxic behaviors. During this time of tremendous growth, let us all take care to protect the precious seedlings that have emerged from the depths of winter. Let us honor the fiery energy of new life.

<Sacred Rhythm - Spring Equinox and Holidays: Chitzen Itza, Passover, Easter, Holi, Hanuman Gayatri>

<H1>Alban Eilir—Spring Equinox

Alban Eilir, "light of the earth," is the balance point between the winter and summer solstices of Imbolc and Beltane. The Spring Equinox is one of two times during the year when the tilt of the earth’s axis is parallel to the center of the sun. On this day the forces of darkness and light are equally matched, but light is on the increase. It is a time of great fertility and hopefulness containing the promise of abundant crops and bourgeoning creativity aligned with the holidays conneted to the reigniting of the candle flame found in the Jewish culture of Passover as a time of liberation and for Christians Easter as a time of the ressurection of the light to Mayan temples which affirm the cyclical process of time as the serpent of light Kulkulkan descends and manifests at the Spring Equinox and returns back in the cylce of death with the Fall Equinox.

The connection to triumph of light is also connected to the Festival of Color of Holi and of the celebration of Hanuman which marks the victory

<H1>Passover

The eight-day festival of Passover is celebrated in the early spring, from the 15th through the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan. It commemorates the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. And by following the rituals of Passover, we have the ability to re-experience the true freedom our ancestors gained.

The first two and last two days of Passover are full-fledged holidays. Celebrants light holiday candles, perform the kiddush blessing, and serve sumptuous holiday meals. In strict observance, during these four days of ritual work, we do not go to work, drive, write, or switch on or off electric devices; all focus is on they many varied elements of ritual and on contemplation.

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<H1>Easter

<Fig. 199 Easter at Holy Sepulchre>

Easter is a celebration of the triumph of light over darkness, and it marks the end of Lent, a fast broken by the feast celebrating Christ’s resurrection. The name Easter hails from Eastre, the Teutonic goddess of spring and dawn. The full moon of the Vernal Equinox represents the "pregnant" phase of Eastre, the bearing of the fruit of summer that gives birth to the sun’s offspring. The Easter egg is a reflection of these springtime festivals, recognized as symbols of creation, the cycles of nature, and union of masculine or sun god (yoke) and feminine or mother goddess (birthing aspect of the egg).

The Festival of Holy Fire takes place at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the walled Old City of Jerusalem. Each year on the day before Pascha (Easter), at noon on Holy Saturday, a miraculous light appears from the core of the Holy Sepulchre, from which the patriarch of Jerusalem lights 33 candles from the deep center of the tomb and then offers this light to reignite candles all over the world. The flame of the Church of Holy Sepulchre is considered by many to be the longest attested annual miracle in the Christian world.

Text Box: Firekeeping Practice – Collective Igniting of the Heart Fire

<***Fig 200 Suggested picture of collective candles

For the past twenty years in collective meditations that I have led in the evening, there have been many beautiful experiences of the "passing of the flame" mirroring the cross-cultural, ancestral practice of symbolically lighting each other’s candle or dipa (small lamp) for one central source. I have witnessed this in Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala where over a hundred thousand women light there central cooking fires one by one from the central fire of the Attikal Devi or Goddess Temple during the spring festival period. Whether it is a small family gathering or a larger meditation circle, ignite the central candle with one primary flame with a silent or vocal prayer or chant. From there either "pass the light" with smaller candles that then circulate or have everyone present come forward and light from the central flame.

<H1>Hanuman Jayanti

<Fig. 201 find an image of Hanuman>

Hanuman Jayanti is a celebration of the monkey god Hanuman of the Ramayana, who represents strength, energy, resourcefulness, and devotion. It, too, is celebrated around the Spring Equinox. On this holy day, devotees fast, read the Hanuman Chalisa, offer seva, or service, and spend the whole day in the Japa of Ram-Nam, Ram Ram Ram.

<Personal Text Box>Reemergence—Chitzen Itza

<Fig. 202 Chitzen Itza big image and Fig. 203 Our pilgrimage group>

**** Add In the Spring Equinox of 2012, we made the pilgrimage to this extraordinary site that aligns with the Spring and Fall Equinox. Here mostly local Mayans and Mexicans from throughout the region come to this ancient pyramid built in to witness the descent of the "serpent of light" or Kulkulkan. All gather at the moment when the shadow play is creates this effect, thousands raise their arms in joyous celebration – a heightened experience of collective alignment that is not led or dictated by any leader but by the spontaneous experience in the moment that hovers and last for that peak for a few moments and then dissolves into the general auspiciousness of the Spring Equinox – the entry point in the next season of greatest waxing light.

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<H1>Vital Rhythms—Ayurvedic Rtucharya: Nutrition and Lifestyle for Spring

< Nice design to convey spring>

Spring is the time to be reborn and to flourish. Following the rhythm of the nature bourgeoning around us, we awaken into the light and warmth of the season and allow the nourishing rains to cleanse us of impurities. This juncture in time is considered one of the most optimal to clean and detoxify the mind and body. Ayurveda’s famous Panchakarma system offers a wonderful way to move out toxins, balance the doshas, and release stagnation in the tissues and organ systems of the body.

According to Ayurveda, springtime is marked as kapha time, which brings the gunas or qualities of heavy, dull, liquid, dense, slimy, and oily. These qualities have been prevalent since the winter season (another kapha time) and now, whatever quality was increased in the winter and is not brought to balance during the spring will adversely affect your health. Most people are familiar with spring allergies, congestion, and sinusitis. This is nature’s way of melting away the inner "snow" of the body. Just as mountain snows are now melting into the rivers and swelling their waters, our bodies respond in much the same way at this time of year.

The gunas and qualities of spring to be balanced are

Heavy and dull with stimulating

Static with activity and movement

Oily and liquid with astringent and bitter

Smooth and dense with dry and rough

When these qualities are balanced, we can look forward to a time of renewal and invigoration during the spring season. Excess kapha in spring will bring allergies, asthma, sinus infections, colds, and chest infections, leading to mucous-producing cough and excreta.

<H2>The Essential Spring Rtucharya Rhythm

Note to designer – highlight these is a way that reflects the winter season in color of simple imagery of your choice

1. Melt your inner snow with invigorating and heating practices and activities.

2. Change your eating habits toward a preliminary cleansing. To decrease excess kapha, favor lighter and drier foods that are bitter or astringent and pungent foods such as greens, Shiva to add more here. Clean up the diet and avoid sweets, refined sugar, dairy, and wheat, all of which increase the heavy, dull, and dense qualities in the body.

3. Spend time outdoors and soak up the radiant and increasingly abundant solar energy known as atapa seva in Ayurveda (sun bathing).

4. Exercise outdoors with plenty of cardiovascular activity. This is a great time of year to sweat and begin to move winter stagnation out of the body. The best way to move excess heaviness and mucous is to move the lymph and blood that circulate throughout the body. This is best done in the morning between 7 to 10 a.m.

5. Start to wake up one hour before sunrise and bring greater circulation to your daily dry-brushing with more invigorating Ayurvedic self-massage (see body rhythm below). Kapha time begins around 7 a.m., so to avoid increasing kapha qualities in the body, it is important to be up and moving before the sun rises to move toxins and stagnant lymph that have accumulated over the night. Notice that sunrise will continue to come earlier during this time, so stay present to this change.

<H2>Food Rhythm

Warm water with honey is great first thing in the morning. For excess kapha, add apple cider vinegar and/or honey.

Agni becomes weaker now and you can tend toward lethargy or feelings of heaviness after meals. It is important to properly spice food and to not overeat or indulge in rich foods. Eat light, dry, and heating foods.

Favor bitter, astringent, and pungent foods. Avoid heavy foods like wheat, avocado, cucumber, dates, banana, melons, and potatoes.

Favor vegetables like sprouts, dandelion greens, kale, mustard greens, Swiss chard, endive, collard greens, and spinach. Eat light and astringent fruits such as apples, pears, cranberries, pomegranates, and dried fruit and avoid sour and juicy fruits like watermelon and oranges.

A good spring tea is ginger, lemongrass, and honey. Other good teas are dandelion, cardamom, cinnamon, orange peel and hibiscus. Cumin, coriander, and fennel tea is a natural diuretic for any excess water weight that may occur in the spring.

Use oil sparingly but when using, mustard, sunflower, safflower oils are best as they are light.

Best grains are amaranth, barely, quinoa, and rye.

Spices for flavor include black pepper, pippali, clove, ginger (fresh), nutmeg, sage, thyme, rosemary, cayenne, turmeric. Trikatu (black pepper, pippali, ginger) is an ancient herbal mix to increase digestion and remove toxins from the body.

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<H2>Body Rhythm

Spring body care is centered around moving lymphatic stagnation, invigorating the tissues and skin, and lightening the body. Choose stimulating and invigorating scents and avoid heavy and earthy scents since kapha is predominantly earth and water

Abhyanga is done very sparingly (it at all) during this season and generally with much less oil. The technique of "friction rubbing" is recommended, where the massage strokes are brisk and quick rather than long and smooth. Favor light oils for the body like sunflower oil or mustard oil.

Spring essential oils/scents include clearing and stimulating ones such as eucalyptus, tea tree, turmeric, peppermint, and rosewood.

Enjoy dry brushing the skin with silk gloves or a loofah to bring blood to the surface and begin the detoxifying process. Making a body paste of saffron, sandalwood, and camphor is an ancient Ayurvedic beauty treatment. Shiva to write text box: How to make a Spring Body Paste

Use a neti pot to keep the sinuses free and clear. This is a great practice to emphasize in the spring to prevent allergies.

Take saunas or steam bath as a favorite detox practice to decrease kapha and ama (excess toxins) in the Spring time.

<H2><H2> Energetic Vinyasa for Spring Season

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<H1>Sacred Rhythm and Holidays—Beltane, Buddha’s Birthday

<H2>Beltane: Six-Week Fire Festival Beginning May 1

<Fig. 204 Find a image of Beltane May Pole>

Quote: BELTANE FIRES

From South and North

in polar spheres twin fires reign,

one issued from male desire,

the other fuelled by female flame.

Like attraction dancing, sparks fly,

passions edge closer together.

 

The two unite.

A blaze of energy erupts,

frenzied fervour rules both realms,

fills the land with a glow and light

comparable to heaven's stars,

the past remnants of loves delights.

 

 

When embers die

couples join hands, vow commitment,

leap the fire now cooled to ash,

the power of the mighty oak

spent after loves frolic through woods

ending passage of Beltane's night.

Kaaren Whitney

Beltane is the third spring celebration in the Druid tradition. By May 1, the season has truly emerged, and spring growth is in full flower on the earth and in our own bodies.

Fertility is a main theme of Beltane. May Day is the time for dancing around the maypole, a phallic symbol, rooted in the earth, the female symbol of the yoni, our creative power. Beltane has been a time for ritual dances and races through mazes—rich symbolism reflected in spiral labyrinth carvings found in a number of prehistoric burial chambers.

The original meaning of Beltane is "the good fire" connected to the fire of the Celtic or proto-Celtic god known as Bel, or Beli. Bel was "the Bright One," the god of light and fire, and "Bel fires" were lit on hilltops to celebrate the fertility of the season and coming of new life with the spring. All over the countryside in the UK at this time, bonfires are lit, often from a central fire built for the Beltane ritual of jumping over the fire. Young people leap over this fire to bring themselves husbands or wives; travelers jump it to ensure a safe journey; pregnant women jump over it to have an easy delivery, and young women to ensure their fertility.

Text Box: Firekeeping Practice – Jumping over the Fire

<*** Figure 205. My son Jai jumping over a bonfire on the beach in Kerala>

By May, the celebratory energy of the earth is in full-bloom and an outdoor celebration with a bonfire is a way to connect to the ecstatic energy of spring that is rising in our own bodies. Young people to adults can embody vigor and joy as you leap (check the height of the fire!) through the flames without fear. We have enjoyed this practice in collective retreats supported by the fun and boisterous support of the community – we leap into our fertile potentiality that Beltane ignites.

<H1>Buddha’s Birthday

<Fig. 206 Find a beautiful image of the Buddha with gold leaf placed on top or like the Angkor wat of the Buddha growing in tree>

"Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared." ― The Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama

The birth of the Buddha is often celebrated in Nepal for an entire month. The actual day is called Buddha poornima (or Buddha purnima), also traditionally known as vaishakh poornima or the full moon that falls in the month of . It is honored as the day of enlightenment and mahaparinirvana where offerings and meditations are offered around the world particularly in Bodh Gaya in Northern Inida where the "granddaughter" of the orignal Bodhi tree where the Buddha awakened is a site for prostrations, meditation and rememberance.

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