Happy Summer Solstice!
Or, “Happy Winter Solstice” if you are in the Southern Hemisphere! Whenever it is for you, the Summer Solstice is a time of decisions, actions, and empowerment.
Summer solstice CHARACTERISTICS:
DIRECTION: South (North if you are in the Southern Hemisphere)
SEASON: Summer
TIME OF DAY: midday
TIMELINE: present
CHAKRAS: solar plexus / umbilicus
PLANT CYCLE: leaves and flowers
ANIMALS: hunters
SENSES: sight
STAGES OF LIFE: adolescence
HUMAN: willpower
CHALLENGING EMOTIONS: anger
ACTION: making a decision, acting
LEARNING CYCLES: doing, testing out
STICKING POINTS: taking action and asserting oneself
CAUSES OF BLOCKS: power issues, seeing fire used badly, shame
HEALED BY: embracing healthy power
CORE CONDITION: congruence
STRENGTHS: purposeful, energetic, self-empowered, want to empower others too
HONOURING Summer
CONNECTING TO THE TIME OF YEAR
Summer is a vibrant season, which can be marked by lush greenery, blooming flowers, abundant wildlife, warm sun, and blue skies. A time of bountiful harvests, refreshing waters, and enchanting evenings filled with fireflies and stargazing. The world comes alive with colours, scents, and the symphony of buzzing insects and birdsong, inviting us to immerse ourselves in the beauty and abundance of the natural world.
SHAMANIC JOURNEYING
As Summer is connected to the fire element, those familiar with shamanic journeys can significantly benefit from doing burning journeys, a transformation practice where we surrender to the cleansing and transformative power of fire. Also, you can ask for help with healing issues you may have around the fire element, to learn how to embrace it more or how to handle it better and more appropriately.
Likely helpers in a journey: warmth, sunshine, summer animals (like Butterfly, Dragonfly, Swallows and Swifts), plants – red and yellow flowers in particular, like sunflower, poppies and so on. Some of the fiery Stone People include Sunstone, Citrine, Imperial Topaz, Yellow Calcite, and Honey Calcite.
Also, journey and be Summer – be Plants and trees reach their fullness, showcasing lush foliage and blooming flowers, be Bee pollinating, be Bird, being busy building nests and raising their fledglings, be Frog croaking in the pond. Remember, from an animist perspective, Nature is our greatest teacher and healer. Do all you can shamanically to immerse yourself in it.
WHERE DO WE GET STUCK?
In the previous two stages of the year, Spring and Beltane, the focus was on considering possibilities. Having done that, Summer is a time of decisions and of action.
This is about moving from Air to Fire. Getting stuck in Air means being overwhelmed by all the possibilities, and staying sat at the crossroads, unable and unwilling to pick a path. Not all paths do get to be walked, though. In the end, to move forward, you just have to choose a path and commit to it. This is what Fire helps us with. Which path will you choose?
Alternatively, rather than getting stuck in air, we can get stuck by avoiding Fire and going straight to Water instead. This means we get caught up in feelings, dramas and the past, instead of finding solutions and then acting on them.
FIRE ELEMENT AND OUR ABILITY TO BE ASSERTIVE
The fire element in us is our power, the source of our authority and integrity, our ability to hold our healthy boundaries, make decisions and act on them, assert ourselves when needed, and speak the truth as we see it. It is our vitality, energy, motivation, passion, and drive. It sparks our enthusiasm and zest for life, and our desire to seek new things and experiences and challenge ourselves. The fire element also nurtures our courage, confidence, optimism, and happiness.
BOUNDARIES – USING OUR PERSONAL POWER WELL
Loss of personal power is essentially a boundaries issue. Learning how to repair and maintain healthy boundaries, and cultivate healthy personal power and use it well, can be a major aspect of shamanic work.
“Personal boundaries are guidelines, rules or limits that a person creates to identify for themselves what are reasonable, safe and permissible ways for other people to behave around him or her and how they will respond when someone steps outside those limits.”
– Wikipedia
Part of this involves realising that as adults, we choose our own boundaries, we are in charge of them, and we decide how we respond if they are crossed. Problems arise when we ask for permission for our boundaries to be respected. Where is our power then?! Healthy boundaries should be flexible. However, the zip’s handle should always be on the inside. That way, we decide when to be open, and when it is more appropriate to be closed. Of course, setting healthy boundaries will inevitably upset some people around us. But as long as we set our boundaries in a way that is ethical and decent, their response is their responsibility, not ours.
Upcoming courses:
THE FIRST-STEPS INTRODUCTORY COURSE – September – October 2023
The essential introductory course for anyone wishing to explore this approach.
Dates: September 30 to October 28, 2023.
Course Structure. The course is delivered via:
- Three live modules on September 30th, October 14th, and October 28th. These live meetings start at 2pm (UK time). All are recorded, for anyone who is not able to attend them live.
- Five pre-recorded modules, delivered by video and accompanying learning materials. These are released at intervals as the course progresses.
- A website discussion forum and (an optional) Signal group, where students can ask questions, discuss topics, share experiences and additional resources, and get support, encouragement, and a sense of community.
- A bonus video, answering students’ questions and offering additional teaching.
IF YOU HAVE DONE THE FIRST-STEPS
July to September 2023. THE TREE OF LIFE (sometimes called “The Totem Pole”): Shamanism, the Chakras, and the Human Body. A Further-Steps course. This course is usually very popular. It contains a wealth of information, and really helps anchor shamanic practice in a highly somatic, grounded and experiential way. More details here.
November to December 2023. FINDING YOUR WILD SOUL. A Next-Steps course. Discover practices to connect to your authentic, fully alive, wild and free Lower-World Soul. Learn how to come back to “right-relationship” with your true self, with other humans, and with the Other-Than-Human too. More details here.
… and more coming up in 2024.