Daeluin

Happy Summer Solstice 2015

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Happy Summer Solstice.

 

From the winter solstice until now, the yang energy has been waxing - building up, storing up. Yang is a sort of firmness. A strength that is placed in stillness. When strength gets used, the operation changes from waxing to waning - what we have and use gets used up.

 

  • Every day the earth spins in a complete circle, and we have darkness and light, day and night, by which to feel this change.
  • Every month the moon revolves around the earth, and we feel this in the gravitational pulls of the moon, in the moon's alignment to the sun, and in the moon's relationship to it's nodal axis.
  • Every year the earth revolves around the sun, and we feel this through the seasonal changes and so much more.

 

So:

  • When the sun is behind us at midnight, this is as far from us the sun can get in the daily cycle, and from this point until noon the energy waxes.
  • When the moon aligns with the sun from our perspective on earth, no light is reflected back to us. Through-out the following two weeks the reflected light will appear and grow to fullness at the 'full moon.'

 

We're all accustomed to full moon tales of wild energy and chaotic unfoldings. It's pretty simple to understand. Same as getting a paycheck and spending it all at once. Energy gets built up and then the operation changes - we've become used to saving up, but something changed that operation on us. We're no longer saving up - we've been given our chest of gold and now we have to defend it or spend it. But often we don't even realize something has changed, and we go off drinking on a whim and wake up the next morning broke and carrying some vague recollection of a wild party beneath a mean hangover. Or maybe we've been dealing with some challenging struggles for a week or two and just snap, unable to control ourselves.

 

See, the changes of momentum in the earth, moon, and solar system are cyclical. But with our daylight savings and gregorian calendars we aren't very in tune with these changes, and tend to embody them as linear motion. This linear motion changes, then we struggle to adapt after the fact, settling into a new linear pattern until it changes again.

 

One of the most profound lessons I've learned from daoist thought is how to adapt to cycles. How to become oriented with circular flows. How to let go of linear attachments and open to continuous change while constantly reorienting to the center.

 

The lunar and solar cycles are very connected, but not in a way that is clearly defined. They say that when the new moon which begins the new chinese lunar year comes after the date of the solar year (lichun), that the moon is blind to the year, akin to showing up late to a meeting, needing to play catch up and not exactly certain what was missed. On the other hand, if the lunar year new moon comes before lichun, the moon is early to the meeting, and more in tune, more in synch with the energy of the year.

 

Both are important. Sometimes we need to see, sometimes we need to hear.

 

So today. The summer solstice. After today the yin energy will return and the yang energy will wane. The yang will be invited into motion, invited into getting shaped and spent. The energy we have cultivated this past year and the connections and foundation we've been building will be put to the test. As we enter into this yin period, our past patterns of how we spend our energy will come into play and we will discover just how well those patterns will make use of what we've been storing up.

 

It's a subtle change that unfolds slow enough to miss at first. Currently the moon is waxing, even as the sun begins to slowly wane. We'll likely still feel this waxing of the moon more strongly, but then as soon as the moon begins to wane we might feel a more distinct change in direction, or it might not really settle into place until the next waning of the moon, giving the moon a full cycle to really catch up.

 

This this post is just a nudge to be aware of this change. If you've been moving in a linear direction now's the time to let the transformation unfold, let the fire burn, let the return begin. Or, if the energy isn't ready to be spent yet, now is the time to preserve it, set it in the vault and switch over to making refinements rather than adding new features. Just be wary of pushing on as before, in that linear direction, or the rug might get swept out from under you. We don't want to spend everything. We want to save some of this heat and energy for the coming winter. Blessings!

 

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It's winter solstice here in the southern hemisphere. This is a significant point to keep in mind because it puts us in different energy spaces. Winter is a time more favourable for quiet introspection and stillness in contrast to the outgoing activity summer energises.  

 

Last night I could see the crescent moon through my window - it looked just like my portrait photo. 

I love the almost total darkness of the night here away from any artificial light sources; especially so at new moon times. And the stillness, the almost total quiet - especially so on dark winter nights.  :)

Edited by Yueya
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yep, midwinter is a time of going inwards, of reflection/introspection.

Indeed, this forum is so mondial that we have to think/ be aware of that.

 

I  cannot put it as eloquently as Daeluin, but for me it is like: spring, until summersolstice is the time of new growth, of new seeds trying to develop. After summersolstice time is there to let these seeds come to fruition. When winter comes a period of more stillness comes, especially advent is ( for me) a time of introspection, of looking at the fruit of the last year, of making these fruits really 'mine'.

 

Then in the beginning of februar, the first new light becomes so strong that the body becomes aware of it, what will I sow this year, what will it bring me. Like awaiting time but already active. And then the new year begins with new seeds to develop.

 

This year ...the most important thing that i've sown this spring/early summer was the intention to find new ways to deal with people, to be more open. Yesterday a very old and dear friend who i've lost completely, stood on my doorstep....she has come to live in my village and saw my last name somewhere...leave it to DAO and all will be well :) ,

 

wish you a good summer/ winter

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That reminded me of something I will share:

 

 

There is an analogy that works well in helping us see exactly what kind of thing the Tao is and how it works.  In that analogy the Tao resembles an untended and uncared-for (“uncultivated”) field, and the varieties of wildflowers that grow in such a field represent the Ten Thousand Things.  Were you to go to such a field in the winter, you would see only brown soil or white snow.  The field appears to be one in essence, undifferentiated, and “empty” of all forms of life.  Nonetheless, should you return to that field in May or June, you would discover that a marvelous transformation had occurred, the field now being filled with all kinds of wildflowers.  There are “ten thousand” different varieties of flowers, with each species (dandelion, nightshade, chicory, etc.) and each individual in each of the species being somehow unique in color and shape.  You now know that what had appeared to be devoid of life in the winter was in fact a very fecund womb, containing within itself in its oneness the seeds and roots of all different things.

Moreover, the work of the field does not end with springtime creation.  The field continues throughout the summer to supply a base for, care for and nourish each of its “children”, supplying them with the water and nutriments that are vital for life.  In this nurturing work, the field cares for all of the flowers without discrimination, and it takes no credit for all that it does.  The brown soil is always in the background and “unseen”;  our eyes being dazzled by the colors and forms of the flowers.  Finally, the field accomplishes all that it does “without taking any action”; that is to say, we never see the soil actively doing anything; all that happens seems to happen on its own “by Nature”.  
 

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