Death to Rebirth

Death to Rebirth
Knowth ~ World Heritage Site of Brú na Bóinne ~ Boyne River Valley, Northeastern Ireland

We are at a great turning point within the cycles of time & Life. From the perspective of the Northern hemisphere, we are currently traversing some of the darkest & coldest nights of the year just as the new sun is being 'rebirthed' in its yearly cycle.

How can we make the most out of present qualities of time, seasons & natural cycles in order to advance within our path, our prayer?

For those human beings who have sustained an active living relationship with Nature throughout history and today, this time of year is regarded as very special…a time in which the light is rebirthed within the darkest of nights. In honoring this moment we honor both the night—the darkness which holds/IS this space—& the new dawning of the Sun (or Son if you are Christian) within the world…& within ourselves. 🕯

And go within we must if we are to bring back the light of our own soul to renew our world & the whole weaving of relationships that makes it up. 🌀

♥️ recommendations ♥️ (click to view)

🌟 make sure you take plenty of time in the following days & weeks to be AL~ONE…Feel yourself, listen, reflect, become your own best friend & get to know more of who you are 🙏🏼
🌟 try lighting more candles around your home in the evening and/or using softer, warm lighting (also be careful with excessive blue light from screens!)
🌟 better yet ~ make a FIRE & invite your family & friends!
🌟 pay attention to your dreams… 🌠
🌟 feed your creativity & inspiration with beautiful inputs...write, tell stories, sing, paint, play!

In many ancestral calendars or temporal-spatial mappings of natural cycles, especially of the more northern peoples, Wintertime is positioned in the North. When the same wheel of time, seasons & directions is represented as a human life cycle, the North/Winter is also viewed as the time in between death & re-conception…a time of mystery, stillness, reabsorption, and re-fertilization ~ for the Earth as for ourselves.

(of course, nothing is really dead even in Winter 🌲…unless, perhaps, we didn’t prepare our harvests properly!)

In a more Southern tradition & mapping of time-space, i.e. the Mexica/Aztec, the North is the house of the “smoking mirror“, death/transformation, the place in which we confront ourselves in the darkness, the “obsidian blade“ which cuts away with extreme precision all that is not True to who we are, our essence, our Heart. This energy can help us to let go & transform old patterns/ways of being, in order to facilitate & make space for the birth of new consciousness. ☀️
In this tradition, the newly birthing Sun at Winter Solstice is embodied as Huitzilopochtli ~ the blue hummingbird, the power of the Heart & the Will towards self-mastery, Freedom, and awakening of higher consciousness.
Sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it?

The North is also the direction of the elders & the ancestors (for both traditions) ~ those whose strength has been honed by many winters; those who have dared to traverse the great sea between this world and the next & who have made it to the other shore!

It is the relationship to the unknown...
It is to encounter the great mystery of your being within the starry night sky or the northern lights…
or by the fire’s side as it dances upon the faces & reflects in the eyes of your beloveds. 🔥

Have no fear beloveds! to descend into the underworld of your psyche, to cross over uncharted waters & to face yourself ~ naked of all concepts identities masks stories…

Go in sincerity & respect into these holy nights, knowing that you are held, guided & loved every step of the Way. Truly! ♥

🕯 🌀 🌌

TRUST.

The new Sun is here! ☀️

TRUST both in the intelligence of your body and the guidance of your spirit.
In every ending, there is a beginning & vice versa. Each moment, no matter how grand or how devastating, will pass away to give space & Life to the next moment. Let it BE. Let go, in-JOY it for what it is.

Trust the wisdom of Nature, the power of Love manifesting itself as it lives & breathes in you. Trust the process & the path, at whichever step you may find yourself now.

For even in her most formidable and unforgiving expressions & phases, Nature is conspiring to help us towards Freedom, Wholeness…Strength & Growth! ❄️
❄️   ❄️    ❄️        ❄️      ❄️         ❄️
  ❄️    ❄️          ❄️        ❄️
❄️ Beneath her crystalline ❄ white mantle of these winter months, we are pushed naturally inwards, to-gather both in the homes of our own hearts & in the hearths of our home, families, & comm{unity}…to SHARE the warmth of our Love, our inner sunshine, the rhythm of our heartfire as it reverberates off our tongues in the form of songs, stories, prayers…
🌀 🎶 🔥

Awareness of the transitory, impermanent nature of forms breeds PRESENCE & humility, gratitude & WONDER for the gift it is to be alive here & now —
to be YOU —
& to know each other as we do..♥
For YOU ARE just as I AM, & I am because you are!

To welcome Death as an honored guest within the otherwise death-denying pretense & pace of modern living is to invite the awareness of a greater responsibility of living & giving of ourselves.

It is to reclaim our part & Place within the dynamic living cycles of the Natural world — to allow the compost of our past experiences to feed all of Life…just as our very flesh and bones will one day feed the soil & the Earth that so generously continues to suckle our new generations of human, plant, & animal children. 🌱
In this way, we are one with the soil just as Death is one with Life ~ constantly renewing and feeding each other in the dance of infinite cycles & changing forms.

Accepting & honoring Death is also to give Place & sanctuary to the mountains of un-processed collective & individual Grief, which many would rather go on denying in favor of the comfortable haze of collective amnesia and anesthesia…not realizing the gift & potential therein.

For with a heart wide open, here is the opportunity to metabolize that Grief into the beauty of Love shared ~
a song of PRAISE ~
a nectar that sweetens the heart of all it touches & reminds us to
remember a deeper Peace & Joy beyond all forms and circumstances…

...to honor all that we have lost by living (& dying) beautifully and continuing to love wholly & unconditionally as only the most courageous hearts can do!

That includes YOU 🌟

THANK you!

In Love & Sincerity,
Vanessa