solstice blessings *light* the way

Happy Solstice, friends!

Here in the Northern Hemisphere today, the Earth is tilting furthest from our Sun. The intensity of darkness in the day and night marks the transition from Fall into Winter. We cross a threshold. The darkness of the winter solstice is a magical time, one of celebration and renewal. The distance from the Sun marks the celebration of light that arises from the darkness, the evolving and revolving cycle. We’ve been experiencing the occurrence of this transition through the subtle darkening of the days. Now, we shift toward the light. It is a time of eventually re-turning to the hEarth to be warmed by the fire of our inner light.

In this time we can turn toward Prana, life-force energy, inhabiting all of life. This force of energy is carried by our breath. Prana transforms the intensity. When we stoke a fire the final element is our exhale, our letting go. In this way the release creates space for the new birth, the new inhale of pure prana. The tilt of the Earth invites us to consciously cross this threshold together, letting go into the darkness and receiving the all-pervading light.

As we at alchemy of prana transition into this solstice, we are reminded of the sweetness of the darkness which David Whyte expresses in his poem, Sweet Darkness:

When your eyes are tired the world is tired also. When your vision has gone, no part of the world can find you. Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own. There you can be sure you are not beyond love. The dark will be your home tonight. The night will give you a horizon further than you can see. You must learn one thing. The world was made to be free in. Give up all the other worlds except the one to which you belong. Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.

Wishing you solstice blessings! May your eyes rest in the sweet darkness, may the darkest day and night be your womb tonight, and may your soul be illumined by the undying inner light of your spirit.

In loving gratitude,

colleen bishop, alchemy of prana