Summer Solstice
Welcome to Summer, the season of growth, expansion, and the Fire element. The days have reached maximum length and encourage activity, joyous interaction with the world, extra work, and interacting with others. If we look at nature, trees are ripening, plants flourish and bear fruit, and flowers bloom. It is the season of the heart, eating fruits and vegetables that grow toward the sun, and a time when we need more water (in our foods, through drinking, or going to a river/lake/ocean).
Although this is the season of maximum light, it is the turning point back to maximum darkness. The spark of yin is born at the center of yang. Some Taoists say the solstice lasts around three days, as if the sun hangs motionless at the top of its cycle. The shift to short days and the birth of darkness is one of the four key times of the year where the veil better the material and spiritual worlds is thinner. (the other days are the winter solstice and the two equinoxes). Meditations, prayers, and intentions are said to be more powerful at these times.
This Summer Solstice is particularly interesting because it coincides with a Ring of Fire Eclipse. The Moon is in front of the Sun but does not cover it all the way. A ring of sunlight shines through from the behind the circle of the Moon to silhouette as a ‘ring of fire.’ Symbolically, astrologers say it is like a portal opening into a realm of new possibilities. As all of this fire energy runs through the solar system, what possibilities you want to create as we move toward the harvesting of Fall Equinox and the stillness of the Winter Solstice?
The Alchemist’s Tao Te Ching:
Transforming Your Lead Into Gold.
Photo: Thai Buddhist monks hold candle light gather at Wat Dhammakaya temple in Pathum Thani province to participate in Makha Bucha Day ceremonies Wednesday, March 4, 2015. Makha Bucha, a religious holiday that marks the anniversary of Lord Buddha’s mass sermon to the first 1,250 newly ordained monks 2,558 years ago.(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)