Happy Solstice sweet soul!
The longest day of the year is here, in the northern hemisphere. It’s a full moon. Light fills this moment. The abundance of Summer is pouring in. We might not feel it directly. Our hearts and minds might be flooded with an energy that doesn’t exactly align with the season. Our bodies might not feel the surge of energy associated with lots of sunlight and a moon that fully reflects it. But the beauty, the bounty, and the blessings of Summer are available to work with. There’s a gentle generosity that saturates the moment.
On the first day of Summer, the zodiac sign of Cancer enters the room. She’s a pot of water that offers the remedy to your thirst. She’s a crab in a beautiful shell, inviting you to come into her home where she’ll nourish you and hold you lovingly in her arms. She’s the tenderness of your heart as it breaks for a sad and unjust world, the embrace of a home that longs to keep you safe, and the love that will support you as you venture out. The first phase of the season moves with The Mother.
In her womb we are nurtured. She loves without limits. And she teaches us how to offer our hearts, how to stand up for something we care about, how to hold the entirety of a world filled with contrasts. She’s the fullness, which holds in it the emptiness. As the sun pauses in its highest point in the sky in the northern hemisphere, we remember that down under, the night stretches wide, and Winter whirls her ferocity into the land. With this archetype we are called into the generosity of holding an opposing view, of feeding the demons, of making sure everyone is taken care of – not just the ones we think deserve it.
The moon is full today, and the sign that reflects the power of the sun sitting on the opposite side of the spoke of the wheel of astrology, is Capricorn. This mountain goat is courageous and measured, ready to launch into the world. She’s here to midwife a vision out of the protective embrace within the darkness of the womb, into the exciting exhilaration of a dancing, dangerous, sparkly, sad, mad, magical existence.
On this Solstice, we get to be both the Mother and the Midwife. On this solstice we enchant our lives with the free flow of emotion that the Cancer archetype shares with us. On this full moon we create the boundaries necessary for a healthy, grounded life in the rough terrain of reality. On this solstice full moon we get to be emotional and practical, earthy and fluid, vast and contained. We get to be the inner and the outer, the breath that takes us both ways, the power of the pulse of a universe that holds us in a continuous unfolding paradox.
Summer is a season of freedom and sunshine and beach vibes. With the mothering energy of Cancer, we get to be nurturing and caring, and we get to be carefree and wild, as we embody both the mother and the child. We get to be in the water and ride the waves. And we stand on the shore making sure all is safe. Sometimes the joy of laughter will turn into a tantrum because sand got in our eyes. She guides us through low tide and high, and in this world that tosses us in its currents, we learn how to be held, how to let go, how to form connections, and how to hold others, how to be tender and tough and fierce and fun, shiny as the sun, moody as the moon.
With the moon full in Capricorn, we can bring this highly intelligent, structure building character into the delicious cocktail hour of this Summer solstice, and weave into this potent portal of oceanic depth the ability to climb up and seek more ways, more perspectives. She brings life from waters to land, from womb to world, and creates more possibilities. Capricorn invites us to learn how to bring others up with us, how to rise as a collective. In a capitalistic world that makes us compete against each other, Capricorn can help us remember to lift each other up.
As we look at today’s world, we see that even in the attempts to lift others up, there’s a tendency to bring others down in the process. We see people talk about rising as a collective, but the collectivity is exclusive. We see people standing by one side, preaching that they stand with humanity, while at the same time dehumanizing the other side. (and I’m talking all sides – the pro and the anti, those who see it from this angle only, and those who see it through the other lens exclusively). It doesn’t have to be this way.
The mothering energy of Cancer is widely and wildly inclusive. She is Lakshmi – the Hindu goddess of abundance and generosity and wealth and beauty, who in one myth, leaves the temple built by the rich to go hang with the poor on the other side of town, offering her radiance and life giving power, her prosperity and her fertile force in the place that needs it most. And she is also Kali – the dark mother, dark matter, all inclusive power of a universe made of intensity and creativity and destruction, formed by chaos, which includes in it the possibility of order. Kali is the womb. She births us, gives us life, and with it death. She is time. She feeds us and devours us. In her, all are held – gods and demons and volcanos and the soft whisper of a lullaby.
As we celebrate the solstice, we invite both the darkness and the light for a dance, because we know that one is never without the other. The days will grow shorter from now till the Winter, here in the northern half, and longer till Summer down in the south. As we dance under the full moon of this solstice night, we call on the crab and the goat, the ocean and the mountains, the capacity for measured moves and the ability to navigate the complexity of a world that’s made of infinite ever moving pieces, constantly and continuously changing, growing and dissolving, becoming and being undone.
Just a moment in the sun today can be your doorway into the season. Breathe in, breathe out, and let the sunshine strengthen, enhance, and amplify your dreams, intentions, and goals for the second half of the year. Just a moment under the moon tonight can be your portal into the power of the moment. Breathe in, breathe out, and let the moon beams become your guides for the containers and disciplines and structures you need in order for those wishes, visions, and aims to become embodied.
If you want a deeper dive into the season, check out the Summer Solstice Somatic Ceremony. This mythic journey will take you on a meaningful ride through an embodied experience of imagination and creativity. With breathwork and movement, meditation, mantra, and mudra, we will bring the season into the body-heart-mind, and bring our whole being into relationship with Summer.
This ceremony is divided into eight parts; a mythopoetic exploration session, five embodied ritual practices, one meditation/pranayama seated practice, and a bunch of contemplative prompts to play with throughout the season. You can journal or begin conversations with friends or strangers. You can play with one prompt a day, or work with a few at a time.
Take your time with this comprehensive somatic ceremony, or drink it all in at once if you prefer. Do it today, this week, or spread it through the next few weeks. Once you register the material is yours to play with. You can also return to it next Summer to deepen the work.
All the details are here.
Let me know if you have any questions.
And please share this email with loved ones if it touches you in any way.
With much love,
Hagar