Litha
2014: Counsel, Gluttony
& But-less Desire
My, what a powerful Beltane
Season it has been. So much to do, so much fun & so much magick since our
Beltane Ritual in the beginning of May, a lot went down that day & since. There are a few hints in my last Beltane Blog.
To start with we flash mobbed
our own ceremony at Beltane. We held secret rehearsals, about 30 Women / Maenads & myself. I asked two of our
ministers from The Silver Broom Ministries to write the worst ceremony they
could, on purpose. They did.
The circle cast had zero umph (on purpose) the quarter calls were also umphless & in the wrong order (again on purpose) & they scripted the Statement of purpose before Invocations, which is a procedural no-no. Really, it was a masterpiece of faux ca-ca ritual design.
Because I am known as a
rather lightning-ish Zeus Archetype, we scripted that I would halt the
ceremony, practically terrifying all in attendance, even those in on the joke.
I stood up, scolded them, took control, did an invocation to Dionysus then said, HIT IT!
The
music began & Pharrell Williams' Happy blasted from the stereo. We got
practically the whole place dancing & really, it was so much fun to watch my
people cut loose & dance without inhibition. A few keenly intuitive people figured it out when they saw 2 really skilled ministers doing it all wrong.
But on the whole, people were shocked, pissed at me, then stunned when they realized it was all a set up when we started dancing in unison. What a pisser! I had to swear to never try & pull that off again. (I had my fingers crossed, you never know what I will cook up for Beltane.)
There are no pictures of the "Happy Ritual" because part of the pact we made was that there would be no physical evidence of us dancing without inhibition.
Then, about 30 minutes later
a major part of my Sacred Mother Maple, split off & crashed to the ground.
We were all set to trim her down the next day in a sacred way, so she got the
job started for us. That was magick in action folks & everyone was a bit astounded
by it all. It was certainly a prelude of the many powerful changes &
manifestation to come. BTW, no one was near it when it happened & no one was hurt.
That said, we are now at
Litha / Summer Solstice & I am personally ready to step into those energies
that my coven calls, The Full Moon of the Sun. Litha is the longest day, so it
would correspond to Full Moon in the sense that the Sun is at its peak. The God
born at Yule has matured & is now a KING, ready to rule & guide us
through the dark half of the year.
Here’s the thing that had
been puzzling me about Litha though. The Sun God is at his peak, but it is the first day of the Sun moving into the sign of Cancer, a feminine, cardinal, water sign.
Part
of it makes sense, when Summer hits, we do slow down a bit because it just gets
so hot for the next 3 months, at least on Long Island. It is the perfect time to literally &
figuratively chill out, rest, take vacation & look back upon all that has
happened in the last 6 months since Yule. But the Sun, is a King, in the sign
of Cancer? That made no sense. So, I asked my Gods about this.
Cancer is the sign where my Hera/Queen - Mother
Archetype is placed in my chart. So when She said to me that She joins the King
/ Zeus in rulership as his Queen, it all clicked into place. This isn’t literal of course,
but it does speak to the Anima/Animus balance, or the Yin/Yang, Lunar/Solar,
Goddess/God energies within us.
Though this flash of inspired insight came
quickly & was greatly clarifying, it also came with a warning. It is an
extremely powerful, creative & very Emotional time. I was reminded of a
quote from Abraham-Hicks.
“If
you were driving your vehicle at 100 miles per hour and you hit a tree, you
would experience a very big crash. However, if you were to hit the same tree
while your vehicle was traveling at just five miles per hour, the outcome would
be considerably different. See the speed of your vehicle like the power of your
desire. In other words, the more you want something, or the longer you have
been focusing upon your desire, the faster the Energy moves. The tree, in our
analogy, represents the resistance, or the contradictory thoughts, that may be
present.
It is not pleasant to run into trees, and it is also
not pleasant to hold powerful desires in the midst of great resistance. Some
try to remedy the imbalance by slowing down their vehicle. In other words, they
deny their desire, or they try to release it, and sometimes, with great effort,
they are able to diffuse the power of their desire to some degree, but by far,
the better remedy would be to reduce your level of resistance.” Abraham
This means that we have the
potential to increase the power of our desire / Fire / Solar energies, but
have to keep an eye on our emotions to navigate, avoiding the ‘trees’ as it were,
by reducing our resistance to the things we want to be, do & have. Not
easy, but doable. It does take practice & since I’m not very good at
slowing down in that sense, I am getting better at avoiding the trees through something my
guides call ‘But-less’ desire.
It goes like this. So many of
us want things, we feel the desire & then we follow it with a big BUT.
Like, I’d really love to travel the world, BUT…
I’d really like to eat that chocolate, BUT… I’d really enjoy having a partner in life,
BUT… You see this is conditioned in us since
childhood, let along the thousands of past lives where we learned to but into
our desires.
So, I’ve been practicing just
holding my desires, fanning the flames as it were without sticking my
but in it. I think this is what visualization is about at its core. We visualize
the things we want to be, do & have without the resistance of why we can’t
have it. We imagine ideal scenes free of resistance, just letting ourselves
have the experience of what it would feel like to be, do or have what is wanted,
without the rest of the contradictory stuff getting n there.
Then we open our eyes, the logical
mind takes over & we wipe our buts all over the energy we just generated
via visualization. I see well trained witches do this too. They will spend
hours drafting a spell, writing it like a contract, going over every line, gathering
the right correspondent magickal carriers, even working with astrological timing for the
perfect day & moment to cast.
Then, we start spreading our
buts around like it’s last call at the singles bar. Enough of that says Zeus
& Hera to me. Just hold the delicious feeling of the desire & watch
what happens. This isn’t about faith, or belief. It is about knowing. Know that
you came into the world from spirit to create. Know that it’s all just a
quantum hologram, an illusion of separation, a dream, an hour upon the stage to strut
& hopefully not fret so much.
So it is that I encourage you
to choose what you think & especially say these next 3 months. Litha
corresponds to the 5th Chakra, the Throat.
The Grace of the Throat
is Counsel, the Shadow Passion is Gluttony. Since the power of the Throat
Chakra is Will Power or Choice Power, this makes sense. Will we choose to speak
to ourselves & others in a way that calms & soothes, speaking positively
& in an uplifting way? Or, will we be gluttons of negativity, chewing on ‘what
is,’ or even worse, ‘what was’ rather than 'what could be?’
Thankfully we have a whole
season to practice & perfect our choices of empowerment, choosing
thoughts words & attitudes that empower us & speed us along, but-less
& free of hitting trees.
Maybe that’s what Mother Maple was trying to say. “I’ll
take care of the trees, you just stay happy, because Litha is coming & the
heat is going to be turned up, as it always is this time of year."
I really wish you all the
very best of the season & that you can keep your but out of your dreams. Do
the Cancerian Crab thing, keep your dreams to yourself or share in sacred space
with those you trust & enjoy the fresh breath that uncontradicted /
but-less desire always brings.
Blessed Be & Blessed Litha!
Rev. Mark A. Lyons,
President
Drawing the Circle Productions INC.
DrawingtheCircle@aol.com
631-968-8307 @ProfWitch
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