Lighting Up 2
Welcome to ‘Lighting Up’, Linda’s new series to explore the richness of Lighting Candles to Connect in our Hearts.
If a friend has forwarded you this blog post and you like what you read here, don’t miss the next one. Check out my blogs and get connected here: www.candlesconnectinghearts.com
Here’s what I cover in this blog post:
A Short Intro to this Lighting Up series
Future themes in Lighting Up series
“To Everything There Is a Season”; with apologies to Ecclesiastes and the Byrds
Try this!
Create Community Candle Celebrations
Summary
Intro to Lighting Up Series
Lighting a candle is a universal act! Don’t you think almost every single person in the world has either lit or watched a candle burning? Universally together we light candles for everything. From birth to death and everything in between.
What about you? When do you personally light candles? This Lighting Up Series is an opportunity to engage in the who, what, when, where and why you mark, honour, mourn, celebrate what moves you to tears, joy, and silence. Expand your consciousness and uncover new depths.
What IS important to you? Let’s light up our intentions to pay attention! Let’s reflect, remind and connect ourselves, individually, as well as in our families and communities, with what and who we value in our lives, whether past, present and coming from the future.
Lots to discover! Ready?
I hope you will join in, make your list and share when you light candles!
Future themes in Lighting Up Series:
Anniversaries
Seasons & the Cosmos (Earth-Sun-Moon-Planets-Stars),
Personal Rituals,
Holy Days & Holidays,
Décor/Personal Space,
Death & Dying
To Everything There is a Season
(With apologies to Ecclesiastes, I couldn’t resist including this classic song by the Byrds! Turn, turn, turn! Click here and turn up the volume! ) This song also sets the tone for Lighting Up 3 on Personal Rituals). But now back to the Cosmos!
Seasons are obviously much more than dates on the calendar. They honour the movements of our Earth, Sun and Moon.
Many of you will know that I am a big proponent of not only the equinoxes and solstices marking spring, summer, autumn and winter but also the cross-quarter days marking the midpoints between each season.
The recent cross-quarter day on May 1st gave us pause to heartfully embrace the coming summer or winter (depending where you live, of course) beginning June 20th. The next cross-quarter mid-point will numerically be August 6 this year. Around that time, on August 2nd, in the northern hemisphere that would be connected to Lammas, the harvest celebration from ‘days of yore’.
Keep in mind, the seasons are not precisely equal in length due to the elliptical path of the Earth. Cross quarter days vary also partly because they can be connected to celebrations in our current calendars, like Ground Hog Day formerly known as Candlemas Day. All these variations contribute to expanding our awareness of these essential cosmic connections.
Another important aspect of Seasons for me is considering Earth as a whole. While I live in the northern hemisphere I am still connected to the southern hemisphere even though I am wont to forget. Winter in one, summer in the other, at the same time. Awakening our consciousness for polarities while immersed in what surrounds us.
A further very wonderful aspect to Seasons are the starry skies. Learning the movement of constellations, frequency of meteors, the paths of Sun and Earth and Moon through zodiac. All these are waiting to be discovered in our hearts.
Lighting Beeswax Candles for Seasons?
You bet! As my friend, Jassy, says, “honey bees mediate heaven and earth for us”. And have done so for thousands and thousands of years!
Lighting a beeswax candle invites us to open our heart to both the Earth and starry skies. Makes a lot of sense for the consciousness-seeking spiritual human beings we are!
Bee curious about this very ‘big picture’!
If this is new for you start with marking the Equinoxes, Solstices and Cross Quarter Days in your personal calendar.
Here are the remaining 2016 (northern hemisphere) dates I have marked:
Summer Solstice – June 20th
August Cross Quarter Day – August 2nd (approx)
Autumn Equinox – September 22nd
November Cross Quarter Day – November 2nd (approx)
Winter Solstice – December 21
Try this!
I want to pass on a suggestion I learned from my friend and colleague, Mary Stewart Adams of Michigan’s Inter
national Dark Sky fame. Create a ritual with your candle by combining two or more natural elements together (earth, air, fire and water). And look up! Include the star lore in the sky above!
A year ago on March 20, 2015 I combined earth, water and fire. Lighting a candle right where the melting snow and bare earth connected as the Equinox occurred. Actually, as I recall it was unexpectedly windy at the exact moment. All the elements contributed to uncovering the hidden prayer in my heart. And that gets to a core of why we light candles in the first place.
Create Community Candle Celebrations
This deepening within ourselves naturally expands, like ripples in the pond, to our communities. Yet it requires some initial boldness on our part! Lighting a candle and gathering together will inspire us in ways we cannot know until we do it! I am reminded again and again to trust this creative connection that appears among us when we gather to light candles.
Looking ahead!
What could you do to combine earth, air, fire and water at the coming Summer Solstice?? Or Mid-Summer (June 24) celebrations?
I’d love to hear.
Bee-well,
Linda
In Summary:
Start by taking 30 minutes and add the seasons, cross-quarter days for the remainder of this year to your calendar. Which one would be new for you? Bee courageous. While you compose your own list to mark seasonal points, light a candle to accompany you!
If a friend has forwarded you this blog post and you like what you read here, don’t miss the next one Lighting Up 3 on Personal Rituals.
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