The impending darkness of the solstice

I LOVE the winter solstice, and while I’d really love to be at Stonehenge celebrating, I am happy to be celebrating here too. There are various alignments locally, and I was lucky to be on Sark this weekend where I was curious to find some alignments there too.

I was lucky actually, a full moon traipsing the land at night alone, always a blessing, especially on little Sark, which is simply alive with energy; the capstone at the Sark southern dolmen was literally glowing in the moon light, to say nothing of the menhir a little up the road.

The next morning I was fortunate to see the moon set to the north of Guernsey/Herm and I even managed to make it out to the southern dolmen to catch sunrise on my yoga mat, a few sun salutations, trying to avoid all the sheep poo littering the place! We found more special stones later, and the Buddhist carving.

I love Sark as you know and it was magical this weekend, with the light’s being turned on in the high street on Friday evening, which look absolutely magical. It was well worth the rather challenging boat journey on Friday, with the aborted harbour drop-off and into le creux instead! And there I was naively assuming it would be calm simply because the sun was out. Well you know what they say about obstacles along the way, and tests too. We passed that one, just!

I took my dad with me this time, and the two boys, we had fun, managed to meet my Sark soul friend and her daughter and explored more parts of Sark previously not seen. Sark never fails to amaze me, it just keeps giving. Even the walk back to the boat was a new one for me, along the cliffs, a new perspective and way of seeing things.

I’m still stuck on that in the yoga sutras, the idea of cultivating a different perspective, especially when one is in a state of confusion. This full moon being in gemini, an air sign, has highlighted confusion. I feel confused too. Not sure the future direction, everything still up in the air, in between one way of being and another. It’s lovely to have a few days off with the boys, back here on Guernsey, to truly celebrate the solstice and immerse ourselves in fires and the land, and of course some sun-orientated worshipping!

Yesterday I led the annual yoni yoga candlelit class to celebrate the solstice and go deep within to see what the darkness is trying to reveal. I love these sessions and the group energy, and I am grateful for the opportunity too keep going with these, despite the fear permeating so much of our community.

I was listening to one of my Ayurvedic Buddhist offerings last night and the Buddhist monk was saying how fear underpins anger and I see this playing out all around me, people acting out of fear with anger, especially when it comes to the whole boring vaccine debate. One time on Sark someone spoke with anger about the unvaccinated making the virus worse. Fear underpinned his comments. Fear of not knowing how it’s all going to turn out and needing someone to blame.

We always need to blame. No one talks of taking greater responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, or seeing the bigger picture, about the way we are living and our attitude to nature, our own especially. Everything has a right to be here, including a virus. It’s a shame we can’t find a way to live in greater harmony. The more we resist something, the more it grows. We resist and repress our anger and it’ll one day catch us out, exploding out of us. I wonder how long we’ll keep resisting a virus. Maybe when we accept it, things will change, who knows, I’m certainly no expert.

But I do know that it is fear that motivates so much of our response to covid. Fear of death ultimately. I’ve said it before but even the wisest are scared of this, the Yoga Sutras talks about it. But it’s not just fear of dying, fear of illness, fear of not working, fear of losing something. And the response is often from a place of anger, whichever side of the fence you sit. I find it easier not to have an opinion. Opinions change anyway, depending on the perspective. I’d rather just make a choice based on how I feel in any moment and maybe that’ll change as the moment too changes. Being fixed is not helpful, allows little flexibility, or opportunity to see a different perspective. Creates fear and anger too as we hold on tightly…

With luck we can all put our differences aside and enjoy time with loved ones and remember what it’s all about as we descend into the darkness tomorrow. Love. It’s always about love. And loving compassion. A work in progress! Often our vulnerability is our greatest obstacle. We will do all we can sometimes to defend this. but if we can enter into vulnerability, be OK with it, allow it, well it changes everything, it opens our heart to the world, and the world definitely needs more hearts opening.

So on that note, happy solstice tomorrow, enjoy the magic of the darkness!

Love Emma xxx