Recently I sent out an email invitation to the Winter Solstice event here at Grey Heron (Wednesday, December 21st). Along with the invitation, I included three questions, ones I’d received in meditation, to help us consciously focus our preparations for this pivotal time.
1. What have I continuously postponed, shied away from, started and dropped, faltered over and over again due to fear or denial? What themes keep reappearing in my dreams that just won’t leave me alone?
2. What is the marvelous Invitation, lovingly and persistently issued from my soul, within this Call?
3. What do I need to do now, in this month approaching Solstice and the beginning of 2012, to be fully present to this Call?
After the meditation, I pulled a Tarot card from the Thoth deck by Alistair Crowley (a recent gift that I’m really enjoying) to view the the nature of this preparatory time before the Solstice and the energies associated with the three questions.
Princess of Swords
The Princess of Swords stands on a precipice, her left hand touching a bare altar behind her, her right hand holding a sword pointed downwards, perhaps serving as a lightning rod to whatever is seeking to manifest in the air around her.
It appears to be a chaotic time in the heavens. Things are swirling in the atmosphere yet even while posed precariously on the precipice, she appears steadfast, purposeful, anchored.
Looking at the card, I speculated whether the world around her was shattering like glass and making way for a new dawn. In the Tarot, swords represent the mental realm. Is the sun near the base of the picture near the base of the image rising or setting? It is not clear.
Whatever is happening in this swirling chaos, she’s right on the cusp of what’s going on.
Certainly this is a powerful and poignant picture of these times. As we approach the darkest day of the year and begin the turn into the long-awaited year, 2012, our entire world as we know it is on shaky ground. The Princess of Swords reminds us to keep one hand on the sacred altar while the other wisely wields the sword of discrimination.
Shortly after this, I found unexpected confirmation from an astrology blog by Dipali Desai. I had forgotten Mercury is going retrograde during this time. Desai’s reading of the celestial energies underscored the big questions I posed earlier.
“Here we are nearing the end of the year 2011, a perfect time to review the previous ten months and all that it contained before we start a new year. Mercury shifts into Retrograde phase on November 24th, 2011. Mercury’s got the tunes playing “re-vamp, re-vise, re-do, re-cycle, re-connect.” This Mercury retrograde is re-shifting things between two potent Eclipses: a Solar Eclipse (symbolizing a new chapter) on Nov. 25th and Lunar Eclipse on Dec. 10th (symbolizing an ending of a chapter).
“Current Mercury Retrograde in Sagittarius means Re-Envisioning the Bigger Picture of Your Life. Key themes surround Sagittarius: expansion, integration, aspiration, vision quest, higher mind, belief systems, philosophy…”
Through her astrological lens, Desai says, “At this time, we get an opportunity to reflect on our ‘quest’: As a Seeker in life what are you seeking? Is it meaningful? Does it help you to broaden your perspective? Are you envisioning the bigger picture?”
More questions, good ones.
Timely ones. Important ones…
and sometimes, the best gift we can receive is the perfect question at just the right moment!
