A Mid -Year, Summer Solstice Ritual with SoulCollage® Cards

Inspired by my friend and co-blog creator, Karen Paquin, who recently celebrated the 2^nd year anniversary of her blog “The Wonder of Runes” (Yay Karen! Congratulations!), I decided to conduct a ritual for the upcoming summer solstice.

You may remember that Karen and I launched Engaging Inner Wisdom on the winter solstice, and then started the new year by reflecting on the past and envisioning the future. We began planting seeds of intention, and doing the work necessary for the seedlings to grow. We’ve been nurturing our projects since the vernal equinox.

On Friday, June 21, 2013 we will experience the longest day of the year (shortest night), aka the summer solstice, and as a result we will have an abundance of energy, time, and the vibrant enthusiasm associated with the sun at our fingertips.

This bold energy of encouragement brings with it the opportunity to expand, work hard, play hard, and move forward, thrust into our big, bold adventure that began earlier this year. Soon, on the autumnal equinox, we can harvest all that comes from this exuberant, vibrant, energy-filled time. What we harvest doesn’t just come from work, it can come from the time we spend with family and friends, vacationing, enjoying leisure time, and basking in the sun.

Intent on knowing how to put my best foot forward as I move into the second half of the year (we are after all, at the midway point) I enlisted my SoulCollage® cards to use in my ritual. These cards are considered a “personal oracle” because I created the cards and selected the images used on them,  I ask the questions and I answer the questions – in doing this I tap into my subconscious and receive powerful insight. If you create your own deck, you can do the same thing. I will talk more about SoulCollage®  in upcoming blog posts, but for now, I will share my summer solstice ritual with you, and the meaning I derived from my SoulCollage® cards.

When I work with my cards I like to set sacred space, so I set off with my altar to regale the sun in my backyard. I lit a candle, shuffled my cards and decided to ask them this question: “As I step into the second half of the year, with the sun’s energy at its height, which Neters (cards) wish to guide me and move me forward?” After selecting four random cards I engaged in several SoulCollage® writing activities, and here is what the cards had to "say" to me (abbreviated for the post):

Card #1

This card provides me with peace of mind and a sense of clarity. I am reminded that when I listen to my intuition, I can trust in the future. This card tells me to hold on to summer’s light and energy, but don’t cling too tightly. Its green color suggests that my heart chakra plays a role in the upcoming months. I am also reminded to lay out a plan, and gently follow it.

Card #2

This card focuses more on a path, a narrow path. It speaks to the importance of structure and passion. It encourages me to follow my path, and to make sure that I don’t sacrifice structure for passion. I can see clearly, and I am encouraged to engage in joint ventures.

Card #3

This card is all about peace, harmony, loving kindness and compassion. It reminds me to stay heart centered and open my heart to both give and receive. When I do this I will benefit from the marvelous gems that are near and dear to my heart. It suggests that even though things may get strewn about at times, and seem chaotic, as long as I am operating from my heart, I will be ok.

Card #4

 

This card encourages me to “jump on board” and not get weighed down by my "wet blanket" i.e. my negativity, whining, and comparing myself to others. I need to turn my thinking around and see the marvelous opportunities that are just waiting around the bend for me. It reminds me to be grateful! I need to turn and look at the blessings in my life! There are marvelous, golden opportunities awaiting me on the horizon.

So, what do I get from all this for the next six months? -

Follow my true heart’s path. Fill myself with passion, but remember to create a structure from which to operate. Stay true to my heart, remain loving and kind, and be grateful for all that I have and all that awaits me. Things are fine and moving forward splendidly. I don’t need to doubt or second-guess. I just need to do my work, keep the faith, and remain true to myself.

Engaging Your Inner Wisdom – What rituals do you engage in that support you as you move through your year? Have you ever thought of doing SoulCollage®? Maybe you would be inspired to celebrate the summer solstice by walking a labyrinth. Perhaps you use art making as a ritual. Maybe you rise every morning to pray and meditate? Engaging in rituals helps us to connect more deeply to the activity. I'd love to hear from you about your rituals and encourage you to find meaningful rituals that can enrich and deepen your life!

Deepening the Connection with Our Inner Self

February, in the United States, marks a time to focus on loving others. When we celebrate Valentine’s Day we send love and kindness to our partner, children, co-workers, and/or family. With this attention on loving “others”, I began to think about the importance of loving Self. In Art and Soul Lab's February newsletter I address supporting our creative self. In today's post, I highlight connecting with our inner self – the wise, knowing part of ourselves.

Previously this month, my colleague Karen Paquin wrote about “Intuitive Listening”, those times when we act on a “hunch” without realizing why, yet on an instinctual level we know what we need to do and by following and not questioning our intuition we gain insight or support in a way that our conscious mind could not have, or might have dismissed.

How do we take our intuitive listening to another level and find ways to consciously focus on our inner guidance system? In his book “Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving Into Stillness”, Erich Shiffmann explains the benefits of connecting with this deeper part of our self:

“Inner Guidance…is your deepest knowing made conscious… The spiritual teachings you'll receive from within your silent mind will be the source of new meaning in your life…Spiritual teachings will come in the form of inspiring and guiding you in your thought, speech, and behavior, they will come in the form of clarifying insights and sudden inspirations, creative ideas, intuitive knowings, life circumstances, people and situations, hunches, premonitions, desires, attractions, and spontaneous impulses.”

By connecting to what is inside we enhance the quality of our lives; by knowing our truths we may follow them and ultimately live richer and more meaningful lives.

“To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind.”

~Seneca

So how do we intentionally get to the gems of wisdom that we have inside? How do we connect to and support those parts of ourselves that we don’t always listen to, so that we may experience our internal “spiritual teachings”?

We know that eating well, exercising, taking time to go inward through yoga or meditation, and having a spiritual practice can help us to better hear our inner voice. What about other ways to listen? Here are a few ideas:

• Take time to reflect – How often do you stop and really allow yourself to think about where you would like your life’s journey to take you? What about thinking about past actions in relation to future desires – what has worked, what hasn’t? How do you really feel in a day? Are you happy? Satisfied? Reacting or Responding? 

“Reflection is looking in so you can look out with a broader, bigger, and more accurate perspective.”
~Mick Ukleja and Robert Lorber

• Consider taking yourself on a “self-discovery journey” - Take a trip on your own solely for the purpose of being with yourself to hear and listen to what you want and to what makes you feel passionate and inspired. You could do a “pilgrimage” or visit an awe-inspiring location like Alaska or an event like the season when humpback whales birth. Invest in a journey where it is just you, with you, exploring you. This doesn’t have to be an expensive trip, or even a literal trip as Cat Caracello pointed out in a recent email:

“Journeys can be experienced in the flow of dreaming, making art, accessing imaginal states and engaging creative connections. Journeys are a way of exploring what is sensed, felt, intuited, experienced, known and unknown.”

Be alone with yourself and your thoughts, pay attention, listen and see what you discover. As Tbird Luv suggests, “Stop the doing and be present in your being”. Sit and reflect, ponder, consider, allow ideas to bubble up, review the past in a loving way.

• Try SoulCollage® - SoulCollage® provides an innovative way of connecting to your inner self through images. By intuitively selecting images, creating cards from those images and then interpreting the cards’ meanings, you can discover aspects of yourself that beckon and wish to be seen, but haven’t consciously blossomed. Engaging in creative expression gets us into a zone that allows for ideas and insights to bubble up. 
  
  

In the coming months we will explore other ways of deepening your connection to "self" I hope that you are slowing down enough to really listen and hear, taking needed time to reflect and consider, and doing the work necessary to feel great and have a sense of purpose and vision.

Practice Engaging Your Inner Wisdom:

Select one of the modalities suggested above and try it! Let us know how engaging in one of these activities inspired you or supported you. Leave us a comment and let us know!