Solstice blessings ✸

The message I continue to receive, is to steep myself in practice.  To cultivate simple, but daily ritual involving quiet presence, stillness, and attentiveness.  To train my "eyes" to perceive the support, the guidance, and the magic that is all around me.  

So I was excited to follow a daily shamanic journey practice the week leading up to the summer solstice.  While half of that time took place while we were on vacation and staying in hotels, it seemed a real test of my commitment to myself to follow through even though conditions weren't optimal.  Lying on a drafty hotel floor (not thinking about the standards of the house keeping crew) and fumbling with spotty internet connection, I managed to journey every day. 

It was the best gift I could have gifted myself (and in all honesty, I am pretty damned generous when it comes to self gifting!  I mean, I bought my own 25th wedding anniversary present while in New Zealand. Hey, I am practical and magical!) In one journey I was instructed to create a prayer tie in acknowledgement and gratitude of the wisdom shared with me by my guides.  So that is how I celebrated this Solstice: creating the ties with the help of Cowgirl ...

Each day's journey was associated with one of the seven chakra centers, so each of the seven ties had a animal/totem we selected from my stamps, inked in the appropriate color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and pink) upon a 5 by 5 inch fabric square.
 
Using ceremony I review each journey and the lessons passed onto me, giving thanks and an offering of tobacco, sweet grass and cedar in each bundle before tying the bundle to a length of plain cotton string.

I drew three cards for insight into the coming season.  Two of the cards were the same cards I pulled at the end of my New Zealand trip.  The Lady of the New Buds keeps appearing for me, her message slowly sinking in: care every day for small matters, and the large ones will care for themselves ... work hard at what it is you love. (Lucy Cavendish, Oracle of the Dragonfae)
 

I spent time with Cowgirl talking about the meaning of each chakra, crafting her prayers for ways to connect and receive the lessons of security, expressive/creative flow, strong boundaries and sense of self, open heart, freedom to speak her truth and access to insight, intuition and spirit.  It was humbling to ask my child "what helps you to feel safe and secure?" and have her respond, "You."  As a parent we know that, but it is another thing to feel the weight of that responsibility and privilege.  Another insight to slip into my pocket: to always honor that trust and remember it is my sacred duty - my dharma - to be that rock of stability and support for her even when I don't feel so steady myself.  For her, I am enough and she nurtures that understanding within my own heart.    

Our prayer tie hangs in the tree above the fairy circle.  From my back door I can see it dancing in the wild summer wind.  Each breeze, each rainstorm sending our prayers out into the world; clearing the way for the second half of 2013 and all that I am so ready to receive and share.