Summer Solstice: Turning Up the Heat

Because of the tilt of the axis of the Earth in relation to the sun as we revolve around it, the northern and southern extremes of the planet get more or less sunlight during the year. So summer solstice is the point at which the northern hemisphere is pointed toward the sun and so the days are longest, and the southern hemisphere is pointed away and the days are shortest.

Spiritually, summer solstice in the northern hemisphere (which we do inhabit in Panama, though barely) has been a celebration of the abundance of life, a time for gratitude and enjoyment of life on Earth.

This year's summer solstice, however, has a more powerful significance.


Last year's summer solstice marked the beginning of a period of intense increase in the frequency of the energy reaching the Earth, which has affected us by preparing us to leave behind what no longer works for us personally or for humanity as a whole, and attuning us to higher-vibrational ways of thinking, feeling and doing.

In Panama, a new community of spiritually attuned people, both Panamanians and expats, has come together since last year's summer solstice. For me personally, this year has been one of dramatic spiritual experiences, growth and changes. I've moved from being able to get spiritual information and direction through meditation, to being able to access it pretty much anytime, anywhere. I've experienced for myself esoteric realities I would have had trouble even believing possible a year ago. And so in some ways I'm further removed from the norm, yet I'm also better positioned to help other people cross this bridge to a new reality in which the inner and outer worlds are more easily navigated as one.

You may have noticed that your own spiritual life has become more important to you, more fulfilling or more intense, in the past year. Or perhaps that your material and emotional life has become more unsettled or feels less certain than it did. This also is true of the world, and can be seen in the falling apart of the world economy, the election of more enlightened leaders, and probably other effects that I'm not aware of.

This year's summer solstice is said to be a kind of doorway into a time of much more rapid development still, with more intense energies shifting stuff around not only for us, but for the world as a whole.

If you read reports by spiritually aware astrologists, you will find that the planets have been lining up since the spring equinox in April to intensify the energies that support spiritual enlightenment, letting go of dysfunctional patterns of thought, feeling and action, and embracing new realizations of oneness, that the highest good for all is also the highest good for the individual, and a new ability to connect to vibrations of love, light, peace, harmony and truth.

As we approach the solstice, I feel called to contemplate what is the special role of the equatorial part of the Earth in this play of energies and consciousness. In Panama, we experience very little change in our daily dose of daylight throughout the year.

Perhaps this is why I have felt ever since I came here that the energy is especially intense here, and in fact have been told so by my guides-in-spirit. This means we have the potential to be Light-holders for the rest of the planet, where the greater portions of the population live. We have the potential to lead the way through this shift in energies, to attune ourselves to love and maintain that attunement as beacons for the world.

At the same time, it means that if you live elsewhere, you might try turning your attention to the equatorial regions when you meditate and just ask to receive anything that could benefit you from the energies here. And let me know, if you try this, what you experience! If you ask for assistance from your guides or Self, you will receive only what is beneficial for you individually, so it's perfectly safe.

In Panama City, we are going to hold a special solstice meditation to open ourselves to the higher frequencies of energy that correspond to higher spiritual consciousness. We will invite our guides, teachers, ascended masters, angels, higher Selves -- whomever each of us feels close to on the spiritual plane -- to assist us in receiving, accepting and carrying out our role in the play of human life at this time on the planet

This is a special opportunity for all of us, if we are aware of it, to do the same. By being aware of what's going on, and according ourselves with it for the highest good of not only ourselves but humanity, we stand to be richly blessed and get through the major changes to come as comfortably, serenely and joyfully as possible.
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Love, Light and Joy,
Susan
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Dissolving the Chains of Attachment

I've been writing about the difference between love, which is the pure Source-energy expressing itself through our heart chakras, and attachment, which is the feeling of dependence on another to love us that we feel when we confuse actual love with the idea of love.

Human relationships usually contain both love and attachment. Our challenge is to recognize the difference and, when a relationship ends or must change form, to allow the love to survive but dissolve our feeling of attachment to the other person. By so doing, we can transform our emotions of grief, anger, resentment, sadness, or even despair into acceptance.

From my own experience, I know that we can use meditation and visualization to make this transformation. It helps to have an experienced guide in this process, to assist in bringing in spiritual energy that actually changes the frequency of your emotions. But you can also do this on your own, just as you can meditate on your own.

Here is one method I use.

Start by entering a meditative or deeply relaxed and focused state. How you do this is up to you; use any method that you find effective.

Now, visualize yourself and the other person facing each other. Picture your attachment connecting you to this person like cords or chains of light, binding you to one another.

If you can, express your love and gratitude to the other person for the good aspects of your relationship, the love and learning you received from it.

Then visualize a brilliant beam of white Light slicing through the cords, freeing you both. (An alternative method is to ask a spiritual figure whom you trust to cut the cords with a sword of white light. It could be an angel, your own God-Self, Mary, Jesus, Buddha, a guide – any Being of higher consciousness with whom you feel a connection.) The white light represents pure divine love, which never harms, but can transform the nature of our feelings.

Watch what happens. You may see yourself and your beloved drift apart, or some other image may come to mind.

Release the other person, knowing that he or she carries the love and gratitude received from you. This does not end your connections as souls, which is based on love. It only ends the human attachment to having a particular relationship with that person in this lifetime.

Finally, turn your attention to your own heart. Picture white light filling it, soothing any pain there and filling any holes left behind by the attachments you have just released. Feel the warmth of the light, and know that it is pure love healing your wounded heart. Bask in that light as long as you like, and when you feel ready, open your eyes and see how the world looks and feels to you now.

This is a beautiful meditation that allows love to survive, while releasing attachments that keep you bound to unhappiness.

If you want to do more work on love, attachment and relationships, I highly recommend a book by psychospiritual therapist John Welwood called Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships. He includes great exercises to help develop your ability to access love directly from within, which in turn strengthens relationships.

Love, Light and Joy,

Susan
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