Using the equinox and solstice to remember what is sacred

Why do we do it? What is the purpose of meeting in ceremony at the time of the equinox and solstice? Excellent questions.

Wakan (the spiritual community founded by tomás) is about finding and remembering what is sacred to our highest awareness and bringing it through in our daily lives. As such it is about healing and empowerment, it is about healthy growth and consciously choosing to use the challenges of our drama to move us in the directions we seek for our Heart Path to Completion. It is about doing what-ever we can to help heal the Sacred Hoop of Life--within and for our-selves, for our families, friends and intimate relationships, for the community and for "all our relations”. It is about learning to walk in balance and harmony and beauty with all of creation. No small tasks hey!? So we need all the help we can get is the way I figure it.

In order to accomplish the above it is imperative to stay attuned to the emanations of guiding intelligence from the Great Mystery which change with the seasons; they constitute different vibratory rates. They "bring” different helping forces and different "assignments” at different times of the year that are important to listen too and work with in a harmonious manner. Otherwise we are out of balance ourselves and there- by add to the imbalance already impacting our Mother Earth. We need to part of the healing, not part of the problem and this requires work on our part.

So we come together in a "Wakan Way", a sacred way, at these important times of the turning of the Yearly Medicine Circle--the changing seasons, to try and create greater attunement and resonance with these changing cosmic rhythms; i.e. to be in harmony with the greater ancient cycles of change to further our healing and to pro- mote healing on the planet by respectful joining with these "Elders".

The Fall Equinox - a time of gathering and the "looks within place"

For the Fall Equinox there is the gathering of the crops, the taking in of the bounty of growth from Great-Grandmother Growth, "Tatai Nakaway", and with it the need to give thanks for these bountiful gifts of life. Thus we achieve harmony and balance and prepare for the next season, winter, already on its way.

As this is a time of equal day and night, it is a time for honoring and empowering the balance in all areas of our lives. For the Winter Solstice there is the least amount of light at any time of the year. Father Sun is furthest away from us. So people gather together to find the light within, to celebrate it and strengthen it and extend it outward during a time of outer darkness.

It is also a time of sending prayer energy to the Sun to help "bring it back" so that the people might live and of renewing the Mother Earth with our prayers, songs and ceremony since she too is receiving the least amount of light from Father Sun. She is in her "looks within place" and we want to support her with our fuel so that she might "return" with new life in the spring.

Spring Equinox - time of new beginnings, "giving back" to creation forces

For the Spring Equinox there is the re-emergence of new life bursting forth from our mother’s body. The growth energy is rising and and it is a time to celebrate new life and to plant seeds within her fertile body for the continuation of life. The prayers and ceremony are means by which to give-back to the forces of creation-- the "Gods and Goddesses".

Again it is a time of equal light and darkness and for working with balancing and honoring the masculine and feminine within us and within all things. For the Summer Solstice there is the greatest amount of light and kupuri from Father Sun who is now closest to our Mother’s body. It is a time to "fill up" with this life-giving light, to really charge our batteries with its power and kupuri and to send it out to wherever it needs to go for healing and transformation work. Through our prayers and ceremony we both attune with this energy, thank it and give-back to it and empower ourselves and that which we pray for.

7 reasons for seasonal retreats

To sum up then, there are, at the very least, the following "purposes" for doing seasonal retreats:

1. To achieve greater attunement-resonance with the energy>task>medicine>rhythm of the season in order to promote greater balance and harmony.
2. To Give-Away back to the Spirit with thankfulness for the Gifts of what has been, what is and to pray for what might be.
3. To build community of people, "nature" and cosmos.
4. To celebrate and bring in greater joy and happiness in a healthy, responsible way.
5. To open the nierica to be guided and used by the Great Mystery for its purpose of trying to birth through the greatest possible good for all--the higher evolutionary intention of the Earth and the Cosmos--to Serve Higher Will.
6. To send out Prayer-Power Kupuri, strengthened by the unified group mind for societal-cultural and planetary healing.
7. To honor our ancestors and our responsibility to the children, young people and their children yet to come, "the yet- to- be- born faces looking up to us from the Earth for whom we are the ancestors".

May we do the best we can. May it be so. Ho. Pomparious

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