06/22/2024
My Solstice Newsletter
A unique and enchanting birdsong called in to me at 5 am each morning this past week during my ambrosia hour rituals. With the increase of light in June in the North, many people all over the world—particularly the northern hemisphere will be celebrating Summer Solstice, June 21st. I love how traditions of this type go back in time before electricity, before technology, before we became so out of touch with the mystery of life. An extraordinary sunset, a life-changing solar eclipse, a fierce volcanic eruption, a novel and captivating birdsong, oh the beauties and wonders of our own sacred planet.
Traditions shared globally are significant touchstones of our mutual humanity and connectedness, especially those earmarked by nature like a rare total eclipse— because nature is neutral—without race, religion, dogma, opinion, or creed. Nature is always reminding us of our relationship to something beyond our mortal grasping. These awe-inspiring moments often render us small and somewhat insignificant within our human egos, to something great, something beyond even our comprehension or understanding.
In Greenland and beyond however, the fierceness of Nature causing awe, is also causing unsettling destruction to people's lives. Events out of the ordinary like an eclipse will cause a disruption in the established order of daily life. These events, therefore, have the power to make us feel small—as the locus of control is clearly not ours, but usually something outside of normal, beyond our material world.
Turns out it’s ok to acknowledge our (surprising to us) identity as insignificant in relation to the great Intelligence that holds this whole spinning universe together. Of course, major disruptions may not be OK in our physical reality and that is where we need grounding, routine and ritual to mitigate feeling overwhelmed or completely devastated. Traditions celebrated through rituals can keep us stable and grounded during turbulent times.
“Routine is the way we worship fully at the altar of the timeless. Routine is the way we step down what is absolutely extraordinary into the miracle of the ordinary, an ordinary day, an ordinary hour. Routine is disguised ritual.” David Whyte
Most of us are painfully afraid of our own inherent, brilliance and light, that part of us—the mysterious, can only be access when the ego truly moves out of the way. That’s what happens when we practice the routine of ritual. Silence, presence and order give way to intuitive brilliance. That solitary little bird who came to my morning ritual so beautifully this week is related to Gemini represented in the month of June. Both ask us to tune into our intuition and remain calm, curious and to balance on the fence as the observer, by practicing equanimity watching all of these events with compassion and yet a clear sense of neutrality.
I celebrate my tradition of sending out a solstice newsletter with you by the announcement of my book Where Science Meets Spirit-The Autobiography of a Paralyzed Yogi, being published and ready for reading. You can find all about my book signing events and where to purchase it on my website, ww.mary-jo.com.
Blessings,
Mary-Jo
Mary-Jo Fetterly is an author and spiritual-mindfulness coach. She teaches yoga, mindfulness, and adaptive accessible yoga.
