A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to visit New Grange in Ireland and experience their simulated solstice experience of the shaft of light that comes into that great Neolithic bunker on exactly the solstice. It was very powerful to experience that in the same way our 5000-year-old ancestors did. I felt like trying to recapture a little of that, so this year I looked around to find a solstice ceremony to go to. The ceremony I found was nice – but a little disappointing to me. I thought it would be more elemental! But we were in a cozy heated room, seated on comfortable chairs, and when it came time to light our flames, we fumbled for the little switch at the bottom of our electronic candles. In the ceremony we completed a dispacho, which is a little ritual offering that, according to The Four Winds website, is “a gift for the organizing principles of the Universe”. From that website I also learned that traditionally, in the Andes, this despacho ceremony is performed after each earth cycle to renew and re-imprint the powers of nature on our luminous body, to connect with the Universe and accomplish perfect balance and reciprocity – not for us personally, but for the wellbeing of our group. So, group, I was happy to do what I could to help all of us maintain our wellbeing.
Thinking of the solstice also made we want to add an elemental touch to my latest portrait, so granddaughter #4 gets to be a solstice girl and wear antlers.
