Dear Cultivators of Love’s Light Hiding in True Darkness,Winter Solstice is my favorite time of the year to meditate. There is a special magic in the darkness. Yes, I know many focus on the “rebirth of the light” following Winter Solstice, the birth of the Sprout of True Yang. That’s all good and true. It fits in nicely with the Christian story of Jesus’s birth on Dec.25, a transparent appropriation by a Roman emperor of the natural power of Winter Solstice. Focus on the light is similar to someone oohing and aahing after a new baby is born. It’s a natural response. But the real, ongoing miracle is: “what is pregnancy? What generates this amazing birth of spirit into matter?”. To answer that, you have to dive into and embrace the darkest of dark inner spaces. The child comes out of the mother, out of her dark watery womb that nurtured the embryo swimming in a dark ocean of amniotic fluid for nine months. The magic of this womb is what I like to meditate on at Winter Solstice. Where did the first womb come from? On Winter Solstice, we get a peek into the answer. The cosmic womb opens its yoni wide for a few days, expressing through Mother Earth’s womb as its local proxy. It makes exploration of True Yin accessible and easy, but only for a brief moment does the dark portal open. Since we live in a False Yang ,go-go-go, over-achieving culture, it’s hard to find enough authentic Yin. At Winter Solstice, we can just ease into the dark watery hot tub of Mother Earth’s womb, and let our soul soak in her divine water. Our soul (ling Qi) is a sponge, and the extra Yuan Qi will spontaneously overflow and heal our mind and body. Water Phase of Qi in WinterIn Chinese medicine Five Phase theory, water Qi is the Queen of the five elements/phases. It births the other phases. It’s physical expression is strongest in winter season, and has a special power to regenerate. Taoists consider fear to be a contraction of the water element. This “frozen water”, a.k.a. as emotional FEAR, is warmed and dissolved as it shifts from dark subconscious into the light of consciousness. Winter Solstice can trigger this dissolving process within us IF we take the time to meditate and set a clear INTENT. Fortunately Solstice occurs a few days before the cultural frenzy of Christmas itself. But you still have to choose to dive into this dark womb. Otherwise it is easy to slide past its true depth. By definition we all have fear of facing our deepest fears. So it is easy to choose to NOT enter winter’s inner darkness. It’s easy to sabotage the opportunity with busy-making chores. Ironically, many seniors fear the darkness as a symbol of the “permanent winter” of old age and death. They move to Florida to gain the illusion of permanent summer. But our inner fears remain. Our contrated kidneys speed up the manifestation of whatever we most fear. This is a paradox. The hidden light of eternal or pure love cannot fully emerge unless we immerse ourselves in the dark womb. It’s our cultural False Yang patterning to believe we can rebirth divine light from our ordinary thinking, or from outer sunshine. We cannot skip the dark phase of the cycle where we have to energetically “enter our future grave” within the deep womb of Mother Earth and totally surrender control. Every Winter Solstice, we are given the opportunity to allow our worldly little self to die, in order for our greater spiritual Self (as personal soul and collective over soul) to be cyclically renewed and rebirthed. Full Moon Conjunct Winter Solstice This Winter Solstice 2018 is special. It packs a rare sun-moon alchemy that can deliver a double whammy to juice up our meditation and Solstice ceremony. It can speed up our personal evolution, which is a precious gift. There is a full moon in Cancer on Dec. 22, smack dab in the middle of this big 3-day celestial event. Why is that so powerful? Winter Solstice is primarily a SOLAR SYSTEM event, caused by the tilt of the northern hemisphere away from the Sun, creating the shortest, darkest day of the year. But the moon is the sun’s natural alchemy partner. In the Healing Tao system, the Wandering Taoist One Cloud has a entire formula dedicated to capturing the Qi from the sun and moon natural alchemy. It’s called the Greater Enlightenment of Water and Fire. Alchemy is the spiritual science of coupling matched polarities like male-female, sun-moon, and spirit-matter. The mixing of polar opposites causes a neutralization of the poles. This opens up an inner space (“cauldron”) in which Original Breath (Yuan Qi) is crystallized. This neutral crystal is precious because it is linked to Origin, and has it power to rejuvenate us (eternal youth) or grant immortality at a high level of practice. It also acts a a spiritual GPS that helps guide us to accomplish our highest worldly destiny. So coupling the “dark sun” of Winter Solstice with a Full Moon is a powerful cosmic pair of forces that we can couple – IF we have that intent and the alchemical skill. Naturally, this sun-moon coupling at this solar cycle Yin inflection point excites the Black Dragon that rules the water element on planet earth. This is no Loch Ness serpent lounging around on a surface lake. This Black Dragon is the ruler of all earth dragons. It stirs it from its secret lair, likely at the bottom of the ocean, where it is coiled around the “dark sun” hidden deep within the planet’s ming men (gate of destiny).
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