The Value of Joy
Fire Spirits at Winter Solstice Ceremony
Happy New Year! The past year seems to have whooshed by, hasn’t it? A friend of mine admitted that he thought of 2023 as an extended 2020, and I can understand his point of view. We have collectively and individually moved through so many challenges and are still navigating through them.
Back in 2020 when the COVID-19 virus hit the States, I was shown that globally, we were entering a time of initiation on many levels. Yet, I was also shown that this time would provide an opportunity for huge transformation. Although I was not able to see people in my healing space due to COVID restrictions, I found myself grateful to be able to support familiar and new clients and students via phone and video sessions. The common themes many people struggled with were fear of death, navigating collective uncertainty, as well as dealing with the added stressors of isolation and familial/relational issues during lockdown.
We are in some ways still picking up the pieces of these themes. Not just from COVID, but from an intense political climate that has caused even further division and chaos. Initiations take as long as we gather lessons from them, and some are still moving through challenging experiences. With the many tragedies as of late, we must also remember to open our eyes and hearts to the many things we can be grateful for. When we are able to open ourselves to the possibilities, our hearts open further to experience them. That is when hope is reinstalled, and how we can manifest change for the better.
A recent encounter with the Fair Folk prompted me to convey to readers that challenging times must be met with spattering of delight, a dollop of bliss, and a dash of exuberance. This is not a denial of the challenges we face. The Fair Folk say that the medicine of challenge can be best digested with sprinkles of joy in order for us to approach them with new eyes and ears.
My good friend and Shamans After Dark podcast colleague, Bri Andreoni prepared a fire for our private Winter Solstice Ceremony. In our preparatory work for the ceremony, we were both individually given information about Joy. We noticed a heaviness in our being and hearts when we began the ceremony that was transmuted by the end. Although we were focused in letting go during the ceremony, we were both pleasantly surprised by how quickly the energy dissipated into levity. The focused, serious attention to the fire spirits seemed to dissolve in its heat and smoke. We began singing favorite Circle songs, joking, messing up lyrics, and laughing by the end. Several crows flew right over our ceremony and seemed to add their two cents into the ritual, cawing with us. It was a wonderfully magical release and a clear illustration of how the helping spirits can consort with fire spirits to create much needed change.
Let us open ourselves to the levity that is alive and around us, despite the collective grief and divisiveness.
May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
That pure be the joys surround you,
May true be the hearts the love you.
~ Irish New Year’s Blessing
