Winter Solstice & 12 Holy Nights - Lighting the Candle

Every Winter Solstice in these years around the 2012 window is especially precious because it marks a portal through which Spiritual energy from our Great Central Sun in the Galactic Core can pour through to activate and awaken us – especially if we are awake to it. Here are some ideas for celebrating this most potent of holidays:

1) Our Mother Earth has just finished a cosmic inbreath and is holding her whole etheric body and life forces deep within her. Her etheric body is made up of the elemental beings of nature (gnomes, sylphs and so on) who are very active preparing the life bodies of all the plants, animals and humans who will be born in this coming year. This is the best time of year to tune into our Great Earth Mother within and to connect with the wisdom of the elemental beings. But be wary, this can be quite a party as the elementals, especially the gnomes, are known to be very intelligent and very mischievous – hence all the fairy tales about elves and gnomes who test humans with tricky riddles. So make sure you don't loose your shirt in the bargain!

2) Initiates in the old Mystery Schools used to go into deep caves at this time of year, go into a totally still, almost death-like state, and go through the initiation called “Seeing the Sun at Midnight”. Finding the light of our inner Sun, and birthing our Spirit Self is the true gift of the season. It involves taking some time for inner contemplation and meditation and giving your inner soul life some attention. But the rewards are great.

3)The Archangels are passing the Cup of the Season on solstice day – from Archangel Michael who carried the cup through the Autumn Season of battling the dragons in and around us, to the gentle benediction of Archangel Gabriel who comes in silvery snow-crystal robes to announce the birth of the Christed, awakened One within our hearts at Christmas time.

4)The 12 Holy Nights that go from Christmas eve to Epiphany eve (January 5), are a microcosm of the coming year with its 12 months. So each of these nights you can take some time to journal your dreams and the events of your life that day, and also to work on any spiritual explorations, reading, or goals you may like to unfold. Many people feel that what happens in these 12 days will be a preview of what happens in the next 12 months of your life. You may like to try it out.

Would like to celebrate Winter Solstice, either alone or with a group, but not sure where to start? Or would you love to have a guided meditation you can use through the 12 Holy Nights and the coming winter season? You will be happy to know that my Winter Solstice Celebration CD is now available. Like the Summer Solstice CD, it has an introductory portion sharing some insights about the winter season from the perspective of the Mother Earth, the elemental beings, the stars, and the angelic realms. This is followed by a deep guided meditation section that leads you through an experience of all of these powerful events and gives you a chance to get your own images and gifts from the spiritual beings who guide us through this time of year.

To order your Winter Solstice CD, please send $15 plus $3 postage to Clare Coriell, 175 Hungry Hollow Road, Chestnut Ridge, NY 10977. If you want some great Christmas gifts, you can order several and save on postage – just $1 for each additional CD (that includes other Star of Wisdom CDs as well). For credit card orders email Clare at clare@starofwisdom.com or go to www.starofwisdom.com and check out our other CDs, Mayan Calendars, and Soul Path Astrology Readings.

Magic of the Word

Well it is time for an update on my journey in NY and my Creative Speech studies. What an astounding process it has been to dive into the mysteries of the Word! Our little group has been going deeply into the qualities of each sound of speech, one by one. And what an amazing world is hidden in a thing as simple as one letter of the alphabet.

Take 'A' for instance. Ahhh – the sound can express so many meanings – wonder, amazement, delight. Making the sound Ah puts your whole body, speech organs, and being in a state of wide openness. Your arms want to open wide, as your mouth does, and you even lean back a bit to open out to the whole world. With Ah, you receive deeply from your environment. At the same time it lets your astral body stream out fully. Rudolf Steiner says that speaking Ah takes you almost to the point of falling asleep (when your astral body and ego go out of your physical body), but you catch yourself just in time. A fun image!

One of our group's most powerful speech exercises uses words with the sound Ah to put our Selves out into the space in front of us as a shining, radiating pillar of light. If you want a technique to sharply point out and then push through just where you have any remaining blocks in your physical or energy bodies, this is the one! In Creative Speech and Eurythmy (a sacred movement practice) therapies, the sound Ah is used to help with problems in falling asleep or waking, the kidneys, the teeth, eplilepsy, and migraines to name just a few areas.

We are also working on the type of Speech used for presenting Epics and Stories now. More on that in my next newsletter, as well as some exciting inspirations about combining Creative Speech, Eurythmy and other sacred arts to form deep, sacred, Mystery Dramas.