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Winter Solstice 2020

The plan...

LIMITEDNUMBERS LIST for Winter Solstice on Tara Monday 21st December 2020

Due to Covid-19 restrictions we have a list of those interested. It has reached the maximum of 15 and is now closed. (posted 14.40pm 16 December 2020.)

Winter Solstice 2020 - Alignment on Hope

Banqueting Hall, Hill of Tara, Monday 21st December 12:15 (local noon)

{Meet at the main gate at 12:05}

Winter Solstice 2020 is with us once again and when we look to Nature we see coldness, damp, wet, shivering trees, stunted grass growth, grey overcast skies, animals in hibernation decrease in insect and animal numbers. We are going through the slow period of the year when all looks depressed, dead or dying. The sun is at its low point and has trouble rising each morning limping low across the sky. Yet hope springs eternal and asks for nothing.

Focus on the light

Our ancient ancestors created a monument to hope. They created a temple housing a magical doorway, a doorway that is so powerful it brings you to another reality.

Newgrange, Síd in Broga, is this temple and the magical doorway is the roof box which once a year projects a path of light into the temple interior. It is aligned on the deep, dark interior, but looking from the deep dark interior it is aligned on the blazing sun returning to glory. (read more here Newgrange and Winter Solstice)

This year we will focus on the light to cultivate hope, that feeling that what is desired for will happen.

Doorways as magical thresholds

Doorways swing both ways.

What am I aligned on in life?

What am I focused on?

Is it the dark interior or the magical light?

Whatever we focus on we get more of.

Doorways are thresholds and once we cross the threshold we enter a different space, a different reality; be that from the kitchen to the hall or the nave to the sanctuary. Our patron saint Brigid was born in a doorway at dawn, a liminal time in a liminal place.

With that in mind I invite us all to symbolically and ritualistically align on the light this winter solstice. To align with our highest and divine good and put that intention out there to grow with the strengthening sun.

Is giorra cabhair Dé ná an doras.

God's help is closer than the door.

Whilst out for a recent walk we noticed a strange alignment where the sun shone through some gaps in one rock to project glowing eyes on another.The first image reminds us that we may be focused on the stone whilst the second image reminds us to focus beyond the doorway that lets in the light to the source of light itself.

The glowing eyes also gave me the feeling that the earth or earth intelligence's watch what we do and that everything we do with intent is listened to. Certain results from our healing circle would seem to confirm this.

Here is what I'm doing with suggestions to try where ever you find yourself on the planet this solstice.

You are cordially invited to the Banqueting Hall on Tara on the 21st December 2020 at 12:15 which is local noon (date and time add to 1 and the time adds to 9 if anyone's interested) .

I encourage us all to use this opportunity to align on the positive. A hope, a goal, an aspiration, an achievement, an accomplishment, a feeling, a project, a plan, a heart's desire, something that you can take personal ownership of and be responsible for. It can be big or small, but specific goals work better than vague statements. It would be nice to say

“My aim is happiness” but it would be more powerful to say...

“I sense/imagine/see/feel myself as unbridled joy having completed the mountain climb”. Align on this clear intent.

Identify something that is tangible and real so that you have a sense of achievement when complete. This shows your subconscious you can successfully achieve goals and with a proven track record you can achieve more and be the change you want in the world.

In our example the sense of joy in climbing the mountain is a successful goal and will attract more success and happiness and joy. And since the goal is realised you will move forward with all other goals simultaneously with the mountain climb acting like a reminder and a beacon to the subconscious and the universe that success is part of the fabric of your being.

The Alignment on Tara

The hill of Tara is famous for the Samhain and Imbolc sunrises in the Mound of the Hostages. However, there is a much larger monument on the hill which aligns daily with the heavens. It is the Banqueting Hall which was the mythical threshold from the world of the profane into the world of the sacred. It is a doorway that is oriented north - south and therefore every mid day it aligns on the sun.

With this alignment, standing in the lower Banqueting Hall, we are facing up hill, looking at the sun over the sacred centre. We are headed for the holy of holies on the inauguration mound of the kings and focusing on the light. Similarly at night we are facing into the transit of the moon, planets and stars.

(There is, in fact, a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on the 21st December visible low in the south west sky for an hour or 2 after sunset. But the Banqueting Hall will also be aligned on the conjunction at the time of the ceremony but will be invisible as they are close to the sun!!!! oh, Venus and Mercury are close by too!!! )

Conversely behind us the shadow falls away down the hill into the north, the direction of coldness, winter and death.

Mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually we stand on this threshold leaving one world for the other.

Mythologically the Banqueting Hall was supposed to be a great hall of celebration but archaeologically it is a cursus monument which aligns the pilgrims on the sacred hill top. This is the spot where Lugh Samildánach the god of all the arts would have first entered Tara as an ordinary god to become the high king of Ireland and leader of all the gods, leaving one reality and entering another.

The other mystical significance of the Banqueting Hall is that it is a base chakra point and the base chakra is associated with the number 1, the colour red, birth and rebirth, starting, beginnings and baptism. The Banqueting Hall is thus a giant rebirthing canal bringing us from darkness to light. Coincidence then that numerologically the time and date for the ceremony add to 1 the number of the base chakra.

Chakras as illustrated on the cover of the excellent book Radiant Healing.Lidar image of Tara - Banqueting Hall bottom centre corresponding to base chakra in humans.

The ceremony is thus a simple one. Walking through a doorway, leaving the old reality and heading towards or aligning ones self with a positive light reality in hope that what we focus on will happen.

In case you can’t get to Tara it is simple to create a ceremonial doorway in your garden or home. You are most likely intimately familiar with your garden and home and where the sun rises and sets and where the mid day sun is in the sky.

If your outside stick two bamboo canes into the earth set your intention and at mid day walk through towards the light. Then take the doorway apart as you or anyone else will only do this once and it should be a focused intent.

If inside place 2 crystals, stones or candles to act as a doorway so you can step towards a bright window or a special candle or crystal. With minimal planning you could adjust your set up so that the light shines on a bowl of water or other sacred object and if your stuck use a torch!

It may be appropriate to gift yourself something (small) to recognise the shift you are making.

Choose something that is meaningful to you and will remind you of alignment on the light. You are now symbolically and metaphorically closer to your goal. The universe or your subconscious can not ignore this.

Order of Ceremony for Tara

Feel free to use or modify to best suit your situation.

Preparation:

Pre decide on the goal, have a new candle or a dedicated crystal, new clothes, hat, shirt, gloves or even undies ready to put on.

Set up centre with Dagda's (the good god / the all father god) healing cauldron containing a candle and sparkling crystal and special well water essences prepared the night before from the wells now hidden at the entrance to the banqueting hall Adlaic and Diadlaic. The names don't translate but in essence mean something akin to yin and yang. An alternative work around could be to include, holy water, sacred well water, herb or flower essences.

“I align on my goal” and walks through the doorway with the other participants mentally supporting the traveller between worlds with the words

“Go n-éirí an bóthar leat” (may the road rise to meet you/ may you be successful in your journey)

“With the blessings of this well water essence I walk into the Divine presence”

The traveller can then put on the new item of clothing, take out the personal item that will remind them of their goal (this is your special rock, crystal, candle, book or other object) and tap it to wake it up.

If you feel so inclined we would love to put up photographs of your celebration on the web site to inspire each other, it would be the perfect Christmas present to the world to offer hope, love, light and healing.

Hope by Emily Dickinson
Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.