Solstice Blessings from Sheila
 |
Sheila-na-gig Collage by Sheila Foster |
Beloveds,
Solstice, the longest night, is almost here, as is the return of Light and the Divine Child. I wanted to make contact with you today, December 19, because this is the anniversary of the Fire that consumed my friends/neighbors in Bethesda in 1983 and ignited the kundalini in me. It is the Fire that launched the Temenos Center and the Temple, the Fire that has led the way, nourishing and awakening us all in so many beautiful and extraordinary ways.
I bow to this Fire, to this awe-full Mystery, to the sacrifices made that day and since, and to the Grace that continues to flow endlessly. My gratitude for all of it is ineffable… as it is for each and every one of you, for this community, this temenos, for all that you have taught me, shown me, quickened and awakened in me, for all of the shared precious moments of depth, laughter, tears, challenges, and FFO’s. This is, indeed, a lucky, grace-filled lifetime to have shared so much of it with you.
As I turn my attention into the luminous darkness and the approaching Solstice, I am so mindful that this is a very powerful week, replete with huge archetypal energies, ancient and family traditions, family gatherings as well as unravellings, painful memories as well as sweet, grief, loss, longings, missing those we love who are not here, hope, magic, wonder, anxiety, and all the stuff of our humanness. The fullness seems fuller, and the emptiness seems emptier to me this week… the empty places at our tables and in our hearts can be met with tenderness. I am inviting the Light into those aching places in my own heart, and I am inviting you to sit with me in the Great Heart on Friday night, December 23rd, as I will be having a pipe ceremony here with friends, my son, and his father.
The art above may seem like a strange image for honoring Solstice/Christmas/Chanukah. I invite you into it, to contemplate its Mystery. It is a copy of a collage/painting that I created when I was researching the symbol of the vesica pisces/yoni/mandorla, that almond shape that occurs where two circles overlap. For me it is a deeply mystical symbol of and portal into the liminal, the place where worlds--inner/outer, masculine/feminine, conscious/unconscious, human/divine--come together. The liminal is that territory that is not here, not there. It’s timeless, formless, story-less, chaotic, meat-hookish at times, and anything is possible in the liminal. It’s the womb and the tomb, where things come and things go, the emptiness that is full, the fullness that is empty. You may be hanging out there these days. If so, you are in good company with the Madonna, Divine Child, and the Sheila-na-Gig. Invoke them.
The little bald crone figure on the right is the Sheila-Na-Gig, a very ancient stone carving found at the portals of churches and ancient goddess sites in England and Ireland. It seems time that I take her on, since she is my namesake. And it seems so clear that what this temple community has been about is learning how to enter and move through the liminal, make the initiatory passage from the old forms/life into that which is emerging and unfolding now. It’s all here… now…
I have loved contemplating the “sisterhood” of the Madonna, who is often portrayed in a mandorla, and the Sheila-na-gig, who holds her yoni open inviting entrance into the Mystery. These two need not be split in us any longer. They are our companions, our midwives, as we make our initiatory passages.
So, my precious sweet ones, may you know that my love and blessings surround you this week, as always. May you know that you are deeply loved, never separate from that Love. You are that Love. I will tune you all in during Friday night’s pipe ceremony.
So so much love,
Sheila
|
