Bear's Blog

Sol is the sun. It’s interesting that the area between the thoracic and abdominal cavities is called the sol-ar plexus. It’s also the location of our soul, the essence we come in with and what leaves at the end of life. At 4+ inches wide, it’s the foundation for everything that comes next; the hara (in gestation, soon to be a spinal cord); the chakras rooted in that column; and energy bodies, culminating in the physical one. At solstices the sun is still for 3 days; it’s a time for integration.

As planetary activity has been mounting, the human experience has been increasingly intensifying too. The sun’s eruptions have charged up the planet, filtering through the ionosphere and then into our atmosphere. It also reaches deep into the core, activating it. That energy dissipates outward, so we are energetically held from all sides. We can relax completely into this immersion, this stillness, and take a deep breath to support integrating all these changes.

For a while now I've been returning to a classic shamanic practice, the dismemberment journey. It helps me completely surrender, to let go of what is, and experience a deep peace. Typically I’ve always done it on my birthday as a way to begin again. I spontaneously fell into a mini version while doing passive floor exercises in the morning; I now do it frequently, as a way to release the chaos of our times. 

It goes like this:

✨ Laying on the floor, feel your body becoming heavy. Sinking down, relax all your weight. You become lifeless (it reminds me of the corpse pose in yoga).

🌎 Visualize yourself as actually dead. Surrender into the earth; as your body drops away, you are no longer located there.

🕊️ From above, see your inert form and notice how peaceful you seem. As the body contracts, birds pick at your bones. Maybe other animals come to check it out and stop for some sustenance. Your body belongs to the world.

🍂 Finally you are a skeleton, the elements disassembling your bones over time; coming apart at the joints, then disintegrating and merging with the soil. You feel one with everything - the rain, the wind, the sun, the earth. You are part of it all, with nothing to carry or hold.

🌱 With a few deep breaths, return to your body, to this life. You are refreshed, emptied of all worries and responsibilities.

It’s a good reminder of the cycle of life - physical life, and the life of institutions and democracies. Many civilizations and societies have come and gone, risen and fallen over the centuries. We see traces, we hear whispers, we find encoded wisdom they have left behind. Part of the distant past, they still inform us through time and space. From ashes to ashes, dust to dust - the circle continues.…

Take a moment this solstice to appreciate the stillness within all the movement.

Peace, love and healing -

Bear