Summer Solstice Message and Gathering

The moon and the sun are eternal travelers.

— Basho

At a campout retreat at my home a couple of years ago, I took a journey for a friend that left a profound impression on me. Her guide likened shamanic journeying to crossing the Texas-Mexico border.  Crossing over to the “other side” and back again, regularly, changes you. You no longer belong completely to one side or the other, but to both at once.

With a regular practice of crossing over between the two worlds, you begin to speak a new language, the language of la frontera, the border. The spirituality of la frontera is a spirituality of the traveler, a step by step process of becoming, and a gradual letting go of all forms of false security in order to claim the true protection of Spirit.

The point isn’t “getting there” when you live in the borderland, as we all do. The point is engaging in the soul’s process of re-membering, of finding, claiming, and stitching the members of the dismembered Self back together again. This healing, this process of remembering, requires that we resist the impulse to put up walls and declare that we have “arrived” and are done with the work of becoming holy and whole.

We live sandwiched between two worlds, the world of matter seen by the eyes, and the world of Spirit visible only to the eye of the heart. The more we practice traveling across divisions of all kinds, the more we extend ourselves to see life through the eyes of the “other,” the more the brick and mortar of the false self begins to crack and fall from our hearts. This is the basis of all inner vision, wisdom, and guidance.

As we travel back and forth between worlds, we are changed. We begin to light up to Spirit, as the sun lights up our skies. Through our efforts to realize justice in this world, through our efforts to connect to Spirit in the inner journey, we stitch ourselves and this broken world back together again.

One cannot achieve healing only through action in this world, nor only through the interior world of spirit. Both are needed.

In crossing back and forth, we learn to speak a new language. We begin to lay claim to our birthright: citizenship in both heaven and earth. Our regular border crossings summon Spirit to bend closer to us, and we begin to discern a larger meaning at work in our small lives.

The sun, who this week will reach the zenith of his power in the Northern Hemisphere, never rests in his journey across the skies. Neither does the moon in hers.

These eternal travelers weave a loving, ever-changing, sublimely balanced rhythm of light and darkness around us. The solstice reminds us that we are beloved and that we occupy a prized center in the ceremonial dance of our elders.

Just as the sun and the moon do not circle us without the company of the other, the journey of the spiritual traveler is meant to include others. We travel always with a sacred tribe of seekers, a group defined not by nationality, profession, or creed, but by their commitment to the journey itself. It is helpful to make their acquaintance.

If you have an interest in joining in on journey circles based locally in Eugene, or accessed virtually in online journey circles, do contact me at aalkin07@gmail.com.

May your solstice be a blessed one,

Anna

Summer Solstice Potluck and Journey Circle

Friday, June 21 at 6 pm

Join us at our home in Eugene on Friday, June 21, in nature for a shamanic journey. There will be a potluck at 6 pm and journey circle to follow about an hour later. Free. Email me at aalkin07@gmail.com to RSVP and for more information.

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