The winter solstice.
By Swami Enoch Dasa Giri
As spiritual entities we are travelers in time, spirit in form (kala purusha). We exist in a universe that is a matrix of consciousness. This universe is composed of an infinite number of patterns or cycles such as: birth/death, day/night, inhalation/exhalation, and the rotation of the seasons – each with its traditional kriya or ritual. I thought you might find some reflections on the symbolism of the winter solstice and this important holiday season to be meaningful.
The winter solstice and the celebrations of the sun’s return (Hanukkah, Christmas) are festivals of light that remind us of this vital spiritual principal. We are not permanent residents down here, though some of us act as if we may be. We come and we go. We descend and we ascend. We inhale and we exhale. We give and we receive. But as mystics we are always seeking the point of equilibrium, of stillness, of balance and self-awareness.
There are great lessons to be learned from observing nature. There are great lessons to be learned from observing your nature. In yoga this practice is called svadhyaya or self-study. Yet to learn from nature necessitates removing your subjective emotional filters and seeing yourself, seeing Life as it is, not as you desire it to be or fear it to be, but as it is – wondrous and beautiful. Beholding Life as it is (and you are part of Life) is not easy because you have to renounce your expectations and projections. In Japanese philosophy there is a concept referred to as shabuhi. It means that nature is not man’s concept of nature. Nature is not a perfect square or a perfect circle. It is certainly not formed out of straight lines. The pattern of the solar year is not 360 days; it is 365 and a quarter days. Shabuhi expresses the organic nature of life. It reveals that we, like the universe, are not moving in a circle but in a spiral – an ever expansive movement toward greater balance.
Kriya is an esoteric school of yogic thought. It is concerned with inner experiences and dynamics. The root of the word kriya means an action, rite, or ritual – an inner, conscious one. Holidays or Holy Days are like inns upon the path that offer you as a traveler in time an opportunity to stop and reflect at particularly auspicious points upon your journey. Where have you been, where are you now, and toward what are you traveling? Are you moving in a circle or a spiral? Is your path a conscious movement (kriya) or an unconscious karmic pattern?
The winter solstice (December 21st) is the point where the sun enters the zodiacal sign of Capricorn, its extreme southern declination. The sun has descended lower in the sky than it will all year. For three days it stops moving north or south (ascending or descending) and is “still.” It then begins to ascend again on the 25th, the high holy day of Christmas – the festival of the Sun’s return. To the mystic, Christmas and other festivals of this season (Hanukkah, Dawali and Kwanzaa) are celebrations of Light, reminding us that as spirit we too ascend and descend. We have descended into form and shall ascend once again at the appointed time.
The Mystical Significance of the Winter Solstice
The solstice also holds a deeper symbolic meaning. There is an old mystical hermetic axiom: “As above, so below. As within, so without.” Within your astral body (which is a solar system in miniature), there is an astral sun. This sun rotates each year “ascending and descending” around the twelve mansions of your astral spine, the idic and pingalic hemispheres of your six chakras. At the winter solstice, the
astral sun moves (transits) into the Capricorn section of your Saturn chakra, the lowest point of your chakric universe. During the Sun’s movement through your Saturn chakra tremendous spiritual energies take “form”, which are then released in the next solar cycle of your existence.
Though it may seem as though there is little or no creative activity at work place right now – either within you or in the nature that surrounds you – there most definitely is. Do not make the mistake of thinking that just because you do not see something (or more accurately are not aware of something) that nothing is happening. The formed arises from the unformed. The very structure of the next cycle of Life, of your life, is being generated at this time. My teaching for you at this time is simple. Make it a kriya, a conscious ritual of creation.
How can you do this? How can you make your life a kriya, a conscious movement through time? One way is to create a map, something that gives you a reference point for where you are, where you have been, and where you wish to go. This could be the cycle of the seasons, the cycles of astrology, or the cycle of the breath. For most people it is the cycle of the holy days (holidays) to which Christmas and Hanukkah belong. Here we are taught to celebrate and reflect on our life through a rich tradition of rituals and observances (kriyas). We begin to see the cycles of our life as part of a whole, part of a larger pattern – the Bharva Chakra (the wheel of existence). We stop to get our bearings, to make sure we are moving forward and not just going in a circle. We slow down our busy lives for a moment and become quiet enough to see afresh the pattern of our lives and the path we are on, just like we do in meditation.
By making our lives a kriya we come to the realization that independent of the cycle or universe in which we find ourselves – physical embodiment, the dream world, marriage, parenthood – it is the hub of our self-awareness that brings clarity of purpose, direction, and the strength to walk the path before us, which we and we alone have created. This insight allows us to refrain from fragmenting or distorting our experience of Life because we no longer fear it, judge it, or blame others for our karma. When we make our lives a conscious ritual each act, each thought, each word becomes a means to become more conscious (a sacrament in Christian thought), to remember from whence we have come, who we are, and why we have come here.
May you find peace, harmony and joy throughout this season and the year to come!
Swami Enoch Dasa Giri is an inspirational teacher, born in Chicago; who shares the living tradition of yoga with warmth, humor, and sincerity. He is a direct disciple of Sri Goswami Kriyananda who carries the flame of the Kriya lineage brought to this country by Paramahansa Yogananda.
Swami Dasa will visit Texas in February. He will offer a lecture on Karma: beyond the myths and misunderstandings. For information please go to http://www.yogasanga.net/?p=2729
slacking parent, you will mostly do what they say because they say so and more importantly you will learn from their actions that will have a heavier weight on you than the pep talks. At teenagers years, you don’t have this idealized idea of your parents and usually the teens try to break free from them acting up and looking for options that would make them unique and different.
