Shifting with the Earth’s Axis – Are you Tilting or Turning?

Are you hitting “TILT” some days?  I am, so on December 21st, in my home town of Mill Valley, I convened a small circle of women to enjoy the power of a pause – a time to sit in silence, complete some of the past and gather forces for the New Year. Why mention it now? From the Solstice to Epiphany can be a powerful a turning point in our lives.  [BTW: I’ll share the 3 questions from our gathering in the next blog plus tell the story I told of one of my turning points.]

The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. But, we are actually closer to the sun than during the summer – 4 million miles closer! It seems strange. It should be hotter since we are closer! But, because the Earth’s axis is tilted away from the sun, the Northern Hemisphere is cold and dark until we start “tilting” the other way again.

The Earth reaches perihelion – the point in its orbit closest to the Sun – in early January, only about two to three weeks after the December solstice. Is this important? Yes, because this time from Dec 21 until early January is a time of change that we can use to give momentum to the things we want to shift.

If , as a wise leader, you use this time consciously, as a time of transition, you get a lift. You can work with the earth forces when you pause and pay attention. Big pay offs come when you stop repeating the past and shift into creating a new future. How do you do that?

Part of living wisely means living in sync with nature’s ways and earth’s rhythms. Use this time to really ask yourself fundamental questions about what you want to end in your life and work that keeps you repeating the past and what you want to create new in the future. FYI: I’m not talking about goal setting here – this can’t be achieved with your mind alone.

Pay close attention to your dreams, meditate, write, gather with loving community and family, spend time in nature, and listen deeply during the weeks from Solstice until around January 6th. (Why 1/6? Traditionally it’s Epiphany in Christian traditions, when the Wise Men visited the Child of Light. Epiphany also means a sudden realization of a great truth.)

To me, the veils to insight seem thinner – I experience a revelation of wisdom – a new light inside of me that is born from accepting darkness – my feelings of dissatisfaction, unfulfilled yearnings, and times I held back in 2011 from timidity or paralyzed myself with fear instead of taking the risk to grow in new ways.

Use this time well! In simple ritual and good conversation pour on the love to release a few of your more repetitive patterns and behaviors – the ones that you used to limit yourself and others. These patterns are often the ones that put you into TILT – throw you off balance, struggling to find a better way.

With family, colleagues, and friends, celebrate all that you are becoming and love the gentle soul in each of you who cares so deeply about the world. Honor your willingness to risk and your dedication to creating a more loving future. People around the world gather during this time, and have throughout history, to participate in the cycle of constant change – the ebb and flow, death and birth, weakness and strength, melancholy and elation.

In our fast paced relentless lives, turning points matter. Without them, we are stuck in the past. Drop into the shifts ready to happen in your life in order to substantively do what is yours to do to contribute to a sustainable, positive future in 2012. It’s  a good time to have friends around, and to be a good friend. It’s a time to give of your heart and warm your soul.

And, along the way, take good care of your self,

Karen

Meanings of the Words:

The word solstice comes from Latin and means “the standing still of the sun.” (Sol means sun and sistere means to stand still).

Wikipedia defines the perihelion “as the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid or comet where it is nearest to the sun. The word perihelion stems from the Greek words “peri” (meaning “near”) and “helios” (meaning “sun”). All planets, comets and asteroids in our solar system have elliptical (non-circular) orbits. Thus, they all have a closest and a farthest point from the sun: a perihelion and an aphelion.”