Bringing Forth the Light

From ancient times, the winter season has been seen as part of balance of nature, a time where the balance point changes between the darkness and the light.

As with the falling of the leaves, it is a time for change and a natural time for letting go of all that which seems dark within one's life. A natural time for making choices to bring in the light, both to lessen the darkness within, and to open ourselves to life's full grace and beauty.

Throughout history, in all of the world's cultures, through belief systems, festivals, traditions and practices, the changes in the cycles of birth, death and rebirth have been intrinsically and symbolically honored. From this honoring comes our holidays, our 'holy days.'

When we walk between the veils of one season and the next, or one change or one emotion and the next., or even one 'holy day' and the next, we find ourselves always balancing our emotions, balancing the dark emotions, the very ones which create power and change, or the light emotions, the ones which bring in joy and abundance.

As with both the winter and the summer solstice, the balancing of the dark and the light is part of the deepest of the shadow work inside, as well as outside of ourselves. Everything and everyone is connected and our connection to nature is the deepest and truest example of this balancing and the deepest of needs for that connection.

Winter Solstice can vary because of place or time but it falls on December 21st or December 22nd  and is the moment when the earth is at a point in its orbit where one hemisphere is most inclined away from the sun.

Solstice is of a Latin borrowing and means 'sun stand', referring to the appearance that the sun's noontime elevation stops in its progress. It is both the shortest day, and the longest night of the year. Many cultures the world over perform solstice ceremonies. At their root is the ancient fear that the failing light would never return unless humans intervened with some vigil or celebration.

The Winter Solstice has always been associated with the birth of a divine king in many different cultures, long before the rise of Christianity and the blessed birth of the holy infant, Jesus. Yet with all connections this same archetypal pattern is also seen in other belief systems around the world.

Since the Sun is considered to represent the male divinity in many pagan traditions, this time is celebrated as the return of the sun god where he is reborn of the goddess. Other cultures have similar beliefs and associations.Many cultures celebrate, or celebrated, a holiday near (within a few days) of the winter solstice--Yalda, Saturnalia, Christmas, Karachun, Hanukkah, Festivus, and Kwanzaa.

Yule and the burning of the yule log, is deeply rooted in this cycle for it is a ritual based upon our own facing of 'the dark night of our souls', and the springing forth of the sparks of hope, the Sacred Fire, the Light of the World, and that which was known in Celtic lore as Coel Coeth.

Christmas, like all holy or holi-days, is a special time of remembranceo f both the birth of thenew divining power and all of the symbols of home and family. It is a time when we can most acutely feel the greatest darkness or the brightest light, a time of giving, of receiving, or for some a time of loss of light, and a feeling of going into the dark.

This is a deep time and a sacred space, a time and a symbol for all of us about being lost, facing those emotions and feeling the sadness, the yearning, and the grief that such loss brings into our lives. It is a time of immense spiritual and energetic power. But because of this, it is also a time when emotions can quickly spark and even inflame and overpower us.

It is therefore a time, to face these deepest aspects of ourselves, known as our shadow self, for it only with the coming of the light that we can cast and therefore be aware of our own shadows and the role they play in our lives.

But with that darkness, comes the sacred birth of a new light and all of the wisdom, power, and knowledge that this sacred birth created and brought into our lives for transfiguration and rebirth.

It is the greatest, and most powerful time to face the truth of your own shadows, to ground yourself by connecting your own heartspace to the deepest and most sacred truths of the heart and joy of the world and unite into the balance point of all we know and feel in the deepest parts of our true selves as being holy.

Once that bell has rung and heard within our consciousness, we do not turn away from that which is in the shadows, but we acknowledge them as being a part of ourselves and turn ourselves into the light.

This wonderful New Moon in Capricorn, and the relationships to the placement of the other planets is a call to action and leadership in our own lives. It is not simply the call to revolution that so many seek to manifest outside of ourselves, but within. Change your own mind, change your own actions, and change your beliefs.

We do not get what we want in this lifetime, we get that which we believe. Change those beliefs and how you choose to emote and to manifest today, and change your life and be the leader in that life that you were meant to be.

We are all warriors of the spirit. Amazing women and amazing men who choose to manifest that which is light within themselves and not that which is the dark shadow self. Both are needed for the balance point but we have the power to choose and to manifest the powers in that side of ourselves which creates goodness and godliness while learning from that which creates empathy and understanding for others

Find that creative manifestation of this gateway, and walk with power and the inner truth of love, joy, and power through the gateway of wisdom and power.

We create our gifts of abundance, we manifest blessings and peace, and we enter into a new place of well-being and joy. Celebrate with the gifts of nature, the gifts of our hands, and the many blessings and gifts from our hearts.

Happiest of Holy Days from the light of my heart, and my home, to yours.

The December solstice takes place on December 21 northern hemisphere/December 22 southern 

It marks the Northern Hemisphere’s shortest day (first day of winter) and Southern Hemisphere’s longest day (first day of summer). 

Michele Savikko Bilyeu 

Creates With Heart and Hands sharing an imaginative, magical,and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon and back again.

Creating, designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting, 

"from my heart and with my hands"

Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem by Maya Angelou

Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem was first read by Dr. Angelou at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in Washington D.C. in 2005. Although written in the spirit of Christmas, the poem is intended to be a gift for people of all faiths and encourages us to celebrate and embrace the promise of hope, peace and unity during the holiday season. The poem offers a beautiful message of acceptance and love that seems to be as current today as ever.

 

  Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem by Maya Angelou

Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.

Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.

We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.

Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?

Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.

It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.

Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.

In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now. It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.

We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.

We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.

Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.

We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.

It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.
On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.

At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth’s tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of Peace.

We, Angels and Mortal’s, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.

Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.

  "Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem" was first read by Dr. Angelou at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in Washington D.C. in 2005. Although written in the spirit of Christmas, the poem is intended to be a gift for people of all faiths and encourages us to celebrate and embrace the promise of hope, peace and unity during the holiday season. The poem offers a beautiful message of acceptance and love that seems to be as current today as ever.

May Peace fill all of our hearts during this blessed season where our ancients roots....the original not often recognized pagan celebration by the Celts/Druids which was the very basis for the timing of the Christian adaptation into our holy Christmas and the strength into glory of the Jewish Peoples during Chanukah/

Hanukkah now overlap in one season and even over one day..a special and rare event of great significance.

Holy of Holies in all ways filled with Blessings for All - all colors, all races, all religions, all belief systems. A time for peace and acceptance and joy in all that makes us alike, and not different.

The light casts out the darkness of all of the projected shadows that seem to overwhelm our world right now. We must always keep in mind - that is what projections are. The deepest and darkest parts of each of our collective selves being brought forward for acknowledgement, transformation and atonement or at its truest "at-one-ment".

The light casts them out and ushers in glory and goodness and love. For whatsoever you do to one you do to all of our brothers, our sisters, you do to your self/ourselves.

 

Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands as she shares her imaginative, magical, and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon. Creating, designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting - from my heart and with my hands.

Ikigai: Today and Every Day

Ikigai ("Uh key gay") is a Japanese concept meaning a purpose for being or "a reason to get up in the morning."

Everyone, according to the Japanese, has an ikigai. Finding this deep meaning, this purpose in life can vary for all of us and it can change as we journey through life. But it usually requires a deep and often lengthy search into one's self.

And like all journeys, in the very end, it is often that journey that is more significant than anything, or everything one may do, or accomplish, or even achieve in their lives.

For the journey can often be the purpose. It can be the meaning and the reason for getting up every single day and allowing the spirit of wonder and expectation to enter. To focus the energy of being, the spirit of wanting to learn, to know, and to grow to enter. And then to access that deep inner energy, that drive, that creative impulse to center and to ground to become one with that spirit.

For me, my 'Ikigai' has always been about using my gifts -- physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally -- in service to the greater self. And the greater self for me, is expressed in helping others.

Sometimes, it has been someone I already know and care about. And sometimes it has not. Sometimes, people are directed into my path or found along my journey. Sometimes our meeting is for a reason, or a season, or a lifetime. I never know which until the path unfolds.

This journey has always been a challenging one for me. I always know what I had to offer and it can vary from day to day. I always know what I want to give, to do, and to be in a greater sense. 

 

But that has so very often conflicted with what I had to do, or to give, or to be in order to fulfill this purpose, this meaning, this greater destiny of spirit catalyzed into action here on earth.

 

The word "ikigai" is usually used to indicate the source of value in one's life or the things that make one's life worthwhile. Secondly, the word is used to to refer to mental and spiritual circumstances under which individuals feel that their lives are valuable.

It is this combination that creates the spiritual impetus for doing good for doing that deeper spiritual impulse's purpose in this life, through love and not ego.

The term "ikigai" is composed of two characters : iki and kai. Iki refers to life and kai is a suffix meaning roughly "the realization of what one expects and hopes for."

As we mature, as we realize our own courage, our own deep need and our abilities to survive beyond all that which we think we are capable of, all that we think we can achieve, and are often surprised to discover that it might not have been what we originally thought we were meant to do, to give, and to be in this lifetime.

And so today, I share my doing, my passion, my being, in one tiny little form, creating from fabric and bringing forth the manifestation of a greater gift.

The greater gift is that of love, of giving, of doing and creating. Not just for myself, but through myself for others.  My "reason to get up in the morning".

I work online on many sites - forums in different arenas -  in so many ways. Using my gifts, my  writings, and the energies of my life stories - all through my heart consciousness - to help others, to try to do good in the world and in real life to help my family, my friends, my causes.

But like all of us, but very often it is the women, the mothers, the grandmothers, the heart and the hands of the home, who have trouble making time for ourselves. 

Our bodies ache, our minds are in endlessly loops of overdrive, our heart miss being first because we are so used to putting others ahead of ourselves. I have had to learn about the pitfalls of too much giving away of my personal human energy and learn to work from a higher, fiber vibration of love and compassion. And my charitable quilting/ sharing/writings was a very big way of doing more good in a far broader context in the world.

I made all of these little embellished art quilts when my mother was still alive.  My mother who loved all things Japanese, all things with deeper meaning, never knowing that one day, her own family, my own extended  family, would have several members of Japanese descent marry into our family and begin the process and finalization of the healing of many wounds from World War II that had so deeply impacted my dad and his 4 brothers who all served in the military even though living in territorial Alaska. 

A war that cost one of the five members of my Alaskan family his life by the hands of one once seen as the enemy but now seen as part of ourselves, our family, our earth, our humankind.

I honor that journey, this earth, and the grounding that I find along the way, that balances the darker shadows of life and its challenges as I always do with the brilliance of the light within and the desire to do more, be more, and give more.

We make space for ourselves, we hold space for others. We breathe in goodness abd we breathe out the old, the tired, the depleted. We release all that does not serve our soul's journey or our spirit's deepest needs.

We find our mojo, our ikigai,  and we go forth not only refreshed, not only renewed, but reborn into ourselves once again.  A journey and a process and a joy created through love.

Ikigai--today and every day.

Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands sharing an imaginative, magical, and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon and back again. Creating, designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting "from my heart and with my hands".