The Sweet Power Spot BEFORE Winter Solstice

It is that magical time of the year again, my favorite. We get to sink into the
dark, mysterious arms of the Dark Goddess, who then rebirths the Light God of
the Sun. I am speaking of course of Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the
year, when the six month Great Cycle of Yin magically turns into the six month
Great Cycle of Yang.

This solstice event has been recognized by many major religions as expressing
some divine power, and they have aligned their major holy-day celebrations
around it. Its interesting that they chose winter solstice over summer solstice
- perhaps the need of patriarchal religions to honor their yin side and process
of maternal birthing. Thus did the Romans declare that Jesus was born around
this time, and so on.

The Taoists simply stuck to the natural facts, since that suited their natural
cosmology - no need to dress it up with a humanized divinity. Why not just have
each human being BE that divinity? Well, if you are like the typical excess-yang
Westerner, who is stuck in a dominant head mode, it is not so easy to experience
your body as that divinity. It takes a lot of qigong or other body centered
practice and body-centered meditation like inner alchemy to get deeply in touch
with that Dark Goddess.

This year we have a special opportunity to tap into a Triple Yin cycle, the
conjunction of the maximum Yin points of the solar, lunar, and earthly cycles.
We know the darkest point of the solar cycle is Thursday, Dec. 21. We always can
choose to celebrate solstice at the darkest moment of the earthly day cycle,
which is midnight of any given day. But this year we have the unusual near
conjunction of the new (dark) moon on the day before winter solstice: Wednesday,
Dec. 20 at 10 am Eastern Daylight Time.

This triple conjunction creates a very powerful "sweet spot" in this year's
natural cycle - a kind of an orgasm of dark light. A dark moon, a darkened sun,
and the darkness of midnight as the earth spins and births a new day. If we stay
up until midnight of Dec. 20, we can celebrate all three dark cycles at the same
moment. (Some might argue for Tuesday night going into the new moon, which could
also work).

This month’s New Moon is in Sagittarius, in Western astrology a great time to
initiate a quest of some kind, whether it’s inner or outer. And the Sun just
passed through a conjunction with Pluto on Dec. 18. Although recently demoted to
"planetoid" status, tiny Pluto is still considered to symbolize our deepest
spiritual will at the outer reaches of our solar system. Pluto will be conjunct
with the massive black hole at the Milky Way's Galactic Center on Dec. 29, so
its passing presence can be expected to intensify this solstice event as well.

If we do our ceremony at that triple-dark moment on midnight Dec. 20, we can
plant our seed-intention deep into the womb of darkness, when it is most fertile
and fecund. Farmers know well that if you plant by the new moon, the earth chi
is stronger and your crops grow much bigger. (It's not a superstition, but a
fact supported by numerous studies). Similarly, if like the farmer we plant a
seed using ceremonial movement, a focused thought, a strong feeling, a color
seen within and our breath released without - the Life Force will more
powerfully respond to our request. The Life Force will hear us more clearly,
because our intention has penetrated so deeply into the womb of Nature.


The Power of Physical Movement in Ritual

I feel the most powerful ceremony includes a ritual qigong (chi kung)
form. The movement of the physical body invokes your deepest soul essence
(jing) if you are deeply centered while moving. When you combine a
movement ritual with specific intention, it becomes nei kung
(neigong), or "internal skill in cultivating the life force".

My favorite ceremonial form is one developed by the Taoist sage Chang
San Feng, the creator of the original tai chi form and its esoteric
sister, wuji gong. Wuji gong I translate as Primordial Chi Kung or Tai
Chi for Enlightenment. (For more about its origins and efficacy, see
www.taichi-enlightenment.com. Its available in dvd or video, and has
an optional audio training as well).

The Yang family tai chi chi kung 8 movements/5 directions form taught
by Mantak Chia is also a lovely ceremonial form, and very grounded. It
circles left and right and interacts with the chi of all five
directions. But it doesn't evoke as much heaven chi as wuji gong does.

The Deep Healing Qigong form (available on dvd) is also very
ceremonial in nature. It faces all the directions and harmonizes the
center of the Sun with the deep center of the Earth Being. Doing just
one of its six movements - the three part mandala of Sun-Earth exchange
- transports me into an altered state. It's called medical qigong
simply because it was developed with that intention. But it could be
directed to any other goal, or used to add power to a solstice
ceremony.

You don't have to know a qigong form, although doing the same form
every solstice/equinox is more powerful. Using the same form
"programs" and empowers your energy body to contact the yuan chi at
those times. It helps to capture/embody the elusive yuan chi, which
our polarized egos don't want to notice because it threatens our
illusory belief that we are an island. Original Chi is boundary-less,
so it challenges our belief that the energy we feel is uniquely
'mine", under "my" control.

The truth is no one owns the chi field, and it is not controlled by
any one deity or external agent/God. It just IS. It is self-generating
and self-regulating. Everyone can use its abundance if we have the
skill to do it. We use it unconsciously all the time. But if we
consciously use it to promote harmony and balance in our life, the Tao
will give us more chi to play with. If we abuse it or over control for
selfish ends, a natural contraction occurs. We will face increased
resistance in our life and chi flow, resulting possibly in suffering,
disease, or death.