Post © 2022 by Joyce Mason
I love cusps. I know I
have mentioned before that my parents and I were born on three cusps in a row:
Leo/Virgo (Dad, August 23); Virgo/Libra (Me, September 22; and Libra/Scorpio
(Mom, October 23). I joke that we are a tricuspid family. We were each born on
the last degree of our Sun signs.
Perhaps this fact of life
and birth makes me even more sensitive to endbeginnings, a wonderful term I
learned in a Yoga Journal article many years ago. There are so many in our
lives. As a celebrant of the solstices and equinoxes since 1988, I have
discovered just how sacred life is on the edge of change. As winter wanes and waxes
into spring, spring into summer and so on, there is a kind of comfort and
amazement at these markers. Life keeps going on and we just keep learning more
about love and living. Cusps help us look back and review our progress.
Burning Bowl Plus
In my Solsisters ritual
group, which I co-facilitate, we do the ever popular Burning Bowl ritual at
Winter Solstice where you write down what you want to get rid of on your life,
whether it’s weight, a certain fear, a communication pattern that does not
serve—whatever causes your life not run optimally. Our papers can be burned in
a fireplace, buried, trashed or whatever form of letting go suits you.
After doing this for a
number of years, I realized we were missing a complementary ritual. I call it the
Ceremony of Recognition. Yes, there are things we all want to release. But what
accomplishments do we want to recognizes ourselves for? We need to pat
ourselves on the back but most of all, to see how far we have come since we
last did this a year ago.
Those accomplishments and
evidence of growth are our keepers. These are the things we want to carry
forward and weave into the next phase of life. We do this ritual first, before
the burning bowl.
Why not try it? As I am
posting this past midday on New Year’s Eve, I should mention that it doesn’t
matter if you do it today, tomorrow or next week. It’s within the zone of an endbeginning
and the sacred time of reevaluations.
Twenty twenty-two was a
difficult year for many of us. May you carry forward all you learned and your
best keepers. May 2023 bring your more personal recognitions and fewer things
to burn. Happy New Year!
~~~
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