Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice. You’ll likely see lots of social media posts about shining your light, living your purpose, feeling empowered, or living into your fullness - wonderful Summer energies.
While these energies are all well and good, that’s not where I’m at. I recently returned from a trip to a country suffering from religious and political conflict, which left me feeling hopelessness for the world. I’m sitting with this feeling, examining it, and, at a very personal level, being challenged by it. How do I shine my tiny light and make any kind of difference when the world seems to be on a different trajectory?
Last night I spoke the answer to my young-adult daughter. She was feeling a similar sense of hopelessness for the world after being at a music festival last weekend where two people were killed and two were seriously injured by a random shooter. Of all the shootings she’s heard about in her short life, this one hit seriously and uncomfortably close to home.
“Find what you believe in,” I told her, “Remember what is true for you.”
“Your light may be a small one in this world but shining it outward is your responsibility to the world.”
I listened to my own words and felt a subtle shift in my solar plexus, my place of personal power.
You see, Summer Solstice is a physical turning point in the year when we stand at the apex of daylight. We begin our six-month turn into the darkness of the Winter Solstice. We can put blinders on and not look at the opposite inherent in this moment, but to do so is only looking at half the picture. We stand at a place of opposites and the Solstice also holds the darkness.
Summer Solstice is also an archetype full of metaphors. The sun, in all its blazing glory, reminds us to shine brightly and live our purpose.
As with all archetypes, they are always with us. We celebrate the seasonal holidays: the Solstices, Equinoxes, and the Cross-Quarterly holidays of the Celtic calendar, not only to engage in the immediate energy of each season, but to embody that energy so we can engage in that archetype at any time of year, perhaps accessing the energy of Summer Solstice and feeling empowered in our purpose in the depths of winter.
So, if you’re not feeling like you’re on solid ground with how to live your purpose, if your inner light is feeling a little dim right now, that’s okay.
Engage with the energy of the Summer Solstice anyway. Throw your head up to the sky and see what a difference one tiny star in the universe makes to our planet.