Winter Solstice 2012- the dark & the light

Chaos, End, Shift-

Into the Dark

The Mayan Apocalypse. Armageddon. The Rapture. Meteors. The end of 2012, a difficult year at the beginning of a challenging century. All of these people believing that God will leave us, or punish us, or take us, or end us on December 21, 2012. It’s all so convoluted you can’t even track the logic of these beliefs anymore, or know where one feeling of dread ends and another begins. And sad as the belief in a cosmos out to get you is, sadder still is that children are calling NASA saying they are ill or suicidal because of what this date supposedly means. Governments (for instance in the United States, and Russia ) have even had to issue proclamations that the world won’t end.

Religious groups that declared the end of the world in the past – like the Jehovah’s Witnesses (several times), Heaven’s Gate, and the Branch Davidians – look like amateurs compared to the groups believing in ‘the end’ now. Doomsday Preppers (and all of the manufacturers of products being marketed to them), militias, churches, and civil unrest conspiracy subscribers are everywhere.

There are believers in destruction from (pseudo) ‘scientific threats’ – disasters from planetary and/or galactic alignments; solar flares; magnetic field reversals; polar shift; meteor strike; or rogue planets. Others believe in more religious or spiritual scenarios- subterranean aliens; Maya calendar interpretations; Armageddon; or The Rapture.

Look and you may see the signs that people in your community are fanning these fears. I did, and noticed things that gave me pause. One being that pistol and firearm practice has drastically increased in my neighborhood in the last 2 weeks. People were putting off buying property until ‘after the election’ (and still putting it off…) Big ticket items are not being sold.

And in US society at large, it seems there’s more of an us versus them attitude- where people of other classes, race, area, or political party are the enemy. People have gone beyond just being intolerant, there’s a strident, palpable smell of fear around them. It remains to be seen if this is just a type of transient hysteria, or if the fear will persist past Dec. 21, 2012 becoming an actual doomsday phobia.

But wait- you say maybe it will be the great positive Cosmic Shift instead. (Please to not confuse this with the Harmonic Convergence.) Where the day we’ve all been waiting for- December 21, 2012- will arrive and the earth will cross the galactic center (and or go into a black hole, or other variants). Those of us who have prepared will ascend, and others will be left behind. (No wait- that sounds like the Rapture folks again…) Some say the Mayans knew- but their ancestors won’t be allowed into their temples on the fateful day.

My questions are- when did hoarders and self-sufficiency types combine and become Preppers; Pagans and New Agers become Cosmic Rapturers; where is the middle ground, and the balance between the extremes; will we try not to let the negative get the better of us; and is there enough critical mass of people in motion to actually bring about fundamental change?

The answers are- as always- in each one of us. Not in the media, or guns, rumors, or our nightmares. Fear starts in our own gut, before it spreads outward. (But luckily awe and transcendence also.) I don’t want any fear on my part adding to the growing pool around us.

So as my winter solstice and the year’s longest and darkest night approaches, I’m asking- what are my fears? What hits me where I live, and keeps me bound up? What am I contributing to the fog of fear that creeps out over the water? (See my fears at the end of this post, if you like. * )

I can’t answer for others, but I will know my fears and embrace them; move beyond, and see what is real instead. My prayer for all this solstice-

May peace and stillness spread outward; may the fog lift. And in the darkest night, during the growth of new roots, the sun returns and new growth awaits.

Hope, Love, Peace, & Laughter-

And Out Into the Light

So, I could talk about working with your own energy and soul, the possibility for humans starting to move beyond our current ways of doing things, and all of us just flat growing up. (Please- any ol’ lifetime now…)

But really- there are so many people writing about this, or the spiritual or energy practices they are using to get there. That’s great; and if we would just use the better parts of our holiday traditions or beliefs it raises us all up.

But what’s been helping me into the light this season (besides meditation and energy work) is humor!
May laughter blow the clouds away and let us see clearly!

First on the laugh list- to paraphrase John Michael Greer, ‘If the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse knock on your door offer them beer’, consider offering them this one-

Likewise, you can buy a special ‘wine of the Apocalypse’ at the Turkish village of Sirince, one place that’s supposed to be safe from the apocalypse. Though they would probably have good wine at Bugarach, France- population 176 – where the Pic de Bugarach mountain is said to be a parking lot for UFOs, and is another spot which is going to survive Armageddon. ( But be sure to send your Doomsday and end of the world new year’s cards before you start drinking.)

Don’t believe NASA when they say the world won’t end? Then read about the Russian scientists asserting that they have cracked the crop circle code, and that a pole shift is impending – but its end result will be a shift into 4th dimensional consciousness for those who are able to raise their consciousness in time. (Phew- good to know.)

And last but not least is the Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard announcing the apocalypse in a video posted on YouTube:

A world leader with a dry sense of humor? Priceless!