Whether we celebrate with festive parties or quiet reverie, the birthday offers a structural organizing principle within the play of life. The birthday is a sacred time, a renewal of life on earth in direct connection with our Sun, the ultimate umbilical cord.
A Solar Return is when the sun in the current sky is at the same place as the Sun at the time of birth. As we age, the Solar Return can occur prior to the actual calendar date of the birthday, even a day or two before the actual birth date. This Solar Return is an inner energy experience that can be acknowledged and honoured.
The ebb and flow of Solar energy goes like this: about one month before the birthday, personal energy level starts to wane. About three days before the birthday, personal energy can be quite low and with a strong internal focus. We are coming to the end of a cycle, just as personal energy levels dip at the end of the Lunar Cycle, during the Dark of the Moon phase just before the New Moon.
There is nothing wrong with this pull to stillness. In fact, this slowdown reflects resonate alignment with cosmic flow. Once the Solar Return happens, energy starts to build again and a surge of renewal is palpable.
Life is cyclical. There are long cycles and there are shorter cycles. Our bodies feel them all. When we tune into the personal timing of our Solar Cycle, we can make the most of this innate, structural, organizing principle and tap its benefits: a renewal of life on Earth in sync with Sun, Self and Earth. A Oneness of cosmic alignment.
As some readers know, my work is about Personal and Collective Lunar Cycles. There is a Collective starting point and a Personal starting point within both the Solar and Lunar Cycles. Having a sense of this inner/outer timing structure, and the fact that the Personal and Collective cycles represent cyclical overlays, helps understand one’s personal rhythm within the frame of the collective rhythm.
Here is an example: My birthday occurs mid-February. I do not feel the full start to my new year until after my birthday. Yes, I recognize the Winter Solstice as the start of the year, I give nodding acknowledgement to January 1st each year and I also align with the resonance of the Chinese New Year which starts with the February New Moon. I feel these natural cycles, however, the new year does not fully start for me until after my mid-February birthday.
What this suggests is that my resonance is aligned more with a Personal Solar Cycle than with the Collective Solar Cycle. Neither personal nor collective alignment is better; it is helpful, though, to know which is your primary resonance, personal or collective.
My most recent Solar renewal led me to thoughts about those born in seasons other than Winter. With a February birthday, the fullness of my new start time is in the winter; midwinter to be sure, however, near the Winter Solstice and the February New Moon, which for centuries has guided the Chinese to the start of their New Year.
For those born in Spring, Summer or Fall, I wonder how the Solar organizing principle plays out. I am talking about the very internal structure of dissolution and renewal as expressed by cosmic flow. In the comments section below, please share your experience of the personal and collective starts to the year.
The reference here is the overlay of personal within collective and collective within personal. Bringing consciousness to these innate rhythms helps frame the experience of one’s unique rhythm with Life. Such a reflection can provide grounding and understanding through a visceral sense of a structural, organizing principle for one’s life.
Given the current political climate, many of us are examining our personal role within the collective whole. Aligning personal Solar year with collective Solar is one facet of our entwined life on Earth.
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