SUMMER

May 5, 2009

Welcome to the season of Fire. Growth, joy and spiritual awareness between the heart and mind are the focus during this season. Fire is associated with the qualities of dynamism, strength and persistence; however, it is also connected to restlessness. An excess of the fire element can bring aggression, impatience and impulsive behavior; it’s purpose is to provide warmth, enthusiasm and drama.

So, what we have to look forward to the next three months is tremendous yang, or masculine energy. (you may remember masculine energy is the forceful, action energy of plants thrusting up to meet the sun). First, we are in a six-month cycle of yang (from March 21 to December 22). Next, we are in a three-month cycle of yang (summer=fire). So we have a 3-month and a 6-month cycle overlapping, emphasizing our “doing” energy. That doing energy is grounded in three basic features of fire – drama, the sacred and play. Drama is essential for life – if you don’t believe that, go to any environment that discourages play and passion, and what you will find are extreme personal dramas being acted out – in the workplace, the home, or anywhere there is a lack of sacred fun.

This is one reason the arts are so important in education. Theater is a tool that teaches us how to move in and out of archetypes. When we have practiced a particular archetype enough, we create an “outfit” that we can hang in our closet of repertoire. Come time to use that “outfit” in a real life situation, and all we have to do is remember the experience we practiced. This is one way our emotional bodies keep us fluid – they hold reference points of particular experiences in our closet of potential. We’ve all met people who have only one facet to their personality – and that facet, because it is responsible for everything in that person’s life – is usually stressed, bored, boring and filled with self-importance.
Summer is a time for playing with archetypes. We move from costume to costume – parent, child, lover, adventurer, business person, entertainer, dancer, gardner, builder, etc. As we move from one to the next, the thing that each of our costumes share is drama, and the sacred. When we value each of our individual expressions; when we keep ourselves fresh and fluid by shifting and playing with our expression; when we see Spirit in all our costumes, then we become the recipients of Fire’s gift – the gift of full abundance. Let us remember that play is a sacred act.
Summer is an extravagant time, particularly here in the North. The earth makes up for the short growing season by throwing herself into passionate expansion. This expansion can often be the gold ring of something we have been working towards – and yet, since Fire governs Spirit, it can also be an expansion of our evolution.

There is no doubt about it, things are changing faster than we can keep up. A recent statistic showed that the top ten jobs in 2010 did not even exist in 2004; which means we are teaching students things that may be outdated before they even graduate. In this state of high chaos, many of us are afraid and uncertain.

Yet there is much that can be done in this time of intense growth. Fire is the archetype of the Child. Children are direct; honest and enjoy life. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”. In the Five Harmonics, the life goal of Fire is to reclaim innocence. Innocence is the ability to feel wonder and awe, and to trust the world. We may be born with that, and then feel that our innocence is brutally ripped from us. Yet how much more powerful is that innocence if, after a life of experience, we CHOOSE it? We make a conscious choice to be in wonder? To see life through the lens of awe? To trust ourselves, our lives and the world in which we live? That is power indeed.

So, this year, as realities shift and change and mingle and reform, open up that closet and start trying on your various costumes. They may feel tight and constricting from not using them for a while – it’s okay. Practice makes them more flexible. Play as though your life depended upon it. And practice your innocence – look at the world through the eyes of a child, and see the wonder and beauty around you. Then open your arms wide and prepare to receive the abundance that is yours.

Blessings!

Cat

...prodigal summer, the season of extravagant procreation. It could wear out everything in its path with its passionate excesses, but nothing alive with wings or a heart or a seed curled into itself in the ground could resist welcoming it back when it came.
-Barbara Kingsolver