We are Sun, we are Food

As of Old, so was She understood … Her Power was/is to give Life – to feed and sustain the world

(Inanna/Ishtar in “Mother of Living Nature” Adele Getty, p.39)

May we graciously receive Her infinite daily abundance.

May we experience fullness of being, that demands to be poured forth: may we be radiant like the Sun.

These are some Summer Solstice thoughts, as I contemplate the ceremonial process of Communion – a version is offered in Chapter 7 of PaGaian Cosmology (scroll to Summer Solstice). In this rite each participant takes the bread in their hands, breaks off a piece for themselves and affirms in whatever way they wish, that they are the Bread of Life, feeding the world with their everyday acts and being, and that it is the Sun that ripens in them bringing them to this creative fullness. We are Food for the universe. We are the Feast … it is both our Joy and our Grief. Summer Solstice is a celebration of the fullness of light, of Sun, of ripening and abundance, the maturing of that which was conceived and birthed in the darker months, and grown through the waxing light months: it is a celebration of the fulfillment of purpose – which we may do in every moment.

We are the Sun, we are the grain, we are the Bread of Life. We are Her Food … food for the universe.

Bart Everson notes in his Flowers to Flame essay about Summer Solstice: Starhawk calls the it “the Give-Away time of the Sun.” (The Spiral Dance, 1999, p 236-237).The superabundance of solar energy that makes possible our ecosystem, the radiant light that sustains Gaia, the very web of life of which we take part: This is a gift. We enjoy all this richness freely, nor are we merely recipients of this beneficence. We also participate in it. Like the flowers, we can flourish, creating something new and beautiful. The Give-Away is not just to us, but of us.

In the Summer solstice ceremony as it is done in the PaGaian ceremonial space – MoonCourt – each participant also takes the decanter of wine in their hands and pours some out for themselves affirming that they are the Wine, poured out for the Mystery, and that it is the Sun that ripens in them bringing them to this creative fullness.

“The Summerland is within us. The Creativity that pours forth from us is Divine, Sacred – is what the Cosmos is made of. Our Passion released may feed the world.” (PaGaian Cosmology, Ch 7)

The “Summerland” as I mean it in PaGaian Cosmology is the experience of Radiance: that is, the fullness of being and the pouring forth of it, the sacred interchange of form and formlessness that results in Radiance, as Sun does in every moment, and as we may aspire to do in every moment. This capacity is within us. At Summer Solstice we may invoke it and celebrate it.

(c) Glenys Livingstone 2013 C.E.

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