The Longest Night · 21 December 2007

People who rely on the sun: take a minute with me here. I’ve been waiting for this day for weeks, as every year. Thank god the days begin to lengthen again tomorrow.

What a difference the margins make, even though the sun is still mostly with us even now. Those couple of hours off each end of the day by the time the solstice arrives make the light feel so sweet when it is here. Thus I’m celebrating. This is my holiday, right here. 

I feel, despite myself, that my Christmas belongs to others this year. I am still learning to be at peace and, even, happy amid a certain self-sustaining ecosystem of injury and lack and complaint. Unless I’m on the Zócalo or Piazza San M. (as in recent Christmases), it becomes so easy to go to sleep round about the Yule. Holidays prime uncomfortable memories and evoke roles I want to have left behind. In the family zone, my relationships to people and to time become dull. I wrestle why-questions with myself: why would I even want to be conscious? Why struggle to stay awake, really be there for it? Why not just resign... forget myself? Mmmm, and resolve it's because losing consciousness is too easy. Because resigning is an insult to these goodhearted people. Because staying awake is an opportunity.

I will do my best.

But in any case, this is the holiday. This here. This!

Thanks, sun. Thanks, life on planet Earth. 

I was thinking of staying up ‘til dawn with some pagans from my SS, but you who so disapprove of the company I’ve been keeping will be happy to know another idea is coming on. The Editor, who I never see lately, practices half primary on Friday evenings. (Actually he practices fourth series followed by a session of yogic flying, but when I am there he practices primary because you’re not supposed to yogic fly around people like me—the unenlightened.)

I’m thinking of going along tonight but doing a yoga mala or half-mala. Fifty-four for the 365 sounds about right, and maybe the other half in the morning: on the other side.

Don't forget, loves. Feliz solsticio.

Posted by (0v0)        
Categories: esoteric shit , evolution , spirituality

Comment

1. Hi What is a yoga mala?? just curious… :-)

   Posted by: Openingslowly · Dec 21, 09:58 AM · #

2. Solstice poem
   Imperative, by Kenneth Fields

   Quiet and darkness. Let it all rush in!
   There is a hush beyond the edge of things
   That you may catch by letting go. Leave off
   Following the old sun for a little while.
   Within, there is another; to the source
   A quiet brother, humming as you hum.
   It was for this that you found what you found,
   Sun of the belly, perfect, webbed, and round.

   Posted by: eor · Dec 21, 10:29 AM · #

3. You are quick with a poem, Sancho. Like the piano man but better. This is beautiful.

   Or am I Sancho? For that matter, I can’t figure out which of us is the muse in this interaction.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Dec 21, 11:00 AM · #

4. Hi, Slowly!

   Yoga Mala means Bad Yoga.

   But in Sanskrit, mala is garland. Yoga Mala is a book that is a garland about garlands, but I was meaning a series of 108 sun salutations.

   I have no idea when that definition of Yoga Mala came into use. Maybe the Americans did it.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Dec 21, 11:03 AM · #

5. Whichever of you isn’t wearing the barber’s bowl on his/her head must be Sancho. Alternatively, if neither of you is wearing a bowl, you might try to work out which of you is the more rueful. Presumably, Sancho would be the least rueful of the two.

   Posted by: Carl · Dec 21, 11:21 AM · #

6. little Pancho Sanza, that’s me! fancy that, yoga mala does mean bad yoga, so no wonder yoga malaise.
   Was Guruji himself? A string of asana put upon a thread of breath?

   Posted by: eor · Dec 21, 11:26 AM · #

7. Maybe he got the idea from Richard Freeman.

   But SKPJ probably heard about Indra’s Net and stuff a little earlier than that. I think he says what he means in the book, but it’s been a while since I read the intro.

   Anyway, I caught my old lover the first series this morning after sleeping late until 6, so it will be interesting to see how the Mala threads tonight.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Dec 21, 11:37 AM · #

8. yes, i want to know, please? ooh Indra’s Net, yet another.

   Posted by: eor · Dec 21, 11:58 AM · #

9. Happy Solstice! Next up on the calendar: Vernal equinox!

   Posted by: Carl · Dec 21, 02:49 PM · #

10. Vernal, my favorite ginger-ale. Owl, the Gita translation I forgot, reviewed in Namarupa issue 7, is by Graham Schweig.

    Posted by: eor · Dec 21, 03:56 PM · #

11. Hi (0v0) Happy Holidays. For me these days usually mean getting together with family, avoiding getting upset when I differ in opinions about things at the discussion table, enjoying their presence.
    hugs
    Arturo

    Posted by: Arturo · Dec 22, 06:48 PM · #

12. Owl! Welcome home! : )

    Posted by: Anna · Dec 27, 07:39 PM · #

13. one more minute of light every day. I live for the solstice.

    Posted by: laksmi · Dec 29, 08:26 PM · #

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