Welcome And Lunar Check-In

Speaker 0:06

Hello, friends, and welcome to episode seven of Darkness and Light. I'm your host, Wendy Rule, and this is a podcast about myth, Magic, and nature. So the big news for this episode is the upcoming solstice. This year, the solstice is on June 21st. It's always going to be around this time, but sometimes it might be the 20th or 22nd. Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and Winter Solstice in the Southern. So let's do a quick lunar check-in and then dive into this energy of our beautiful golden Sun at solstice time. So right now, as this episode airs, the Gemini Dark Moon was about four days ago, so we're into the crescent, New Moon, waxing phase. And this is the phase that we spoke about in episode five, that energy of Artemis with her beautiful silver bow of that new crescent in the beautiful twilight sky, bringing the gift of action, of new beginning, of hope after darkness. That New Moon says, step out, be seen, shine your light. That's exactly what we are going to be focusing on this episode. Shining our own individual inner light, charged by that energy of the solstice Sun.

The Solstice Paradox Of Change

Speaker 2:00

The solstices, midsummer and midwinter, are two sacred points on the eight-point Wheel of the Year that I spoke about in episode three. So back then we were gearing up for the festivals of Beltane in the Northern Hemisphere and Samhain in the Southern. So now we're at the next point, the wheel continues to turn as it always does. Nature in a constant state of flux of change, and always this balance between darkness and light. So the Wheel has turned and Beltane has become Midsummer and Samhain has become Midwinter. The solstice marks a point of extreme. In the Northern Hemisphere, midsummer, the Sun at his glorious height, as strong as he can be, the longest days, shortest nights. And in the southern hemisphere, midwinter it's the opposite, the longest nights and the shortest days. But there's a really interesting thing about the solstice that holds within it a paradox. At the moment of the Summer Solstice, the energy of the Sun begins to wane, so at its peak it begins to decline. And the opposite is true of the winter solstice. At the exact moment of the solstice, what seems to be the Sun at its weakest with the days shortest becomes the moment of great strength, of rebirth, because at the moment of the winter solstice, the Sun's energy begins to strengthen and days begin to grow longer, so no wonder there's all this imagery around Midwinter, all this ceremony that says don't give up hope. It might seem like you are in the depths of darkness now, but in fact, this is the point of rebirth. So the moment of Midwinter is kind of like the energy of every sunrise, that just when you think everything is at its darkest, up comes the dawn. So always this beautiful cosmic dance of darkness and light, that midsummer peak light holds within it a seed of darkness, and midwinter, the depths of the dark, holds within it the seed of light.

Holly King And Oak King Myth

Speaker 4:53

And that reminds me of a tradition or a myth in modern Paganism of the Holly King and the Oak King. The Oak King is the king of the Summer and the Holly King the King of the Winter. And at every solstice they battle for who will ultimately win. So at Summer Solstice they battle, and one would think that it would be the Oak King that wins that battle, but it's actually the Holly King, because at the Summer Solstice the year begins to wane toward Winter. And then the opposite is true at Winter Solstice. They battle it out again, and it is the Oak King who wins at the Winter Solstice, the king of the increasing light, and the Holy King is the king of the decreasing light. I like to imagine, because I'm connected strongly to both hemispheres being Australian living in America, I like to imagine that at every midsummer, well every midsummer in the Northern Hemisphere, the Northern Hemisphere passes a like a relay bat on, like the Olympic torch, passes that down to the Southern Hemisphere and says, Okay, your turn now for longer days. Then the opposite happens six months later, and the Southern Hemisphere passes back that torch and goes, Your turn again once more, dear Northern Hemisphere. And there's always this lovely exchange. So right at that peak when we seem most different, we can find the connecting thread that weaves the energy of our beautiful planet together.

Why The Sun Stands Still

Speaker 6:51

The word solstice comes from the Latin sol, which is the Sun, and the word cister, which means cause to stand still. And in Greek the solstice is called heliostasis, and it means exactly the same thing. Helios, the Sun God, and also the everyday name for the Sun, and standing still. stasis, stillness, the Sun standing still. So I want to explain why that is. Throughout the year, the point on the horizon where the sun rises and sets shifts a little each day. From Midwinter to Midsummer, which is the waxing part of the year, when the days are growing longer, the sunrise and sunset points on the horizon move away from the equator towards that hemisphere's pole. And as it moves towards the solstice, getting closer and closer, that sun's daily movement along the horizon slows dramatically as it approaches that furthest point north or the furthest point south that it will go. And then for about three days, rises and sets at that same point. Sun standing still. To me, this kind of creates a sense of time outside of time. This Sun standing still, it says stop and notice. This is a powerful point in the turning of the Wheel. Celebrate this moment, and that is exactly what has been happening for all of the human journey.

Ancient Solstice Sites And Sun Worship

Speaker 8:47

And we know there are monuments made going back thousands and thousands and thousands of years that map that sun's journey. We can think of Stonehenge in England from around 3,000 or 2,500 BCE, mapping the point where the solstice Sun rises. Or in Ireland, there's a sacred temple of Brunaboyne, which is older still, built over 5,000 years ago, older than the pyramids. And at the solstice, the sunlight illuminates the inner chamber. So there's this sense of hyper-awareness and recognition of this very special point in what we now know is Earth's journey around the sun. And this happens all over the world. We've got Machu Picchu in Peru, we've got the temples of Karnak in Egypt, Mayan observatories in Mexico, Chaco Canyon here in New Mexico, specifically built to align with the journey of the sun, a solstice or an equinox. And all of these temples are essentially saying, hey, this is important stuff. Take notice. They act as a compass and as a clock. This is the time of the longest day. This is the time of the shortest day. This is the time of the equinox. And no wonder the sun is celebrated because the sun is life.

Sunlight As Life Source On Earth

Speaker 10:28

Our Sun is the star that is the gravitational heart of our solar system, holding the planets in orbit around it. It's our life bringer, our light bringer. And almost all life on Earth ultimately depends on sunlight. Plants create energy out of seeming nothing through the act of photosynthesis, taking that sun's energy and turning it into growth. That becomes the basis of the entire food chain on Earth. Plants grow, herbivores eat those plants, carnivores eat those herbivores. Sunlight is our primary energy source. The Sun shines and eight minutes later it reaches Earth, who drinks that in and transforms it into life. And most of the energy that humans use, that I'm using now to record this, ultimately comes from the sun. Whether that's making a campfire or a cave fire back in the day, burning wood grown under that sunlight, or whether it's the animals that fed on those plants, that create ancient fossil fuels, which is essentially sunlight congealed, as far as renewable energy goes. Of course, there's solar power, but even wind power is ultimately powered by the sun. The sun heats different parts of the earth unevenly. That creates differences in temperature and pressure, and that sets the atmosphere in motion, which create winds that move across the planet. I have a beeswax candle burning here on my altar as I'm recording, as I always love to do. I'm looking at that beeswax now and the light that's coming from it, and those bees were buzzing around, gathering energy from flowers that grew under sunlight. So, in a way, this candlelight is a spark of our golden sun.

Helios And The Mythic Sun

Speaker 13:21

Helios is the Sun, and every day he rises up out of the east, driving a golden solar chariot, which is shining, sometimes even flaming, drawn by four horses, whose names in English mean fiery, dawn, blazing, and burning. And Helios emerges from the east, drives his chariot across the sky, bringing light and warmth, heading westward, where he has a golden palace in the far west at Oceanus, which is the river encircling the earth. So he hangs out there in his palace, and then when it's time to make the journey back east, ready for sunrise, he travels back at night in a golden boat through the mystical Underworld to emerge once again out of that cauldron of darkness at dawn. To the ancient Greeks, this wasn't a metaphor in the modern sense, this was a mythic explanation for sunrise and sunset, watching the sun move east to west. That Sun is Helios, is his chariot, the visible movement of solar power, this radiant cosmic order, this reliable, inevitable rhythm of sunrise and sunset of night and day. And we trust in his return. We know even in the depths of night that sunrise will come. Check out this lovely visual description of Helios from a very ancient poem, The Homeric Hymn to Helios, emerging around 600 BCE or so. As he rides in his chariot, he shines upon men and deathless gods, and piercingly he gazes with his eyes from his golden helmet. Bright rays beam dazzlingly from him, and his bright locks streaming from the temples of his head gracefully enclose his far-seen face. A rich, fine spun garment glows upon his body and flutters in the wind, and stallions carry him. Hail to you, Lord. Freely bestow on me substance that cheers the heart. Sunlight lifts our mood. It brings joy and vitality and happiness. In the tarot, the Sun card is just so joyous. In the Smith Rider Waite deck that I use, the image is of a young child naked on the back of a white horse glowing with joy and surrounded by sunflowers. And sunflowers are from the family helianthus, rooted in two Greek words, helios, meaning the sun, and anthos means flower, and sunflowers, that whole family of plants, will turn their faces toward the sun. We have gorgeous sunflowers here in New Mexico, wild sunflowers, and it's always such a joy at the height of summer, tall bushes with dozens upon dozens upon dozens of these gorgeous shining solar disks, and it is just so uplifting hiking across the prairie, and they're all lit up golden under the sun. And here in our yard too. Last year we had the most epic display of wild sunflowers, just so joyous, and that's what the sun brings, this sense of uplifting joy.

The Inner Sun Of Identity

Speaker 18:10

And with that our sense of purpose. The sun, both within and without, becomes our guiding light. In our physical bodies, there is a big grouping of nerves in our upper abdomen called the solar plexus. And it regulates digestion, so it's connected to that manufacturing of energy like the sun. We can actually feel the solar plexus whenever we get butterflies in our stomach, when we're a little nervous or scared. In the chakra system, which is the unseen energy force both within and outside of the body, creating our aura, the solar plexus is the third chakra from the base. There's like a rainbow bridge traveling up through the body, starting with red at the base chakra at the base of the spine, then orange in our lower belly, and then it gets to this bright golden yellow at the solar plexus. So there's the physical actual nerves, and then there's this energetic Inner Sun that is in the same point in the body. The solar plexus chakra governs the energy of personal identity, our sense of self. It's associated with confidence, self-worth, personal power, and the force of our will, how we act in the world. In astrology, the sun represents our central life force, the radiant core of our identity, around which the rest of the chart revolves, symbolizing not just who we are, but who we're becoming. So the sun was in the section of sky that we call Scorpio when I was born. So I'm not just a Scorpio, I'm Scorpioing. It's an action. Maybe when you were born, the sun was in Gemini. You're not just a Gemini, you're Geminiing, or you're Taurusing, or Virgoing, or Leoing. You're in the process of celebrating and actualizing the energy of the sign that the sun was in when you were born. The glyph for the sun in astrology, the glyph is the symbol, is simply a circle with a dot in the middle. So that holds the image of center, and that's what our sense of self, of identity, does for us. It holds that sense of center, but also suggests radiating out to the circumference of that circle. It's the energy of vitality and creativity and confidence and leadership and authenticity. It is our stable center. The Sun is always shining, ever reliable, and a strong sense of self becomes our guiding light. The Sun as our sense of self governs our ego. And ego is an interesting word. In Greek, ego just means I ego egoime. I am. It's not loaded, it simply is I. A strong and healthy relationship with the actual physical Sun and the Sun in a more symbolic way can help us to develop a healthy ego. We often

When Sun Energy Turns Toxic

Speaker 22:06

think of the term ego as always being about inflated ego, self-centeredness. But when our ego is in balance, it brings a strong natural confidence, a steadiness of identity, a generosity of spirit, and a warmth and charisma. It brings courage to stand in our own shoes and say, This is who I am. It's not about power over anybody else. When ego is operating really well, it holds space for everyone else's shining sun. A healthy sense of I holds space for everybody else's sense of I. Sunlight itself allows us to see, brings the gift of vision. We clearly see the edges of things where one thing begins and another ends. The sun, as that center of self, guides us to see ourselves clearly. Helios, as he makes his way across the sky east to west every day, is all seeing. Nothing escapes the Sun's gaze. In the story of Persephone's descent into the Underworld, when her mother, the goddess Demeter, is searching for her, trying to find out what has happened to her beloved daughter, the goddess HeKate says to Demeter, Go and ask Helios. He sees everything. Nothing escapes the Sun's gaze. And so Demeter does just that. And it's Helios that tells her, Oh yeah, I saw what happened. Your brothers, Zeus and Hades, conspired between them to abduct her into the Underworld, to become Queen of the Underworld. Yep, I saw that. Here's the truth. And that's why that solar energy is associated with seeing the truth. And with that, witnessing, revealing, and by extension, oath making, to swear on this truth, this energy of clarity that the sun brings. We see that turn up in sayings like seeing the truth, to shed light on something, a light bulb moment, enlightenment. In Spanish, claro means I understand, coming from that root clear, claris in Latin, meaning clear and bright and shining, and also interestingly means famous. Shine your light. Be brave enough to shine that golden, beautiful light. Stand strongly in your sense of I am. In English, we say I see to denote understanding. And so somehow light and consciousness are linked. That clarity of the sun, of clear, bright sunlight, is also the clarity of comprehension, of understanding. Right now on planet Earth, we are dealing with global heating, brought about by burning all those fossil fuels of congealed sunlight from millions of years ago. And this too much heat is causing extreme weather events, of forest fires, of drought, of desert, because everything's out of balance. And psychologically, too much sun can create toxic positivity, a denial of anything dark, that it's all good vibes only. And really that's that same imbalance that we see as a forest fire. Toxic posity says no room for sadness here. Happy, happy, happy, and it is exhausting and creates a shallow relationship with that deep sense, that real sense of self, of identity. Too much of that solar energy becomes ego inflation. And rather than a strong sense of self that can become a leader or a guiding light or an encouraging energy or an inspiring energy, it becomes performative and is about domination, needing to be seen, needing constant affirmation. And that sense of self gets skewed and is identified with status or achievement rather than actually simply being, being worthy just because I am. And of course, we are seeing this all the time right now: self-serving politicians and business people. It is power without wisdom, severed from the true heart of that glorious son of Helios. And it ultimately comes from not having a strong sense of self and center, seeing the self as solitary rather than part of something bigger. You know, you look up at the sky at night and there's a gazillion shining stars. But things start getting skewed when there's this fixation on an individual being, the bright shining light, the only one. Ego run wild. We're seeing this in current leadership across the world, obviously in America, severed from wisdom. I also see a link between the destruction or the attempted destruction of our planet and this ego run wild that says, my needs, my immediate needs for business success, for fame, are more important than the bigger story of planetary health. I just actually read a really interesting book last week by one of my favorite authors, who is George Saunders, a contemporary American author, and I just really love his work. It's brilliant and funny and very fresh. Anyway, his latest novel is called Vigil. And interestingly, I was reading this as I was researching this episode and putting these notes together. And the central character in the novel is a super successful businessman involved in oil, and it's revealed as the novel unfolds that he played, this character played, a major role in global heating. And he did this because of denial, because he was focusing on his own business interests and this unassailable ego that nothing is going to stop that or hold it back or bring in a sense of questioning. Wow, maybe I did something wrong. No, with this massively inflated ego, there's no room for I might have done something wrong. I might be able to learn from this or apologize. So he's on his deathbed and he's surrounded by ghosts that are trying to get him to confess the role that he played in impacting the

Phaethon And Ambition Run Wild

Speaker 30:27

environmental health of the planet. So essentially to confess, but this dying man just keeps bolstering up and scaffolding that ego with self-aggrandizement. Sound familiar at all? I think that's what we're seeing right now. This inflated sense of self, of self-importance. There's a wonderful myth, an ancient Greek myth, that's really a cautionary tale about this sun run wild, and it is the myth of Phaethon, the son of Helios. And he becomes desperate to prove himself and his divine parentage, which indicates he's full of self-doubt. He doesn't have that strong solar center. So first of all, he goes off on a quest and he visits Helios' palace at the edge of the world at Oceanus. And Helios grants him a wish, and Phaeton chooses to drive his dad's golden chariot across the sky for a day. But Phaeton doesn't have the wisdom and the experience to control the enormous strength of the sun. So the chariot gets out of control and it ends in catastrophe. He's flying all over the place, he flies too close to the Earth, he burns it up, he creates deserts, he can't control the forces bigger than himself. To me, that is like ambition run wild, of fierce overachieving. So when we don't feel secure in who we are, we might try to overcompensate, to shine too brightly, and to be obsessed with proving ourselves through achievement, through visibility and control, through building a freaking ballroom, you know? Trying to find our identity through others' approval.

The Year Without A Summer

Speaker 32:52

On Earth, without enough sunlight, the entire rhythm of the planet begins to change. Plants struggle and ecosystems shift and temperatures fall. As I was researching this episode, I thought about those occurrences when there's been volcanoes and ash has obscured the sun. So I began researching that. And I learned about the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815, which was the largest recorded volcanic eruption in human history, recorded history. And it sent volcanic ash and gases high up into the atmosphere, partially obscuring the sun. And this caused in 1816 what was known as the Year Without a Summer. And there were crop failures with the crops not getting enough sunlight, and that led to famine, and that led to social disruption across Europe and North America. In June of 1816, so close to the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, a group of riders who included Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron, they went for their annual holiday and they were staying in a villa in Switzerland. But this year without a summer meant that there was this incessant rainfall, which essentially wrecked their holiday plans. So instead they all stayed inside in this villa in the rain and darkness, and they got high on wine and Laudenum, which is an opiate, and they were reading these German ghost stories. And Lord Byron made the suggestion that they should have a little competition of who can write the scariest story. Well, it was during that time, that year without a summer, in that villa, that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. So here's this darkness all around in what is meant to be bright summer, everything out of whack. And Lord Byron wrote this poem called Darkness, and he described it as riding it in a single day when the fowls all went to roost at noon, and candles had to be lit as at midnight. Here's a little section of that poem. I had a dream which was not all a dream. The bright sun was extinguished and the stars did wander, darkling in the eternal space, rayless and pathless, and the icy earth swung blind and blackening in the moonless air. Morn came and went and came and brought no day. So I was pretty excited to discover that that lack of physical sunlight in the year without a summer, with all that volcanic ash around, led to the creation of Gothic literature. Darkness without and darkness within.

Sunlight And Mental Health

Speaker 36:26

And a lack of sunlight really does affect our mood. It affects our circadian rhythms, our sleep patterns that have such a huge impact on our emotional and physical health. So without enough natural light, we can experience fatigue and brain fog and poor sleep, lowered motivation, and of course our modern culture exacerbates this. We're indoors a lot, we're disconnected. And humans are naturally diurnal. Socially and psychologically, we can have lots of different rhythms, but our natural animal state is diurnal. And with our use of artificial light at night, and especially these days, that blue light that emanates from our screens, our phones and iPads and computers after sunset really affects that whole circadian rhythm. In areas that are prone to low sunlight throughout the year, or at certain times in the year, there can be a particular type of depression called seasonal affected disorder or sad, and it's associated with lack of sunlight, and folks will actually use sun lamps to mimic the sun and lift the mood. And this is especially prevalent as we get further north or south toward the poles on our planet. At the point of 66.5 degrees north latitude, that's the beginning of the Arctic Circle and the opposite south. 66.5 south latitude is the beginning of the Antarctic circle. So from that point onward, there is at least one full day of continuous sunlight each year and one full day of continuous darkness. That's the solstices. And as we move closer and closer to the poles, the length of time of that extremity, how many days of continuous sunlight or continuous darkness increases. So at the poles themselves, the sun rises and sets only once per year, and that is at the equinoxes. So there's months on end within the Arctic or Antarctic circle of continuous light, and then the opposite at winter, months of continuous darkness, and that has a measured effect on the well-being of people. We need sunlight for our mental health. Especially throughout my twenties, 30s, 40s, and now, you know, as I'm reaching 60 this year, I definitely have a handle on that, and I think my ongoing relationship with mythology and with acknowledging these cycles of darkness and light, and accepting darkness as part of that story, not trying to constantly buck against it. All of this has really helped, but still sometimes I'll find myself falling in that pit of deep depression, and it is so painful. I remember back to those times earlier on, it would just feel like there was no Sun in my life, and I would feel just so lost. My sense of self just gone. My purpose gone. I would feel aimless and so, so heavy. And it really would feel like I had lost my light. I wrote a song actually on my second album, which came out in 98, and the song is called Think of the Day. And I wrote this when I was going through a very long period of depression, months and months and months. And I was writing to myself like a kind of keep your chin up. And I wrote, When you have faded away, when you are lost to the night, may you return to me. May all your battles be easy to fight. I know the underworld calls you away. When you are lost to light, think of the day. And that's what can be so hard when we are caught in that darkness of depression where we feel like we've lost the sun altogether. To be reminded, it might feel like it's gone forever, but it hasn't. The sun rises every day. We can trust that the sun will return for us too. Think of the day at the times when you're most lost. Remember there is day, and we remind ourselves that the sun is born out of darkness and we can be too. During that time, you know, for decades, I used to take a herbal supplement called St. John's Wart. And St. John's Wart is a plant with beautiful bright yellow flowers, and it is used as a natural way to treat depression. You know, the idea is you're kind of internalizing sunlight. It represents the energy of sunlight. And taken continuously after a couple of months, it really does feel like the darkness mightn't be quite so dark, and maybe there are some rays of sunlight breaking through. I found it really helpful personally. And I also find it interesting, it's called St. John's Wart because it blooms in the Northern Hemisphere around St. John's Day in the Christian calendar, June 24th, just a few days away from midsummer. And what does it do? It helps us to internalize and embrace sunlight, to lift our mood, to think of the day.

Solstice Practices For Balance

Speaker 43:35

Of midsummer and midwinter is to remember the balance, that we can't sustain that point of extreme of a continuous, bright, glorious golden sun, or of the depths of dark winter. Nature naturally, at the point of the solstices, begins to bring that energy back into balance. Moves toward the equinoxes. That's what we need to do too. Yes, the sun, but not too much, or for too long. Yes, the darkness, but not too much, or for too long. And how can we create this balance? Well, the sun as a creative, life-generating force, reminds us that we are creative. So anything that honors your creative expression is honoring the sun, and in doing so, honoring that inner sun, the point of our radiant identity that reminds us I am. And we can also honor the sun at this time of year by watching a sunrise, a sunset, a beautiful midsummer tradition is to stay up all night, the shortest night, and then watch the sunrise. Or we can go outside under the radiant sun at midday at his height, and we can let the sunlight touch our skin, bask for a moment in its glory. At midsummer we can treat ourselves to a bunch of sunflowers. We can sing and dance and laugh and play just like the child in the sun card in the tarot. And at midwinter we can nurture the tiny spark of light within the darkness, knowing that it will grow and grow and grow and grow to become midsummer in six months hence.

Guided Sun Centering Meditation

Speaker 45:51

Before we do our tarot reading for this episode, why don't we take a moment to center ourselves and let's connect with that energy of the sun? First of all, breathing into our belly, that solar plexus point, and settle for a moment, breathing into that energy, connecting with earth below and with our golden sun above. And whether it's day or night, winter or summer, when you're listening to this, know that that sun is there and we are circling around it. It's holding us in place, our center. And imagine sunlight pouring down upon you now, golden and warm like honey, pouring down onto you, and feel it connect with your own inner sun. And as it does so, feel your inner sun glow brighter and brighter and brighter, and know that you are exactly who you are and who you are meant to be. A spark of this sunlight, a shining star, and allow that golden sunlight to fill every part of your body, radiating out from this shining solar core right down to your fingertips glowing gold, your toes radiating golden light, and then begin to draw these sunbeams in from fingertips and toes, concentrating that energy back into your solar plexus, celebrating your own divine bright light, and in doing so, encouraging others to shine theirs. All right, let's shuffle these cards.

Tarot Pull Ace Of Cups

Speaker 48:21

See what the universe would like to remind us right now, and maybe our card for this episode can help us or remind us of ways that we can shine that inner light. Alright, let's see what comes through. Okay. Oh, that's rather lovely. It's the ace of cups. That's a beautiful card. That's funny, I just actually held it up to the microphone for you guys to see. Um, okay, the ace of cups. Well, how do we shine our inner light with love? With love for ourselves, with love for others, overflowing with divine love. In this deck that I'm using, the Smith Rider Weight deck, which is a very standard and popular deck that most other modern decks are an adaptation of. Not all, but most, the Ace of Cups has a hand emerging out of a cloud, so sort of like the hand of God, the hand of spirit. And in that hand, this open palm, is balanced a beautiful golden chalice. And out of this chalice are emerging streams of water flowing down from the cup like a fountain and down into a lovely lily pond below. So, you know, it just feels really nice. And flying down into the cup is a grey dove, and within the dove's beak is a circular disc, and on that disc is an even-armed cross. And to me, that cross, that's actually astrologically the symbol for planet Earth, in the way the circle with the dot is sun, and the circle with the cross in it is earth. This radiant hand, it has rays of light coming from it, is offering and presenting this cup that is overflowing with love, and then this dove bringing this grounded energy of peace. That's how I read this, that earth symbol, bringing that down. And the dove, of course, is peace and love. The dove is actually associated with Aphrodite. So love and peace and harmony, and that this cup is continuously flowing, it doesn't run out of water. This magic cup, which is our hearts and which is spirit, love that is undying. So, how can we shine our inner lights through love, through genuine self-love. That means loving our shining parts of ourself and also our shadowy parts of ourself. By doing so, that's how we create the strong I am that isn't about power over or being better than, by saying this is who I am in this continual state of becoming like that sun in our birth charts, a process, our sense of relationship with self is an ongoing relationship that changes and evolves, and through loving ourselves as radiant, sacred, divine beings, as individual stars, as shining suns, by full self-acceptance. And that doesn't mean that we just say, yep, well, that's just what I'm like, you'll have to put up with it. No, it's about continuously evolving into the most divine expression of ourselves. It's an ongoing and sometimes difficult task to walk that path of genuinely engaging with our deepest self. And then when we do that, we help others to shine. It's a big thing to say love yourself. It's probably a whole other episode. What does that even mean? But I think it definitely starts with looking honestly at ourselves, and that's loving ourselves as we are right now, physically, emotionally, spiritually, with all of our flaws, like we would a child, knowing that we are on a path of growth, potentially. We're only growing if we're willing to fully engage with our deepest selves and not do that bolstering up, that scaffolding of ego that is not self-love, that's self-aggrandizement, that's a whole different thing. That's a lack of self-love. That's just like feasting on sugar and never actually sustaining ourselves. You know, the antidote, true, deep love of who we are and who we are evolving to be.

Patreon Support And Closing

Speaker 53:39

All right, a little reminder that all this time that I spend recording and editing and researching, all that time is granted to me by the generosity of my Patreon community. If you would like to become a Patreon subscriber on my page, you can join up for about the cost of a cup of coffee per month. Just head to patreon.com forward slash Wendy Rule. If you're not in a position to jump on board as a patron, and I totally understand that, one thing that would be really helpful that doesn't cost a cent is to go onto your podcast platform and leave a review or write a comment. It makes a massive difference and helps others find this podcast and helps me shine my light. And I know Spotify and Apple uh both accept reviews, and some of the other podcast apps do too. Or I love reading comments on YouTube if you're watching or listening to this on YouTube. So, yeah, that would be a great help. I would really appreciate that. I will see you back here in two weeks' time, and we will be diving into that watery energy of the sign of Cancer and celebrating the energy of the great cosmic mother. Until then, blessed be.