Yoga Practice for Seasonal Transition: Vasanta to Grishma Delineated by the solstices, these phases or kalas also divide the year into a time of gradual energy depletion ( adanakala), resulting from increased heat and dryness, and a time of energy restoration ( visarga) corresponding to greater cooling and moisture. Uttara meaning northern and ayana meaning movement, path or direction.Ĭomplementing uttarayana, the period of decreasing light between the summer and winter solstice, is dakshinayana, dakshina meaning southern. As the sun moves in a northerly direction, the period of increasing light between the winter and summer solstice is called uttarayana. Acknowledging how the ritus were primarily influenced by the perceived path of the sun through the sky, early Vedic astronomers divided the year into two six-month periods relating to its course. Integral to the Ayurvedic approach to health, ritucharya is the conscious alignment of environmentally informed practices with external seasonal rhythms ( ritus). It is a natural time for reflection and the effortless joy that comes with living in rhythm. The whole world seems to participate in this seasonal summer sigh, expanding into the light as we approach the halfway point on our journey around the sun. In my adult life, the sacred sway of summer means less hurry, less service to time and more relaxation by virtue of a generous sun that descends more slowly in the evening hours. With a sliding curfew that was defined by the street lights coming on, more daylight meant I stayed outside longer, swimming until my fingers were pruney and chasing lightning bugs at dusk. Though we may not always consciously observe these time-honored traditions in the bustle of modern daily life, there is something undeniably special about summertime, it’s the summer swoon.įrom a young age, I remember equating long summer days with more freedom. Whether venerating the feminine, yin energy in Chinese tradition, hailing the rise of the brightest summer star, Sirius, in Egypt, celebrating the personified fertility goddess, Epona, in Celtic tradition, or praising the god of agriculture during Kronia in Greece, the underlying spirit of summer is one of emergence, purification and potency. Common to both ancient and modern cultures, the sundry interpretations of this celestial event underscore a deep gratitude and honoring of the earth. The summer solstice celebrates the apex of light and sunshine continues to triumph over shadow during this season. In other words, we enjoy the longest day of the year and the beginning of the summer season. On the day of the solstice, while traveling at 108,000 km/hr around our system’s center, we perceive the longest path of our sun through the sky as it arcs toward its northernmost position from the equator.
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Bowing to the ultimate source of sustenance, the earth humbly receives this blessing of solar energy like a flower leaning toward the light. When our planet reaches the point along its orbit where its axial tilt is most inclined toward the sun, we experience the summer solstice.
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While the perceived stopping of the sun is what defines a solstice on the basis of perception, the astronomical underpinning of such an event is actually the tilt of the earth’s axis. This cosmic pause welcomes our attention as we prepare to enter the next cycle of our planet’s breathwave.
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With unassuming clarity, these etymological elements describe the precise moment of a solstice when our radiant solar star appears to pause in the sky as its trajectory undergoes a perceived directional shift. The word solstice comes from the Latin roots sol, meaning sun, and stitium, meaning to stop or be still. The Stillness of a Star: Observing a Cosmic Pause Particularly in these times of seasonal transition, may we allow ourselves to be breathed by mama Gaia, the benevolent mother earth, as we consider the seasonal progression of internal time illuminated by our own breathwave. Mirroring natural periods of warming and cooling that result from our changing position relative to the sun, our living earth completes one cycle of respiration over the course of a single year.Īs witnesses to this faithful pattern, we are invited to remember the intimate relationship we have with our home in the universe – each one of us embodied cosmos, completing this identical sacred cycle of birth and death with every breath.
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With every passing year, the world’s seasons reveal the environmental evidence of a planet that breathes.