As we come forward here now, I, Albion enter into this vibration here so that we might extend our concern and teaching for a better understanding of the energy and the power of the 4 seasons of nature. Now we do this at this particular time for various reasons, but one of the most important reasons is that when one can be consciously aware at all times of the presence of the seasons and of the differences of the energies generated by and radiated by the 4 seasons, then one is more likely and will certainly find it easier to align their own personal lives with the life of the earth.
For example, Winter as we spoke of it in our last lesson, is a time of rest, a time of hibernation in a sense, a time when all is urged to turn within to find warmth, to find solace, to find, perhaps, a bit of information – let’s put it this way – to have an experience that would testify to their presence of and the nature of the soul – the human soul. When one is in touch with their own human soul, then one is almost automatically, we say, in touch and in harmony with the soul of the earth. It’s a long journey, a long, long journey yet to be complete that will not be complete, we should say, until all members of the human kingdom have come to the same conclusion and that is that the right to life – no matter what kingdom might be in question – and the equality of all life. Human equality – it’s an issue that has been, over the years, addressed as we would say in some great depth –but when we think of the equality of all life, then an animal is as important as a human life, and a plant as an animal, and so on. And so to be able to come into a greater awareness – a greater conscious awareness – of the seasons, we think would contribute to a greater awareness of one’s own being.
For example, Winter as we spoke of it in our last lesson, is a time of rest, a time of hibernation in a sense, a time when all is urged to turn within to find warmth, to find solace, to find, perhaps, a bit of information – let’s put it this way – to have an experience that would testify to their presence of and the nature of the soul – the human soul. When one is in touch with their own human soul, then one is almost automatically, we say, in touch and in harmony with the soul of the earth. It’s a long journey, a long, long journey yet to be complete that will not be complete, we should say, until all members of the human kingdom have come to the same conclusion and that is that the right to life – no matter what kingdom might be in question – and the equality of all life. Human equality – it’s an issue that has been, over the years, addressed as we would say in some great depth –but when we think of the equality of all life, then an animal is as important as a human life, and a plant as an animal, and so on. And so to be able to come into a greater awareness – a greater conscious awareness – of the seasons, we think would contribute to a greater awareness of one’s own being.
Spring is a time of new beginnings. Summer is a time that all of the seeds in your life that have been sown, and all the seeds that have been sown by the farmers of the world will need to be watched and treated most tenderly so that the seeds are encouraged to grow. In growth there is progress, in progress there is confidence, in confidence there is strength.
Looking at the world from that perspective, we wish now to turn our thoughts to the season of Summer. We had mentioned in passing, and it certainly bears repeating now, that the season of Summer is related to the sun. Down through human history there have been names given, and the position of deity assigned, to the sun. Sometimes the sun is referred to as the father – Father Sun – because the sun literally is the father of all of the planets that exist in the solar system. There are other cultures who have and still do refer to the sun as Grandfather. And what that suggests is that – in the eyes of those particular cultures – the sun is far removed from the position of father, is an ancestral spirit, an ancestral being, literally, an ancestral body. And so I, Albion, prefer to utilize the term grandfather or even great-grandfather when speaking about the Spirit of Summer. Over the years there have been various teachings, books, and lectures and seminars and all that sort of thing now, that have been given concerning the personification of not only the sun and the moon but all of the planets and to a great number of individual stars. Now in that personification we find that it gives almost instantly a person a sense of having a relationship with any celestial body, with any planetary body, or with any stellar body, that these bodies are related one to the other and exert basically – with the exception of the planets, or some of the planets – the same kind of solar power.
In your studies, no doubt, all of you have encountered – from one perspective or another – matriarchal societies. Matriarchal societies suggest, of course, that the male and the female within the ranks of a given tribe, or a given culture for that matter, is basically equal, but when it comes to certain decisions – and these would be the decisions that involved initiations within the tribe, decisions that involve the feast and festival days, the celebrations of ceremonies and so forth – all those decisions lay upon the shoulders of the women. Matriarchal energies, as defined in I, Albion’s teachings, is defined as magnetic energy. But when we look at the sun and we look at the cultures, most basically, that utilized or that placed the sun in the most elevated of positions, regarded the sun as a god and in some cases as The God, even The Creator, these [focused on] the masculinity. Well we’ve mentioned this many, many times in the past.…had a certain response within a human being, and that response is physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Well the same is true for the sun. Solar energy is masculine energy and therefore masculine energy, being fire energy, being an energy that motivates and instigates and activates – remember those words – that all these are relative to the response that the ordinary human being will have to solar power. I, Albion look upon solar power and lunar power as equal. But in our discussion of Summer, we need to set that equality aside for the moment and look at how solar energy affects the whole of nature and the whole of humanity collectively and, of course, individually.
In order to do so appropriately, let us precede our thoughts of Summer from going any further and say that Spring – the time of Spring – is a time of planting seeds. Now, when we say planting seeds we want you to understand that that covers a broad range of activities. For example, sowing seeds in one’s personal life means that one wishes to begin a new or many new relationships, one wishes to discover new things about themselves, that one wishes a new sense of direction in one’s life, and or (in a greater sense) a purpose in one’s life. Well, then, the seed of purpose must be planted. The seed of any new relationship must be planted. And those seeds are best planted by keeping the human emotion out of the picture and allowing the manifestation – first the creation of, then the manifestation of what one needs that’s new in one’s life – to come about through prayer and/or ceremony.
When you think about the plant kingdom – and it’s such an important kingdom because it feeds the peoples of the world – then we must think of Spring as being an agricultural season, a time when the seeds are put into the ground – the corn, the beans, the squash (the 3 sacred sisters you see). Now planting the seeds is obviously the first step, but it is far from the last one, because before most of those seeds come to fruition or even can come to fruition, they must be given an ample amount of time. And so Spring sort of overlaps, in that way, into Summer, and it is in the Summer – by the light of the sun’s power – that the growth is stimulated and continuity is instilled until the time of reaping arrives.
Summer is a very easy time for people to get lazy you see, to sort of lose sight of the seeds they planted in their own personal lives, in particular in the Spring, that by the time the Summer arrives, more often than not, those important seeds have fallen by the wayside, have been left to succumb to drought, a drought of not having any attention or not having any care or any provisions being made for the crops to be successful.
Human beings are beings that are highly impulsive and, we might add to that, highly instinctual in their impulses. The impulse, for example, of “I wish to have a new sense of order in me life, I wish to have a new sense of purpose (which is order) in my life.” Yes, that’s got to be, and it’s got to be done right now. And so many, many misguided souls will look for, in absolute expectation, that the seed they are planting will come forth, burst through the soil, and grow and bear fruit in an instant. That is not how it occurs, as you know so. And so when there are so many of those who drop sight of the importance of a personal seed that was planted in the Spring, that they planted in their own lives, then one has to question was the new seed something born purely of the desire of the moment? Was it born from a genuine need? Or was it simply not important enough for one to have the patience to see it through to full growth? “I want a new job, I want a new friend, I want a new romance in my life, I want a new teacher,” or whatever it might be, and then planted that seed appropriately in mind and heart – a seed must be planted with mind and with the heart in harmony with one another – and they did all that and did it right, but then come Summer, and they do not realize they have let the seed die in the ground, then they wonder why that has occurred. “Why has my wish not come true?” “Why has my need not been fulfilled?”
The Spirit of the Spring, and we pass along this image to yourselves, would take on the general appearance of a feminine fairy, like a fairy godmother sort of figure. This is not a youthful fairy, but more of a fairy whose age supersedes any month or time, cannot be put into any time or linear category. It just is. There are cultures all over the world, and perhaps each of you will consider doing a bit of research to find out what name or names did any given culture at any given time call the fairy godmother or the Spirit of the Spring. Most likely you’ll find it related to a goddess. Summer, on the other hand… And incidentally, before we leave the idea of the Spirit of Spring, let us say that the colors – one might think of spring because of the holiday, the Christian holiday of Easter, might think that the colors of spring are pastels, light blues, light yellows, light greens. No, that’s not the way it is at all. The colors of spring are much more rich, rich in purpose, rich in various shades of blues, rich in various shades of green, for green is the color of fertility, and fertility will lead to growth if the seeds are handled properly.
Then when we leave the Spirit of Spring, and we tune ourselves into the Spirit of Summer, we tune into Grandfather Sun, or Great-Grandfather Sun, whichever you prefer. Because this particular title – a title rather than a name – then we would suggest that all your images of Great-Grandfather Sun will be slanted toward that of the Native Americans. Perhaps you would see the sun as a grandfather dressed in his ceremonial robes, or having symbols embroidered on his robe, his leather robe, that would let you know and observe symbols that would represent the sun. Some names of the sun with the Hopi, for example, is Tamaha?? And there is, of course, with the Ancient Egyptians there was Ra, and on and on. And if you prepare to use the name of a god and have your Great-Grandfather Summer appear in some other way, that is your freedom of choice.
At the end of the wintertime, on the spring equinox, all that has been a part of the altar of Winter should be carefully folded –the fabric, that is the altar cloth – and put away, along with the chalice and the statue of Old Man Winter, and the star, and so forth, wrapped up in an individual package so to say, and then wrapped in a second white cloth, an outer white cloth and put away until the next winter solstice. Now on the spring equinox there should be the ceremony of setting up the altar for Spring. And this can be done on an individual basis, you set up such an altar in your own home, or in a group, or both if you so choose. In your meeting place where you get together frequently in someone’s home, there would be an altar there too.
The purples, the greens, the blues, the pinks, the rose colored pinks, not the pastel pinks, and the robe of the fairy spring – spring fairy – would be like the gossamer wings of a dragonfly. She is very tantalizing, this fairy of spring. She rejoices, and brings rejoicement to your heart and to your minds and bodies, for you know instinctively that it is a time when the earth awakens and is fresh and renewed in its power. The altar of spring should be decorated with flowers at all times. Now, let’s make ourselves perfectly clear: it can be an entire bouquet of flowers if you wish, or it can be one flower in a vase, if you wish, or even, if you prefer, it can be artificial flowers – your silk flowers. The only difference, I, Albion, would have with that is that something artificial you have to endow it with life, it doesn’t seek that on its own. But whatever your choice might be, we suggest that the altar cloth itself be of royal, deep royal purple. And we suggest that somewhere on the altar that you place 1 candle. Again, it can be a glass candle, a taper, but one candle. That candle being one, it says this is the first season. The candle can be of any color you so choose, but the most desirable one from I, Albion’s perspective, is green, for green is growth. Now, find yourselves a little tiny clay bowl. And in that bowl, put the seeds – go to your seed merchant and get seeds of corn, beans, and squash – and put those seeds into that little bowl. The bowl represents the 3 sacred sisters, the agriculture, and pays honor to the agriculturalists of the world which feed all of yourselves. It also, being in a bowl, represents the bowl, if you will, of new life, the womb. And allow that altar, if you will, to remain in state throughout the season of the Spring. Once a day we ask that you light the candle. You can leave it burn for a few moments, a few hours, or you may even choose a 7-day candle that can burn constantly, being replaced, of course, when it is spent.
Now when we come together again, we’re going to talk a little bit more about the sun and we’re going to talk about setting up the solar altar. And this is going to be the only altar that you’ll be instructed how to erect out of doors. God bless yourselves.
Originally published November 6, 2006.
(c) Copyright 2006 & 2011, Page Bryant. All Rights Reserved. Image courtesy of Fotolia.com.