{"id":848,"date":"2013-03-21T12:15:17","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T12:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/?p=848"},"modified":"2013-03-21T17:52:52","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T17:52:52","slug":"the-awakening-spring-of-light-embodiment-and-soliphilia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/03\/the-awakening-spring-of-light-embodiment-and-soliphilia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Awakening Spring: of light, embodiment, and soliphilia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yesterday was the vernal equinox. \u00a0 Here in Ireland, we have a solar alignment that occurs in cairn T on Slieve na Caillaigh during this astronomical event.\u00a0 It\u2019s a phenomenal sight!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cairn T Backstone : Loughcrew : Ireland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But that\u2019s not what I want to talk about.<\/p>\n

The spring equinox heralds the Ligh<\/strong>t half of the year.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t fully there yet (as it doesn\u2019t officially begin until Bealtaine<\/em>) but oh\u2026we are tantalizingly close.\u00a0 Close enough, in fact, for spirits to rise and frivolity to ensue.\u00a0 Just look at St. Patrick\u2019s Day!<\/p>\n

Why in the world would this dude\u2019s \u201cfeast day\u201d be on March 17, just 5 days before the vernal equinox? <\/em>In the annals he is clearly associated with \u201cEaster\u201d so why not a date closer in, why a date in Lent when it should be difficult to celebrate his feast day anyway? \u00a0I\u2019ve heard Patrick\u2019s day associated with the \u2018making of a warrior\u2019 rite, which connects him with C\u00fa Chulainn.<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t want to talk about that either\u2013except tangentially.<\/p>\n

What I do want to talk about, and wonder aloud about, is how climbing a hill, in the freezing cold, to watch a glowing ray of sun wash into a neolithic passage tomb; hordes of Irish people out in droves for St. Patrick\u2019s Day parades, dances, and merry-making during Lent; and the rite of becoming a warrior within a late bronze \/ iron age culture might have required \u2014 embodiment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last weekend I did the most amazing thing.\u00a0 I attended a drug and alcohol free nightclub: Rebelution (a play on words, since Cork is known as the \u2018Rebel County\u2019).\u00a0 A mixed group of us moved our bodies under a mirror ball, inside the Wandesford Quay Gallery.\u00a0 I let my conscious mind rest, and woke the Sleeper.\u00a0 By allowing my body to move in whatever way I wanted, giving myself over fully to each impulse as it arose, my subconscious \u2014 which is very connected to my body \u2014 woke and communed.\u00a0 I was whole, and had entered ecstatic merger with Self.<\/p>\n

And that is beautiful enough, right ?! <\/em>\u00a0But at some point, after about an hour or two, I glanced around. \u00a0And to my delight, I found that all the other human-bodies in the room were connected with me, and I to them.\u00a0 We moved together!\u00a0 Merger with Other.\u00a0 Feeling the rhythm of the dance and the swirl of energy, we were a primal unit around our modern campfire\u2013the twirling disco light.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cave art of the San Bushmen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since the night of the ecstatic dance, I have been up the mountain to breathe the crisp air, sat in my hammock listening to birds, and chatted happily to my friends the Thorn, Hazel, Ash, and Pine while walking down the lane.\u00a0 I have been expressing love for my Place, and taking what responsibility I can for it.<\/p>\n

I am connected to this place, this bit of earth called east Cork, and that connection includes my experiences and relationship with human and non-human persons.\u00a0 My connection to the human-persons in the dance and to the non-human persons during my walks and other rural explorations, synthesize to create Soliphilia<\/strong>\u2014 a neologism coined by Dr. Glenn Albrecht.\u00a0 He describes it as a, \u201clove of the whole (life + place at all scales) and the solidarity between us that is needed to keep what we all hold in common healthy and strong.\u201d\u00a0 It is also the antidote to solistalgia, a term I have discussed previously on this blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking for consciousness in the brain is like looking inside a radio for the announcer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nassim Haramein<\/em><\/p>\n

The synthesis of these relationships has me thinking of our need for both urban and rural environments.\u00a0 On this blog, various writers have discussed the myriad ways we connect to place, and whether urban or rural experience hinders or accentuates that ability.\u00a0 I propose another way of looking at it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As I wrote in my article on dis-enchantement<\/a>, we are designed for ecstatic merger with nature: with the living world around us, which we are a part of.\u00a0 But the capacity for collective joy is also encoded in us.\u00a0 In fact, as Barbara Ehrenreich puts it, \u201ca crowd is the raw material for festivity\u2026\u201d\u00a0 For an epoch we human-persons traveled in small family groups, spending most of our time in intimate relationship with wild, untamed nature \u2013 which we were absolutely a part of.\u00a0 We also came together with other wandering bands for festivity.\u00a0 These gatherings served many purposes, from trade to pair-bonding, from sharing of technology to \u2018chin wagging\u2019 about the latest gossip.\u00a0 But a significant feature was the ecstatic component\u2013dancing with each other; and this, more than anything, built solidarity between groups.<\/p>\n

Human Murmuration<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cueva de las Manos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we, in Ireland, move into the Light half of the year, awakening comes to the body\u2013both human and other-than-human. \u00a0 What slept during the long, dark, now stretches and opens her eyes. As we all continue the struggle to make sense of our modern world and find spiritual significance in our various environments, I encourage us to look to the dance of light and dark.<\/p>\n

Humans need time in nature, just as we need times of withdrawal and contemplation.\u00a0 But we also need to come together with other humans for collective joy.\u00a0 As we move from the dark half, with its hibernation and sleep, and emerge into the light, I invite you to step into your body and connect with your fellow human-persons.\u00a0 This is the time of festivity\u2026of ecstasy and embodiment.\u00a0 Get yourself ready; Bealtaine approaches!<\/p>\n

Whose permission are we waiting for to enter that \u2018uncertain ground\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

where the voice of our wild history can be heard?<\/em><\/p>\n

How long is it going to take to acknowledge that there is indeed a menagerie within each of us\u2026 a wolf, a hyena, a lion\u2026a wild man and a wild woman?<\/em><\/p>\n

-Ian McCallum<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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