Just imagine….

Imagine yourself looking into a mirror. The natural world appears as your reflection. Red, rust, yellow; in the time of autumn, you see yourself as the bright leaves and the clear, cool nights. You are a field of golden wheat ready to be harvested. You are the season’s ripe bounty; you are beauty’s feast. November: bare branches stark against the moon; you are the rattle of dry leaves and the taste of winter in the air. Look deeper; look within the season and see a seasonal way of life. That’s you. Clan life, long-ago life, life before walls, life when the fire was the only heat and the Shaman talked to the spirit of the deer to discover the pattern of migration.

Yes, that is your reflection…. Or is it that you are a reflection of those long-gone times? Instinct, cellular memory, the history that runs in the marrow of your bones; the key to these mysteries is held by the seasons of the soul. The lucky are born at the Summer Solstice when the nights are warm, food plentiful, and mother’s milk abundant. The child born at the Winter Solstice knows the value of every resource and is blessed with the will to survive and a strategy to do so.

Seasons of the soul…the astrological wheel is the keeper of the mystery of human nature. Each sign is a complex history and a deep-seated prophecy. The seasons of the year hold the mystery of the growing cycle, the rise and fall of the vital sap within the trees. Just as the changing light awakens the instinctual wisdom of plants and animals, the seasons of our souls tell us when to gather resources and when to emerge from winter’s slumber. Although our personal astrological charts are varied and unique, this year is devoted to the universal mysteries of being and the way we are all shaped by a year’s cyclical wisdom. You hold the whole year within you. You are the mystery and the promise each season makes to the night sky.

The challenge and gift of the current season will be the focus of each Mystery School intensive. Our year begins with Aquarius, with community and our need for each other. We will travel, sign by sign, through the year. Friday night, connect with your primordial instincts, your soul’s desire, your body’s knowing, your dream’s memories. We will step into the time of the clan.

On Saturday, explore the mysteries and issues that each of the “twelve seasons” bring. Saturday night’s ritual will coax you into a place of possibility and give you an opportunity to use your insights to change your relationship with the world around you and within you. If I were more disciplined, the whole weekend could pass without an astrological word, but I am not. You will hear astrological jargon, but only in passing. If you are interested in astrology, there will be a 1-1/2 hour astrology class every Sunday morning and an on-line astrology class. If you aren’t interested in astrology, other options are available.

Reflection, a mirror; within it, a maze. Step in, wander, discover who you are. The pattern of the year offers you a key not only to yourself, but to the deeper mysteries of group interactions. It will give those of you who have accepted the responsibility of leadership an extraordinary tool. You will be able to see the roots of conflict, and you will have a way to understand, address and resolve that conflict.