Having welcomed in the Solstice sunrise alone and naked in the morning, I saw the Sun to bed celebrating with friends in the evening. I went to a celebration organised by Sarah Line of The Field of Healing. Sarah and her husband have built a full-size 11-tier Labyrinth in a field at the bottom of their garden in a small village close to the Cambridgeshire border and at special times throughout the year, Sarah invites people to come and walk her labyrinth and share in various celebrations. This time it was the Summer Solstice.
I’ve been lucky enough to walk several labyrinths before, but none have affected me the way Sarah’s does, so I made sure I was there early enough to walk it alone. I arrived at 6.30pm and walked the Labyrinth before everyone else turned up (what I experience when I walk Sarah’s labyrinth is story in itself, so I’ll cover those experiences in another post soon – I promise). By the time I had finished my walk other people were arriving and I joined them in making our way up to the village hall for the evening’s proceedings.
Sitting in a circle in the hall, with a lovely log fire to keep us warm, Sarah started the evening off with some spiritual philosophy followed by a meditation, accompanied by a young chap called Clinton who played the Native American flute. We then sang a few chants and drummed until it was time to go back down to the labyrinth again. This time we all walked the labyrinth to the sound of shamanic drums and the flute. Afterwards we collected around the fire pit situated next to the labyrinth and a few people threw offerings of herbs into the fire while intending a few blessings and the odd spell or two. We then made our way back up to the hall to be treated to a group channeling by Glendra Duffy.
Glendra channels the language of sound and light, something I had never experienced before. As she stood and dropped into a trance-like state (she says she doesn’t go into trance, but is slightly altered – watching her, I beg to differ, but I guess it depends on your interpretation of trance), the most amazing thing happened. A voice something close to an opera star mixed with what I would imagine an angel’s voice would sound like permeated the air as Glendra opened her mouth. My whole body fizzed as words I did not recognise, but at a deeper level somehow understood, filled the room. Glenda then went on to interpret the messages she had sung into a meaningful message for the group and humanity as a whole.
Glenda’s messages and Sarah’s main theme of the night turned out to be the same – the need to engage the heart in everything we do. With all the changes we are going through and the chaos and upheaval we are experiencing – consciously and subconsciously – the message was that if we can operate from a position of love, then all will be OK. For me this echo’s the message that all the spiritual practices and religions were originally set up for before they engaged in their dogmas – that of compassion for our fellow man and all life.
To engage in the heart centred practice that the spiritual realm suggested through Glendra, and which Sarah spoke about, we apparently need to devote 20 minutes a day in meditation with the intention of opening up our heart area. This, for me is not some wild fancy idea, but is grounded also in science – by engaging our heart during meditation we also activate beneficial hormones and switch on the brain in a special way which brings about a change in consciousness (see the HeartMath research). All too often in our day to day lives we make decisions based on our brain alone. Surely this is a time when more is called for – a change of heart as it were? Reaching out to others in the process.
Our evening ended fully grounded with copious amounts of cake provided, as ever, by Sarah’s mother. Nothing like a sugar rush to ground the spirit and give that good all over feeling – as if we needed anymore after the evenings celebrations!
I finally crawled into bed at well past midnight. No wonder they call it the longest day! Today (24th June), I have been on my second 'date with the artist’ only to hear the same message from the local Buddhist centre: to operate from a position of love and compassion at all times. So I’ll end this message sending out love to you all. With Love, Theresa xx
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