That birth canal that I have been sliding down this last month has finally had a serendipitous conclusion. My good friend’s Lakota Sweat Lodge partner had reappeared from time overseas. How could I resist the offer of such a ceremony on the eve of the Capricorn Ingress and the much fabled 21-12 Portal? This was the first opportunity I have had to participate in this form of ceremony. My Taurus Moon reticence was masterfully overcome by my friend sidling up beside me and telling her stories and working through her own process. I felt no personal coercion. As she sorted through each point of organisation in her mind, a concern of mine would evaporate. Finally as our afternoon together drew to a close another friend asked whether I was going to participate. I checked within and found I had no reservations, just a resounding…Yes! All anxiety had been transmuted into excitement.
This point in itself was totally magical for me. My Capricorn friend and I have been entwined on a spiritual journey for several years now. She came in with Saturn transiting my Ascendant indicating a time of disciplined transformative work. I am sure the feeling has been mutual as my natal Saturn sits on her Ascendant.
Our temperaments and our style are very different and yet we held fast with the glue of mutual respect. I chaffed often yet, remarkably never fell prey to my normal pattern of just disappearing. At every point, we remained together with gentle patience. Her enthusiastic Sagittarian persona received an education in handling a stubborn, resistant and recalcitrant Taurus Moon. She has graduated with honours at this time. My moon felt so safe and nurtured that the decision was easy. I feel tears of gratitude at being honoured and seen as my human self felt totally free to make up my own mind in my own time.
Ho, mitakuye oyas’in, Susan Fullmoon-Rising.
Once committed to this process I felt such a whoosh of excitement. The only Taurus fear remaining was the earthy concern about managing my bodily functions throughout the extended period of the sweat. My stomach often participates in conversations at inopportune times and the fact that the home toilet became blocked was a sign this fear needed to be addressed. My Virgo Ascendant provided the most obvious way forward by cutting out the few toxins in my diet and concentrating on light pure foods. A detox headache over the period did little to dent my childish glee at the coming adventure. My christmas was coming early.
The universe threw a curve ball in the wee hours of the day of the Lodge. I was woken by a call from my daughter who had been randomly beaten by a stranger. She was however, being well cared for by her friends and had no desire to come home. They kept her awake in case of concussion till the morning and she slept throughout the day. She was due home at the same time as I was leaving for my Ceremony. We embraced in the street. She teasingly complained that she was returning to her mother’s arms only to be abandoned. We both understood that this was a momentous moment where she was releasing me from the personal bonds of motherhood to engage in a more transpersonal version of the same energy.
The Sweat Lodge was an amazing experience of entering the womb of the earth and releasing all of the past, then to be reborn again into her embrace with the moon and the sky delivering a rain of refreshment on my steaming body.
I woke for the Solstice, highly energised and have remained that way since. At the end of the day my daughter wasn’t feeling any better and decided that maybe she should see a doctor. No-one was available that late on a Friday in our isolated outpost at the end of the world. We travelled into the city to visit ER at the Royal Hobart Hospital.
This date had been 26,000 odd years in coming, an emergency waiting room was not the location I had planned. It may have been a great venue, Grand Central for the beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse but not where I expected to be for a download of other dimensional ascension energies.
Capricorn likes to keep us firmly connected to earthbound energy. The prior evening I had been contained within the earth sweating profusely in the dark for several hours. Now I was in the full glare of fluorescent lights, surrounded by people patiently nursing the private dramas that created whatever bodily affliction had bought them there. This trial lasted for six hours, taking us through the solstice point and into the new day and the new world. Capricorn was keeping me firmly situated in the accepted reality.
When we arrived the tone was set by two African girls, happily playing hand tag. I was delighted and jokingly said maybe we could follow suit and an impromptu flash mob could be created by our wounded compatriots. I wasn’t brave enough to manifest this fantasy. The idea did make light of our situation. My daughter and I felt a solidarity emerge from our shared experience. The longer the wait, the more absurd the situation, the more her curiosity was piqued and a stubborn persistence set in to stay the course and see where it led.
Our fellow patients were ennobled by their circumstances, each developing a dignity and beauty that sprung from the intensity of their situations. Compassion and silent camaraderie emerged from the humbling frailty of human bodies. Pain was forgotten in the face of another’s suffering, the children in particular caused us to lose our personal concerns in a desire to offer respite. In this situation nothing further was to be done. In the release from effort, space was made for life to shine through.
We were in the outer chamber, waiting entry into an inner sanctum where some form of relief was expected. The Solstice point was passed in this place. We felt content with expanding hearts and continuously rising energy. I had always hoped to spend this time with my daughter and I suspect we would not have created a space as meaningful or joyous. Soon after the moment was marked we were finally accepted into a clinic area.
For several more hours we were able to enjoy the spectacle of medical staff in scrubs rushing around like ants, doing their best to administer to the injured. In our cubicle we had a little more privacy and were unable to contain our mirth at the surreal environment that we were all participating in. It has been a long, long time since I have giggled so uncontrollably for so long. Finally, my daughter was examined, declared to have a mild concussion, given a simple painkiller and dismissed.
This is Capricorn at its best, accepting the road of hardship and the problems that beset the journey but persisting through every step of the journey until finally at the top of the mountain, a vista of relief is revealed. At this point our goal has been achieved and one world flips into another. Capricorn can then revert to childlike joy. Pan likes playing his tricks.
It is done, we have arrived and life is good… I wish you all an exquisite holiday season.
Image: ‘Colour Purple’ Movie poster
