The Circle: Inhaling the Scent of Light

For the opening of our circle I have chosen a dear and beloved soul sister Jane Moore Sibbett. A luminous friend, who I have celebrated in many circles with here in the Santa Monica Mountains. Jane is the perfect fit for welcoming you all and lighting the first candle in our spiral dance.

Advent

Inhaling the Scent of Light – Day 1

    Blessings to you all from the Point of Creation.  Here, I sit in the far west of this lovely circle, in the land of Hawaii where traditionally we greet one another not just with a long, sweet aloooooha, but if you do it the real way, the most sacred way, we place forehead to forehead, arms wrapped around one another’s shoulders, and we take the time to breathe in the life force, the Ha of one another.  It’s a beautifully stirring connection and seems most fitting as we are called to this, our first breath in this sparkling circle of ADVENTure. 

    First, gratitude to the ever radiant, always phenomenally fragrant Roxana for asking me to cast this circle with the embrace of Spirit that envelopes this most magical season.  I welcome you to our aetheric gathering and while we breathe in the possibilities of our connections and what can happen when two or more are gathered, I now ask you to slip off your cares and let them dissolve in our astral smudging of souls.  Breathe deep the gathering womb, then do the hokey pokey of joy in the white sage smoke as you spin and release all that doesn’t serve you this fine evening and for the remainder of this circle, so that we may be cleansed by our intentions to come together and explore the Light in the darkening of this season.  Let the music of the words below guide you to your place in this circle, trusting that there is a reason you were called here to be a part of this celebration and many gifts tucked behind secret windows are surely in your future.

    The Light shines and lives in all. May I never forget that the darkest creature is also of the Light …
    Love breeds love and is born and nurtured from tolerance and acceptance.  Let me lay down the anxieties and frustrations in this life to seek and foster love all the while remaining unattached to the act and its results …
    Spirit, friend of my flight, help me to journey homeward in view of your message, “Love binds all wounds, softens all roads, and frees the soul to fly home in peace.”
                    ~ Diane V. Cirincione

    The word Advent on my online Merriam-Webster dictionary is from the Medieval Latin word adventus, meaning arrival, or from, but it is a word that also speaks to the promise of something coming, something especially welcome or momentous.  Yes, with a capital “A,” Advent it is also the four Sundays of celebration before Christmas, but the definition I found the most intriguing for the opening of this online circle is the third definition -- the small “a” advent which is “a coming into being.” Stir all three into the soup and we have not only an arrival from as we move toward the Light (of Solstice, the rebirth of the Sun and the Christian Son of God — no mistakes they even sound alike), but we have the possibility of coming into our being!  Now that sounds exactly like the makings of an exquisite circle.
     But how do we start?  What do we bring?  What tools do we need?  

From my very humble and new Wild Aloha Studios blog:
    “Beyond the simple road of what we know, we are often asked to venture through the mists to new worlds we’ve never experienced.   We are led to glimpses and possibilities to pursue a new path, the road less traveled, the bend to beckoning mystery, or the left fork for a hand hungry for new information … (an) interesting challenge for us, perhaps, is when we come to that misty place in uncharted territory where we must nurture faith that we will find ahead even more beautiful vistas than we’ve yet seen.  How do we then fire up the lantern within to illuminate this path?  Or do we, arms outstretched, reach through the darkness and patiently wait for our eyes to adjust, hoping we won’t trip?  How do we pay attention to the landmarks of the past in these new roads of our future?  Do we?  If it’s all new, then how much of what worked or didn’t work before will have bearing on our compass in fresh lands?  What do we do in that gap between blindness and new vision?  How or what do we choose to layer in and help the path smooth out before us? Do our imaginations, dreams, desires, beliefs, and intentions lay out gleaming pebbles that catch divine star and moonlight, helping define the path, or do we let the fears, cynicism, bitterness, and judgment throw brambles and shin-kickers in our way? How, if at all, can we help our friends, family, or teammates in this life adventure along their own path whether we wish them to travel beside us or not?  How do we open up to experience the most brilliant gifts this life has to offer even if it so far beyond our history or understanding?  And how do we grow not only as a people, but a single, luminous soul?”

    I don’t have all the answers, but I do know the lip-smacking scent of anticipation that swirls all around when coming together in circles like these -- where de-lightfully, de-lovingly, perhaps we can find out together.  So as we begin this ADVENTure circle, take a spark of light from our goddess of recreation, Pele – take this hunaahi of thank you for your part in showing up, sharing your story with us, and breathing in the goosebumply fragrance of connecting our ha, our life forces always reaching toward the light.  We hope that you find ways here and everywhere this season to make peace with opening new windows to the fresh dark and giving yourself the gift of Love this season. I speak for Roxana and myself by encouraging you to take that precious time to go within and kindle all your own sweetest sparks of Light so that you may be nurtured as you, too, come into your being.  What do you have within you that begs kindling, protection, or nurturing to grow to the snapping, dancing bonfire of your dreams? We have found that time and again, in each circle from the hundreds and thousands in which we’ve been blessed to share, that beyond our sheltering trees and mists of understanding there are new and beautiful worlds waiting most eagerly for us all to come together to experience, enjoy and appreciate, if we but take a single step down the path with the candle of our advent intent.  Go west, go within, go wild and peace be with you.  Let our advent spiral inspire!

                                Jane Moore Sibbett
                                    Wild Aloha Studios, Co-Creator

Images: ADVENTure blogging banner by Roxana Villa, Illuminated Heart illustration by Greg Spalenka www.spalenka.etsy.com