Happy summer solstice! As of this writing (6:02pm) EDT, the sun has just ingressed into the sign of Cancer.
Today being the day of maximum illumination brings to mind a few ideas about the sun and what that can mean.
The sun is the source of life in our solar system. Without its light there is no life. It is the origin of the gravitational field of all planets. In the Judaeo-Christian tradition, light is God’s first creation. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna declares “among luminous objects, I am the sun“. In the astronomical/astrological tradition, the center of the constellation Cancer contains a cluster of stars whose ancient name is Praesepe, or “The Manger”–and wasn’t the infant Jesus who brought light into the world laid in a manger after his birth?
Light is love,
is truth,
is wisdom,
is seeing what is, as-is, plainly and clearly.
The Sanskrit word for wisdom, vidya, is etymologically and semantically related to Latin videre, “to see”, and thus to our modern English video.
In our daily experience, the only way we see anything is in the presence of light. The more light there is, the more we see. The less light is present, the less we see. In the complete absence of light–that is, in total darkness–we literally are unable to see our hand right in front of our face.
The more we grow in love, the more we grow in truth, the more our spirit light shines, the more of our faults are bound to be exposed. It is a natural and logical result, just as a red wine stain on a shirt is more obvious in bright outdoor light versus a dimly lit room.
To want to grow in the truth of love yet not want to face our personal faults that inevitably come into awareness: is this not, then, a logical impossibility?
Let us then cultivate the attitude, however difficult it may be, of actually wanting to face our faults, flaws, and shortcomings. When we do so in the right context, the end result (not a sprint, mind you, but more of a marathon) is unloading excess baggage, parting ways with old habits that weigh us down and hinder our growth. It then becomes a case of accelerating our evolution, breaking vicious cycles and instituting virtuous ones in their place.
Let us admit, and desist from, the habits of hiding our faults, flaws, and shortcomings from ourselves. How often do we superimpose and project out into the world some ego-ideal in the name of hiding from the reality of our hatred, shame, and fear? In the end, isn’t that all a scam? Living the scam life, how can we experience lasting happiness? We are in constant fear of being found out. We self-medicate in any number of ways to assuage the pain of being separated from the truth, and wind up in sickness and suffering.
In right embracing of both the light and the dark, the pure and impure within us here and now, we have the opportunity to work with valuable material that, in due time, both humbles and uplifts us. It is like putting ore into the furnace to obtain pure gold. As ugly as the ongoing displays of violence, racism, and race inequality in the United States are, perhaps we can frame it in a greater context of revealing our collective ignorance and, in so doing, making purification possible.
Let us practice letting love and fear sit in the same room at the same time, that love may teach fear, that fear may be taught by love.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free
John 8:32
Copyright (c) 2020, Justin Jaucian
Epicenter Wellness 