"What old, heavy, regressive way of being are you ready to transform into joy?"
"What ignites your existence?"
Each participant wrote their response and then tied it onto the log. We had a meditation and set a collection intention to reclaim happiness. The restt of the class was a "matless", spontaneous movement experience which left us all relieved of burden and filled with light.
At 2 a.m. I gazed out my bedroom window to see the sky thick with clouds..."Don't go back to sleep"...We went outside and sparked a fire. I was warm with motivation to burn the log. The eclipse had begun. It was beautiful. I woke up Addi and Elliot and pursuaded them as best I could that they needed to see this and that we needed to all be together. I walked out of their room and went went back out to the fire and moon. Sure enough, within a few minutes they appeared, all rugged up, groggy but willing.
Heavy clouds hid the view but knowing that it was happening was inspiration to stay out. In being patient with the clouds, we frequently saw many stages of this once-in-a-lifetime event. We all roasted marshmallows and ate smores at 3:30 in the morning. We talked a lot, contemplated out loud...and then the kids went back to bed.
It was strangely wonderful watching the massive clouds pass and the wind pick up out of seemly nowhere and then become totally still again. The stars were SO BRIGHT. Living in suburban New Cumberland, we never see stars in pour backyard as bright as we did during the eclipse. As the alignment shifted, the moon appeared as though it was being "born" out of the shadow...it buldged with the most brilliant light.
Our feet were numb to the bone...."Don't go back to sleep"...we danced shuffled around the fire chanting, "Om Namah Shivaya", we danced with our merging moon shadows, we tossed and turned that Yule Log. And it worked perfectly, just as we noticed the eclipse to be ending, the log was totally burned. I felt great joy for every individual who placed a sacrifice on that log.
The "householder" ritual was complete. I had a private yoga student at 8am, it was 5:15am. I crawled into bed and laid lucidly for nearly 2 hours...And then there was light.
