The beginning of the year is typically a time for divining the future, or making choices and commitments that change our destiny. This is not an entirely social construction; New Year’s holiday somewhat arbitrarily falls near the winter solstice in our society, and that is a traditional enough time for accessing information from other realms. The Sun has reached the extreme southern limit of its annual journey (and turns back toward our hemisphere), a new season begins, and this is another way of saying a new solar cycle of the year commences.
Engulfed in darkness, it’s like we’re bathed in the unconscious, and the choices we make can reach deeper into the psyche and have a more profound effect. Then, like after an unworldly dream, we return to normal waking life and perhaps remember what we learned, or perhaps not. When it’s summer, does winter exist? Yet at the time, it seemed dramatic and real. That is how ritual often works, and life. And the commitments we make in a ritual space have an odd way of coming true in some form, if made from the heart.
We tend to miss the more common moments, though, which come at us from hour to hour, every day. Imagine you’ve just finished lunch and need to head back to work. You are standing outside the restaurant, deciding which way to walk back. Do you pause to ask which of those two paths is the true road to your destiny? Do you go the way your intuition suggests or gently tugs you? The difference could be substantial. A great deal can be contained in small choices.
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