Ear Tunes for A New Year

I attended a Winter Solstice ceremony last night lead by Pamela and Donald T. McMahon of Heartspace. The chants we sang as we prepared to open the circle are floating in my ears this morning, brightening my day as I watch the sun rise into clear skies for the first day in weeks. It is a blessing.

Today is the first day of the new year in some pagan traditions, the return of the sun after the longest night of the Winter Solstice. The rise of the sun on this day represents the leaving behind of that which no longer serves, and the turning towards the Source of grace and power for growth, symbolized by the sun.

Many avatars, Jesus among them, are believed to have been born on the Winter Solstice, but the calendar has not stayed in alignment with the precession of the stars. Still, Yule is a time of reflection, sorting out, discarding and renewing.

Our visualization in the ceremony was the dark of the Void, where the potential is greatest for creativity and rebirth. In the ceremony, we used deep breathing and toning–using sound to voice and release the tensions from our bodies, mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. Then, as in any clearing gathering, we each lit our candles of clarity and purpose. We chanted and sang together, an action that imprints the experience into the cells of ones soul.

The chant that stayed with me goes like this:

You are (I am, we are) the heart. You are the hands.
You are the voice of Spirit on earth.
And who you are and all you do
Is a blessing to the world.

This is another one.

I send my love (power, peace, joy) over the mountains
I send my love over the sea
I send my lover into the Heavens,
and it returns to me.

Today I feel more clear than I have in decades, open not only to change, but to being an agent of change. I am ready to move in the Void and work with the dark matter of the Universe to create myself as light.

Donald T and Pam live their music and their spiritual path, and their music reflects their joyful and grounded approach to the physical world. Please check out their music, especially Songs from the Sacred Spiral. Unfortunately these two chants are not on that album, but the ones that are will give you ear tunes enough to empower and enlighten the coming year.