Suggestions for Equinox & Solstice Ceremonies

by Author and Taoist Instructor Michael Winn

(To receive Michael Winn’s monthly Healing Dao Newsletter called Chi Flows Naturally click on the link.)

 

1. SACRED SPACE – Keep it simple. Find or create a sacred space where no one disturbs you, indoors or out. The more neutral the better – if any element (wind, noise, sun) is too strong, it will distract you. Turn off all phones.

If you light five candles, put one in each direction and the center. For one candle, it depends on the season – for Spring Equinox put it in the East to symbolize the spring energy of new beginnings. For Summer Solstice put a red one in the South to symbolize the summer fire, expansion, transcending, rapid transformation. Winter Solstice put one to the North. The Fall Equinox candle goes to the West, a time of both harvesting and letting go.

Remember that any time will work since these are big events and he chi is flowing strongly for three days at the least. But if you wanting a specific time for Spring Equinox it is sunrise, which matches a perfect mini-equinox moment for spring with the sun rising in the east. Summer Solstice is high noon, when the sun is at its peak. Winter Solstice is midnight, the perfect mini-solstice moment that matches winter with the sun at its most hidden. Fall Equinox is sunset.

Face all the directions and smile or tone to all beings in that direction. Ask them to help you purify your ritual space. Don't forget to smile to the inner space of your body and attune to its highest most core divinity. Invite in the Tao Immortals, your personal guides, and any other beings you feel are important.

During the actual ceremony, I invite the Beings of All Directions and All Dimensions into my ceremony. Do not exclude the dark side – it is holding part of the balance. It is important to align yourself with the whole field of the life-force, as it carries your greater self – including the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. If we embrace the whole within our personal-self, then our ceremonial intention will come out balanced.

2. FOCUS INTENTION – Get a clear intention as to the ONE thing that is most important to GROW or birth in your life in this moment. Do not attempt to wish something for other people or even your own children – let them unfold their own nature. Be specific, be concrete as to what you want to change and grow in yourself NOW. Do not use language delaying anything into the future. Receive it NOW.

Don't feel guilty about asking to GROW material things if they truly would serve you best at this moment (such as a new car, a different job, a lover). It is not selfish to ask that your material needs  are met. Harmony and balance arrives from each individual completing their destiny, their soul desires. Just make sure they are authentic needs, not the idle desire for a million dollars. Do not ask for money except for the exact amount needed for a specific purpose – you risk growing unconscious greed or fear of not having money.

So you might say as an example, "I need to grow a thousand dollars for this specific retreat I want to attend." Or, "I need to receive $200,000. IN ORDER to grow a new life and buy a house in Hawaii." You don't need to focus on the selling of your old house, just whatever it is you want to grow.

You can grow a specific spiritual quality in your inner-body/mind-space, such as a greater capacity for self-acceptance, other-acceptance, the ability to heal a disease or a broken relationship, deeper power of meditation, deeper service to humanity, or deeper movement practice.

3. RITUALLY COMMUNICATE WITH CHI FIELD – After you have established your clear intention, face EAST (direction of Spring, sun bringing new life). Open your heart; share your sincere need to merge more deeply with the life-force and all beings. Do your movement ritual, which may involve facing and gathering chi from all five directions, as well as above and below. If you don't have a qiogng (chi kung) or a short piece of a tai chi form, do spontaneous movement such as a song, dance, or poetry. After you finish, face East again.

4. RELEASE PERSONAL INTENTION TO FIELD OF YUAN CHI (with your breath) – Infuse a booster shot of yuan chi or Original Breath from the Equinox chi field into your specific desire. Simply feel and mentally focus on your  desired goal very strongly, with all the personal chi you can muster. Your specific desire polarizes the chi field. Then release it into the larger chi field (with your breath and focused attention). This acts like a cosmic lube job, as the field of yuan chi at Equinox will spontaneously attempt to balance your desire. Nature now knows EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED and has an easy path with little resistance to delivering what you truly need.

5. BE PREPARED TO ACCEPT CHANGE – Many people forget about this part of the process. You want something new, and you do a powerful ceremony at a powerful fluctuation in the chi field, but that means YOU have to change in order to receive what you asked for. If you ask for more power in your life, it brings greater responsibility as well. This can come as a nasty shock to some. You get the new lover you asked for, but s/he makes a lot of demands on your old comfortable way of  life. Change is not only external – it must be matched by internal changes.

• A NOTE ABOUT THE QI (CHI) FIELD – The truth is no one owns the chi field, and any one deity or external agent or god does not control it. It simply IS. It is self-generating and self-regulating. Everyone can use its abundance if we have the skill to do it. We use it unconsciously all the time. But if we consciously use it to promote harmony and balance in our life, the Tao will give us more chi to play with. If we abuse it or over control for selfish ends, a natural contraction occurs, we will face increased resistance in our life and chi flow, resulting possibly in suffering, disease, or death.

I wish you a powerful ceremony and the power to digest what you invoke! May the Five Inner Tones of the Tao Sing in our Heart