It is just another day unless…
 
Your calendar tells you it is the Solstice and one of four seasonal thresholds. 
You measure the minutes of daylight and compare it to the minutes of night.
The mathematics of the movement of the celestial bodies over time are thrilling to you. It is to me.
 
Maybe you have a pagan
soul and create sacred ceremonies and rituals on solstices and equinoxes to acknowledge the amazing polarities  of nature and light/darkness. Do you do this with other pagan souls?  I so admire this devotion to Nature and its Gods and Goddesses. 
 
But I have spent my life researching the experience of Self.  I spend all my time wondering, pondering, contemplating and imagining the inner mysteries of soul and spirit in both archetypal and the personal gestures. 
 
So the Winter Solstice for me is about how each of us experiences and relates to inner darkness and light, silence, stillness, and emptiness. 
 
This is my 77th Winter Solstice. I didn’t start attending to the Winter Solstice as an inner mystery until I was in my 40’s. Each year I give more attention to my inner Winter Solstice. I may ask the same questions but my perceptions and understanding evolve. 
 
I am sending you this email to remind you to pay attention to your soul and the Solstice today. Just for a few minutes spend time with some simple questions about your own feelings about darkness, stillness, silence, emptiness and solitude. 
 
Turnout all the lights in your home and let the darkness surround you as it deepens. Then light a candle.
 
Sit in a meditative stillness while being aware of the endless activity going on in your body. Then blink your eye or lift a finger. 
 
Listen to
the spiritual silence in your soul. I have tinnitus so I never experience sensory silence, but I can go into my soul and find a divine quiet. Then effortlessly sing a tone or moan as you exhale.
 
A Solstice Gift
Here is a Solstice gift for you, a chant by my dear friend, Arati.  Listen to it tonight after meditating on silence. Arati gives a breath-taking chant of the harmony of differences.
 I share
this to inspire peace in your soul and Peace on Earth. 
 
Chants Turn the Earth 
by Arati Shah-Yukich
 
 
Namaste !
Arati Shah- Yukich
Recording made in 2022 
Arati Shah-Yukich personal bio page
https://aratibio.wixsite.com/aratibio
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18sOyGjsoHoYNPvL5c4o8KqF6SUojFdmO/view?usp=drive_link
 
ABOUT THIS RECORDING 
*“Chants Turn the Earth”*
 
Feeling the pain of so many religious conflicts around the world …I found myself in some kind of a mediation in which I experienced / saw/ heard the following vision and sounds :   “ Our earth is rotating on its own axis and around the sun …in the space and time continuum the
chants are rising  from around the world … like a shimmering swirling whirlwind the chants are enveloping the earth spraying the earth with blessings of kindness and peace. … the power of Naad ( sound vibrations ) for peace and unity is far greater than the mere gravitational forces that moves the earth around its axis and around the sun.  
 
The Naad for peace and unity is dissolving our collective Karmik burdens, and turning the earth around the Divine Sun.  “ 
 
 This above vision inspired me to creat this multi-track recording where the prayers/ chants are from the following religious and spiritual traditions:
 
- Sikhism
- Hindu (Rama, Krishna, Devi, Shiva)
- Yogic traditions
-Jainism 
- Buddhism 
- Zoroastrian ( parsi ) 
-
Islam
- Christianity
- Judaism 
- Humanitarian desire for peace 
— birds representing all of life 
- silence at the end of the recording that is the portal of God 
——-
So I am sending this recording  … and inviting the listener to render his or her heart to the chants …