10th of July | Shuni Amvasya
24th July | Honouring the Teachers
31st July | The Way of the Crow
In the month of July we will be working with the themes of Saturn, traveling along 4 Moon junctions, starting with the Dark Moon of July 10th, moving on to the two half Moons of July 17th and July 31st, with the Full Moon sandwiched between them on the 24th of July. This series of Saturnian Tantric ritual will be undertaken upon ritual days of the astro-Tantric-calendar. On these evenings, we will be going further and deeper into some of the recent Saturnian themed work that we have been stepping into.
Saturnian themes of restriction have played out en masse in the events we have all faced in recent times. Feeling stifled by the events of our inner and outer lives can leave us with a sense of struggling against the weight of constricting forces. In such a constellation we are made to face our deepest Karmic themes.
The second date in the Moons of Saturn series will fall on the rising half Moon, when the Moon will balance in half, before its ascent to the full Moon. On this evening we shall continue upon the Saturnian journey and travel to the place where darkness and light meet in harmonious equilibrial balance. This ascending half moon will be in the lunar house of Hasta Nakshatra.
We will be ritualisticly working with the energy of this lunar house in this nights Astro-Tantric ritual. Hasta means hand and is the star of reaching into things with careful skill and dexterity. In this ritual, we will skillfully reach in to the passing dark face of the Moon and the unconscious world within us. With the material psychic gathered, we will proceed to move skillfully between the poles of dark and light, as we bring the unconscious world workably towards awareness.
The ruling deity of Hasta Nakshatra is Savitr. This is the name given to the midnight sun, who steps out of the dark and towards his rising face which the Yogins call Surya. The transition from dark to light, unconsciousness to consciousness will be the occupation of this nights ritual. The Moon on this night rises out of its dark phase, and will guide the ritual. This will be reflected in the work of bringing the deep dark Saturnian world into into view. The heavy oppressive energies of existence can’t be denied, and they ought not to be denied, if we are to travel the path of healing.
The poison is a medicine depending on how it is taken. The medicine becomes also a poison, if taken out of measure. On this nights ritual, we shall meet the balanced measure of poison and medicine. Those things that hurt the soul in the cold dank and dark subterranean realms, are the places from where the seed hatches to life. For Tantrics every ascending half Moon is a time to do a work of alchemy, and care for the seedling that is sprouting from the dark compost-barrel of our soul. When we chase the light too much we throw out compost and seedling together. This night’s ritual will be a reminder of, and a work with, the potent magical power of the pain we carry.
KIM is an Eco-Activist turned Yogi and the founder of Healing in the Willows, the retreat company hosting Working with the Shadow, which he developed in 2014 in collaboration with Boonath, who he assists with the teaching. Kim discovered Yoga in 2005, following a burn-out at work that brought him onto the path of ‘Yog’. Kim had spent over 10 years coordinating international environmental campaigns in Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin for major environmental NGOs, including Greenpeace, WWF, Friends of the Earth, ActionAid, and many others.