The sun is “up” at the moment; a rare solar minimum flare, the strongest for almost a year, delivered a burst of sun energy on Saturday 26th at 13.22UT (click left for video). This affects us all from the very moment it happens, deep in our cells, whether its offshoot “arrives” anywhere near earth or not. If we are sensitive, we feel it “as it happens” and we notice it as it builds up heat. Because we are deep into solar minimum now, we notice it all the more for its contrast though, hard to believe, we were experiencing surges like this almost every day just a very few years ago. It’s like a wake up call, a reminder, a promise of the new sun cycle to come..which is only just around the corner, its murmurings already noticed as some reverse polarity sunspots that have started to overlap with this dying cycle. We are, after all, creatures of many cycles and, just like we may start to sense spring in the air on a January walk, invigorating us though the ground is still cold, we do this with the sun’s vaster cycles too and they remind us, at the cellular level, what we are all about. Because we are made of sun, just as surely as we are made-up of the moon…the masculine and feminine within us, as us (there can be no contest there…not if we want for good health) since both play their equally important part.

If we are tuned in to this, or even if we are not, we may have noticed a heat rising up in us, deep inside, over the last couple of days. It may have seemed chaotic, destructive, things may have seemed to “go wrong” or “go up in smoke” since we affect more than we know. Tempers may have sparked, situations flared-up out of “nowhere”, or technology may have faltered, crashed for “no reason” (eventually, we each have to come to know, respect and steer how much energy we are able to garner when we tune into the sun; like learning how to drive a sports car, this is part of our consciousness journey). There’s this precarious tendency for things to be made bigger than they really are and for petty things to be turned into pissing-in-the-snow contests if we aren’t on our guard in this energy flow. People become more strident, competitive or, some, more burned-out…their energy, as it were, consumed away as if they suddenly have none of it left, which may feel like a fever, a sudden cold. “Why am I so tired” they bewail, perhaps reaching for their comfort habits, though all they really need is extra down-time and to listen to what the body needs to cool its hard-drive down; lemon balm and water (not alcohol and caffeine).

Do we have anyone around us who is feeling drained by this new inner-heat? Hold their wrist lightly, or even our own if this is us, and we can probably feel a high-strung pitta pulse charging through the body (learn how to do this here). We refer to it all the time, don’t we, when we say somebody’s “blood is up”. Well, in Ayurvedic terms, their pitta (fire) is up and it would serve them well to seek out more vata (light and airy) and kapha (grounding and moist) balancing agents, in whatever ways they can. We’ve enjoyed some wonderfully refreshing winds here in the UK and a good walk in those, but not for too long since wind can whip up a flame, can be so therapeutically cooling on the cheeks, followed by warm (not hot) liquidy drinks and foods to stabilise the energy. We may have gone the other way and feel invigorated by this new surge of life-force; so we want to go with it, to catch onto the tail of inspiration and dive into projects while this turbo-boost is coming-in so thick and fast. Great…just be careful not to burn out by attempting too much too soon and balance this with variety; quiet times, meditation, a walk in the park.

When we get so desperately out of balance, we tend to focus such a lot on “inflammation” (in our world, in our bodies) that we forget just how necessary fire really is. As we come to know our own bodies and our energy systems better, we can work all the more effectively with these sun behaviours, recognising them as (really) ours and how they are here to serve us in a myriad ways that progress our lives. Like the sun warms the seed under the ground, triggering it to sprout, urging it to push through the soil into new circumstances, these sun events signal to us that its time to grow ourselves. If we feel anger, irritation or frustration, this is just because we woke up as though from a deep sleep and realised we want more than what we are currently putting up with…that’s all. If we are angry and frustrated with others, it’s because we direct at them our own frustration at ourselves. When we see this all the more clearly, we stop fighting everyone and everything around us and work with ourselves to effect the very changes that we long for, using sun-power to fuel our next evolution.

Because sun energy engenders change; it actively encourages it in whatever form it comes…and any movement makes for change. In fact that very word I so-wanted to use holds a clue; to engender is to beget, to procreate, to catalyse, invoke, spawn, give rise…this is what the masculine energy brings to the sum of all things. It derives from the same word as gender: the Latin word generare which means to produce or beget so how can we ever engage in gender wars…this masculine part of the equation is how we create, both inside and out. This procreative movement, this change, could be anger, an uprising…could be a dance or a whole new paradigm; it’s all from the sun. Women who rail for feminine causes, me included, are drawing on their inner masculine as they do this. What we have to remember is that this energy is us; it’s within us, not “happenening to us” from the outside, though there is a collective-contagious aspect to these surges when they happen, for sure. Developing what I term “responsible masculinity” is a necessary part of the evolutionary journey; and its an inside job. We each get to interpret our own version of it, to take it to one extreme or the other…or somewhere in the middle and that’s what its all about; finding our balance.

reposted via The sun is “up” on Living Whole

Related post: Responsible masculinity