We were provided with the wonderful opportunity to engage in sacred ceremony at the Ringstone standing stone circle that is being patiently and reverently built just outside Chemainus on Vancouver Island. Six of the eight stones are already in place and marker stones indicate the place where the other two will be anchored in. On the same property is a Cretan Labyrinth providing the opportunity to prepare ourselves by walking the labyrinth before engaging in the stone circle ceremony.

Why is the Summer Solstice so significant and why have people through aeons of time gone to all of the trouble of building these immense structures aligned to the Sun on this particular day? We have to consider not only the spiritual aspirations of the people but also the basic day to day needs. Today in the western world, we simply go to the Store to get our food, but in the ancient cultures the supply of water and food was essential to their very existence. The combination of spiritual practice and day to day practical needs was their way of guaranteeing a thriving, happy and harmonious community. Because of our lack of awareness of this natural harmonious balance with nature and human, the importance of sacred ritual has been largely lost.

Having recently visited Chaco Canyon in northern New Mexico, it quickly becomes evident how important this connection was to them. The Chacoan people built their entire civilization around aligning their buildings to the Sun, Moon, Planets and Star Constellations at critical times in the year including the Solstices and Equinoxes. Their philosophy was to reflect back to Creator the demonstration that Humans understood the need to create order out of chaos, just as exists in the Cosmic Creation of the Universe. This ordered connection between Heaven and Earth through sacred ceremony would ensure sufficient water and food would be made available to the people. What is really interesting is that the Chacoan people disappeared without trace and no-one knows what actually happened. Did they move on because they had accomplished their task or did they simply ascend into another dimension? They were clearly planning for something as they went to great trouble to build the "Great North Road" across the Landscape that lead to nowhere. It is believed that it was created to carry the people through to the after-life when passing form this life. Perhaps they all went together! Standing on that road that goes straight over mesas and through canyons alike, one can feel a beautiful flow of life force energy still in existence.

One of the most significant structures in Chaco Canyon is Fajada Butte which towers over the canyon at one end. According to Richard Leviton who sees the Mythic Landscape the Butte has wrapped around it a dragon, one of the planet's primary 13 dragons. It faces down the Canyon and is a Guardian for the sacred Temple of Wijiji-the Turquoise House. Atop Fajada Butte is a remarkable Cosmic Calendar where big slabs of rock have been positioned so that at the Equinoxes and Solstices sun daggers penetrate into an interior cave and light up a spiral etched in the internal rock surface. The spiral has 9.5 turns which reflect the lunar cycle of 19 years spiralling in and out. On the Summer Solstice a Sun dagger penetrates the spiral right down the centre. This is a reflection of the Cosmic Event of the Solstice Sun at its highest 

point representing the Sun King kissing the Goddess of Mother Earth. This moment of Alchemical Magic and marriage is the connection made between heaven and earth, to ensure fertility and abundance of the crops and for the people over the year. The ceremonial ritual therefore involves this conscious human connection between heaven and earth, spirit and matter. The spiritual connection to the earth creating this marvellous dance of co-creation.

A similar experience takes place at Stonehenge where the Summer Solstice Sun rises over the heal stone and floods the standing stone circle with light. Again the ancient Druids used this same moment in a similar way to the Chacoans and many Indigenous cultures around the world.

So now we had the opportunity to perform our own sacred ceremony in a new standing stone circle in the New World to bring prosperity and abundance into our lives, enriching our own spiritual experiences, manifested into form.

Walking the Labyrinth is a wonderful preparation for the Solstice ceremony. The Cretan Labyrinth is a seven level labyrinth and some believe relates to the seven chakras with the outermost layer being the base chakra and moving towards the centre on a circuitous path to the crown and ultimately the source of all that is in the centre. Going into the labyrinth is called purgation and is about purging out all of the daily distractions that keep us separate from source. As we walk in we let go of anything and everything that blocks us from making this deep connection. Standing in the centre is illumination where we receive from Great Spirit whatever we seek on this journey which may have been a question asked on entering. This moment is particularly poignant on the Solstice as you receive the intense illumination of the Solar Rays through you connecting heaven and earth. Returning out of the Labyrinth is called Integration and an opportunity to bring back out into the world the gifts received in the centre.

Inside the Stone circle we prepare ourselves as the sun begins to go down for our ceremony which involves; crystal bowls, chimes, rattles, drumming, toning, opening sacred space and offering blessings through an altar containing an abundance of flowers, crystals and personal iconic symbols. We are smudged before we enter the stone circle with sage smoke and rattle in preparing ourselves for ceremony. As the Sun goes down we begin a fire ceremony where we all take turns in going to a ceremonial fire with three arrows of wood representing a death arrow, a life arrow and one for the ancestors. We place these in the fire, one at a time, to let go of all that we are complete with in this life through the death arrow, a connection to our own ancestors to release old wounds and patterns in the second, and our new intentions for the next phase of our life in the life arrow. A very powerful ceremony for each person individually while being fully supported by the energy of the group and the Standing Stones surrounding us.

We return in the early hours the following morning to drum and rattle in the sunrise of the Summer Solstice Sun with a gentle coherent meditation as the sun makes its majestic appearance over the trees in the East. Further drumming, moving, toning and joyful celebration brings our ceremony to a conclusion. The Sun remains with us all day from sunrise 5.15 in the morning until sunset at 9.15 at night and it was the most glorious day of the year suggesting perhaps a wonderful summer to follow and an abundant harvest of all of our desires.

It crossed my mind as we conjecture on what the ancients had in mind and were actually doing all of those years ago with their man-made structures, as we connect with this brand new standing stone circle, what humans thousands of years hence will be thinking about what the humans of 2014 were actually doing at this stone circle in the middle of Vancouver Island! Yet to be fully understood!

As many of you know I was interviewed on the Virtual Light Broadcast in Las Vegas at the end of last month and here is a link to the interview if you have not yet seen it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGzDlhfPgzo

Also Steve Rother's channel in the last segment is well worth watching as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05eShHi4iXA