I absolutely love a good Tibetan Singing Bowl, I use them regularly for a lot of purposes (singing bowls and chimes actually). Recently, this adorable small company ShantiBowl.com sent me their amazing singing bowl for me to try. We have been using it for some time now and simply love it!
Thursday, June 21st was the Summer Solstice, and we used our Tibetan Singing Bowl as part of the celebration. Don’t worry if you haven’t done your Solstice practice yet, the Solstice energy hangs around for 2-3 days before and after the actual date, and let’s face it, intention is everything so better late than never.
Let’s talk about Solstice for a minute in case you aren’t familiar.
Summer Solstice
As you know if you have listened to my Podcast or been around for long – I love to tie in the physical, tangible, scientific, with the metaphysical, energetic, and woo-woo, so here is a little bit of history…
Solstice comes from the Latin word solstitium meaning stationary sun. Two times a year the sun takes “break” and it appears to rise and set in the same place for several days (see what I mean about missing the actual date). The sun literally takes a rest before making its next journey across the sky to the next Solstice. This sun “standing still” moment began well before our time, and cultures have been celebrating this twice a year phenomenon for millions of years.
The theme of the Summer Solstice is radiance, and it is primarily a lower chakra energy. Root chakra, sacral chakra, and solar plexus chakra. During this time of year, we naturally seek the light, nature, and outdoors. It’s no surprise that fire is very representative of the Summer Solstice.
The radiance of the Solstice also is a celebration of joy, warmth, laughter, all things that coincide with Summer. It also is a time of renewal and healing and the perfect time to release fears and move forward into harvest season.
Celebration or Ritual
While there are many styles or ritual and celebration, we choose to keep ours fairly simple. We go out as a family and sample a few herbs and wild plants and bring them up to create a huge mandala or crystal grid of all the colors and energy of summer.
This year we chose a combination of wild and garden herbs, grass clippings, candles, orange calcite, clear quartz, pyrite, and citrine…and of course our Tibetan Singing Bowl. All of the perfect energies wrapped up into one beautiful display.
You may be wondering how or why the singing bowl comes into play here, of all my singing bowls, this one has the most perfect sound for the lower chakras, so we use it in 2 ways…first, for the meditative properties and tuning of the chakras but also as a retuning modality for the crystals we place in the mandala or grid. It’s my thought process, and many others too, that you get the greatest energetic effects from layering frequencies. Here’s how it turned out:
Once we were done with the grid, we all took turns playing the singing bowl. And then left the candles burning until they burned out. The mandala or crystal grid is still there and will remain for another day or 2.
Here are some other Summer Solstice celebration ideas:
- Yoga. Summer Solstice often falls on or near International Day of Yoga. Celebrate by doing Sun Salutations. Bonus if you can do 108.
- Give. The more love you give, the more you receive in return. Give love in any way you can, it is amplified this time of year even if its just a little extra smile.
- Get out in nature. Be barefoot, ground your energies, garden.
- Meditate with Summer Solstice Mantras. One of my favorites is “I emerge into the light, fully embracing what is possible for me.”
Namaste!
