It's 3 Days before the Solstice and the Sage must prepare him

"It was three days before the solstice and the sage must prepare him."

It is now only a few days before I start to share the teachings of the Elements on my blog. It may seem strange to some of you or even funny that over the next few days I will be doing a lot of preparation before I begin to share these teachings.

I remember when my old teacher first taught these teachings. As a he stood on stage  before us, his students, you could feel a change in the energy of the room. My teacher looked nervous. I never quite understood why until I decided to share these teachings in such an open forum as a blog. The moment I made the decision I could feel a change in the energy around me. I was at once excited and then nervous as I began to realize the power of the teaching that I was about to share. To say the teaching is life changing is an understatement. For those of you who commit to the teachings and the odd discipline that will be thrown in, your lives will never be the same again.

For the three days before the solstice I would like you to sit somewhere in nature and meditate for twenty four minutes, one minute for each hour of the day. This is to be done to prepare you to connect with the cycles within nature; cycles which exist within man and mankind or woman and womankind if you prefer.

The Elements of Man is probably based on Taoist teachings which came from The Sages of the Plum Red Robes, an order of Old Chinese Taoist monks who lived 2500 years ago. The Taoist Sages revered the winter solstice as their most sacred time of the year. The winter solstice marked the longest night of the year, where the sun is then reborn, bringing in a new energy. These Sages would gather for three days for a Plum Wine Fast and tap on a table with bone knockers.

In honor of their tradition, there are a number of groups around the world who gather each year during the winter solstice for a Plum Wine Fast and tap on a table for three days with bone knockers, just as the Taoist Sages of old once did. It’s a deep meditative process that takes one into a very deep trance state. The wine didn't put the sage into a drunken state, rather a deeper state of awareness and perception of the inner worlds. 

On the nineteenth and through to the twenty first of June I would like you to honor the solstice with a drink on each day of plum wine, which can be bought from most good bottle shops. Before you drink your glass of plum wine meditate four twenty four minutes and allow yourself to be open to what ever comes forward. While drinking the plum wine allow your imagination to take you back 2500 years ago and experience the Sage's Winter Solstice ceremony. 

The Elements of Man will begin in Fire which is the Winter. The plum wine is a celebration of many things but importantly the beginning of a new cycle.

My old teacher taught us that if we lived in touch with the elements/seasons, we would never die from them or because of them. It is time for us all to reconnect with nature and I will see you again on the twenty first of June when we will begin the Elements of Man.

The 33rd Sage is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Watersons, Xlibris and a number of online book stores.

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