Solstice Celebration 2023

2023-12-21

Under the heading of things to do nude with your friends, here’s a Holiday Tale.

As I’ve shared from time to time, we have been a part of a community sweat/sauna that has existed for something like 40 years. The land was sold a few years back, we ended up with a 501c3 and a bank account. After a few years of struggling to find a new location, I moved to a new home in more central Tucson, with the best conditions that I could find and we built a new sweat on my property.

We have a tribe, or an extended family of sorts, in our hearts. We have been having weekly “sweats” occasional fundraisers, work parties, a Thanksgiving gathering, and then last week, a Solstice Yule ceremony.

Around 20 or 30 members came around during the evening, happy to see old friends.

It starts with 16 to 18 people with confused expressions on their faces, being given a nail, a piece of wood, a 3×5 card and a pencil.  Around sundown, they all strip into proper sauna attire. DF smudges them, as they entered the sweat, one at a time.

I am waiting inside, next to the ambiance of a candelabrum, my notes are in hand, rolled up like a scroll. I greet each, as they choose their places among the double rows of redwood benches. I had tied red ribbons to decorate the top of my usual Russian felt sauna cap. Before long, job well done, DF enters, finding her own spot on one of the benches, which are now filled cheek to cheek.

I introduce myself as, “I’m Jon and I’ll be your facilitator tonight… Also, by the power vested in me, by no one in particular, the high priest.” I introduce DF as, “your high priestess.” It gets a few chuckles.

I explain, faking a solemn serious concern, “I don’t know if you have noticed, but the days have been getting shorter. If this trajectory continues, the sun may disappear altogether! For hundreds of thousands of years, people all over the world have been gathering during these times and chanting and whooping and hollering, praying for the sun to return…Obviously this has been working.” There are more chuckles.

I continue, “This is what we will be doing tonight, but it creates a new beginning, a new start, a whole new year. With all of this energy in the air and change of direction, it is an excellent time to piggyback onto and start anew, on a personal level, too.”

I instruct everyone to write down “things that you would like to give up” and suggest criteria. Then, I explain that the 3×5 card will be nailed into the wood. “Nail that useless stuff that is of no use to you anymore. Drive it deep into that piece of wood. Install it.” Hammers are passed around.

“Clear out, be rid of, cleanse like a sweat cleanses your body. Cleanse inside and out, body and mind. We have to make room for more stuff to come next year. Release negatives and what binds you. Shed what holds you down.”

I stand up and point to my calf. “You’ve all had that little kid attach to your leg, which won’t let go. You drag it along. You want to drop kick it, but you can’t. Unlike that, you may now drop kick any, or all of that ‘stuff, the fears and limitations.’”

“You can do it anytime, any day, with a breath. It’s in your DNA, but every so often, it needs to be a huge burp… Like right now.”

“We’re in a sweat, be the cleanse.”

I caution them, “Write like you believe that it is already happening, and take care to be precise, because you get what you pray for.”

“Out with the old…make some room for the new.”

I begin drumming a heart beat on an old plastic water bottle, while Alan begins to make the echo in here resonate in a spiritual realm, by blowing his enchanting virtuoso didgeridoo.

I am about to offer a chance to anyone who might have a compelling need to share (have I ever mentioned that I’m a retired therapist with a compelling need to ask people to share?), when DF rises up and begins to facilitate howling and dancing. It very soon takes on a life of its own.

In the dimming light and primal glow of candles, I encourage others to grab more of the numerous plastic bottle drums. We are all exchanging all manners of the noises of letting go, spirited enthusiasm, howling, whooping and banging rhythm with drums. DF is dancing about. Arms wave in the air. I trip over the didge. There is joint chaos, as a sound of burdens being cast off in relief and freedom fill the 10×12 room. Its 180F and sweat is dripping off of us all in a glistening sheen. It’s good to act like nobody’s watching.

A familiar song of death and rebirth arises, from the chaos. Then, a sweeter song of sacred fire and letting go into it arises. Soon, a member breaks into one of the oneness songs that we regularly sing and chant. We file back out into the dusk outside, bowing through the short door. Out there, I open up the oven door of the sweat’s heater. A fire is roaring inside and I toss in the first of many more blocks of infused Yule wood.

Ribbons are passed out and then we journey across the yard to tie them onto the branches of my young white mulberry tree. We mentally attach our intentions for the New Year to these ribbons and the energy of growth that possesses what is now a sacred tree.

Most return to the warm sweat. We’re whooped up, naked, but there’s a light chill after being out here awhile.

All of that dry fir and pine wood is burning hot and quick, so the sweat has become hotter still. I place my hands around the heater, as if I am actually doing something and then turn shouting the pronouncement, “By the power vested to me, ‘by nobody in particular,’ I hereby declare that we have prayed heat, fire and spirit effectively and the sun will be coming back once again!” This elicits cheers and more chuckles.

We sing and some go back outside. We feast on a table filled with potluck snacks, from kettle corn, to homemade cookies, from angel food cake to grapes and kombucha tea. There is a warm and inviting fire pit out here, under clear skies. Some of us just make repeated visits in and out the sweat during the evening, staying warm, relaxed and nude. It is a party. We’re grateful for this warmer day. This is a blessing.

Happy Holidays!

I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.

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