Awakened Heart Summer Solstice Retreat at Chichén Itzá

communityretreats

Jul 7

Summer is a time of abundance, fertility, and light. The seasonal transition is a powerful moment to manifest and create, the Sun’s loving energy infusing our own with creativity, connection, and bliss.

A few months ago, our beloved Gurmukh visited Mayaland with us and realized we were standing on powerful ground, a place created in perfect alignment with the cosmos, deeply rooted in Mother Earth, and blessed with our Mayan Elders’ wisdom. Then and there, we heard the calling to create the Awakened Heart Summer Solstice Retreat at Chichén Itzá.

As Gurmukh explained, “Each year, the great Earth cycles of the Equinoxes and the Solstices are powerful moments to dream a new dream for all of humanity. We are in a moment of rapid change with an opportunity to initiate ourselves into a different way of interpreting our everyday lives. We need to align ourselves with the cycles of the Earth, the Sun, and the Center of the Galaxy. We are on the brink of a fantastic journey to remember ourselves. We are now in the end-of-time window, the end of duality consciousness. A new united consciousness will replace our old way of perceiving, and we will see each other as parts of ourselves.”

The vision included honoring the land and allowing more people to learn from the Mayan Elders, understand the way our ancestors danced with the seasons, how our internal cycles are connected to Mother Earth and the universe, to let go of our dual vision and our excessive rationalization. And unite these teachings with the yoga for awareness, Kundalini. For there is the same essence in all, we are spiritual beings experiencing an excellent, loving, generous physical existence, and we can vibrate in such a way that this truth radiates into every day and everyone.

Sacred Fire opened and ended our time together, keeping watch and honoring the unseen, our intention and commitment. Men and Women came together in Circles that ended in a moment of deep understanding and integration. We were privileged to practice and learn from great teachers who also heard Chichén Itzá’s calling. It was an honor to practice with Krishna Kaur, Tommy Rosen, Kia Miller, Pauline, Gurmukh, and Gurushabd. To be led in Circles of Word by our Abuelos Ana Luisa, Julio, and Agustín, sharing their precise and poetic worldview and inspiring our soul.

Music is a central part of Ikal Tulum, and so it was in our Retreat, which had a high point in a moving and powerful all-night Kirtan to welcome the Solstice. Aykanna, Benny Oyama, and Jagadambika created a sound landscape that held the night in a ray of sunshine. And oh, we danced in prayer, we danced to celebrate, to fill ourselves with joy, to let ourselves go.

We are eager to sustain this beautiful vibration through the days and nights that follow, to find always a seat of laughter and awe in our soul, and to find kindred souls along the way. Let’s sustain the practice, the sacred fire in our mind, and meet again soon in the next Awakened Heart Ikal Retreat 2023.