A group of seven members yesterday met in and around the Paracelsus Centre of WTT near Einsiedeln, Switzerland to celebrate summer solstice. We were coming from different parts of Switzerland and from Austria.
The preparations were special, different from previous celebrations. Until few days ago, the borders between the central European countries were still locked due to Pandemia measures. In the last days and weeks, the regulations were slowly reverted again with certain caution prescriptions recommended. Besides, members of WTT-Global, Switzerland, were committed to organising international Solstice meditations & celebrations via Zoom, and some, who first thought of participating, decided to stay with the virtual meetings. Around the physical location of Paracelsus Centre, there is an area with no or very little internet connection. We wanted to meet again physically. The weather was quite rainy the days before, and also the day of Solstice started with rain in Austria. In the Swiss area, and also around Einsiedeln however, good weather was announced. And it was more than beautiful.
Around 9 am, we met at the top of the Etzel pass near the Paracelsus Centre, starting our walk to a fire place at the mountain ridge – on the one side you see the Lake of Zurich, on the other the area of Einsiedeln, an old place of pilgrimage, and the surrounding mountain areas. I conducted a fire ritual there. Flowers and fruits as “prasad” were lying in the grass. A sublime ambiance spread around. During the ritual, there were no hikers or bikers coming along the nearby trail, and while the group sang the Maitreya song, a group of hikers waited at a nearby panorama place. After the closed of the ritual, hikers and bikers started coming again.
Sabine had brought a small cooker with freshly cooked rice deliciously spiced “Indian style”. After the picnic breakfast we read for a while a text from the Summer Solstice seminar of Sri Kumar in Germany, 2008 – profound thoughts on the energy and importance of Summer Solstice. We closed there with the Global Prayer for Peace and then walked back. In the meanwhile, the place where our cars had been parked was crowded – many people wanted to enjoy the beauty of nature there. And we wanted to descend to the Paracelsus Centre….
At the centre, we improvised a small altar and started with the noon meditation, intonating 21 times OM. Towards the end, the thought came, that it was just 21 years ago that the Paracelsus Centre started. And so we began to exchange about what we remembered and what we had experienced – how in 1993, Master Kumar read in a Swissair inflight magazine about the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Paracelsus being in Einsiedeln, how, together with Jesús and Tiziana, he walked from Einsiedeln to the birthplace of Paracelsus near the old bridge at the Sihl river and had a vision of an eagle there, a symbol of the Master. How, in 1999, during the May Call celebration on Mount Rigi, the German group proposed to Master Kumar an excursion to the birthplace, where Sabine had participated. How there, the idea of a center there emerged. How a few days later, it came to be known that a small apartment had just become free in the house at the birthplace and how it was rent. How later that year, there was a group life in Einsiedeln with Master Kumar about Paracelsus, where the center was inaugurated. How then later, for some years, the center was established and after a few years again dissolved in Einsiedeln but the Paracelsus center remained. How the members of WTT-Global supported the project and met on certain occasions there. How inner and outer transformations took place with all members involved. A very profound exchange.
While the three members from Lucerne area had to leave again, we four members stayed. Improvised lunch, a little walk over the meadow to the luxuriant vegetation at the Sihl river, evening meditation and further exchanges. It was already late when we set out for the return journey.
There was an incredible golden light colouring the Sihl lake and the mountains in the background. We stopped at a small parking to take some pictures. Two camper-vans were standing there and three young men just had finished their dinner. A conversation started: They had come from different areas of Switzerland to enjoy nature there, looking for a place to pass the night. We told them about the Sihl river and the mountain ridge. They told us about their experiencing of nature – one of them has started guiding people into nature for “Waldbaden” (forest bathing), Shinrin-Yoku, experiencing the subtle qualities of nature in forests. It seems to be a hype at the moment – I saw many activities in Switzerland on the web. Very nice to spread an awareness of such experiences.
When driving back through the golden dusk and the night, I thought of nature’s movement entering now into the period of six months, until winter solstice, of night, inner and outer darkness. In this time, it is easy to lose oneself in the outer matter, and it is more important to keep the contact with the higher Self.
