Summer officially begins in the northern hemisphere at the summer solstice on 21 June, when the Sun appears to reach its highest point in the sky for the year, making it the longest day and shortest night of the year.

Throughout the summer, visible light spreads out with intensity, the daytime slowly decreasing until the autumn equinox, when day and night are of equal length.

Night then increases until it reaches its peak at the winter solstice on 21 December, the moment when the Sun appears to reach its lowest point in the sky, in other words when night is longest and day shortest. The light is hidden, leaving more room for darkness.

Then the day gradually increases. As we pass through the spring equinox, day and night are of equal length, and light will continue to increase, resulting in a rise in sap in the plant world, until the peak of sunlight at the summer solstice.

A complete cycle unfolds with the seasons and a whole interplay between light and darkness, in this dance between the sun and the earth, acting on the living forces of the earth and marked by the festivals and activities of mankind in correspondence with this cosmic rhythm.

This rhythm is also found on a daily scale, with the sun rising over the horizon, reaching its zenith, disappearing from the horizon and the night deepening…

On the scale of life: birth, growth, middle age, old age and death.

On the scale of breathing: inhalation, suspension of breath, exhalation, suspension of breath.

Similarly, during the cardiac cycle: oxygen-poor blood enters the right atrium via the vena cava. The right atrium contracts and the blood is expelled into the right ventricle via the tricuspid valve. The right ventricle contracts and expels the blood into the pulmonary arteries via the pulmonary valve. This blood goes directly to the lungs to be loaded with oxygen.

The oxygenated blood enters the left atrium via the pulmonary veins. Contraction of the left atrium allows blood to pass to the left ventricle via the mitral valve. The left ventricle in turn contracts to expel the blood into the aorta via the aortic valve. The oxygen-rich blood can then be distributed to all the body’s organs, muscles and tissues.
This cycle repeats itself approximately 60 times per minute at rest.

At all scales, these cycles unfold, based on the same structure.

Where do these cycles originate?

The traditions of primordial Wisdom all evoke this knowledge, using different images and languages.

The Tao Te King expresses it in these terms:

“We join spokes to make a wheel, but it is the emptiness of the hub that enables the chariot to move forward.

We mould clay to make a vase, but it is the emptiness inside that holds back what we pour into it.

We nail wood together to make a house, but it’s the space inside that makes it habitable.

We work with being, but it is non-being that we use*.

In Genesis, it says “ENTÊTE Elohîm created the heavens and the earth,
and the earth was a tumult, a darkness upon the face of the deep, but the breath of Elohim was upon the face of the waters”.

According to the wise Kabbalist Isaac Luria (1534-1572), God’s first act was not an outward expansion (impossible because he is everything) but a withdrawal, a contraction. In the beginning, God would have withdrawn, retracted, allowing the world to come into being, in the form, first and foremost, of 22 sparks. This withdrawal, this emptiness allowing something else to be, is called tsimtsum, an essential concept in the Kabbalah.

Through an act of restriction, of Tsimtsum, we go from nothing, Ain, to Ani, I.

Ain has created a void, a self-limitation, a negation of itself. Then the circle is opened by the concentration of the central point, which expands. God manifests Himself in successive stages, from the Infinite Ain Soph, to the Light Ain Soph Aur, to the outpouring of 22 fundamental sparks or powers, manifested at lower degrees by 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

I invite you to track down, in your tradition, in your individual history, in your observation of nature, this emptiness, this fertile void, this original silence from which all sound emerges, this infinite potential that manifests itself in the visible world. I invite you to cherish it, to communicate with it, to cross this abyss between the visible world and its unmanifested source, to be regenerated little by little in this bath of jubilation of a living co-birth, to entrust ourselves tirelessly to the arms of mystery, as a newborn suckles the milk at its mother’s breast and receives all its strength from her.

And so summer comes, with its abundant sunlight, sun-drenched fruit and vegetables, harvest time, the energy of sharing, school holidays, longer festive evenings, sea bathing, walks in the countryside or in the mountains…

Do you know the fable of the cicada and the ant by Jean de la Fontaine? The cicada sings all summer long and when winter comes it has not harvested anything for those cold, dark days, unlike the ant, which has worked all summer long. It’s not a question of living a life of toil and torture, but of balancing these two dimensions within ourselves: work and holiday, celebration and relaxation in the work, a quality of eternity in the present.

Summer is coming. Let’s take advantage of it, celebrate it, remembering the source of all blessings in our lives, who orders everything. Let’s get in tune with him and express Light, Love and Joy in all that we do and experience, listening sensitively to the rhythms and cycles of the seasons.

How do you want to live this summer? What are you ready to harvest? What do you want to sow? What do you want to feed and water?

How are you going to prepare for the new cycles in the summer present?
We look forward to reading you, listening to you, sharing our thoughts and working together to provide you with the best possible support, wherever you are in your life cycle!