The anticipated December 21st, 2012 solstice came and past in the blink of an eye exactly a year ago today. Some people expected something drastic or apocalyptic to happen, others were on a vigilant look out for the singularity to go down, some people celebrated like modern-day pagans and yet others forgot the day even happened. I took part in the third, and also took the opportunity to make a simple but transformative enough change in my life—I decided to stop eating meat.
I stopped eating red meat back in 2010 and sporadically decided to go cold-turkey (pun intended) on the poultry on the 2012 winter solstice. I was originally going on the fleshless diet for at least a year, but a few months after exploring various vegetarian door-ways, I quickly began to lose interest in eating food involving blood and bones. Although I'm aware that there are impressive health benefits that accompany eating animal organs and wild-caught meat, I think there are an unparalleled level of health advantages if you incorporate modern-day super-foods into a vegetarian diet. Popular and time-proven super-foods such as maca, hemp seeds, avocado, raw cacao, chia seeds, coconuts (and oil), goji berries, quinoa, chlorela and spirulina are meant for the supermen and wonder women of this world.
If you miss the texture of meat, look no further than the rich-tasting world of mushrooms. While traveling around Mexico I found and fell in love with the taste of nopal, a delicious, meaty and edible cactus usually grilled and served in your soft taco or tlayuda. And I don't have to mention the overabundance of avocados in Mexico. You have to be be careful you don't step on a pile of guacamole on the street, or that a ripe avocado doesn't fall on your head while walking under avocado trees.
Below is a short, four minute TED talk by Graham Hill, the founder of treehugger, introducing and explaining the idea of becoming a weekday vegetarian.
I stopped eating red meat back in 2010 and sporadically decided to go cold-turkey (pun intended) on the poultry on the 2012 winter solstice. I was originally going on the fleshless diet for at least a year, but a few months after exploring various vegetarian door-ways, I quickly began to lose interest in eating food involving blood and bones. Although I'm aware that there are impressive health benefits that accompany eating animal organs and wild-caught meat, I think there are an unparalleled level of health advantages if you incorporate modern-day super-foods into a vegetarian diet. Popular and time-proven super-foods such as maca, hemp seeds, avocado, raw cacao, chia seeds, coconuts (and oil), goji berries, quinoa, chlorela and spirulina are meant for the supermen and wonder women of this world.
If you miss the texture of meat, look no further than the rich-tasting world of mushrooms. While traveling around Mexico I found and fell in love with the taste of nopal, a delicious, meaty and edible cactus usually grilled and served in your soft taco or tlayuda. And I don't have to mention the overabundance of avocados in Mexico. You have to be be careful you don't step on a pile of guacamole on the street, or that a ripe avocado doesn't fall on your head while walking under avocado trees.
Below is a short, four minute TED talk by Graham Hill, the founder of treehugger, introducing and explaining the idea of becoming a weekday vegetarian.
The solstice is latin for solstitium, meaning "the point at which the sun seems to stand still." It represents both symbolic and literal tipping points. Ancient sites ranging from Stone Henge and the Temple of Karnac, to Machu Picchu and Chichen Itza all revolve around the December solstice. The winter solstice is a precise point in time marking the closure of a cycle and the beginning of a new one. This represents everything a new year is supposed to be. It seems as if it opens up a portal to a brand new cycle of unfoldment. And in my opinion it makes more sense to begin a new cycle guided by nature than that of by man (Gregorian calendar). This is a more appropriate time for New Year's resolutions, don't you think?
I spent last year's winter solstice celebrating with Incas, hippies, pagans, tourists and Mayas under the torrential rainforest downpour in the ancient Mayan ruins of Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico. The beating of the drum appeared to mimic the giant globules of rain water beating on us. The quicker the drum master's tempo became, the greater the volume of rain water spilled. Bathtub-sized buckets of rain water were spilling on us by the thousands every minute. I've never quite experienced the beating of drums and ceremonial dance perfectly synchronized with the pattering tempo of rain water before. (And I didn't even eat the local, honey-covered mushrooms yet.)
During the epic solstice maelstrom, the elders informed us that this monumental winter solstice ceremony could not be held in the logical location inside of any of the resonating ceremonial temples in the heart of Palenque. After all, what purpose did these megalithic temple structures serve if it were not for ceremonies on sacred celestial dates? The elders explained the "westernized" people on the tourism board thought it would detract or frighten ordinary tourists from visiting the site. Instead, the tourism board decided to force the ceremony out into the far, muddy corners of the giant archeological site of Palenque. The Palenque tourism board apparently refused to sully the sanitized image of the ancient ruins by having modern Incas and Mayas performing an ancestral solstice ceremony.
The indigenous people pleaded us to inform the greater public that the temples their ancestors built should be accessible to them for ceremonies such as that as the winter solstice. Why are they forced out to the fringes of a muddy jungle to perform the ceremony rites that should be performed inside of their ancestor's temple?
I'll leave you with some footage of the 12/21/12 ceremony in Palenque last year. Have a Happy Solstice!
During the epic solstice maelstrom, the elders informed us that this monumental winter solstice ceremony could not be held in the logical location inside of any of the resonating ceremonial temples in the heart of Palenque. After all, what purpose did these megalithic temple structures serve if it were not for ceremonies on sacred celestial dates? The elders explained the "westernized" people on the tourism board thought it would detract or frighten ordinary tourists from visiting the site. Instead, the tourism board decided to force the ceremony out into the far, muddy corners of the giant archeological site of Palenque. The Palenque tourism board apparently refused to sully the sanitized image of the ancient ruins by having modern Incas and Mayas performing an ancestral solstice ceremony.
The indigenous people pleaded us to inform the greater public that the temples their ancestors built should be accessible to them for ceremonies such as that as the winter solstice. Why are they forced out to the fringes of a muddy jungle to perform the ceremony rites that should be performed inside of their ancestor's temple?
I'll leave you with some footage of the 12/21/12 ceremony in Palenque last year. Have a Happy Solstice!
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