Sensual Being
A podcast hosted by Jolene, tapping into your inner wildness, and how you connect with yourself, others and the world around you.
With 20 years experience teaching woman to pole dance, an addiction to Yoga, and a desire to connect with animals and be in nature, Jolene will unlock parts of your soul you didn't know needed unlocking.
This postcast covers many topics including; confidence, intimacy, kink, intentions, and becoming more aware of how we see ourselves.
Sensual Being
Ep 109 - Fire, Sun, and Sensuality
The sun beats down, days stretch long into the evening, and something ancient stirs within us. That feeling—the call to celebrate the Summer Solstice—runs deeper than modern traditions. It's a primal connection to Earth's rhythms that our ancestors understood intimately.
What happens when we reclaim our relationship with the sun instead of fearing it? In this illuminating exploration, we challenge the modern narrative that demonizes solar energy while examining ancient wisdom that honors the sun as life-giver. From the practical benefits of morning sun exposure to the fascinating practice of sun-gazing, discover how respected cultures around the world have maintained healthy relationships with solar power without chemical interventions.
Fire rituals take center stage as we delve into transformative practices for both release and manifestation. Whether writing down what you wish to burn away from your life or igniting your deepest intentions through flame, these ancient techniques harness the electric connection between solar energy and our own internal fire. The magic happens not just in following specific steps, but in the power of intention—especially when amplified through collective celebration.
I share details about my own "Soul-stice" retreat featuring shamanic drumming, ecstatic dance, and cacao ceremony, demonstrating how traditional practices can be adapted for contemporary spiritual seekers. This isn't about rigid religious observance but finding authentic ways to honor natural cycles that resonate with your own path.
As modern life increasingly disconnects us through screens and artificial environments, these seasonal celebrations offer a vital tether to something real. Whether you dance naked around a bonfire (just mind your nips!) or simply pause to express gratitude to the sun, this moment of connection grounds you in the eternal cycle of light and dark, growth and rest.
Ready to spark your own solstice magic? Join me in celebrating the sun's peak power and discover how this ancient tradition might just be the remedy our disconnected modern lives are craving.
- If you would like to connect further you can find me on Instagram @jolenesensualbeing
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I hope you enjoy your day.
Jolene
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Hello and welcome to the Sensual being podcast with myself, your host, jolene Whiting. I have been a pole dance teacher for nearly 20 years. I'm also a yoga instructor and my favorite pastimes are connecting to my own sensuality, connecting with the world and connecting with animals as well. In this podcast, you'll find new and inventive ways of how you see yourself, connecting yourself with others, and also how you see and view the world around you. Today we are talking about the summer solstice, how to embrace the sun's energies and also connecting in to the powers of fire. Hello, sensual being, and thank you so much for joining me today. Our episode today is very much geared around the wheel of the year Celtic festival, pagan tradition, or celebrating the summer solstice. Now, the summer solstice normally is around the 20th to the 23rd of June every year, and it is the midsummer. It's when the sun is at its most powerful and it's also where we have the longest days. So at the moment, currently, it's still daylight at 10 pm, which just seems madness in the UK when this happens, and I remember when I used to teach my classes late and finish at half nine and I wouldn't be leaving the studio until like quarter two, ten to ten and thinking oh, it's still daylight when I'm going home and it would only last for about like three weeks of the year, two or three weeks. It's like such a little window of like that extra, extra light before, like the jet, the days start drawing in. So when we celebrate summer solstice, we are also welcoming in the darkness to an extent as well, because the days from there onwards will start to get shorter and it's not like, oh my god, it's gonna. You know the days are drawing in. It's like it doesn't happen that quick, but it's that acknowledgement of the seasons and the cycle of life. And I always find summer solstice is such a powerful one. It's such an easy one for us generally to all get together as well, because generally longer days, better weather, better mood it's easier to meet up with people and enjoy the celebration together, whereas when you have the winter solstice, which is just before Christmas time, you know that's a harder one, that can be harder. You know, are you going to get up and go out and see the sunrise and things like that? You're probably not. It's probably going to be wet and cold and you're probably going to choose to stay in. So the summer solstice is one that so many people celebrate, even if they don't really.
Speaker 1:It's funny, some people don't really follow any sort of pagan traditions and stuff and yet they still celebrate a lot of the same pagan traditions and I think a lot of it is deep rooted within our psyche. You know. It goes from like previous lives that we may have had and how we may have shown up at those times of celebration and it's a real honoring of the land, the earth, the sky, the sun. It's a real honoring of being here in this way. I mean, if you believe that there's like other galaxies that we could like reincarnate into and stuff in other lives, or maybe we go on to a different planet, I do believe that there is nothing quite like the Earth experience and I'm sure every other place that we could reincarnate to is the same deal, like there's nowhere else like this one, nowhere else like that one, but Earth she has like a real grounded, nurturing, emotional play out in our lives. So I just find it's fascinating being here, and that doesn't mean to say it's easy. I do know that all those things I just said, they come with a lot of things like attachment and then we lose people and things like that, like attachment, and then we lose people and things like that. But if we can really try and let emotions move through us, we can have a much better time here.
Speaker 1:And that is hard, that's easier said than done, but for me personally, I really like to sink in to these celebrations. Sometimes I do this with people, sometimes I don't, but I do think it's really important whether you celebrate on your own or even just acknowledge. It doesn't have to be a full on celebration, just acknowledge the seasons, the time changes, the light differences. I think that makes us much more connected into the now, into the groundedness of being here on the earth. I do solely believe that that is very important and I think that our lives are getting taken away more and more by screens, by things that are not real, and we are led to believe they're real, or we're getting addictions to more things like food, drink, drugs, screens, games, films. It's all part of taking us away from really really being here, getting your feet on the earth, looking up at the sky and just staring at the clouds in like awe and wonder, and I do really think that it helps us to be more grounded and, when we like, look at the sun.
Speaker 1:The sun, to me, is very driven. It's it's very bold. You know, when you look at like the moon, she's a lot delicate and I like to think of the sky and the sun as being like a very masculine energy Father sun, father sky, and then you've got mother earth. You know, they're kind of polar opposites and they work together and I like looking at them in this sort of way. You know, we do much more activeness in the day compared to in the evening and nighttime, when we slow down. Slowing down, I feel, is like a very much more of a softer, feminine type of way, whereas when you look at the sun, it's a lot more like driven. It's a life giver to the earth.
Speaker 1:And I always find it really interesting because, at the end of the day, my view is I don't think anyone on this planet knows how we got here. Yeah, no one knows. So before I dive in to the book of Genesis oh, you're going to love me for the next two minutes I just find this sort of thing fascinating because nobody actually knows how or why we ended up here on the earth. So I'm only going to read you the first paragraph of Genesis. So it says and God saw that the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Speaker 1:And I just kind of think it's interesting how we demonize the sun. A lot, a lot of media, a lot of doctors. They'll all demonize the sun. Get out of the sun. Get out of the sun. I don't personally believe that is 100% accurate. I think we have been, there's been a lot of scare tactics to take us away from the sun. And yet the sun, if you're going to go, according to the book of Genesis, is pretty much the first thing that got created on the earth, and then all the other bits. If you choose to read it I'm not going to read it to you, don't worry All the other bits out there is like what comes next, like the vegetation and the, the animals, that all comes after.
Speaker 1:But you need the light first. The sun is a giver of life force, energy. How many times has it been like so, so cloudy and overcast, or raining for a few days and all of a sudden the sun comes out and you go outside? Now I find this particularly if it's spring or autumn that really restorative sun. It's not too hot but it's really nice and you go out and like the sun is beating down, so so magical, and I think we need to respect the sun.
Speaker 1:We need to respect the sun so much because when we kind of go out in the middle of the day in full, full heat, we are not respecting the sun. We we have to be very careful. I mean, if you go to the desert I've just thought of this now if you go to the desert and you see people walking through the desert, do you think they're walking around in shorts and t-shirt? They are covered normally in light colours as well, like white is very reflective, rather than black, which would like heat up, and you know they're covering up. There's a respect for the sun in different cultures. And also don't forget that if we from the UK, for example, go on holiday to a really hot country, much hotter than our country is, we're not used to that heat, we're not used to that sun exposure. So we really do need to respect the sun.
Speaker 1:Because I'm more for respecting the sun and putting on suntan lotion, if I can help it, because I hate what's in them awful and then I hate what they do to the planet. So you put it on there, you go swimming and into the sea and you're putting more and more chemicals into the sea, so it's a vicious circle. You can get like mineral sunscreen and it's mineral based and that's better, but I still prefer, if I have a choice, I'm going to try and respect the sun, going out in the first sun of the day in the morning before it gets really hot, or, if you prefer, the evening sun, either one of those is very good for you in moderation and you can build up your sun tolerance through that way. Also, eating a lot of vitamin, vitamin c foods would be good, like citrus fruits, oranges and watermelons are very good because they penetrate your skin so much when you eat them that you actually have a nice natural, natural defense to the sun exposure, because what you want the sun to do, so you do want to get sun on your skin, because that reaction in your skin will make your body create vitamin D, which we do need, particularly for like bone density and things like that. We need that. So we need to use the plants of the earth, the citrus, to actually make our skin better, more tolerant to what the sun can give us to make that react, to give us vitamin d. So we definitely need the sunshine as much as possible and also with the sun.
Speaker 1:When the sun is rising and when the sun is setting, you can try what's called sun gazing and that is actually where you look at the sun. But the lower the sun is in the sky, the safer. This is because within our life, we want to try and get the full spectrum of colors within our eyes, and to get this naturally is the best way to get it from led lights is not going to work, but to get the full rays of the sun. The sun has a healing properties for our eyes and since I started doing sun gazing about two years ago and stopped wearing suntan lotion and what's the other one? Um, sunglasses, I don't wear sunglasses. I haven't worn sunglasses. This is my third summer that I've not worn them and I'm already in June and your eyes get used to it. They really, really do.
Speaker 1:And I like to sit out in the sun and read a book, and I can still see my book even without sunglasses on. And if I feel like I can't look at the books, the books too bright and I feel like I'm getting a headache. That's not the right time for me to be sitting out in the sun, because my body tells me not today, not right now and I listen to it. I don't just put on a pair of sunglasses and power through. I always try and make sure I wear a hat when I'm in the sun, particularly in the middle of the day, because I find that that really helps me as well.
Speaker 1:But sun gazing is amazing. But you'll be told not to look at the sun. The sun is dangerous. But how can the sun be quite that dangerous if all of our plants are going? Hey, look at me. The trees are growing up, the highest ones in the forest forest. They'll always try and get one up on each other, like tree versus tree, to get higher and higher, to be close to the sun. It's because it's really important. Our pets we see them basking in it, like my dog. He's black and he'll go and lay in the sun and he's gonna cook himself if he's not careful one day, or cook himself into a little pumpkin pie, but he absolutely loves it. He loves it. He knows animals, know animals, know what is real and what isn't. So sometimes I just look at plants and animals and I think, okay, I'm gonna take a little bit of a leaf out of your book and what do you do and try and do that.
Speaker 1:But we can also link the sun with the element of fire. The sun is arguably this big, big ball of conscious fire energy and when we use that energy on earth, we are like literally bringing the above to below. We are transporting that energy to the earth. So fire rituals around this time are huge as well. Whether it's candles, whether it's a fire pit, whether it's a full on bonfire, it doesn't matter. And if you're not in a position to do any sort of fire rituals, you can meditate and imagine a fire as well, because fire comes from within, like fire in the belly fire up your imagination, firing up the brain. You know there is fire, fire in the eyes, you know there is fire within us and fire, when we link into it, is very much linking in to, like, our vitality, our lust for life, our lust for life. It can be a sexual energy as well, it can be an enchanting energy, it can be a creative energy, that creative spark, a spark, a burning desire. All of these really link in to the element of fire and which fire is really heavily connected to the sun. And if you're calling in the directions for a ritual, the fire will be in the south, because in the in the south that is the time of the highest sun in the day. It's like the noonday sky. It's the highest, most powerful sun and it can bring with it this real heightened energy. Now, as the days do start to get shorter again, in the night start to draw in.
Speaker 1:Like I said, this is not a fast process, so don't think, oh, my god, she's talking about winter already. No, I'm not. But we've had such a build-up. There's so much that gets planted at this time and there's so much in the germination and the growth of our planet at this time that when we start to tip over the solstice, that's when the fruits will come into fruition and then we can actually start harvesting so much of our food like the apples on the apple tree this year have. Just, they are mental on our apple tree, absolutely mental. Glenn thinks it's because I keep singing to the tree that they've gone extra mental this year and I'm quite happy to believe him on that. I love that because I do sing to the apple tree and I talk to her very often. But the apples now they are really starting to grow and then we get them. I think it's normally around August time, normally around like the time of Lammas. That's normally like the harvest time for the apples and it's just amazing to watch this journey of them growing through the fire of the sun.
Speaker 1:It's all all connected and when we use fire for fire rituals, it can be done in a whole manner of ways. So, for a start, this can all be done in your own imagination through like meditation or thoughts or journaling or things like that. But you can actually do this as well, like with a flame or with a fire pit. Just be careful, obviously. Do this as well, like with a flame or with a fire pit, just be careful, obviously. But when it comes to like tapping into the element of the fire and connecting to father sky, the sun, what you can do is, if there are things in your life that you don't want anymore, we can write them down on a piece of paper and you can set them to burn so you can burn them in the flame and watch them dissipate. They are gone, they are out of your life. You are making that intention to get rid of something from your life. But also, on the flip side, you can write an intention down on a piece of paper and then you can put it into the flame and watch it ignite. Watch it ignite with, like fire, energy, creative sparks, and then watch the smoke that comes up as a way of that is going out into the universe, because that's what you want to, you know, implement in your life, or that's a wish that you want to have happen.
Speaker 1:The intention around fire ritual is everything, and what I like to do is, if we are doing a fire ritual, that when I like to do, get the negative ones out the way first and then do the positive, so anything that we want to burn and get rid of. Not everyone has to do it, but the ones who want to do that side of it, because you can do both, but the ones who want to get rid of something. We all do that together, because what you don't want to do is have some people putting in something to get rid of and then someone putting in something they want to ignite. We want the group collective intention of our energies. This is why we come together in groups and covens, because that collective energy charge is what it is all about. So when you're putting something in to get rid of, we will all collectively have that intention of watching it burn to cinders.
Speaker 1:We don't want it. It's ashes to ashes, dust to dust. We don't want it anymore, cinders, we don't want it. It's ashes to ashes, dust to dust. We don't want it anymore. But then after that we ignite. We ignite our passions, our ideas, our creative sparks and we set that off out into the universe through the power of the flames and the smoke. Allow it to visualize being taken up and dispersing it's out into the universe. Now, visualize being taken up and dispersing it's out into the universe. Now do your magic kind of feeling and again, like, the intention behind it is everything.
Speaker 1:And if you do any sort of fire ritual, you don't have to let stuff go, and you have. You don't have to ignite, you don't have to do all of it, unless you want to. You might just want to burn something or you might want to just ignite something. It doesn't matter. And you can do more than one thing. You can write it on the same bit of paper, you can write it on different bits of paper. There is no, like major right or wrong way of doing this, as long as you're safe and as long as you have the right intention around it. Whether you tell people what's written down or not, up to you. It's completely up to you how you do your rituals and, like I said, you can imagine this as well. You can imagine it happening and what solidifies it even more is like dancing around the fire, particularly together, and really creating this magnetic energy together. If you want to top it all off, literally take your tops off, take your clothes off and literally dance naked around the flame. Just be careful of your nips. Okay, be careful.
Speaker 1:And in case you're interested in what I am doing for the solstice, I have named my day retreat that I'm doing this year Solstice, as in, not S-O-L, I've named it S-O-U-L-S-T-I-C-E, sol, as in your soul Solstice. So we are doing a day retreat for six and a half hours, I think it is, and we're starting at three o'clock in the afternoon, finishing at 9.30. And we're going to be going through. It looks like amazing weather this year. I can't believe it. It's amazing Actually. No, I can believe it, let's believe it. So I'm hopefully going to be putting up the beacon tent, my big bell tent and we're going to start in there and we're going to end in there and, to be honest, we might even eat in there as well. I hadn't thought about that bit but yeah, we might eat in there.
Speaker 1:But we're going to start in there by doing like a grounding meditation, some energy clearing, some tapping, a little bit of Qigong, just so really kind of ground, and a bit of smudging and saging, really kind of like ground into the space, a bit of a sharing circle. If people want to share, like how they're feeling or what their intentions are for the day, they can do that there Because, remember, we're coming together collectively, so you don't have to share. But sometimes actually speaking the words out into the world, you know, have powerful meaning and they can really take on more energy when we do that. And we're then going to go through. I call it beaten heart yoga. So we do have the yoga, but once I've taught just a few little bits, it's not particularly hard, this yoga, that that we do together. But once they've learned just a little bit, I then play the drum, the shamanic drum, to give them like that earthly heartbeat, for you know, it really channels in whilst they're moving at the same time, and I'm not calling them through the moves, I'm literally just drumming, because going in to the movement with the drum it's like it really does, like it can really like channel your mind and fire up your body and your energy. So that's what we're looking to do, as well as after that, we're going to go into an ecstatic dance now.
Speaker 1:My brother he's. I was going to say he used to be a DJ, but to be fair, he still is um, and he used to. I say used to. I mean we used to go clubbing and he used to DJ at clubs. I used to dance at clubs and that was like my life growing up around like the 2000 time, year 2000, and we used to run club nights as well and he used to DJ. And he used to DJ normally hard dance, hard trance, techno and a little bit of acid techno.
Speaker 1:And he has done me a mix for this event and we're going to be doing an ecstatic dance to one of his sets that he's created just for us, and he's even put one of his own songs on there as well, one of his own tracks that he's created. So yeah, that is good. I can't wait for that because I've not had an ecstatic dance ritual at one of our events before. I've been to them but I've never actually held one. I was hoping my brother could actually come down and do it in person, but he couldn't make it. So this is the next best thing by having one of his mixes for us.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that again it's like it's using that high energy, using the high energy from the sun to, you know, create this whole vibe. The good thing is that we're gonna have the doors open. If it's too hot, you just chill out. You don't have to dance, you can just like, receive the music and allow, like, the beats to channel through. It's a bit like when I'm doing the drumming for the yoga. You know you allow that beat to take on and like an alpha state through your mind. You know it's a way of meditating without sitting. Still, it's meditative movement.
Speaker 1:That's what we're doing, and then we're going to finish off once we've eaten. We're going to finish off with a cacao ceremony coming up to sunset. I mean, to be fair, sunset won't be until like 10 o'clock, but we're finishing at half nine. But we're going to honor the sun. In that last part we're gonna collectively do some chanting and really just kind of like bring the energy back down to earth and really like ground at the end and come together and it should hopefully be like an absolutely beautiful day. And at the moment the weather looks like it's going to be like 27 degrees on Saturday, and that's normally their view of 27 degrees in the shade, isn't it? So it's going to be even hotter. I'm like whoa, it's actually going to be a heat wave for the summer solstice.
Speaker 1:And a few people have asked oh, are you going to Stonehenge? And I'm not, because I do live near it, but I went there for the spring equinox and it was amazing. But I've heard mixed feelings, mixed things about people who go there for the summer solstice and I think it's maybe a little bit more drug infueled and it's just not where I am. I don't really want that, um, and also, I quite like to go to bed. I don't want to stay there really late. I don't want to stay there really late, but yeah, so that is what we are doing this weekend come in and, however you choose, to celebrate the sun, even if it's just to mentally say to yourself thank you, sun. That is a ritual and a blessing within itself.
Speaker 1:So use this time as you wish to set new intentions or release old patterns, and allow that insight and fire to spark your way through your life. Thank you so much for joining. Remember, as always, to lead through your life with your heart and to live with intention. Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you enjoyed this episode, please do share it with your friends and on social media. If you have the time to rate or review this podcast, I'd be ever so grateful. If you'd like to follow me on Instagram, you can find me at Jolene, since you'll be in the links to my YouTube and to sign up to my mailing list will be in the show notes as well. I look forward to speaking with you again very soon.