These four times, “Trathan” are noted in Welsh and Irish Folklore as magical times when the “other world” is especially close to ours and communication or passage between the two is easiest. The old epic and Bardic poems speak of these times as power-times when spell working was done and an adept person might receive a vision or message from an ancestor or patron Deity, a moment when a Bard, inspired, might speak a prophecy. These are DAWN, NOON, SUNSET, and STARS. STARS is usually interpreted to be midnight.
The first purpose of the salutation is to put you in tune with the natural, celestial rhythms of the day and the changing seasons. The second purpose of the salutations is meditative practice, to practice entering an altered state of consciousness at will. The third purpose is to remind you of your spiritual commitment and to organize your day around the four natural turning points of Earth's time clock. Providing stop-points in which you take stock of your day, of the passage of time itself, and of nature and your own place within that context.
You will begin by learning to achieve mental silence, to stop thought, and to hold your mind silent for the time it takes for the Sun to rise or set. In the temperate latitudes this is about 2 1/2 to 4 minutes counted from the Sun disks first contact with the horizon to its last contact, assuming a flat horizon for the sake of averaging.
The first skill to be mastered in the Salutations is the ability to hold the mind silent. You must learn to stop unnecessary thought. By thought I mean the sentences that are normally running through your mind all day and in your dreams at night. I do not mean becoming unconscious, hypnotized, nor losing awareness of yourself or your surroundings. In the silence you will in fact become more aware than usual of your immediate surroundings. Some Eastern sects consider this the only “true” form of meditation. This is “outward directed” meditation, as contrasted with inner contemplation, “astral travel”, or hypnotic trance. It is harder than it sounds, at first, though most people can do it for a few seconds right off. That's enough to start you.
Here are some techniques to help you get further into the state and to help you learn to utilize it to your best advantage. In this wordless state , your consciousness may be turned by your will either inward or outward. In the Salutations it is turned outward. It surprises many people to find that they can perceive, and in acute detail, without any thoughts or words going through their minds. You will progress through this silent space to other states of consciousness. As you are able to hold the Silence longer, you will learn from it and be able to explore within it.
THE STARTING POINT Repeat a simple phrase, silently in your mind until other thoughts cease, then let the phrase grow fainter and fainter until it fades out. For the Solar Salutations, hum “Hail Helios”, this is a crutch; and you will be able to drop it eventually. Enter the Silence. Listen to your breath. Listen as though it were the most important instruction you will ever hear, and which you must memorize. This will stop your mental sentences.
Listen to all the ambient sounds as if they were music. Take those things around you and arrange them in a manner that becomes music rather than noise. Think yourself down into the heels of your feet and the heels of your hands. Feel yourself exist! Take part in your creation and in your evolution, in the world but not of the world!
In doing the Salutations four a day, you are learning to enter a different state of consciousness at will, regularly and often. These three, with consistency and practice are the keys to meditative and psychic progress. The goal is to be able to enter, at will, the state of consciousness that you will need in order to do a particular psychic or spiritual work. Small amounts of frequent practice achieve more than an occasional long session. Do the four Salutations by the celestial clock, at Dawn, Noon, Sunset, and Stars whether you are “in the mood” or not.
This way you will become capable of entering this clear, silent state at any time, regardless of moods or circumstances, “to find a refuge outside the passions” of the moment, as an old book says.
This practice builds and furnishes that refuge, or base-of-operations, for your further work. When you can hold the silence for twelve to thirty seconds at a time, alert, eyes open, taking in perceptions as far around toward the corners of your peripheral field as you can, you will notice that things look different from the way they do in normal, “mundane” state of consciousness. I won't list the changes because I do not want to bias your perceptions, the self-fulfilling prophecy trap. Not everyone gets all the different changes, but you will discover yours.
These changes will be your signal that you are in a meditative state, at the Silent Place; Rung number one of the metaphorical ladder of meditative training. When you have completed the Salutations, then, in line with the third purpose, take some time to consider from this higher perspective what you have been occupied with since the last Salutation. It is a step in getting control of your time, your habits, and your life.
THE FOUR SALUTATIONS OF THE DAY
AT DAWN Stand, waiting for the first bit of the Suns disk to appear over the horizon. Hold your staff in front of you, your hands in front of your breast bone. Your left hand is above your right hand and the staff is not touching the ground. (If you do not have a staff, hold your hands together as if they were grasping this item and visualize a staff of power in your hands. Many people can not have a staff with them at all times. At one time this was done with a personal sword.)
When the first bit of the Suns disk clears the horizon, turn your staff horizontal and raise it over your head in one motion. Breath in a full breath as you raise the staff, and at the same time step to the right with your right foot. Hold the breath; silence your mind. Your arms and legs now form two triangles and you are looking at the rising Sun through a “trilithon” formed by your arms and the staff.
Holding your breath, turn your staff back vertical, and, holding it at arms length, exhale slowly as you lower the staff between your gaze and the morning Sun, momentarily blocking it out, until it seems to rise again over the top of the staff. Let go your left hand from the staff and holding it in your right sweep both of your arms up and outward, breathing in until you reach full extension. Your head, arms, and legs form a centigram, your lungs are filled with the new air and you are fully open to morning light. This is true even when there is rain falling in your face in the winter, or when you can not see the face of the Sun itself. Then you are open to that truth, that dawn and the aspect of Nature. You hold mental silence here in the open position until the disk of the Sun clears the Horace.
When it is free of the last of the horizon sweep your hands up and together grasping your staff again with your left hand over your right hand as you inhale. Hold your breath for an instant, then begin slowly exhaling as you turn the staff back to the vertical again and lower it again between your line of sight and the risen Sun.
Continue on down, touching your staff to the ground, arms fully extended and your head bowed between them. Concentrate on the ground and your staff and feel the earth energy move up the staff, through your arms and to your lungs as you inhale another full breath. Raise your head and pull your staff in toward your heart as you straighten up and inhale fully. Your hands on your staff touch your breastbone. Hold silence. Perceive the dawning light all around you. Take several (3 to 9) calm breaths. As you exhale, lower your staff and step right, bringing your feet together and the staff to rest on the ground between your two big toes. Press it down. “Grounding down” mentally; return to the mundane mental level and worldly functioning. The Day Has Begun!
AT NOON At Noon you face due south. At solar noon, as opposed to clock noon, the sun will be at the highest point in the sky that it will reach that day, and it will be directly South. The movements and the breathing for the NOON Salutation are the same as for the DAWN, however do not look directly at the noon Sun. Look at the southern horizon directly below it. Feel the rays and the warmth. Hold silence in the open position for twenty-four breaths. Finish the Salutation as at Dawn.
AT EVENING At evening, when the Sun is about to set over whatever is your local western horizon, take your stance facing it. When the Suns disk touches tangent to the first bit of the horizon inhale and raise your staff over your head as in the first movement of the Salutation. Holding silence, draw it down between yourself and the setting Sun until the Sun appears over the top of the staff. Breath out as you do this. Move to the open position as before and hold it in silence until the last bit of the solar disk is about to sink below the horizon. At that moment, inhaling, bring your arms up and together with the staff between you and the setting Sun. Then as in the other Salutations, exhale as you bring the staff down to the ground at arms length in front of you, bowing forward as the last gleam disappears under the horizon. Feel yourself “bowing down in the Sun” in synchronization with it. When you feel the ground energy move up along the staff, through your arms, and body, inhale, mind silent, eyes totally perceiving. Hold your staff and hands at heart level as before. See the night begin around you. One day is over; a new day has begun. Press your staff to the ground again at your feet. “Ground down” mentally. Come back to the mundane world, refreshed. Recall what has happened since noon.
AT CELESTIAL MIDNIGHT At celestial midnight, Stars, the Sun is on the other side of the world directly below your feet. At this midnight or just before you go to sleep, do the Salutation to the STARS. Face the North Star. Calm your mind. Recall what you have been doing since the last Salutation. When you have achieved mental silence once more, then raise your staff over your head and inhale. View the North Star through the “trilithon” of you and your staff. The rest of the Salutation proceeds like the NOON Salutation. Here you will draw your staff down until the North Star seems to rise over the tip of it. You hold silence in the open position for twenty-four breaths, then complete the movements as at NOON. Ground down. Retire. Sleep.
USING THIS PROCESS I have had students use this even when they could not get out of a wheel chair. It requires the ability to master visualization techniques that are easy to pick up. I know that it may sound a bit odd but it does work and it is my personal opinion that being able to order the mind into a state of meditative organization is the first step to everything else. I am sure that there are times when you have a mop handle in your hand or any number of other things that you can for that moment imagine the movements that are made within these exercises.
I taught this to Druid classes when I was with the Druid organization in Southern California. Although there were some very bad endings there I still ended up retaining a lot of good information. I also met many people that became my students and my friends. This is something that I think you will be able to use as they did.
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