Daily Angel Oracle Card: Sunstone, from the Viking Oracle, by Stacey Demarco, Artwork by Jimmy Manton

Sunstone: “Trust. Even if a situation seems opaque and unknowable, trust that you will find a way through. Look past the illusion – discover the facts. Seek clarity. Find a different perspective.”

“White and opaque,
Always sun and no sun.
The stars, they hide
Directionless upon the horizon.
And yet,
There is a way, another way.
By looking through crystal,
Sharply, the stone reveals
Our most desired treasure.”

“The Vikings’ extraordinary navigational skills led to remarkable raiding and trade successes. Their cultural ambition to greatly extend their territories was supported not only by the solidly built boats they constructed but by their ability to travel the seas with safety and accuracy.

The Icelandic Sagas of the 1st century AD tell of the Vikings sailing from Bergen, on the coast of Norway, to Iceland, continuing to across to Greenland, and then to a land that is almost certainly Newfoundland. Yet, the Vikings ha no compasses (as this incredible navigational fear was realized well before the magnetic compass reached Scandinavia from China), and they were, for the most part, out of sight of land, and thus had little access to navigational land points. Not only that, but the Arctic regions they traversed are notorious for bad weather, including storms and even complete white outs, which meant that neither the sun nor the stars could be relied on for guidance.

According to Viking records, the secret of this and other navigational feats was the ‘solarsteinn’ or ‘sunstone’, which was said to reveal the true position of a hidden sun, as occurred in the low contrast days of the almost twenty-four-hour summer days of the extreme north. In the Hrafns Saga it says, The weather was thick and stormy… The king looked about and saw no blue sky… then the king took the sunstone and held it up, and then he saw where (the sun) beamed from the stone.

Modern scientists believe they have solved the mystery. The common Iceland spar, a calcite, changes colour and brightness as it is rotated. Initially, scientists thought the Vikings used such crystals to observe polarization patterns and in that way pinpointed the direction of the sun. However, research finally proved that by actively depolarizing the light – at what is called the ‘isotropy point’, where the crystal eliminates all polarization of the light passing through it – it is possible to glimpse a faint, elongated yellow shape (a phenomenon known as Haldingers’s Brush). This phenomenon gives a one to five degree indication of the sun’s location – even when there is absolutely no visible sun to measure direction. Genius!

The sunstone encourages us to trust that there is indeed a way forward, even if we do not see it initially. By trying different approaches, looking at a situation from different perspectives and using our imagination, we may get where we wish to go.”*

~ By Stacey Demarco

Oh this card is the perfect metaphor and the perfect card to follow yesterday’s message. Out of the darkness and into the light. We are asked to shift perspective and look at what is possible here. What are we not seeing? Are we looking through the same lens we always look through, and are we getting all caught up in our old belief systems? Where is the light? How do we find it? How do we access it?

This message is about seeing things differently, switching out the lenses you use to look at problems or issues with ‘new eyes’. There is magic needed here, trust and faith and alchemy too. If you have been struggling, look closely… are you struggling over your struggling? Where is the space for things to change? Are you doing things the same way but expecting different results? Is that not the recipe for insanity?

Take a BIG, DEEP BREATH. Ok, take a few more. Center yourself. Place your feet on the Earth and ground your energies. Take a moment to look around you, really look around you. Be here, in your body, right now.

What needs to shift and change in order for you to move forward? You know exactly what it is, yes, that… what you just thought about, that big scary thing that you are trying to avoid dealing with. That. How can you shed some new light there? How can you see it through a new lens? How can you expand your thinking and beliefs around it and change everything?

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, can you see it? If not, can you feel it?

Look for the hidden sun.

Namaste

Dee

~Archangel Oracle

*Viking Oracle, by Stacey Demarco, Artwork by Jimmy Manton