Monday, December 30, 2024

Goddess everywhere

 

Calendar, both as wall style and a spiral bound version, with my friend's poetry included!

Phoenician carving dating to the 7th century BCE, found in Italy.

Dextra Quotskuyva, Hopi potter,  sipapu symbol .the womb of Mother Earth, emergence of beings from the underworld

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The above was first posted in 2014

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

The gift of love

 Happy Christmas Eve to everyone. 


If you celebrate Christmas then I wish tomorrow to bring you lots of blessings.  I kind of do, celebrate it, because it's the tradition in which I was raised.  Family traditions are hard to phase out.

And I am in the midst of a Christian family for this holiday, so am being smothered in all the things that that entails.  I have no trouble meeting them on praise for Jesus, who was a wonderful loving "enlightened" teacher...with some really wise ideas which have become part of our society for a couple of thousand years.  That speaks pretty highly of his message.

I think that many enlightened teachers have offered us similar messages over time.  And when I see a picture of Christ smiling in benevolence, or Quan Yin, or the Buddha, or Meher Baba, or many other enlightened ones, I realize how their love is the message that this season is truly promoting.  It's not the gift of things, but the gift of love we can offer to each other.

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Originally posted in 2014

Saturday, December 21, 2024

Contemplation for solstice

 Last year, before setting aside my spiritual interests into this blog, I posted on my "personal blog" about the Winter Solstice HERE, as well as Newgrange Ireland.


I want to add just a bit more about the triple spirals, which I've copied into a finger labyrinth, a form which is in clay ready to be "walked" with one's fingers, or a pencil or toothpick, around the path of 3 spirals.  I've only created a few of these in permanent ceramic shapes, which serve interestingly as trivets or coasters when not in more spiritual use!

The other labyrinths are the design used in the Chartres Cathedral in France...which also can be meditative as you travel it with a small implement between the grooves.

How do these meditations work?  Like all meditations, be sure to set aside some time in which you won't be interrupted.

One popular way is to have a question in mind when starting...or perhaps an intention.  Whenever you meet a turning place, where you have to stop from advancing in the direction you are going, remember that question or intention.  Then move on slowly to the next turning.  By the time you've turned all those directions, even with just a pencil or toothpick, you've repeated your question/intention many times.  Stop at the center.  Reflect.  Do you know more than when you began?  Have you a change to consider?  Spend this time wisely, and don't hurry back out.  As you move back from center to the outside, again take a moment at each turning.

If you are like me, you may have many ideas that you didn't have to start with.  You may want to repeat these at the turns, so as to remember them.  When you finish the labyrinth, you indeed will have traveled to another place with your spirit.  Take time in quietness to record what you experienced.

And munch on something that gives energy, either protein like nuts, or sweets like chocolate, because the body has been serving the higher good of your spirit for the last little while, even if just by sitting and concentrating, rather than walking a full size labyrinth.

I have no idea if the original creators of the triple spiral had this in mind, but it's become a ritual that I find very fulfilling.  What else do you think it might mean?
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The above was written in 2014 for another blog

Images of God and Goddess

   ¨Visual images of the Goddesses stand in stark contrast to the image of God as an old white man, jarring us to question our culture's...