"For some. But for others, it is the spiraling song of the lark ascending."
How does the lark rise? Not with striving, but with joy. By rejoicing in himself, pure and unnamed, and dancing with the world without fear, he is carried ever higher in bliss. How could he not?
The spiraling song of the lark ascending.
The wheel of Karma can be a millstone that grinds you down with each fruitless turn. Turning everything to dust.
Or it can be a unfolding spiral, expanding boundlessly, that carries you out into a wider world, like a child spinning in the grass until he falls laughing.
The spiraling song of the lark ascending.
The world that surrounds us here and now is our partner. If we dance with her, unashamed, unregreting, how can we not both be lifted to joy? Let us dance!
Let us rise, the spiraling song of the lark ascending!
- Mood:
exultant
Another spirit journey, after months of being too busy or tired or worried to do so...
- Mood:
thoughtful
- Mood:
relieved
Winter solstice. I am a creature of the sun, I can really feel it when the days shorten and darkeness gains ascendency over the day. I can feel the ancient fear as the days shorten, the plants and animals sleep, and one cannot but help wonder what would happen if the sun kept retreating and never came back. On the day that the darkness turns, and day begins once again to advance against night, I feel a powerful and holy sense of the fragility of life and the grace of redemption by which we all live.
Spring wildflower blooms. As the year brightens, I look forward to the appearance of the tiny bright wildflowers in the dry sere fields. When they all suddenly start to appear, flaring up and spreading like flames of blue, scarlet, gold, white, purple, my heart is always lifted. Most people walk by or over these tiny gems of color without even noticing them; or thnk only of spraying weedkiller. But they always are a source of joy and wonder to me, every spring. They are so exuberant and full of vigorous life, their colors so subtle and rich, their shapes so graceful and complex, that I can lay in the grass and stare at them for hours. If, in dry, dead, abandoned lots and fields such wild beauty can burst forth, what can we not acomplish if we will only strive for it?
Fall leaf turning. I love the fall. The weather is cooling and becoming wonderful to be outside again. The trees that I love and talk to are turning from rich green to a thousand shades of red, gold, and brown, as their leaves die and seem to celebrate their own death. The colors are miraculous and vivid, I have wished since childhood to have some way to hold onto those lucious colors but they fade so quickly and are gone. I finally realized that this swift fading is part of their beauty. It is a gift, to be lived and enjoyed, and then let go. This is a season of melancholy, but also of exaultation; as once again nature dies around me, blazing in fleeting beauty, I can feel the heart of nature drawing inward and preparing for its own joyous rebirth.
- Mood: contemplative
As part of this, I just finished a guided meditation "Into the Labyrinth" from the book Pagan Spirituality by Joyce and River Higginbotham. In this, I walk a seven-turn labyrinth and meet myself at seven different levels of growth, based on colors of Spiral Dynamics.
( Read more... )
- Mood: contemplative
Oh boy, life gets away from you when you are not looking... So here I am to finish the description of my last spirit journey, two months later! The details have faded, but I will describe the key points.
Once in my clearing, I greeted my guides and asked about the Greenman. He manifested (kind of) to me and we spoke for a few minutes. He didn't appear physically, but I felt that he was speaking to me, like distant thunder from the horizon. He could hear me and responded.
He said that he is not a deity, and is not really a being; he is a mask that people have created for adressing the transcendent, the principals of growth, fructification, death, and life. This does not make him less real, but perhaps less personal.
I asked if there was a reason why he had been on my mind recently, and he replied that it was an indication that there is something I need there, that it is right for me at this time to investigate the ideas further. I should pursue the idea of the Greenman, and possibly make myself a Greenman mask or costume for renfairs and wear it. I said, "But this would not be spiritual, it would just be play! Wouldn't he be offended?". His response: There is nothing more sacred than play. For only in play do we give ourselves permission to be whatever is in our heart. This is the most perfect of all spiritual practices.
Knowing this, I will try to make a Greenman mask sometime this year, and wear it, even if I feel silly. Perhaps this very sillyness will free me of my pride and fear of making mistakes, and help me to grow and learn.
- Mood:
determined
There is nothing you can think that is not the moon.
- Matsuo BashÅ
- Mood: contemplative
I finally found time (after flu, sick kids, hurt dog, taxes, people, and other aggrevations) to take a spirit journey.
( Read more... )
Tomorrow, I will write more about my encounter with the Greenman.
- Mood:
weird
The Greenman has been a lot in my thoughts recently. It has been niggling at me, to learn more, be involved somehow, in a vague way. I went back and read the pages at the Blessed Order of the Greenman. This group is based in Maryland; I wish they were active in my area, I would love to join. I really like their concept of the Greenman representing an alternative to the traditional masculine role model that remains strongly masculine while rejecting the standard images of the fighter, the hunter, the dominator, the killer, the cold authority; instead focusing on the strong masculine image of the protector, the fructifier, the nurturing father, the loving husband, the vibrant strength that begats and supports new life.
I am drawn to this image of the green leafy master of the forest and the cycles of growth and decay. Perhaps because of my affinity to my patron Oak. I think this why the Green Master takes a form that is leafy and crowned with leaves.
I have called on the Greenman at times, to help heal or strengthen an animal I am working with. He has usually responded with a lot of energy. But my relationship with him is different than with my patrons; he clearly chooses himself who he will work with. He doesn't need me to intercede.
With Oak, Spider, and Swallow, I feel a very personal relationship; they like me, and have chosen to help and teach me. Oak is not a deity, nor is it a physical tree; Oak is the spirit behind all oaks, the Being behind their being. It is an amplification of what it is to an oak tree, with a will and history of its own. Likewise with Spider and Barn Swallow. The Green Master is a different being, an individual personality that lives in a different realm than I, who chooses to guide and teach me. There are multitudes of such beings, this one has chosen me. His true form and nature are beyond my perceptions, he wears a form in my dreams just for my convenience.
The Greenman is something else again. Like a deity, he remains always at a distance and confers his benison at his will. He is not bound to time as I and my patrons are, he is outside of history. I think that he is really just a mask, an story, an image that I have found that gives a face to the power and mystery of life and being. It is not a deity, because the image is shallow. It does not ask for worship or sacrifice. The mystery is not limited to that image, but the Greenman is a mask that I can understand and use to relate to that which is beyond me. It speaks to my soul, so it is an opening through which I can reach out to life and through which life can reach to me. The Greenman demands nothing from me except honesty, compassion, and a willingness to fulfill my own commitments.
- Mood: thoughtful
garlands from window to window;
golden chains from star to star,
and I dance.
-- Arthur Rimbaud
- Mood: inspired
- Mood:
worn out
Since then I have been more careful when I pull pain for Athena or for T-Man. I take some time first to loosen the pain up, and only draw off what will come easily, rather than trying to grab and pull out whatever I can. Athena says this is feels much better, and T-Man was much happier with it too.
Oh, well, one lives and learns. I am glad that I can do it in a way that is more comfortable to others, now.
- Mood:
contrite
I have been doing Reiki on him every day, to try and help him heal well and faster. I also put protections on his stall. I had done something similar with my wife's mare Dear One, when she was doing poorly, with assistance from Spider and Oak. This was a somewhat different situation, since I was less concerned with keeping out bad influences than in concentrating beneficial ones. Athena had also gotten me a new rattle, which I used for the first time. It is a beautiful Raku rattle, with lovely iridescent copper-matte glaze, about the size of my palm. It is decorated with some tiny colored raku beads strung on rawhide. It has a rich, soft, earthy sound.
I started at the corner post at the gate entrance, and opened up to the energy, and called for help and assistance from Spider, Oak, Swallow, the Green Man, and any other benevolent forces that could aid me. The response was positive but sluggish, so I tried using the rattle to aid in the calling, shaking it my hand in three groups of three while calling. I got a much stronger response, including energy from the Green Man and from the Indian spirit teacher who has danced with me recently. Together, we sank an energy well at the corner post, and drew up a column of strong, warm energy into the post. I started around the stall clockwise (sunward), shaking the rattle gently and drawing a thick rope of vibrant energy around to the next post; where we again sank another well, anchoring the rope and starting a new one. I continued around the stall until I returned to my starting point and anchored it again at the post. This left the stall guarded by four columns of rich earth-sky energy at the four corners, surrounded by a thick warm circle of energy that draw in blessings and healing power. I thanked all who helped me, and left knowing that T-Man was well protected.
- Mood:
grateful
New Years resolutions seem so trite in the real world. Instead, here are my New Years resolutions for my dreams:
After building the perfect city (golden stucco, red tile roofs, balconies and merchants wagons hung with multicolored lanterns and bougainvilleas…) go on a long trip and let the people redecorate.
When escaping the nameless horror to the protection of the sacred circle, invite everyone you see, not just the nice kids with the puppy. Bad guys won't be able to cross the running water anyway, and the obnoxious guy at the minimart has secret strengths too.
Read the signs. They will be important later.
Greet every being you meet with respect. A kind word to the worm may gain you the protection of the mountain.
When being chased through a high-rise office building, don't bother looking for the stairs. Find a window and fly away.
Don't boast of your powers, they are gifts that can be revoked.
Always tell Hercule Poirot everything. Same with Dr Who.
- Mood: cheerful
- Mood: cheerful
After my conversation with Oak, I turned and saw Spider. I asked her what she though of what Oak has said about the different ways in which animals and plants relate to the Tao. She said that spiders have a different perspective. Spiders live within the currents of what is, but in an active, not passive fashion. Spiders flow with the Tao, but they also spin webs. The webs stretch across the currents, interacting with the flow but without disrupting it. Spiders never make useless webs. Wherever you see a web, it was put there because a spider knew that some creature's destiny would bring it to that place at the right time for it to die. Webs stretch across the Tao, through space and time, both responding to and revealing its flow to those who can see. Across these unseen connections, the spiders dance.
- Mood: shivery
The impetus that I had to make this journey was concern about a news story I heard on the radio, that oak trees across much of North America were not producing acorns this year. Acorn production naturally varies from year to year, sometimes heavy, sometimes light, but always some. But this year huge numbers of trees are producing no acorns at all. What was wrong? I resolved to ask Oak about it.
When I arrived in the clearing, I saw Oak standing tall and full, vibrant and alive; I immediately felt relieved. I expressed my concern to Oak, and asked what was happening? Were the trees dying? Was is global warming, parasites? Is there anything I could do?
Oak told me not to worry. Yes, many trees this year were not producing acorns. This was not something that they chose, nor was it something that they were forced to do: they just perceived that this was the right thing to do right now. This confused me somewhat, so Oak drew me into its awareness, so that I could to some extent see the world the way trees see it.
( Read more... )
- Mood:
intrigued
I took a spirit journey the other night. It was clear and cool at the shore, the sky was clear and the stars lucent; Jupiter and Venus in conjunction with the crescent moon were brilliant. The sea was crystalline and dark. I walked up the path into the trees.
I was well into the woods when I saw a man standing beside the path ahead of me. He was an Indian (Native American) man, in traditional plains attire with feathered and beaded boots. He smiled at me, and took a few dance steps/stomps, and guestured for me to do the same. I did, and he smiled and did a few more; for a few minutes he danced softly with me, encouraging me to stand pround and strut in the dance. He said that he was proud of me, and that I should be proud of myself.
I am a quiet, gentle, soft-spoken person, uninterested in sports. Although I am a tribe member, I know practically nothing of my tribe's traditional culture or language. He said that this does not make me less of a man, or less of an Indian. Although I have not followed the traditional paths, and have never been made a man by the traditional rituals, I have found my own paths and have earned my manhood and my place by my own experiences, wisdom, and gifts; and I need apologize to no one. Strength is shown in gentleness, and wisdom in tolerance. He is proud to claim me as a descendant.
With thanks, we parted and I continued up the path.
- Mood: proud
Here is a very realistic spider you can play with online:
http://www.onemotion.com/flash/spider/
It is really freaky!
- Mood:
enthralled
( Read more... )
- Mood: thoughtful
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