Don't get me wrong, I do a lot of outside work. We've erected fences and a metal and canvass gazebo and raised beds on our modest small town lot. We have even planted apple trees and blueberry bushes and laid out a medicine wheel herb garden. But a true sacred space is lacking.
Maybe it's the traffic that whizzes back and forth on our very busy street or the many things I have to do both inside and out - but I don't spend much time in my own outdoor space. The space that I've been given. And this is something I can fix.
So in the spirit of doing I made a list of things that most of us can do to create sacred outdoor space. Some of them are things I'm already doing. Others are things I'm going to plan for. Most can be done on a small city lot, on a balcony or even in a window box or public park.
- Provide Food and Water for Our Wild Friends.Something like providing water might not seem like a big thing - until you're thirsty! Over the last few days, with temps in NE PA in the mid 90s or higher, we've seen a record number of birds and bees at our little birdbath, including 2 Cardinals and a group of 4 Sparrows (at one time). We share our medicine wheel herb garden with a family of bunnies and I like thinking that the little ones were raised on lemon balm and parsley. We also have birdbath and are planning on getting a bird feeder.
- Create a Meditation Space and / or Go Outside and Ground. A few weeks ago I went to an estate sale and the property I saw made a big impression on me. Walking out to check out the patio furniture, I saw that someone had turned a the space between the garage and the back fence of a small yard into something special. There was a small flagstone path flanked by greenery and flowers. At the end were more flagstones and a vine covered arbor and a spot, a neighbor told me, where a fountain had once stood It occurred to me that almost anyone could do this All it takes is a few plants or even seeds and the commitment to create a sacred space for meditation, reflection or clearing. And if all that hard work is too much, just take off your shoes and stan barefoot upon the Earth Doing this will help you ground and clear toxicity or blockages.
- Create a Sanctuary for Plants and Wildlife. Plant a few heirloom or endangered plants, a bee or butterfly plant or any of the many flowers, plants and trees attractive to wildlife. These include (but aren't limited to) sunflower, honeysuckle, yarrow, lilac, daisies, lemon balm, rosemary, thyme, purple cone flower, heliotrope. pansies, hawthorn, peonies, holly, apple, fern, or thyme.
- Make a Space for Sacred Gatherings Set aside a space can be used as a ritual space (our women's circle met in my yard on the Solstice and gathered around the chimnea), a group meditation space, a labyrinth (made from a simple stone pathway) or a gathering space for family. Last year we discovered a discarded metal and canvas gazebo on the street and set it up this summer. It's the perfect place for family to gather and while I haven't gotten everyone together for an outdoor game night yet I know that when I do, the laughter and comrade of that kind get-together is truly sacred space. This can work on a balcony or porch or if you don't have your own space, find a spot in state or community park that calls to you.
- Grow and Gather Healing Herbs. This was the point of my medicine wheel garden before I deeded it to the bunnies and I am still working on creating my own medicinal garden but it something I know I will do eventually. Try common remedies like lemon balm for anxiety or parsley for fluid retention or get a book on herbal and learn by doing. Herbs are very easy to grow and can even be kept in a window box or indoors in any sunny location. For reference consider Your Backyard Herb Garden or Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs to start.
- Make a Direct (Not Book) Connection with the Elements. This is an activity open to anyone who can get outside and is really just an exercise in awareness. Go outside and enjoy the element - in your own yard, on a walk or in any public space. Take a journal if you'd like and write about the warmth of summer fire or the clarity of the winter wind. You may even want to carry a sketch book and draw your own version of Earth, Fire, Air or Water Fairies!
- Practice Sustainability. This something that many of us can do in big ways or small. Ideas include having a garden or patio plants or hanging tomatoes or strawberries, planting a garden or making a rain barrel to water outside plants but there are many many more things being done. This a wonderful way to honor the Earth, save money, secure your future and reducing the heavy heavy load our species has placed upon the planet. For more ideas check out one of my favorite books on this topic: The Backyard Homestead.
- Make a Place to Observe the Stars and Moon. Any window or balcony will do! Attune to the cycles of the heavens by becoming aware of and observing astronomical events - like Moon phases, eclipses and the special appearances of planets and stars. I use Llewellyn's Astrological Calendar to keep track!
I have been seeing angels everywhere - in rock, and paint and plastic - and last weekend I saw such an angel in jumble of holiday decorations on a flea market table, holding a tin horn and looking like he didn't belong.
"It's Gabriel," I said as if I had run into an old friend unexpectedly and I suppose that the truth is, I had.
Only a few minutes before, I had told my family that I was looking for an angel, for my online shop or for myself. That Gabriel would be that angel was a happy surprise. I knew he was a keeper.
Gabriel was the first angel who caught my interest. The messenger who came to Mary and to Zacharias. The warrior of Daniel.
Among my books, I have an orthodox Jewish prayer book. Toward the end of the bedtime prayer, the text asks God to protect and guard our souls through His holy watchers, the angels, who walk through the night. It goes on to call "Michael to my right side, Gabriel to my left, Uriel before me, and Raphael to my back."
Among my books, I have an orthodox Jewish prayer book. Toward the end of the bedtime prayer, the text asks God to protect and guard our souls through His holy watchers, the angels, who walk through the night. It goes on to call "Michael to my right side, Gabriel to my left, Uriel before me, and Raphael to my back."
Of these four, it is Gabriel who appears most often in the Hebrew bible and biblical commentary. He
is first mentioned by name in the Book of Daniel. After Daniel experiences a vision, Gabriel comes to him and tells him what it means (8:16). A year later, Gabriel appears again telling Daniel that He has "been at war, and going to fight those who remain" (9:27). No further details of this war are given and Gabriel's name is not mentioned again in the Hebrew bible. But he is referenced repeatedly in the rabbinical literature as a warrior and a holy protector.
In the Book of Enoch, Gabriel is an avenging angel, sent to provoke sinners to war. In the Talmud, God sends him to smite the Assyrians, and Gabriel answers God by saying that him sword "has been sharpened since the six days of Creation." Which is to say that he was born to fight.
Consistent with this declaration, most traditional Jewish sources describe Gabriel as the emissary of God's power. And the Hebrew name Gavriel, or Gavar El, means "God's might." He is represented by the element of fire in some Talmudic references and in others by water. In all instances, he is among the strongest of the seven archangels and a force to be reckoned with.
Be that as it may, it important to remember that when we first meet Gabriel in the book of Daniel he appears as a messenger and a translator of visions. And this is fitting. Communication being the divine purpose of angels.
When I first met Gabriel in Scripture, he served in this capacity. I was lonely and discouraged and the idea that angels existed filled me with hope. And, in some ways, that feeling has never entirely left me.
Even so, I've been feeling lonely these last few weeks and in the midst of this sense of separation from others, I am seeing angels of almost every description. Some are innocent children and others are beautiful women but few resembled the angels of Scripture.
This weekend's flea market angel was different. His wings were battered and his garments were faded but his face was beautiful and strong and really, surprisingly, just as I imagined it. I count his unexpected appearance a message and a reminder: Angels are emissaries and we are never really alone.
This weekend's flea market angel was different. His wings were battered and his garments were faded but his face was beautiful and strong and really, surprisingly, just as I imagined it. I count his unexpected appearance a message and a reminder: Angels are emissaries and we are never really alone.
My son Josh has done a lot of work on our family tree. He's found out all kinds of interesting people. Kings, queens, saints, women hung for witchcraft, Ray Bradbury and more.
This interests me, especially as I become more and more convinced that the tree in the Spirit Dream is our family tree. Though I am still unsure just what it means.
I got my Ancestry DNA done recently, as well. A lot of stuff washes out (like Swedish and French). Other comes through—like Scottish, Native American and Irish, which was told was there but didn't know about for sure.
I'm happy about this because I have an interest in Native and Celtic culture. I understand, of course, that culture is something handed down and I know that the genetic part doesn't really matter, but I still like the idea that there is a connection.
I also find it interesting that some of the historical figures that have interested me the most over the years, have popped in my family tree (and the family trees of millions of other people, I'm sure).
 |
| Love the soft colors in this image. |
 |
| The Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci |
And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the U′lai, and it called, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.” So he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was frightened and fell upon my face. But he said to me, “Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end.” - Daniel 8:16-17 RSV-CE
Today September 29 is the feast day of St. Gabriel the archangel.
The Hebrew word for angel "mal'akh" (מַלְאָךְ) means messenger as does the the Greek word "ángelos" (άγγελος). So it makes sense that the Church has made St. Gabriel the patron of messengers, telecommunication workers and postal workers.
St. Gabriel first appears in the Hebrew bible as a translator of visions
(Daniel 8:16-17 above). If the dream was a message, Gabriel's clarifies that message by interpreting the dream.
In the book of Enoch (which is not cannon but was read by many of the Church fathers and at least two of the disciples), Gabriel is an avenger - a role he plays in Daniel as well. In the Talmud, it is Gabriel who delivers a message to Queen Vashti urging her to disobey her King - thereby paving the way for Esther and the preservation of the Jews.
Nowhere, however, is St. Gabriel's role as a messenger more important than when he addresses the Blessed mother in Luke 1:26-38:
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.”...And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.-Luke 1:26-33, 38 - Revised Standard Version - Catholic Edition
While I am not a messenger or a telecommunications worker, I do think that blogging and a digital downloads shop falls somewhat under that heading, so I am planning to pray to St. Gabriel and ask him to intercede for me in both of these ventures!
As part of a recent discussion in our local Tarot Circle we talked about the Fool and then he came up again in an online study group and each time I learned something new about the card.
In Tarot Circle we offered a single word that summed up the meaning of the card for us. My word was faith. But today I came up with a new word.
Not that I've discarded the idea of faith altogether. To me, that crazy idealist setting off on an obviously perilous journey has to have faith because if he doesn't nothing in the card really makes sense.
To me, the Fool tells a story of optimism and idealism and the courage to face the unknown. And while we can, and sometimes should, do all of things when we lack faith (or are frightened or in any way unsure) - the man poised on the edge of the cliff doesn't look like he's experiencing any kind of conflict to me.
Instead he looks open and trusting and completely unaware of the danger that may or may not lie ahead. And this seems to be where many people tend to divide on their interpretation of the card.
I feel that the positivity of the Fool outweighs the negative. I can see the Fool isn't paying attention but I suspect that he's going to land on his feet. Others, as I learned in Tarot Circle, have a completely different perceptive. Where I say, just leap. They say, watch out.
Obviously neither interpretation is wrong and the other cards in the spread (or reversals or dignities or whatever method applies) can help us decide how to read this card in a given place and time. Still my overall association with the Fool remains positive.
I guess, on a level, I just plain like this card. I like the sun and the yellow sky and I associate both with personal identity, making the Fool especially relevant for anyone trying to find themselves or their place in life. To me, the flowers on the Fool's tunic symbolize interpersonal or spiritual growth. And I feel that win or lose, fly or fall, there is something of meaning to be gained on the path he is about to take.
According to Benebell Wen's wonderful and very comprehensive book Holistic Tarot (which I'm studying in the online group) the idea of choice is present as well.
While I have to admit I never really thought of the Fool as a card about choice, I do see how every step and risk and new beginning IS, of course, a choice. And if the Fool standing on the edge of the cliff is making a choice - he's making a big one.
So now, if I'm asked for a single word to describe this card I don't say faith. Instead I say choice and by choice I mean a big one. The kind of choice that can transform our lives - or haunt us forever.
And this reminded me of Clarisa Pinkola Estes and the practice of making desconsos which I think has relationship to the Fool and the choice that he does - or doesn't - make.
First begun in Latin America and now seen almost everywhere, desconsos (lit. resting places) are the small roadside shrines that mark where a fatal event occurred. Described by Estes in her transformational book Women Who Run with Wolves:
Descansos are symbols that mark a death. Right there, right on that spot, someone’s journey in life halted unexpectedly.There has been a car accident, or someone was walking along the road and died of heat exhaustion, or a fight took place there. Something happened there that altered that person’s life and the lives of other persons forever.
In the process of making descansos Dr. Estes (a Jungian psychoanalyst) encourages us to make a timeline of their lives, then mark the paths not taken, the possibilities lost, the people we never got a chance to become. She advises us to:
Be gentle with yourself and make the descansos, the resting places for the aspects of yourself that were on their way to somewhere, but never arrived. Descansos mark the death sites, the dark times, but they are also love notes to your suffering. They are transformative. There is a lot to be said to pinning things to the ground so they don't follow us around. There is a lot to be said for laying them to rest.
Perhaps because I have made descansos, I believe quite strongly that it is the paths we do not take that we mourn the hardest. Mistakes are a given a life. Risk is unavoidable. But, to me, risk is also the key.
I feel that the Fool can speak to us on several different levels and that while one these can be a warning - the one I like best encourages us to make the leap. Our next step may be a mistake or a revelation or roadside cross we will come back to one day and mourn. But it is also a choice and that choice has meaning.
I have read and enjoyed Anthony Louis' previous books on tarot (Tarot Plain and Simple and Tarot Beyond the Basics) so it's no surprise to me that I liked his new book Llewellyn's Complete Book too!
Louis is an experienced tarot reader, as well as a psychiatrist and astrologer, which gives him a layered and proactive approach to the cards. And, in terms of comprehensiveness, he delivers.
The book covers the gamut including the history of tarot, different ways of using tarot (journaling, creativity, spiritual practice, adjunct to therapy), ethics, correspondences, birth cards, symbolism, astrology, kabbalah, reversals and dignities, framing a question for the tarot, timing, a range of spreads, reading with court cards, in depth associations for every card in the deck, an excellent recommended reading list, numerous very helpful case studies and more.
While all the information given is helpful. I found the associations / interpretations section especially valuable. Each card was illustrated (with images from Lewellyn's Classic Tarot -which I now want). The author also included descriptive (and memorable) title, traditional interpretations (Etteilla, Mathers, Waite, and the Golden Dawn), number symbolism, astrological associations, timing considerations, and some very helpful keywords (both positive and negative). I especially liked the authors own associations for the cards (both upright and reverse) which I found to be very resonant with my own.
I also appreciated the proactive advice Louis' associations provided. For the High Priestess (above) for example he says, "Pay attention to your dreams and intuitive hunches. In this way, you can gain access to something unrevealed or not yet known about your future plans." For the Tower the author suggests the "need to critically evaluate the structures that are...limiting your life."
It seems to me that, as a psychiatrist, Louis sees the tarot as a tool that can be used for personal transformation and growth - something that I agree with completely.
I consider Llewellyn's Complete Book a good and quite comprehensive addition to any tarot library and an appropriate resource for beginners and more advanced practitioners alike!
The Gem and Mineral Show is a great event with tons of beautiful crystals and gemstones as well as many free presentations.
There is easy access to the show from I-81 and the PA Turnpike
There are some beautiful gemstones at this event though I have to admit that my all time favorite specimens were dug straight from the ground in NE PA (near Seven Tubs).
 |
| Right Click "Save As" then Print to get a $1 off Admission! |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Translate
Social Icons