intention + imagination = inspired insight

Around this time last year we began posting a series we created on Instagram called mantra | prayer | poem. These digital decoupages were created by Bhakti Creative Design. 

EcoDeo on Instagram

Declarations of intention, devotion, and vibration designed to capture the imagination to inspire and ignite insight. 

older & wiser

Ageing is an art we all too easily overlook since oftentimes it is a double-edged sword. Ageism rears its ugly head in so many cases — a bias too often practiced in societies obsessed with youth and ill equipped to face death.

“For older people, ageism is an everyday challenge. Overlooked for employment, restricted from social services and stereotyped in the media, ageism marginalizes and excludes older people in their communities.” ~ World Health Organization

For menopausal women this is a particular challenge as we undergo a roller coaster ride of changes. I used to laugh at the concept when I was unaffected and I didn’t understand.

With good genes from both parents and our ancestors I would ridicule batchmates who started slowing down years ago and some even a decade or more younger than me.

on the beach

But the year I turned 65 it all came crashing down on me. Suddenly I noticed soreness or stiffness blooming where there didn’t used to be any. I broke one foot, then two years later, the other as well. How? Running full tilt with heavy bags in both arms. Yes! 

Now as I’m aging, my appreciation for life and the process of getting older is expanding. It is an exceptional gift to age year after year — no matter how we feel about our age. 

an animated world

Long before any ism or religion existed in humanity's consciousness, animist practice was the embodied experience of living beings. 

Animism is not a theory, a philosophy, or an idea. It was simply how things were. A common understanding - across the entire world, for all of time. 

The fabric offerings tied to a tree mark offerings to a being of the landscape.
Olkhon Island, Irkutsk Oblast, Russian Federation. Roberto Quijada, CC BY-NC

Animism is not a religion one can convert to but rather a label used for worldviews and practices. It identifies and describes acknowledge relationships between nature and the animal world. A driving force and influence over humans and a way of being that needed to be respected.

Tara Mangalartha

The Tara Mangalartha Mantra is a prayer to restore climate balance. 

Oṃ tāre tuttāre ture Maṅgalaṃ śrī mahā pāṇi svāhā

Tara Mangalartha, the 12th Tara

Translated as, "she who brings about auspiciousness." This mantra is a sacred chant associated with the deity Tara - a revered figure in Tibetan Buddhism.

Tara Mangalartha (Drölma Tashi Dönjema) is the twelfth Tara, depicted as peaceful and golden yellow goddess. Seated serenely on her lotus flower with an auspicious infinity knot.

day of love

Christianity often modeled early celebrations and holidays on existing festivals and feasts. For example, Christmas holiday started out when winter solstice was celebrated. 

On the same trend, Valentine's Day was held on February 14 while Lupercalia was celebrated February 13 to 15. In time many of these old-time festivals were replaced by the spreading influence of this latest religion. 

La Lupa Capitolina "the Capitoline Wolf" with figures of Romulus & Remus added

Lupercalia was observed to honor pagan gods of love, marriage, and fertility -Pan and Juno. It is celebrated with a rite of purification and health. Only slightly connected to fertility and more as a part of celebrating health. Not at all about love. 

new face

With the remake of the movie "The Color Purple" interest in Alice Walker and her words has surged more than usual. 

In her book "The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult" the Mendocino County-based author revisits the film set - describing her personal reactions to the whole experience, in brave, naked detail.

Her writing brilliantly unveils an artist’s pain and joy at seeing her work take on a surprising life of its own. For writers and artists, it is full of valuable insights. 

Sandra Ingerman | shamanic journeying for healing

Today is the start of a new course with Sandra Ingerman - "Shamanic Journeying for Healing" at the Shift Network. 

Shift course page

It is perfectly timed - opening 2024 to much of it potential and possibility. Exploring an ancient practice intimately intertwined with the elements of nature. Journeying into non-ordinary realms in ceremony - for healing, support, and guidance. 

Sandra Ingerman in an intimate connection with helping spirits and nature beings of these unseen realms. Into worlds beyond our world - shamanic journeying to connect with multidimensional guides and their insights since ancient times. 

Sandra Ingerman teaches how to experience firsthand what it looks, feels, and sounds like to explore other worlds and be in true physical presence with the divine beings who dwell there. 

Providing options and solutions to our greatest personal and collective challenges to share - with family, friends, colleagues, and community. A truly life changing experience. 

May we all contribute in the creation of a better world for all. A glorious 2024 to all!  

midwinter rites

Bonds of spirit, bonds of sisterhood. That is the glue that binds us together. In our blood and bones the cosmic web of life thrives. 

Cocooned in the wintering womb of Gaia, earth goddess, mother nature - our inner self and all or creation hibernates within - infinite and insulated. 

elemental sisters - water, earth, air, fire

All allied and at One - mind, body, soul - identity incarnate. In the bosom of an ever expanding cosmos augments the power of incubation. 

female fates & cycles

 "The psyches and souls of women

also have their own cycles and seasons

of doing and solitude,

running and staying,

being involved and being removed,

questing and resting,

creating and incubating,

being of the world and

returning to the soul-place."

~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés

The Three Fates by Alexander Rothaug (ca. 1910). Jack Kilgore Gallery

Women were the first diviners, and goddesses were the first symbols of destiny. The Moirae of Greek mythology were a triad of fates who were said to spin, weave, and cut the thread of fate.

The Moirae determined and guided the moira—literally the “portion” or “allotment”—that every mortal received when they were born. 

As ambiguous goddesses of fate, the Moirae naturally also knew the future and were sometimes regarded as prophetic or oracular figures. 

The Moirae frequently appeared in ancient literature, art, and inscriptions and played a role in other myths.

The spinning wheel has many layers of meaning - the wheel of time and fortunes, of birth, life and death, of the passing of the seasons, of the cycles of things, and the creation of form from chaos.

In Hopi and other mythologies, Grandmother Spiderwoman gives advice, weaves a magic web, provides therapeutic cures, and is the wisdom keeper.

It is empowering for women to recall such archetypes of our abilities to weave our destinies.

Why do I read?

I just can't help myself.

I read to learn and to grow, to laugh

and to be motivated.

I read to understand things I've never

been exposed to.

I read when I'm crabby, when I've just

said monumentally dumb things to the

people I love.

Mohammed Aziz, a bookseller in the Medina in Rabat - photo by Bjørn Ihler

I read for strength to help me when I

feel broken, discouraged, and afraid.

I read when I'm angry at the whole

world.

I read when everything is going right.

I read to find hope.

I read because I'm made up not just of

skin and bones, of sights, feelings,

and a deep need for chocolate, but I'm

also made up of words.

Words describe my thoughts and what's

hidden in my heart.

Words are alive--when I've found a

story that I love, I read it again and

again, like playing a favorite song

over and over.

Reading isn't passive--I enter the

story with the characters, breathe

their air, feel their frustrations,

scream at them to stop when they're

about to do something stupid, cry with

them, laugh with them.

Reading for me, is spending time with a

friend.

A book is a friend.

You can never have too many.

~ Gary Paulsen, Shelf Life: Stories by the Book