this new year

Surrendering to spirit revelation
I gain the light of cosmic being;
The power of thinking, growing clearer,
Gains strength to give myself to me,
And quickening there frees itself
From thinker’s energy my sense of self.

(Rudolf Steiner, Verse 39 - translated from German by Ruth and Hans Pusch)

Originally published by East of the Sun | West of the Moon. 

The longer we spend apart, the harder it is to return. The harsher the rub on tender and exposed parts. The bigger the resistance to input. The sorer the spots of vulnerability. The thicker the amor required. The heavier its burden to bear. 

winter solstice 2021

The date of the winter solstice varies from year to year and can fall anywhere from December 20 to 23, but the 21st and 22nd are the most common dates. For 2021 here in the East Coast, it falls on Tuesday, December 21, at 10:59 am EST.

Getty Images

Today Yule also marks the winter solstice although this is far from how it originated. It is the shortest day and longest night of the year - as the Sun gets its lowest elevation in the sky. Apart from the marking of a new season, the winter solstice also holds a significant symbol for the Sun. 

Saint Nick & Santa

“The modern American Santa was born in the Mediterranean, evolved across northern Europe, and finally assumed his now-familiar form on the shores of the New World.” ~ National Geographic, 2013

This reference to Saint Nicholas of Myra (more popularly known as Santa Claus), other characters such as the Dutch SinterKlass (directly inspired by Nicholas), and the English Father Christmas as well as some Germanic and Scandinavian folklore. 

the many renditions of a holiday icon

conserve life in death

According to a study published in the Berkeley Planning Journal, funerals use enough wood to build 4.5 million houses each year. Two thousand seven hundred tons of copper and bronze are buried annually, along with 104,272 tons of steel and 1.6 million hectares of forest. Maintaining the manicured appearances of traditional cemeteries, with their perfectly tended lawns, requires gallons of fertilizer and hours of lawn mower use. ~ Garielle Anctil, A Death Full of Life

For as long as humans have lived, we have also died. As populations increase and cemeteries multiply - risks of death and disease spread quickly.

The world soon became overpopulated and polluted and causes of death have multiplied along with growing numbers. Famine, wars, disease, pandemics, genocide - countless natural and manmade causes for humanity's demise and disposal became a growing concern.

image by Ashim D. Silva in Unsplash

One thing is certain - cemeteries can play an essential role in hosting ecosystems. Although with good reason they also have a bad environmental rap.

City planners, in particular, can play a key role in promoting conservation burials by incorporating burial practice into the larger context of public infrastructure planning. Taking a role in the development of the next generation of cemeteries. 

we are the lucky ones

“I’ve been lucky,” Stephen Sondheim said in his last major interview.

Daniel Dorsa for The New York Times

That was Stephen Sondheim one week ago, speaking to our theater reporter about the two Broadway shows he was about to see. It would turn out to be his last major interview.

There was little indication that Sondheim was unwell. One of the greatest songwriters in the history of musical theater, he died on Friday at 91, leaving “a life’s outpouring of rapturous, hilarious, gorgeous and tortuous song in his wake,” our theater critic writes in an appraisal.

Impromptu wakes filled New York City piano bars with tunes and tears. “Our industry and our art form owes everything to him,” a voice teacher said.

Stephen Sondheim, the dexterous composer and lyricist of musicals including Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods, and Sweeney Todd was the elder statesman of American theater even if he always stood outside of its trends. 

An iconoclast whose vital music tested preconceived notions about what belonged on stage, he created songs for a murderous barber, a neurotic neo-Impressionist, and a vengeful witch. His work always teemed with moral ambiguity, never providing the easy answers some looked for in musicals. 

Reticent to share anything about his own life, Sondheim constantly examined the nuances and complications of being human in his work. He proved that breaking out into song didn’t need to be trite or simplistic, but could contain frustration and confusion. 

*Reprinted from NYTimes & Vanity Fair

Mary | holy mystery

"This holiest of mysteries, of which one was also disinclined to speak, was the connection between Mary and the Holy Spirit, that Mary was felt as giving human form to the Holy Spirit. . . .

"The Holy Family" by Pompeo Batoni detail

If mankind would experience Christ in His new approach to man, it must undergo a change in consciousness. Just as the first Christ-event was directed to the being of mankind, so the second Christ-event, towards which we are moving today, is directed to human consciousness.

But then, in order to Experience the Christ, a heightening of consciousness is needful, from the level of mere intellectual consciousness to an ensouled spirit-consciousness so that the ability may arise to feel and gradually to recognize the sphere in which Christ is approaching.

Insofar as this can be realized, the second Christ-event will awaken a new epoch of the Holy Spirit for humanity.

A form of Christianity must arise which gives cosmic content once more to consciousness, and which reunites human knowledge with the feelings of piety which live in the soul.”

~ Emil Bock (translated by John Meeks)

The whole lecture ‘The Mystery of Mary’ can be found in ‘Golden Blade 1986’

in & out

As the day dawns I light some incense and the candle on the mantle. Smudging some sacred smoke over myself and out into the world. I offer up the day's prayer and purposely encircle each room as I fan the wafting smoke all around myself and my space. 

I sit in silence for a quieting moment. Breathing gently and intentionally. Centering carefully before my day begins. Lots of thoughts - floating and bobbing, coming and going. Surrounded this way in suspended animation - a fetus in its amniotic fluid. 

Enclosed in the cocooning world of a warm and throbbing womb. All externals muted out and drifting far into the fog. Waves circling and undulating as I sink into the emptiness. Submerge deeper. Slowed down. Each atom of my being weighed down more and heavier. The self disintegrating into the void. 

Immersed. Isolated. Internalized. Into the vast unknown I go. 

elements in space & time

Change beyond the speed of thought. A dozen years ago I stepped out of community life. Bereft and adrift I stayed clear of any group. I took a masters in adult education and training. Loved what I learned, the gang who shared this with me, and how I absorbed the new with the old. 

archetypes & roles

History is replete with numerous myths of dying and resurrecting gods - Osiris, Persephone, Dionysus, Inanna, Odin, Baal, Ganesha, Krishna, Jesus the Christ. 

What if there was no historical Jesus? Is Jesus a god or a mortal son of God? 

Generally we regard the Jesus figure mainly from writings in the New Testament - although there were various Jesus movements in early Christianity. 

When considering whether the Jesus narrative is comparable to a dying and rising god myth, we tend to pick one of these Christian narratives. Yet there could be other stories that bear revelation.

bodhisattvas mural - Tang Dynasty, 7th–9th century

Why does the idea of a heroic saviour - who suffers, dies and is reborn - resonate? What is the draw of a Paul Atreides in yet another retelling of Dune? 

new cycle, new life

The full moon in Aries is peaking into our windows and awakening our inner fires on these cool nights. Mercury recently stationed direct, so hold tight while the dust settles.

Sun in Scorpio is right around the corner to welcome in the Season of the Witch. This is a favorite time of year for magic to sweep into our imaginations.

new life cycle initiation

Are you feeling a pull toward a new direction? At long last, there is momentum in the air - a massive shift is taking place. The energy that has been building up to this full moon will offer you more clarity, drive, courage, and a strong desire to take action in an area of life you’ve been passionate about.

It will have you rethinking your approach toward your passions, life, your relationships and it may even inspire you to venture into a different direction all together.

wild wanton woman

There she is - the woman who all claimed was just too much. You recognize the one – she who is too curious, too emotional, too demanding. The one we claim is never satisfied, is too loud, is too proud - loves too quickly, feels too easily, asks too closely, desires too willingly.

She is electrifying.

She fills up too much – spilling all over the place and taking over any terrain - with her words and curves, her honesty and guile, her senses and sexuality. Her presence as tall as a mountain, as vast as the ocean, as glaring as the sky. Her energy electrifying every crevice of the room. Not knowing her place, she takes up too much space.

In celebration, we require three sets of three days to worship the different aspects of this supreme goddess.

Three days the power is invoked as the fierce force of Durga, destroyer of any impurity, vice, and defect. Three days the goddess is adored in Lakshmi, giver of spiritual wealth, with the power of bestowing inexhaustible abundance to her devotees. Three days the mother is worshipped as Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom.

Navaratri means nine nights, the festival is observed twice a year - in the beginning of summer and at the onset of winter.

ready to be ready

My goal was always to work from home, from back when I lived at the opposite side of the world. Living in overcrowded megapolises is no way to live. A city cemented over life brutalizes my provincial bones, leaving me with a constant need to get away and escape. 

From the crush. From the noise. From the rush. From the viciousness. 

When it was finally announced that we needed to shelter in place, the news was no surprise to me who had already chosen to isolate weeks before. Stay home. Don't see anyone. No being out and about. No social obligations. Yay!

Lots of uninterrupted time, finally - all to myself. All the opportunity to do whatever it is I wanted - just I, me, myself. Holed up within the bounds of my own sanctuary. I could. . . . 

that was Zen - this is Tao

the stigma of sin

Defining sin :

1  a: an offense against religious or moral law

    b: an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible it's a sin to waste food

    c: an often serious shortcoming : fault

2  a: transgression of the law of God

    b: a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God

Sin — the idea or belief that we sin — is the single most destructive force implanted into the human psyche. Made up by religious organizations and human institutions to control others through guilt and fear, blame and shame. No dignity or respect for human life.

scenes from Greek mythology adorning the ceiling in the Palazzo Medici

What if we did not regard the human being as sinful by nature, even when in rebellion against god? Every human being is a person of great worth who has within themself a vast store of good as well as unworthy and even terrible behavior or habits.

belief vs faith

Miriam-Webster defines these two, often interchanged, words in our common vocabulary. 

belief - [1] a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing; [2] something that is accepted, considered to be true, or held as an opinion; [3] conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon, especially when based on examination of evidence

faith - [1] loyalty or allegiance to duty or a person; fidelity to one's promises; [2] sincerity of intentions; complete trust; [3] believing with strong conviction

Belief is taught or acquired by external and outer experience. Faith is nurtured and grown within and internalized. 

all interconnected

“By attending the online Summit, you will be part of creating a powerful healing container to bring light to collective trauma for the collective consciousness  of humanity at this pivotal time on our planet.” ~ THOMAS HÜBL

Collective Trauma Summit 2021

A 10-Day Online Event with 45+ Experts to Explore How to Work With Individual, Ancestral, and Collective Trauma - SEPT 19 to 28, 2021.

Join over 100,000+ souls for an all NEW online event with expert presentations, talks, poetry readings, movement sessions, guided meditations, and panel discussions where we will delve into the theme of Collective Healing in Action.

Virgo new moon transformation

I love Virgo season - my only daughter and my college mentor are both born in the sign of Virgo. The Virgo archetype has the innate skills and ability needed to bring order to the chaos of creation. 

art by Lori Menna

Birthed from Leo (the constellation just before hers), she takes the desires of our hearts, our gifts, talents, and unique self-expressions, and transforms them with her practical magic into something that can grow and thrive in our earth-based reality. 

Awakening the Spirit Summit 2021

The Shift Network brings us Awakening With Spirit Summit on August 31 to September 2, 2021. 

The ideal balm for our current challenges - this transformational summit, offers valuable insights and transmissions from world-renowned luminaries, leaders, and up-and-coming changemakers on how they overcame obstacles on their spiritual journeys and discovered how to move through life with ease.

Each soul-healing session is just what we need - practices, tools, and advice to deepen and sustain our own spiritual awakening - to bring more love and light into our lives and the world.

It is their hope and intention that we learn from these trials, avoid more missteps, and discover how to live an enlightened life in complete harmony with spiritual truths.

Proof and inspiration that all things are possible when we wholeheartedly embrace the soul pleasures of a spiritual life. Join us!

dominant demons

Dominion embodies disastrous behavior

obscuring fundamental ecological truths

In the colonized mind, Indigenous people are savages

Savages are not people in the lands colonized

no people, no culture, no laws

nothing stands in the way

of taking and consuming

kaboom!

Colonial settler adamancy, like being racist

is structural and specifically targets

the erasure and elimination of the colonized

as people, as a living human, breathing and being

no people, no culture, no laws

nothing stands in the way

of need and greed

 

Civilized versus savage

the fundamental base for brainwash

the framework of every whitewash

of the colonial mindset

no people, no culture, no laws

nothing stands in the way

of wanted for hunted

 

three card draw

On August 8 the Leo sun and the bright star Sirius will create an annual cosmic alignment known as the lion’s gate portal. This spiritual vibe is being amplified even more intensely this year, thanks to the new moon in Leo that’s taking place on the same day. 

on Instagram

In times such as these, when we are forced toward the sharp edges of our reality…when the external world creates uncertainty and chaos, the soil of our personal growth comes to life.⁠ A moment of choice is presented. ⁠What are you choosing at this Leo New Moon?⁠

The portal is open from July 26 to August 12. May this auspicious 8.8 take us to infinity and beyond! Here is my three card draw from a fave tarot deck - the Aquarian Tarot deck, illustrated by David Palladini.

Lammas & 8.8 Reading

The Ace of Cups reversed warns of a loss of self-esteem, optimism and faith in the abundance that the universe has to offer. Stop to examine what it is that bums you out or deflates you. Watch the mental food you are feeding on and witness it effects on you. Retreat within and restore inner harmony and balance to retrieve self love and trust - and return revived and fortified.

The Death card is not about the literal death of any person but represents the death of something else - like a project, plan, or relationship. This card also points to a time of harvest, symbolized in classical decks by the hooded skeleton with its skythe. What cuts the cords that bind us to the past, liberates us to go forward free fear with nothing to lose. Pruned away and recycled for the fertility of the future - nothing is really ever lost, despite seasonal cycles of gain and loss.

The Hierophant card refers to a master and the learning of practical lessons from the study of natural law. This energy points to some agent or resource that can reveal the secrets of life, the cycles of the Moon and tides, the links between human beings and the heavens. A Hierophant was one to whom a student would petition for entry - the one to set the curriculum for the newbie's course of study.

Often pictured with the right hand raised in blessing, the Hierophant is linked with the ancient lineage of Melchezidek, initiator of the Hebrew priestly tradition, the one who passes on the teachings. All shamans of any tradition draw upon this archetype.

This New Moon in Leo will open our heart space and awaken our desire to share our unique self expression with the world. It is the ultimate time to plant seeds of intentions, align with our purpose and step into our lioness power and authority with the sweet support of sisterhood. 

The mystery of the origin and the esoteric symbols in tarot have intrigued humans through the centuries. Today we can find new meaning in the old symbols and apply them to our lives.

The mystery of the origin and the esoteric symbols in tarot have intrigued man through the centuries. Today we can find new meaning in the old symbols and apply them to our lives.

all our relations

We are seeing so many changes on the planet and in the collective consciousness. My jaded and cynical self puffs and pants in disillusionment and frustration over the slow pace and inferior quality of most change. Yet my optimistic and hopeful self cheers and is uplifted that there are bright pockets of progress available to sustain and support us. 

all for one & one for all

At moments when I find myself distraught or defeated, I reflect on my long and winding path to self acknowledgement and personal healing. Some of the trauma I hold in my cells and DNA are deep and ancient inheritance from ancestors of old. 

I remind myself to take my cue from nature - listing all the healing a year of human retreat from its onslaught has provided us. How quickly a natural balance comes into play, as long as we step aside and allow it to happen without impeding its process. 

I am grateful for the support and commitment I can so easily access in the generous communities that surround me. This makes me doubly appreciative as I feel the dangerous pull of the collective energies of division and fear that prevail in our world. 

Trusting and surrendered that as change in nature happens in its own perfect timing and I too am a part of it all. Blessed be. 

LEO | mysterious & empowered feminine

The Sun has just moved into Leo and the full moon in the sign of Aquarius. This full moon carries healing energy thanks to the presence of the asteroid Chariklo.

This healing energy is spiritual in nature, guiding us to reconnect with the love that is our soul and the wholeness that is our spirit. Work with this beautiful healing energy through some chakra clearing for the Aquarius Full Moon. 

Leo has a reputation for being self-focused, but this year you will feel as if the self you've so carefully constructed is being unraveled. The people you feel closest to will offer you reflections about who you are, and the truth may bring about a shift of radical proportions.

sun in Leo & full moon in Aquarius

New people will come into your life to assist you in uncovering more of your uniqueness and even eccentricities. Allow yourself to become a wilder, stranger version of yourself.

Cancer | the divine feminine

In Greek mythology, when Hercules battled the Hydra, Hera sent Cancer the Crab to distract and delay him. During the fight the crab bit Hercules' foot and in his rage he killed it. Hera rewarded Cancer the Crab with a place of honor among the stars and cursed Hercules as her eternal enemy. 

Cancer the Crab - 14th c. Arabic manuscript, Book of Wonders

Cancer is a cardinal water sign. Represented by the crab, this oceanic crustacean seamlessly weaves between the sea and shore, representing Cancer’s ability to exist in both emotional and material realms. Ruled by the moon, the celestial body that represents comfort, self-care, and maternal energies.

In Hindu astrology the sign of Cancer is named Karka and its Lord is Moon. Divine associations with Cancer in Renaissance astrology are Luna and Diana, both goddesses that represent the Moon, Cancer's ruling planet.

These few years of necessary chaos and change are best met and embraced if we want a future transformed - where we can all thrive.

It is the divine Feminine that grounds this work, as she appears to us now - Lady Wisdom, Sophia, Mary of Magdala. Wisdom in its feminine aspect of caretaker and nurturer.

Wisdom is a gift our world has suffered without for too long. It needs to return to our collective consciousness for our survival as a species on this planet.

Women are the bearers of Wisdom. Hopefully men will work with Wisdom and share in the labor of birthing a new world order. One that isn't organized and run by corporations or driven by the need to consume.

One created by, for and of the people.

great sky river

Throughout the ages, the Milky Way has hung above humanity in the sky, a beautiful marvel shining steadily each night.

Nowadays, most city-bound folks rarely see the full splendor of our home galaxy stretching across the heavens.

Pablo Ruiz - Riaño, Spain

The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. 

carved in stone

“Without minerals there is no life. Life learned how to make minerals, in teeth, bones and shells. People think these are separate, [i]t’s all part of a whole.” Dr. George Harlow, geologist and seasoned curator.

On a recent trip to New York City, we visited the newly refurbished Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals at the American Museum of Natural History.

early cave petroglyphs

The dazzling displays include meteorites, fossils, minerals, gemstones - rough and cut, new and old. All spectacularly displayed so each can shine in their own awesome spotlight.

The mission statement of the museum is: "To discover, interpret, and disseminate—through scientific research and education—knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

The newly reopened gems & minerals exhibit

Nowhere does this strike closest as in these immersive halls and exhibits that take us back in time to the origins of Planet Earth and the human race. There are over 5,000 minerals on earth and in the surrounding space around us, forming the substance of the world we evolved in and are made up of.

summer solstice 2021

Summer Solstice marks the high point of light in the northern hemisphere - the longest day, the shortest night.

Midsummer celebrations held throughout the United States are largely derived from the cultures of immigrants who arrived from various European nations since the 19th century.

The Lake - Central Park, NYC

With the rise of earth-centered spirituality, many including Unitarian Universalists celebrate the summer solstice as a religious holiday. Seeing how the Big Apple is faring this Father's Day weekend - is cause for fervent prayers indeed.

Juneteenth 2021

Especially after the past year of protesting, donating and talking about race and racism in America, we are all just too grateful to have a US president who values the significance of the day! 

Happy Juneteenth to all! 

Juneteenth (also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day or Emancipation Day) is a day to honor and celebrate liberation. It was 156 years ago on June 19, 1865 that all Americans became free from slavery (despite the Emancipation Proclamation occurring two years prior). 

Today, the holiday is about celebrating Black culture, history and life. Bringing people together to honor all those who came before us and fought for the rights and privileges we hold today. 

celebrating the end of slavery in the United States

Juneteeth gives us the opportunity to support, appreciate and educate through a host of activities. So, whether you’re hosting a barbecue or buying from Black-owned businesses, be sure to celebrate Juneteenth this year - as loudly and boldly as you can!