“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.
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| the many renditions of a holiday icon |
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.
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| 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.
“I’ve been lucky,” Stephen Sondheim said in his last major interview.
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| 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
"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. . . .
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| "The Holy Family" by Pompeo Batoni detail |
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.
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| elements in space & time |
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.
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| bodhisattvas mural - Tang Dynasty, 7th–9th century |
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.
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| 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.
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.
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. . . .
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| that was Zen - this is Tao |
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.
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| 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.
