Wishing you a Sexy Fall

Through strikingly odd coincidence, I deem a Friday the 13th in October is the wildest, most seductive, romantic day ever. It’s not just me that can attest. When it comes around again in six years, during this time of year when the veil between the worlds is so very very thin, beware the sultry Scorpionic spell- lest you make it into the arms of a King of the Underworld.

Astrology, Mythology, Open | 2.11.2006 11:47 | 3 Comments

Chasing the Thief and On Initiation

I’ve been reflecting a ton about what gives to me and what takes. Under the guise of giving, sometimes welcome visitors slip away, unknowingly carrying coins and jewels. The hands of the clock tick by, and once rich coffers yawn their empty traps at me.

In a dream I spotted a thief at a mall and was helping the female security guard nab him by diligently chasing him, right on his heels.

My path is clear. I’m taking a break from my social life which has been quite plentiful lately. It has been something that’s helped me feel whole for a long time, and even if just for a time, it’s something I must let go of.

Sometimes breaks are good, no matter from what. I’ve been giving up things I’ve been clinging to one at a time. I’ve done my best to do this serious work gently.

I was struck by this text from the book I’ve been reading. It speaks to me.

After she was traded to the Devil, her hands are severed, and the repulsed Devil is dispelled through the purifying power of her tears, this is what happens to the Handless Maiden and what C.P. Estes says about the initiation to the ways of Wild Woman:

“Initation is a process by which we turn from our natural inclinations to remain unconscious and decide that, whatever it takes- suffering, striving, enduring we will pursue conscious union with the deeper mind, the wild Self. In the tale, the mother and father attempt to draw the maiden back into an unconscious state. Will she, now that she has defeated the Devil, rest on her laurels so to speak?

“No, she will not draw like an acid-scarred beauty into a dim room forever. She will dress, psychically medicate herself, as best she can, and descend another stone staircase to an even deeper realm of the psyche. The old dominant part of the psyche offers to keep her safe and hidden forever, but her instinctual nature says no to that, for it feels it must strive to be fully awake no matter what.

“Women in this stage often begin to feel both desperate and adamant to go on this inward journey, no matter what. And so they do, as they leave one life for another, for one stage of life for another, or sometimes even one lover for no other but themselves. Progressing from adolescence to young womanhood, or from married woman to spinster, or from mid-age to older, crossing over the crone line, setting out wounded but with one’s own new value system that is death and resurgence. Leaving a relationship or the home of one’s parents, leaving behind outmoded values, becoming one’s own person, driving deep into the wildlands because one must, all these are the fortune of the descent.

“So off we go, down into a different world, under a different sky, with unfamiliar ground beneath our boots. And yet we go vulnerably, for we have no grasping, no holding on to, no clinging to, no knowing, for we have no hands.

Estes, Clarissa Pinkola. Women Who Run With the Wolves

If you look for me you won’t find me out and about. I’ll be reading, writing, and working on some fun projects here at the house.

Dreams, Mythology, Reflection | 6.04.2006 21:46 | No Comments

The Handless Maiden & the ill Bargain

“The poor ego is always looking for the easy way out.”

The Women Who Run With the Wolves has been a fascinating book in which Clarissa Pinkola Estes P.h.D tells selected myths and fairy tales from various cultures- all relating to deeply spiritual aspects of living- and she explains the archetypal messages contained therein- unlocking them with symbolism and knowledge accumulated from a long career as “Cantadora,” (keeper of old stories in the Latin tradition) and Jungian psychoanalyst. She releases potent teachings about life passed down by the storytelling of our ancestors. It is really quite fascinating and has filled a vacuum with information supporting me substantially in this period of reflection- enabling me to go further, as I’ve been digging around to find the roots of sadness in my past.

These stories remind us we are not alone, that there are others who have walked this road, and they offer insight and show us the way. It gives a framework to what we have been through, surprisingly what I am going through, and provides a map to where I am going. I related to many of the stories in Estes’ book, but as of late I have been very touched and inspired by “The Handless Maiden.” In Estes’ own words regarding the story:

The Handless Maiden is a remarkable story, one in which we find the toes of the old night religions peeking out from under the layers of the tale. The story is formed in such a way that listeners participate in the heroine’s test of endurance; the story pulls us into a world that lies far below the roots of trees. From that perspective we see that “the Handless Maiden” offers material for a woman’s entire life process. It deals with most of the key journeys of the woman’s psyche “the Handless Maiden” covers the journey of a woman’s entire lifetime.

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Mythology, Psychology, Reflection | 23.03.2006 13:50 | 2 Comments

Bacchus, ancient Greek Sun Deity, Oneness

FROM: THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES AND SECRET SOCIETIES. Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages.

The Bacchic Rite centers around the allegory of the youthful Bacchus (Dionysus or Zagreus) being torn into pieces by the Titans. These giants accomplished the destruction of Bacchus by causing him to become fascinated by his own image in a mirror

Bacchus (Dionysos) represents the rational soul of the inferior world. He is the chief of the Titans, the artificers of the mundane spheres. The Bacchic state signifies the unity of the rational soul in a state of self-knowledge, and the Titanic state the diversity of the rational soul, which, being scattered throughout creation, loses the consciousness of its original one-ness. The mirror into which Bacchus gazes and which is the cause of his fall is the great sea of illusion, the lower world fashioned by the Titans. Bacchus (the mundane rational soul), seeing his image before him, accepts the image as a likeness of himself and ensouls the likeness; that is, the rational idea ensouls its reflection, the irrational universe. By ensouling the irrational image it implants in it the urge to become like its source, the rational image. Therefore the ancients said that man does not know the gods by logic or reason, but rather by realizing the presence of the gods within himself. (Hall, XXXII.)

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Mythology, Spirituality | 15.12.2005 1:11 | 2 Comments

The Birth of the Sun

FROM: THE SUN, A UNIVERSAL DEITY The Birthday of the Sun by Manly P. Hall in Secret Teachings of All Ages, The Philosophical Research Society, 1988

The pagans set aside the 25th of December as the birthday of the Solar Man. They rejoiced, feasted, gathered in processions, and made offerings in the temples. The darkness of winter was over and the glorious son of light was returning to the Northern Hemisphere. With his last effort the old Sun God had torn down the house of the Philistines (the Spirits of Darkness) and had cleared the way for the new sun who was born that day from the depths of the earth amidst the symbolic beasts of the lower world. (Hall, L.)

Concerning this season of celebration, an anonymous Master of Arts of Balliol College, Oxford, in his scholarly treatise, Mankind: Their Origin and Destiny, says “It was on the same day that the birth of the Invincible Sun (Natalis solis invicti), was celebrated at Rome, as can be seen in the Roman calenders, published in the reign of Constantine and of Julian (Hymn to the Sun, p. 155). This epithet is the same as the Persians gave to this same god, whom they worshipped by the name of Mithra, whom they caused to be born in a grotto (Justin. Dial. Cum Tryph. P. 305), just as he is represented as being born in a stable, under the name of Christ, by the Christians.” (Hall, L.)

Many deities have been associated with the sun. The Greeks believed that Apollo, Bacchus, Dionysos, Sabazius, Hercules, Jason, Ulysses, Zeus, Uranus, and Vulcan partook of either the visible, or invisible attributes of the sun. The Norwegians regarded Balder the Beautiful as a solar deity, and Odin is often connected with the celestial orb, especially because of his one eye. Among the Egyptians, Osiris, Anubis, Hermes, and even the mysterious Ammon himself had points of resemblance with the solar disc. Isis was the mother of the sun, and even Typhon, the Destroyer, was supposed to be a form of solar energy. The Egyptian sun myth finally centered around the person of a mysterious deity called Serapis. The two central American deities, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, while often associated with the winds, were also undoubtedly solar gods. (Hall, L.)

In Masonry the sun has many symbols. One expression of the solar energy is Solomon, whose name SOL-OM-ON is the name for the Supreme Light in three different languages. Hiram Abiff, the Chriam (Hiram) of the Chaldees, is also a solar diety, and the story of his attack and murder by the Ruffians, with its solar interpretation will be found in the chapter The Hiramic Legend.(Hall, L.)

The philosophers of Greece and Egypt divided the life of the sun during the year into four parts; therefore they symbolized the Solar Man by four different figures. When He was born in the winter solstice, the Sun God was symbolized as a dependent infant who in some mysterious manner had managed to escape the Powers of Darkness seeking to destroy Him while He was still in the cradle of winter. The sun, being weak at this season of the year, had no golden rays (or locks of hair), but the survival of the light through the darkness of winter was symbolized by one tiny hair which alone adorned the head of the celestial child. (As the birth of the sun took place in Capricorn, he is often represented by being suckled by a goat.) (Hall, L.)

At the Vernal equinox, the sun had grown to be a beautiful youth, His golden hair hung in ringlets on his shoulders and his light, as Schiller said, extended to all parts of infinity. At the time of the summer solstice, the sun becomes a strong man, heavily bearded, who, in the prime of maturity, symbolized the fact that Nature at this period of the year is strongest and most fecund. At the autumnal equinox, the sun was pictured as an aged man, shuffling along with bended back and and whitened locks into the the oblivion of winter darkness. Thus, twelve months were assigned to the sun as the length of its life. During this period it circled the twelve signs of the zodiac in a magnificent triumphal march. When fall came, it entered, like Samson, into the house of Delilah (Virgo) where its rays were cut off and it lost its strength. In Masonry, the cruel winter months are symbolized by three murderers who sought to destroy the God of Light and Truth. (Hall, L.)

The coming of the sun was hailed with joy; the time of its departure was set aside for sorrow and unhappiness. This glorious, radiant orb of day, the true light which lighteth every man who cometh into the world, the Supreme Benefactor, who raised all things from the dead, who fed the hungry multitudes, who stilled the tempest, who after dying rose again and restored all things to life this Supreme Spirit of humanitarianism and philanthropy is known to Christendom as Christ, the Redeemer of the worlds, the Only Begotten of the Father, the Word made Flesh, and the Hope of Glory. (Hall, L.)

Hall, Manly P. Secret Teachings of All Ages. The Philosophical Research Society. 1988

Mythology | 14.12.2005 2:06 | No Comments