poet shamans

I am a longtime advocate and ardent fan of the female authors and poets the Brontë Sisters, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Emily Dickinson. I truly believe they were women of substance, feminists, and shamans.

Tuvan Shamaness

Jung has written that "the psychological inference that may be drawn from shamanistic symbolism [is] that it is a projection of the individuation process" (Alchemical Studies  341).

The shaman-poet who lives in both the natural world and the supernatural world and experiences both genders is thus able to know each of these pairs of opposites intimately. (Clifton Snider, "A Druidic Difference": Emily Dickinson and Shamanism)

ghosts & past lives

November 2 is All Souls Day or Day of the Dead - a feast to honor, celebrate and remember our ancestors. 

One of countless colorful ways to celebrate.

It is a commemoration to recall and honor all who have come before us and contribute to who we are now. Ghosts and past lives forming the foundation for a better and brighter future for us all. 

For the relocated and nomadic, we carry our ancestral altars with us. 

lives we are a-changing

October had friends from far and wide descending on New York City in unprecedented numbers and overlapping dates.

I found myself juggling times and commitments in a quickly overflowing calendar. Conflicting priorities and agendas only added to the turmoil and fuss.

Mad Hatter Day

Whether or not you are aware of such an occasion - yes we do live in a world crazy enough to celebrate such a day.

Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Tarrant Hightopp

In parts of the world it is celebrated on October 6 and in Britain they celebrate it on June 10. Both dates were chosen from the illustrations by John Tenniel in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, depicting the Mad Hatter wearing a hat bearing a slip of paper with the notation "In this style 10/6."

Equinox & Eclipses | blood moons & bloody times

September marks several dates of import that impact us on a variety of levels - cosmic, global, national, local and personal - stirring us to the core.

Moon’s progress dead center through the Earth’s shadow in July 2000

tempered tempers

Asked to describe my temperament in a word I would say fierce.

More intense and passionate in intent and motivation rather than vicious or violent though I do not always succeed.

I have always had a healthy respect for the value of things - real and symbolic - yours, mine and ours.

Mahala

Happy day - Mahala's birthday and my labor day! Here’s to you beloved child of mine. 

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,

may the clarity of light be yours,

may the fluency of the ocean be yours,

may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow

wind work these words

of love around you,

an invisible cloak

to mind your life.

~ John O'Donohue ~ (Echoes of Memory)