blessed Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday and Passover are major occasions evoking sacred rites, rituals and communal practices among many. 

Palm Sunday marks the first day of Holy Week, the last week of the Christian solemn season of Lent that precedes the arrival of Eastertide. The beloved palm frond has become for many a precious symbol of triumph and victory. 

The origins of the Passover festival predate the Exodus. The Passover ritual, prior to Deuteronomy, is widely thought to have its origins in an apotropaic rite, unrelated to the Exodus, to ensure the protection of a family home, a rite conducted wholly within a clan. 

When done properly, their preparation is Sacred Alchemy - balancing mythology with technology and philosophy. 

Ganachakra (a Dakini feast) is a sacramental meal and festive celebration invoking an alchemical transmutation from base to higher vibration. 

In this process, the negative energy of baser emotion or klesha (poison) is transformed into the luminous energy of enlightened awareness or gnosis (jnana). 

Its ingestion is highly intoxicating where the physical digestion leads to spiritual unfolding and God realization. 

sacred solstice season

I found this interesting article in the Smithsonian magazine on How the Sun Illuminates Spanish Missions in the Winter Solstice.

We have a Catholic tradition back in the Philippines called visita iglesia where during Holy Week we trek to churches - new and old - reciting the Stations of the Cross. All these church visits bring on fond memories.

As folks in the Northern Hemisphere mark the longest night and shortest day of the year this winter solstice, I cannot help but contemplate on the effects of colonization - then and now, here and there.

anthem to humanity

In the United States, National Anthem Day is every March 3rd, in celebration of the day congress made the "Star-Spangled Banner" our official national anthem, which only happened in 1931.

Native America | Sacred Stories | PBS - the Haiwatha belt

Prior to that what stirred the spirit of local residents? Before the immigrants came to these native shores what was the unifying call to prayer among local inhabitants and First Nations?

sitting in community

This Valentine's Day I contemplate the day's significance and the personal stories I have attached to it through the years.

St Valentine baptizing St Lucilla - Jacopo Bassano

I did not always have such lofty aspirations regarding this special occasion. Where I was born and raised we grew up with too much baggage attached to Saint Valentine and February 14.