A conversation on another thread reminded me of a recent event I thought I’d share.
I do a monthly ‘coaching’ session with my assistant. It’s an hour that opens with my asking her what the most important topic on her mind is, and we go from there. (A bit of background, she’s in her first office job, and in her early 20s. She’s GREAT at what she does and an awesome admin, these sessions are wide ranging so that we both share and she gets maximum input.)
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The first harvest Feast of the year!
I began by taking down my summer altar and re-newing it in honor of the day. Then I baked a loaf of honey bread with full intentions and gratitude infused into the dough all throughout the process. Finally, I cleansed the house, opening all of the doors and windows and making sure light got into every corner. The sweet smell of summer was magickal, and everythign felt so much fresher for the new air everywhere.
It must be my birthday soon, I’m being more introspective than usual.
I’m having a tough time, mostly around abstract-yet-relevant concepts of ‘health’. Seven years ago (give or take a day) I was told that I have breast cancer, and my world ||SHIFTED|| in an instant. I’m still uncovering the changes, like an archeologist on a tidy and clean site (no dust in my corners!) who keeps unlocking hidden compartments.
In the evening of July 19th, I captured the last energies of the Capricorn full moon before she moved below the horizon.
Capricorn is a time for setting long range goals and acknowledging past accomplishments (on the personal level) as well as paying special attention to security, duties, and obligations. Ruled by Saturn, the planet of karma and authority, I wanted to invoke and direct those energies to manifest responsibility and a kind of ‘instant’ karma in those who have stepped outside the bounds of their role as Officers of the Law.
trigger warning: sad pet story; peripheral violence
He came to us just a tad over three years ago, having spent the last three months in a high kill shelter in Merced, CA, then in two foster homes. When he left the 2nd one he watched out the rear view window for hours. We didn’t know anything about him except that he hated cameras, it was really hard for the shelter to get pictures of him to post. The two fosters told us he was a sweetie and mellow, even low energy. They tagged him as an Aussie-Border Collie mix.
For all of my artist friends. You qualify as an artist is you do anything that requires creativity. You are a friend if you have vaguely positive feelings about me, at least for the purposes of this meme. 🙂
The Three Laws of Art
With the rise of religions based on books laws became something governed by god as well as secular authorities, this led to situations in which you could ask forgiveness of him (all book religions have a male deity as their center), do penance as assigned by his intermediaries, and then be forgiven absolutely. This is a simple, attractive, way of administering and judging morality. (Granted, secular authority wouldn’t overlook a murderer, but at least one religion allowed for absolute forgiveness and entrance into heaven if one’s deathbed confession was heartfelt and sincere. So you could rob a bank, be shot, make a heartfelt confession, and then die and go to heaven.)
Pagans have no concept of sin like what exists in religions of the book; we don’t put our morality on our Gods, we take it onto and into ourselves. While there are many myths that offer direction for being a positive member of society, it is easy to see Them engaging in a variety of activities that society generally finds distasteful: adultery, theft, lying, deception, murder . . .
Everything we do, every choice we make, has consequences. Each choice is like a drop of rain into a basin of water, rippling outward.An ethical code is more than a line or two of a poem, or even the entire poem. It is a structure that starts in childhood and develops in accordance with your experiences. Your code may not always provide an answer, nor will it necessarily be perfect. It does need to be cohesive.How does it start?Learn true honesty with yourself. This is not a punishment, it is the beginning of creating an accurate vision. It requires courage and a dismantling of the prejudices and nasty mind voice we often have learned to ‘hear’. It also requires learning to not blame others. No one can make us do anything, it is all our choice. This is true even when the choices are few (do this, or don’t), or terrible (work at that soul-sucking job or don’t eat). True honesty is a cultivation of vision that requires looking clearly at ourselves and the world around us without placing blame. In doing this you learn understanding. That leads to better knowledge of the causes behind your actions and decisions and the effects that will arise from your choices.
In June I challenged myself to do yoga every day. Knowing that I probably wouldn’t be able to do it every single day, I gave myself a bit of an out: my challenge was to get to the mat, if only metaphorically. If I could show up, that would count. So, how did I do?
My therapist assigned me Inside Out to watch, as part of some work I am doing about emotions, particularly sadness. I mentioned this on FB and a number of people chimed in, and opinions were all over the place. It was interesting to see the comments, and gave me a bit of insight as to why it might be homework.
I was completely unprepared for what happened next.
My Litha reading was . . . interesting.