Solstice Ceremony at Willits

Mana Youngbear as Dawn

I wanted to share these wonderful photos from the Solstice ritual  my colleagues Ann Waters  (visit her blog  Annie Green Jeans) and Mana Youngbear, creator of The Muse in Willits, both in Northern California, put on at their community center.  I feel very privileged that they use my masks, and they are evolving a full performance to be tentatively produced in March.

Everyone loves, especially, the photo above of Dawn presiding over the cauldron of a new year and new world............it's the "year of the snake", and note the flame rising from the cauldron that looks very much like a snake.  Snake is an ancient symbol of the Earth Mother, with origins that go back to prehistoric Egypt. We'll take that as a sign!

In fact, as I was preparing this post, there was a lovely synchronicity.  I was answering an email from Mana, informing her that a new set of masks had been shipped, and concluded the note by asking what she thought was "next" to make.  After sending out the email, I noticed a new email had just popped up, titled "Butterfly Woman".  It was from a woman in Ireland who works with children, using stories for therapy, and she was asking permission to use the image from my website.  I would say, synchronistically speaking, that's a pretty "instant answer", so off to the studio to make another Butterfly Woman mask (the ones pictured were sold long ago), and they can put these ideas of transformation, chrysalis, and children, who are the future..........into their Cauldron of Evolution.

Meanwhile, gratitude to all those who wore these masks, and produced their beautiful Solstice. And gratitude to the photographer, Jerri Jo Idarius (all these photos are copyright J.J. Idarius).  I wish I had been there, but the photos give me inspiration and impetus.

Gaia

The Lady of Avalon mask

Ann Waters

Volcano

Pachamama mask

Gerson Nutritional Therapy for Cancer

Original book by Dr. Gerson

I watch a lot of films while I work, which I guess my posts demonstrate, but I consider it a great  privilege of our time that so many important films are available, many virtually for free. Thanks to the rapid evolution of video technology, people can make professional and effective documentaries, whereas 20 or 30 years ago this was not possible.  It's an incredible resource, and great generosity on the part of those who allow their work to be shared.  We are fortunate indeed to live in a time so much profound information is available, literally at our fingertips. 


In 1975, I ran across a book by Dr. Paavo Airola, a famous naturopathic doctor, and after reading it spent most of my tax return on a Challenger juicer (which I still have).  Airola and Gerson were contemporaries.

Dr. Gerson emigrated to the U.S. in the late 30's, fleeing the rise of Nazism in Germany.  He developed a treatment, over many years, for cancer and other degenerative diseases,  using nutritional therapy, supplements, and detoxification.  He had many amazing successes with his protocol, including Albert Schwitzer (who praised him highly), and his own daughter, who recovered from tuberculosis and runs the Gerson Institute to this day at the age of 84.  What is equally amazing is that in this country he is routinely discredited, dismissed as a quack, and Gerson Therapy is not even allowed to be practiced as medicine in the U.S.A. (The Gerson Clinic is in Mexico, not far from San Diego).  Wikipedia's page for Dr. Gerson is dismissive and discredits his work.........which makes the movie below all the more important to watch. As the film points out, the "establishment" can be very narrow minded, and cancer is very big business.

 I've lost friends to cancer, including my dear friend Felicia to breast cancer in 2010. 

 Dr. Gerson died in 1959 under mysterious circumstances - he had finished his manuscript for the book above, and became ill.  While recovering, the manuscript disappeared.  When he was well again he wrote the entire book once more from only his notes.  Shortly after it was published he became ill again, and having himself tested, learned that he had been poisoned with arsenic.  If he had not recovered from his first illness, there would have been no book about his work.

What I understand from both Airola and Gerson is that in treating disease the best way to recruit the healing abilities of our bodies is to 1) provide maximum, easily absorbed nutrition, in particular, from green vegetables, and living foods that have lots of enzymes which are absolutely vital in healing and detoxification.  2) Juicing allows us to absorb very high quality organic nutrition, but doesn't demand the amount of energy that eating solid foods does, allowing the body to devote more of its resources to healing and detoxing, which it does when fasting.  And 3) to facilitate detoxification in all ways.

Gerson's diet for people who are critically ill is very limited:  no meat, no dairy, no corn, no legumes, no grains, no soy, no nuts or seeds, no oils (including avocado), no alchohol, and certain foods, such as berries, bananas, and yams, are also excluded.  The diet is readily available in books published by the Gerson Insitutute or just online, including explanations of why certain foods are, for the course of healing therapy, to be avoided.  They make no secret of the protocol.

I hope a day will come when conventional medicine will work hand in hand with Gerson's therapy, and believe that, thanks to the internet and sites like TOPDOCUMENTARYFILMS.COM,  or even Netflix, this will happen.  Another recent film that demonstrates the healing power of juicing is the wonderful (and very funny) film by Joe Cross Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead
( http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/) in which he, and then a friend he made along the way to filming his project, fasted for 60 days on juice.  Joe has a great website, with lots of testimonials from people who've taken inspiration from his film and gone on to "reboot their lives". 

 http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/dying-to-have-known/

In Dying To Have Known, filmmaker Steve Kroschel went on a 52-day journey to find evidence to the effectiveness of the Gerson Therapy – a long-suppressed natural cancer cure.

"His travels take him across both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, from upstate New York to San Diego to Alaska, from Japan and Holland to Spain and Mexico.

In the end, he presents the testimonies of patients, scientists, surgeons and nutritionists who testify to the therapy’s efficacy in curing cancer and other degenerative diseases, and presents the hard scientific proof to back up their claims.

 
You will hear from a Japanese medical school professor who cured himself of liver cancer over 15 years ago, a lymphoma patient who was diagnosed as terminal over 50 years ago as well as noted critics of this world-renowned healing method who dismiss it out of hand as pure quackery. 

So the question that remains is, Why is this powerful curative therapy still suppressed, more than 75 years after it was clearly proven to cure degenerative disease? The viewers are left to decide for themselves."

The Gerson Institute has workshops, and also offers the workshops via the internet, for those interested:   http://gerson.org/gerpress/gerson-basics-workshop/

Women healing the World Movie

At the Vancouver Peace Summit in September 2009, the Dalai Lama announced, “The world will be saved by the Western woman.”

His comment has sparked controversy, including one very dense journalist who said he had visions of blond valkyries riding forth to battle armageddon.  Some people seriously can't think outside the box.

To me, the Dalai Lama is, and always has been, a very practical man, and what he comments on is the arising of women and woman's priorities in our war torn, greed driven world.  Western women predominantly have access to education, empowerment,  and resources that their sisters in poor nations are struggling to gain (and they will).  

 I've been feeling lately that this year, 2013, is going to be very much about the arising of women and the rising of the Goddess.   My sense about this is almost too much for me to somehow squeeze into an article or blog entry...........it's from scanning many bits of information and news that have been coming my way lately.  And, from dreams.

Here's a movie coming out that seems very hopeful to me, and includes interviews with some of my favorite cultural transformers, women who have profoundly impacted our world:  Riane Eisler, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Sandra Ingerman, Gloria Steinem, and others.

13 is the magical number of the Goddess, and has been for a very long time, because there are 13 lunations in a month (month -moon), and 13 menstrual cycles.  The origin of the "unlucky Friday the 13th" myth may go back to patriarchal re-mything of symbols once sacred to the Divine Feminine, as Friday derives from the name of an ancient Nordic goddess, Freya (Friday - Freya's Day).  So, for people inclined like myself, Friday the 13th is a lucky day, because it's a sacred day of the Goddess.

So, may 2013 see the profound arising of the feminine, bringing healing, justice, peace, and Restoring the Balance.

 
 

From Women Will Save the World, edited by Caroline Shearer:

“At a time when it is clear that life and business as usual is leading us towards collective calamity, we search for signs and wisdom that can help us imagine a new world and tell ourselves a new story. If women are to help lead the world towards a more just, peaceful, and abundant future, what is it that lives in women that holds these keys? What might live in us that we haven't considered as sources of strength and ingenuity that could support our coming together in unity to co-create and birth a new earth? Women always have been at one with birth and renewal, and Mother Nature shows us that the life cycles of the seed, from blossom to death to re-birth, are part of our universal reality."

- Jennifer Buffett, President of NoVo Foundation

Avalon............

In 2011 I participated in the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury, in the UK, and made my personal pilgrimage to "Avalon".  As I write about  Spirit of Place, I remember my experiences while visiting this site where, for at least a thousand years, people made pilgrimage to the sacred springs and the Tor.  Some quotes that just came to mind when remembering that time...............

"I experienced contact with something or someone sentient and much greater than my individual self. I had experienced contact, even momentary communion, with the "essence" of what could be called a transpersonal presence. Afterwards I was told by the local shaman or caretaker that I had met with the guardian spirit of the place."

Debra D. Carroll "From Huacas to Mesas"

DIALOGUES WITH THE LIVING EARTH, compiled by James and Roberta Swan (1989)



 "There is an earth-based energy available to human beings, concentrated at specific places all across the planet, which catalyzes and increases this eco-spiritual consciousness. These specific places are the sacred sites discussed and illustrated on this web site. Before their prehistoric human use, before their usurpation by different religions, these sites were simply places of power. They continue to radiate their powers, which anyone may access by visiting the sacred sites. No rituals are necessary, no practice of a particular religion, no belief in a certain philosophy; all that is needed is for an individual human to visit a power site and simply be present. As the flavor of herbal tea will steep into warm water, so also will the essence of these power places enter into one’s heart and mind and soul. As each of us awakens to a fuller knowing of the universality of life, we in turn further empower the global field of eco-spiritual consciousness. That is the deeper meaning and purpose of these magical holy places: they are source points of the power of spiritual illumination."

Martin Gray

   "The deepest spiritual energies of the Red Spring relate to the future:  to the emergence of a reborn and rebalanced divine masculine energy that can complement and eventually conjoin with the Goddess energy that is so venerated in Avalon.  This last stage of the alchemical work, involving the balanced union of a rejuvenated solar king-god with a goddess-queen in a symbolic heart centre, such as the pool in King Arthur's court, has long been delayed by our deep neglect of the divine feminine.  Since the recent cleansing of the White Spring, the spiritual and healing powers of the two springs can now manifest in a more balanced way."

Nicholas Mann and Philippa Glasson, "The Red and White Springs of Avalon"

 ***Martin Gray published  his monumental book Sacred Earth: Places of Peace and Power in 2007 with Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. of London based on his decades of travel to research sacred places throughout the world.   The author spent the last 20 years on a  pilgrimage: he visited 1,000 sacred sites in 80 countries around the world. His journey unfolds in a remarkable compilation of images that reveals just how devoutly pre-industrial cultures everywhere worshipped and respected our Earth. Gray’s stunning photographs and fascinating text provide unique insight into why these powerful holy places are the most venerated and visited sites on the entire planet.

Medicine Baskets

A Medicine Basket is a container, woven of many strands, for Medicine.

Recently, inspired by a dream a friend had, I made a mask I call "Medicine Basket - Gather and Offer". 

When I looked up "Medicine Basket" on the Web, I was somewhat disgusted to discover page after page of "Indian medicine baskets" but very little about people actually making them,  or  talking about what the significance of a "Medicine Basket" might be other than its fiscal or historical worth.

So I returned to the contemporary work of Cherokee artist   Shan Goshorn,   as she is also a weaver of  medicine baskets  which she makes in traditional designs and techniques.   They are woven from the words of broken contracts, and the names and photos of children taken from their families and forced to attend boarding schools. “Educational Genocide – The Legacy of the Carlisle Indian Boarding School” was created with a Cherokee-style double weave, and was made from splints of paper that had student’s names and historical documents and photographs. The artist  weaves together the broken threads of the past to create healing baskets that re-member and re-join.

My friend saw in her dream a woman wearing a mask that was a basket, the face emerging from the fibers of the basket.  This image had meaning for me on many levels.  A Medicine Basket is a container, woven of many strands, for Medicine.  We can create Medicine baskets, sacred containers for the medicine that is needed at a given time, place, and for a particular person. We are also "baskets" ourselves, our intentions and histories woven into the container of  life,  day by day, strand by strand.  Since it's New Year, I wanted to think about this mask,  and  another mask came to mind, that of Ilana Stein, which she called "Gathering and Offering" from the poem she made for her mask.  I've told this story before, but after making this mask I felt it was perfect as we stand here at the precipice of 2013.

"Basket Mask" by Ilana Stein (2008)

Gather and Offer
by Ilana Stein


Gather towards the North
Gather towards the South
Gather towards the East
Gather Above, gather below and gather the great Mystery

Gather what you’ve studied
Gather what you’ve learned
Gather how you’ve lived,
and gather what you’ve earned.
Gather what you’ve loved
Gather what you’ve lost.
Gather what you’ve soiled
and gather what it’s cost
Gather what you’ve wasted
and gather what you’ve saved

Gather who your friends are
and gather how they’ve cared
Gather your relations and gather how you’ve fared
Then Gather birth and celebrate,
Gather death and cry
Gather hope, regret and longing and
gather up the why

Gather up the waiting, gather struggles,
gather challenges.
Gather all the goals you’ve met and
gather up the bravery
Gather faceless fear and all the broken promises.
Gather yesterday today,
and gather time tomorrow

Gather what you’ve ruined
and gather when you’ve failed.
Gather up the personal, gather up the frail
Gather up the culture, gather up the myths
Gather all the songs you’ve sung,
and all expressive art
Gather dances,  gather dreams,
and gather up your heart

Gather in the garden and gather at the beach.
Gather on the mountain and gather what’s in reach
Gather in the workplace,  gather on the roads
Gather in the home you’ve made and
gather all your kin
Gather your impatience,
your frustration and your greed.
Gather up the words you’ve said,
gather what you need.

Gather up your journey and all
 the time you’ve spent
Gather up your courage and walk inside your tent.
Gather up your secrets
and gather up your wisdom
Gather what you’ve forgotten
Gather what you’ve meant.

Gather faith and Reverence
Gather truth and and gather lies,
Gather secrets great and small
Gather wisdom of the ages
and wrap them in your shawl
Gather sickness,
Gather health,  gather tenderness and rage
Gather all your stories
and gather on the stage

Gather up your gatherings,
stir the basket’s bounty
Gather all remaining threads
and search across the county
Look out among the human beings,
look out among relations

Then offer up your gatherings
to all nations and creations

Offer to your children and offer to your kin
Offer to the hungry, to the needy and the grim
Offer to the blessed and offer to the prim
Offer to the kings and queens
Offer to the beggars, paupers,
Offer to the jesters and the priestesses

Offer to the little birds, chipmunks and the deer
Offer to the badger, mole, the frogs,
and yes the bear
Offer to the green spring shoots,
the white and yellow crocus
Offer to the budding trees
the bushes and the rushes

Offer to the sand and mud
the concrete and the buildings
Offer to the cook and maid
the seamstress and the butler
Offer to the farmers, offer to the farm
Offer to the doctors and offer for no harm

Offer to the visionaries,  offer to the artists
Offer to the frightened, offer to the scared
Offer to those endangered and to the unprepared
Offer to the hurting, offer to be healed,
Offer to your neighbor and offer to the field.

Offer grace,  offer peace,  offer possibility
Offer privilege,  trust,  and faith
Offer gratitude, wonderment and awe
Offer loving kindness, compassion, joy and love

Offer up your story. Offer honor and integrity
Offer for community, offer your vulnerability

Offer what you’ve learned
and offer what you have
Offer what you know
Offer what you’ve shared
Offer both your ears,
your shoulders and your tears
Offer all you’ve gathered, offer all your cares.

You’ve gathered through the springtime,
the summer and the fall.  And you’ve offered season’s greetings without going to the mall.

Now rest and build your strength up.
Cycle with the moon.
Cycle through the mystery time.
Close your eyes and sleep.
Dream the dreams of where you’ve been.
Dream of where you’re going –


Then gather.

(2008)

A Hopeful Channelled Message......and one for me as well!

"Rainbow Woman" (2012)

 Things are getting strange lately.................synchronicities abound, I even find myself having (oh oh) an occasional (mild) vision or two.

To further facilitate this process, and get myself out of holiday blues, I went for a few days to the hot springs in Safford (very friendly place) where I sat in a pool where more ideas for "Numina" masks turned up.  Later I was having some coffee in the common room with new friends I met there and we all paused as a middle aged native American woman, a very old woman in traditional dress, and a young girl walked in the door.  I really did feel the energy change, become heightened in some way, and later the others commented that they felt the same.  Delphina is a Navajo herbalist and medicine woman, who lives near Chinle, and so is her mother (her mother did not speak English, and Delphina translated for us).  The first thing the elderly medicine woman said almost as soon as they walked in  was that we should not go into the waters without first making an offering of corn meal (I can't remember what else), and asking for blessings  from the spirits of the waters, and making prayers!

And I thought, "Of course!  Here I am indirectly asking for vision about a project that is about Spirit of Place (Numina) and I don't even know how to do what any traditional person does, which is exactly that.  Ask permission, give thanks, make an offering to show appreciation, recognize that the waters are not just another inanimate "object", but a place where spirits reside.  How could I forget?.....but it's so easy to forget, being from a world that no longer remembers these things.  I reflect (in retrospect) how blessed I was to be "reminded" in such a way.

Their entrance was so strange that, to be honest, I can't entirely remember all that was said, just a kind of intensity in the room.  But I also note that the elderly woman (in translation from her daughter) said something about  weaving looms, or weaving..........and here I am, having spent all these years writing about Spider Woman.  And........here is another mask I just made the day before I left.

Sometimes these amazing messages come to us......and we barely notice.  Or we notice after they've happened.  But I know it was a blessing, at least, a reminder..................to quote myself from a previous post:  "The ineffable work with us in the arena of energy, in the field of dreams, synchronicity  and soul language"

I invited Delphina to visit me in Tucson when she comes for the gem show, so perhaps I will have another chance to talk with a real Navajo medicine woman.

Here is an interesting video someone sent to me, from an Australian channel.  I think it's time for some hopeful thoughts about the New Age...............

http://youtu.be/CPriixJ6_Ms

Jobs Not Wars

http://www.jobs-not-wars.org/

The very first priority of patriachal culture and patriarchal mythos is war.  And needless to say, it's  a tragedy for society when the only job, and opportunity to go to school, open to young men is the military.   And yet, as we as a nation confront the huge debt racked up for Bush's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq , and congress prepares to drastically cut resources to the elderly (social security), schools, the arts, the environment, the Pentagon remains, as always, untouched.  Just passed, a $633 billion  defense bill for next year. And our taxes don't just support American militarism - we support military regimes all over the place.  In July, for example,   President Obama announced that he was releasing "an additional $70 million in military aid for Israel.  The new funding is intended to help Israel boost production of a short-range rocket defense system, known as Iron Dome."(sound like a video game?)

That's a lot of money.  Even the "additional" small change for Israel is a lot of money, when you consider what it could do at home and put to humanitarian uses. 

 "Corporate CEOs, Wall Street executives and many politicians are working very hard to convince Americans that we are unreasonable and must continue to sacrifice – that cuts must come from Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid and other domestic programs.   But they completely ignore, and refuse to address the biggest drag on our economy – unending war and outrageous, out-of-control Pentagon spending."

My only source of security for old age is social security.  In recent proposals, there is included a change in the cost of living adjustment (COLA) that will make cuts in Social Security benefits.  It’s a real and harmful cut to the Social Security benefits we paid into.   Social Security should not be part of any such deal anyway. By law, it can’t contribute to the budget deficit.

I'm signing the petition  http://www.jobs-not-wars.org/   and circulating it.  We talk about a Shift:  that is the essence of it.