The Cave Artist - Ra Paulette

LUMINOUS CAVES

The world within the Earth and Ourselves

Here's an amazing artist.................Ra Paulette is a true New Mexico visionary.

 "My final and most ambitious project is both an environmental and social art project that uses solitude and the beauty of the natural world to create an experience that fosters spiritual renewal and personal well being.  It is a culmination of everything I have learned and dreamed of in creating caves.     A mile walk in the wilderness becomes a pilgrimage journey to a hand dug, elaborately sculpted cave complex illuminated by the sun through multiple tunneled windows.

 The cave is both a shared ecumenical shrine and an otherworldly venue for presentations and performances designed to address issues of social welfare and the art of well being...............In social art, creating the work of art is not the objective in itself, as in an exhibit, but is a means to bring about social change. The response to the artwork is not merely left to its audience as an endpoint in the process but is an element in a larger encompassing creative process."    

   Ra Paulette 

http://www.demilked.com/cave-carving-ra-paulette/

To view the Slide Show:  http://www.racavedigger.com/racavedigger.com/Cave_Photos.html#4

http://youtu.be/GSWdp6RVSS8

Ladybug Synchronicity

I had a very encouraging synchronicity the other day, and I've been pondering it ever since.

It's been an enormously stressful "holiday", one I won't forget soon.  It began with going all the way to Phoenix for an exhausting outdoor arts festival, and for the first time in 40 years, not even making my show fee in sales.   I remember thinking that the show was a painful reminder that that part of my career, and perhaps that prosperous time for so many of us........was truly over.

Then on the closing day of the show I received a call from my friend, who was house sitting and visiting Tucson for the winter, that her beautiful daughter, Amaranta, had been killed in an accident in San Diego.  I rushed back to take her to the airport and console as I could. 

A few days later I received a call that my mother, who was in a memory care assisted living facility that has been home to her for years  had been moved to the hospital and could not return because she had CDF, an infectious intestinal disease the elderly get.  Then began two weeks of sitting by her bed expecting her to die, her being moved to a temporary rehab facility, being informed that she could not stay more than a week because she was dying and hence not "rehab", also being told that she couldn't go back to where she was living because she had CDF, and being also told that she couldn't have hospice because she was in a "rehab" facility.  In other words, I had 5 days to find a place to live for a dying woman, and on top of it all, most places wouldn't take her because she had CDF.  And because she needed skilled nursing and  I have turned my house into a B&B, and have renters, I couldn't bring her  to my house either, plus she needs skilled caretakers.  Hows that for dealing with the "Insurance Machine"?  I now fully understand that insurance corporations really do rule the world.

I confess I am proud of myself that I did find a care home on short notice that I could afford, one that would take my mother, did move her there, did engage hospice (once she was removed from the rehab and could become medicare eligible), and she is now comfortable and actually getting better.  Jeanne, Amaranta's mother, is back at my house dealing with her grief as best she can.

In the midst of all this we've also had a very rare winter storm that  has killed off much of the citrus crop.  It's still here, and I look out the window at my  lettuce and chard, flattened and covered with frost.  In southern Arizona.............

A lot of death, at the Solstice. 

Yesterday, things calming down a bit, I picked up "Journey of Souls" by Michael Newton, and had it on the bedside table.  I was feeling sorry for myself, and thinking my dark thoughts that it was too late for me to do so many of the things I used to think I wanted to do.   I was quite amazed to see a ladybug on the cover of the book, and as I watched it walked around and around the edges of the book.  Ladybugs are rare here, and I've never seen one in the dead of winter.  And walking across "Journey of Souls" like a little poem made visible...............

The  Ladybug raised my spirits, and I carefully placed it on a houseplant, and I haven't seen it since.  I looked up "meaning of ladybug" on Google, and was surprised to learn that this little bug has a lot of symbolism associated with it, beginning with its name.  Oh, and I might add that in the midst of all this the mask I've been working on currently is a new  "The Virgin of Guadaloupe" for the performance my friends and I hope to create at the World Parliment of Religion in 2015.  The "Lady's Beetle" seems to me like an encouraging visitation indeed!



Here's some of what I found in my research:
 
HOW THE LADYBUG GOT ITS NAME:

Legends vary about how the Ladybug came to be named, but the most common (and enduring) is this:   In Europe, during the Middle Ages, swarms of insects were destroying the crops.  The farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary for help.  Soon thereafter the Ladybugs came, devouring the plant-destroying pests and saving the crops!  The farmers called these beautiful insects "The Beetles of Our Lady", and - over time - they eventually became popularly known as "Lady Beetles".  The red wings were said to represent the Virgin's cloak and the black spots were symbolic of both her joys and her sorrows.


From Wise Geek:

Many cultures view ladybugs as lucky, and a great deal of superstition surrounds these small and stylishly outfitted insects. As often happens with superstition, it is actually a bit difficult to determine why ladybugs came to be viewed as lucky. One interesting thing about ladybug superstitions is that these superstitions are so universal: usually, superstitions about living things are quite varied, with different cultures attaching different meanings to everything ranging from black cats to mirrors.

The most likely explanation for the general view that ladybugs are lucky is their dietary habits. Ladybugs eat harmful crop pests, so the appearance of ladybugs would have been welcomed by farmers and gardeners. The appearance of a ladybug would also have been viewed as a blessing.

One of the most common superstitions about ladybugs is the idea that killing a ladybug will bring down bad luck. This would support the idea that ladybug superstitions evolved as a form of protection for the ladybug population, ensuring that the insects could travel unmolested. Many cultures also link the sight of a ladybug with future luck in love, good weather, a financial windfall, or the granting of wishes. Having a ladybug land on you is supposedly to be particularly lucky in some cultures, and some people believe that when a ladybug lands on an object, that object will be replaced by a new and improved version.

In some Christian societies, especially in Europe, the ladybug is linked with the Virgin Mary, also known as Our Lady to devout Catholics. According to legend, the spots on the ladybug's back symbolize the Seven Sorrows of Mary, and ladybugs were sent by the Virgin to protect crops. The color of the beetle is the same as the red cloak of Mary, often portrayed in art.  This explains the origins of the name “ladybug.” Ladybugs are also known as “lady beetles,” or “ladybirds,” other references to the Virgin. 

The End of the Known World - Poem by David Whyte

This summer I made a blog for my friend Zoe, who walked the Camino de Santiago at the age of 68. The scallop shell is the symbol of the Camino, pointing the way all along the long pilgrimage route.   After Compostella, many pilgrims continue on to Finisterre, "Lands End", where they truly finish their pilgrimage before the vastness of the Atlantic ocean.   Recently I remembered this beloved poem by David Whyte, and somehow it reminded me of the New Year as well.........."Because now, you would find a different way to tread, and because, through it all, part of you could still walk on,  no matter how........."

FINISTERRE

The road in the end taking the path the sun had taken,
into the western sea, and the moon rising behind you
as you stood where ground turned to ocean: no way
to your future now

but the way your shadow could take,
walking before you across water,

going where shadows go,

no way to make sense of a world that wouldn't let you pass
except to call an end to the way you had come,
to take out each frayed letter you brought
and light their illumined corners, and to read
them as they drifted through the western light;
to empty your bags;
to sort this and to leave that;

to promise what you needed to promise all along
and to abandon the shoes that had brought you here
right at the water's edge,

not because you had given up
but because now, you would find a different way to tread,
and because, through it all,
part of you could still walk on,
no matter how, over the waves.”

― David Whyte

 

**Photos by Zoe D'Ay

Winter Solstice

When language was young, when even the gods and goddesses had not yet entirely taken human form but still ran with the deer in the forest, or flew with the wings of crows, or were glimpsed in the depths of a numinous pool........even then,  I think this was a holy day.  The Sun was returning to the sleeping world.

Fires were lit to welcome the Shining One returning from the underworld.  Stones aligned with the  Sun's journey made a pathway, and food and drink were left to give the Young God the strength he would need. 

Perhaps  they  danced through the long cold night, lighting   fires for him,  helping him on his way, keeping vigil.

These ancient roots are still found in many traditions, from the Lumaria of the Festival of Lights, to the lighting of the Menorah Candles at Hanukkah.   Planet Earth turns her face toward her star again,  she circles round,  and we turn with her, every  creat(e)ure  within her fragile, azure skin.   The light is returning!   Happy Solstice!

I pledge allegiance

to the soil of Turtle Island,

and to the beings

who thereon dwell

one ecosystem in diversity

under the sun

With joyful

interpenetration for all.

Gary Snyder

Santa Claus, Father Christmas and.........Odin?

Odin on his 8 legged horse
 (Image source:   http://www.designboom.com/design/santa-claus-changing-design/)

My wonderings about the origins of   Santa Claus.  Could Odin be another possibility? Yule  

The Winter Solstice has been celebrated since time immemorial, and in the  cold Nordic countries, where the return of the Sun's life giving warmth is of particular concern, there is evidence that it's been celebrated since the time of the Megalith builders and before.  Yule/Jól was was probably connected to the full moon nearest the winter solstice. 

Santa with his flying Reindeer

According to Wikipedia:  

Yule or Yuletide ("Yule time") is a religious festival observed by the historical Germanic peoples, later being absorbed into and equated with the Christian festival of Christmas. The earliest references to Yule are by way of indigenous Germanic month names (Ærra Jéola (Before Yule) or Jiuli and Æftera Jéola (After Yule). Scholars have connected the celebration to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin and the pagan Anglo-SaxonModranicht.    Yule is also used to a lesser extent in English-speaking countries to refer to Christmas. Customs such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others stem from Yule or Yuletide("Yule time"). 

Yule is the modern English representative of the Old English words ġéol or ġéohol and ġéola or ġéoli, with the former indicating the 12-day festival of "Yule" (later: "Christmastime") and the latter indicating the month of "Yule", whereby ǽrra ġéola referred to the period before the Yule festival (December) and æftera ġéola referred to the period after Yule (January). Both words are thought to be derived from Common Germanic *jeχʷla-, and are cognate with Gothic (fruma) jiuleis and Old Norse.   The word is attested in an explicitly pre-Christian context primarily in Old Norse.

 Among many others  the long-bearded god Odin bears the names jólfaðr (Old Norse 'Yule father') and jólnir (Old Norse 'the Yule one'). ^"

 The  Yule Log

The origins of  the Nordic Yule go back to a feast to honor the Norse God Odin, who among other things was the jolly God of Intoxicating Drink. The custom of  the Yule Log or Yule Tree  emerged from this winter festival as well.   

The custom of Yule log varies from region to region.  It's good to remember the primal importance of the gift of warmth and of fire to early people living in the cold North, the "flame at the Hearth" for ancient families.  The Log may have originally been a large tree (Christmas Trees)  brought to the house with great ceremony. 

On Christmas, people light the Yule log placed in the hearth.   The burning of the Yule Log brings good fortune for family and friends.   After Christmas celebrations, a piece of the Yule log is retained to relight next year along with next year's log.

Santa Claus

"The appearance of Santa Claus or Father Christmas, whose day is 25th of December, owes much to Odin, the old blue-hooded, cloaked, white-bearded Gift bringer of the north, who rode the midwinter sky on his eight-footed steed Sleipnir, visiting his people with gifts. … Odin, transformed into Father Christmas, then Santa Claus, prospered with St Nicholas on the Christmas stage."  ......Margaret Baker 

St.  Nicholas was a 4th-century Christian bishop from Lycia (now in Turkey), who was  known for his charity, and giving gifts to the poor. In one notable story, he met a pious but impoverished man who had three daughters. He presented them with dowries to save them from a life of prostitution. In most traditional Iconic images,  St. Nicholas is portrayed as a bearded bishop, wearing clerical robes, an important patron saint of  children, the poor, and prostitutes.

So few people know that Santa Claus is a blend of an early Christian saint living in Turkey (Saint Nickolaus)  and the Norse god Odin, with a few other influence thrown in over the ages.   Odin, the ruler of Asgard  was often depicted as leading a hunting party through the skies, during which he rode his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir. In the 13th-century Poetic Edda, Sleipnir is described as being able to leap great distances, which some scholars have compared to the legends of Santa's reindeer (and, of course, the Edda are from Finland, which once abounded with reindeer). Odin was portrayed as an old man with a long, white beard. 

Odin (1886) by Georg von Rosen

I read that during the winter, in some pagan folklore, children would place their  boots near the chimney (and in the cold of a Nordic winter, it's a good place to put them), filling them with carrots or straw as a gift for Sleipnir. When Odin flew by, he rewarded the little ones by leaving gifts in their boots. Like traditions of the "Green Man" in England, in rural areas of Germanic countries  this practice survived despite the adoption of Christianity. As a result,  gift-giving became associated with St. Nicholas rather than the earlier Pagan god Odin.  Only now we hang stockings by the chimney, and leave cake and brandy rather than carrots and straw. 

The Roman Saturnalia Solstice Festival

Last, as a contender for the origin of Christmas, we have the Roman Saturnalia Festival, traditionally celebrated around the winter Solstice.  As Rome became Christianized through Constantine, and eventually became the center for European Christianity (Vatican), it is highly likely that their beloved Saturnalia Festival was the forerunner of the later Christmas celebration.  According to Matt Salusbury,   (http://www.historytoday.com/matt-salusbury/did-romans-invent-christmas):

"It was a public holiday celebrated around December 25th in the family home. A time for feasting, goodwill, generosity to the poor, the exchange of gifts and the decoration of trees. But it wasn’t Christmas. This was Saturnalia, the pagan Roman winter solstice festival. But was Christmas, Western Christianity’s most popular festival, derived from the pagan Saturnalia?

The first-century AD poet Gaius Valerius Catullus described Saturnalia as ‘the best of times’: dress codes were relaxed, small gifts such as dolls, candles and caged birds were exchanged.  Saturnalia saw the inversion of social roles. The wealthy were expected to pay the month’s rent for those who couldn’t afford it, masters and slaves to swap clothes. Family households threw dice to determine who would become the temporary Saturnalian monarch. 

Saturnalia originated as a farmer’s festival to mark the end of the autumn planting season in honour of Saturn (satus means sowing). Numerous archaeological sites from the Roman coastal province of Constantine, now in Algeria, demonstrate that the cult of Saturn survived there until the early third century AD.

Saturnalia grew in duration and moved to progressively later dates under the Roman period. During the reign of the Emperor Augustus (63 BC-AD 14), it was a two-day affair starting on December 17th. By the time Lucian described the festivities, it was a seven-day event. Changes to the Roman calendar moved the climax of Saturnalia to December 25th, around the time of the date of the winter solstice.

Emperor Domitian (AD 51-96) may have changed Saturnalia’s date to December 25th in an attempt to assert his authority. He curbed Saturnalia’s subversive tendencies by marking it with public events under his control. The poet Statius (AD 45- 95), in his poem Silvae, describes the lavish banquet and entertainments Domitian presided over, including games which opened with sweets, fruit and nuts showered on the crowd and featuring flights of flamingos released over Rome. Shows with fighting dwarves and female gladiators were illuminated, for the first time, into the night.

The conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity in AD 312 ended Roman persecution of Christians and began imperial patronage of the Christian churches. But Christianity did not become the Roman Empire’s official religion overnight. Dr David Gwynn, lecturer in ancient and late antique history at Royal Holloway, University of London, says that, alongside Christian and other pagan festivals, ‘the Saturnalia continued to be celebrated in the century afterward’.

Christmas apparently started – like Saturnalia – in Rome, and spread to the eastern Mediterranean. The earliest known reference to it commemorating the birth of Christ on December 25th is in the Roman Philocalian calendar of AD 354. Provincial schisms soon resulted in different Christian calendars. The Orthodox Church in the Eastern (Byzantine) half of the Roman Empire fixed the date of Christmas at January 6th, commemorating simultaneously Christ’s birth, baptism and first miracle.

Saturnalia has a rival contender as the forerunner of Christmas: the festival of dies natalis solis invicti, ‘birthday of the unconquered sun’. The Philocalian calendar also states that December 25th was a Roman civil holiday honouring the cult of sol invicta. With its origins in Syria and the monotheistic cult of Mithras, sol invicta certainly has similarities to the worship of Jesus. The cult was introduced into the empire in AD 274 by Emperor Aurelian (214-275), who effectively made it a state religion, putting its emblem on Roman coins.

Sol invicta succeeded because of its ability to assimilate aspects of Jupiter and other deities into its figure of the Sun King, reflecting the absolute power of ‘divine’emperors. But despite efforts by later pagan emperors to control Saturnalia and absorb the festival into the official cult, the sol invicta ended up looking very much like the old Saturnalia. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, was brought up in the sol invicta cult, in what was by then already a predominantly monotheist empire: ‘It is therefore possible,’ says Dr Gwynn, ‘that Christmas was intended to replace this festival rather than Saturna

Spider Woman and the Universe Explained in Under Three Minutes.......

“What might we see, how might we act, if  we saw with a webbed vision? 

The world seen through a web of relationships…as delicate as spider’s silk, 

yet strong enough to hang a bridge on.” 

Catherine Keller, Theologian

 From a Broken Web  (1989)

Love it!

P.S.:  Minutes after posting this video, I went to Facebook, where a friend had sent me a link to an image from "The Dark Goddess Tarot", the card below,  "Spiderwoman - The Star".  Minutes after posting this..........don't tell me the Universe doesn't respond!  

P.P.S.:  Spider Woman has a great sense of humor.

From the "Dark Goddess Tarot" by  Ellen Lorenzi-Prince .
 To learn more and purchase, visit www.darkgoddesstarot.com

http://youtu.be/d9fC3flXY5g

The White Reindeer

Photo by Sally Svenningson

The Sami of Finland and Norway are the last surviving traditional shamanic culture in Europe.    Sami legend tells that the world was created by a White Reindeer, whose body became the world, the rivers, the grasses, the mountains.

A few years ago I posted a wonderful article about shamanism and the Samis by Gloria Orenstein.   

It's been noted that reindeer and "magic mushrooms" have been important to the "flights" of Sami shamans as well, so much so that the legend of "Santa and his reindeer" may have originated in their legends as well - the short video below is fascinating to watch for that!

My friend Sally Svenningson  has Sami ancestors, and when she was in Finnmark, Norway  she saw a  rare white reindeer.  She felt as if this magical encounter was a way of being "welcomed  home".   Thanks to Sally for sharing her photos here.

Magic mushrooms & Reindeer - Weird Nature - BBC animals

http://youtu.be/MkCS9ePWuLU