Friday the 13th and the Full Honey Moon

Full Honey Moon: Friday the 13th Brings Rare Celestial Event

Published: Jun 12, 2014, 4:03 PM EDT weather.com

See video:   http://www.weather.com/news/science/space/friday-13th-june-2014-full-moon-honey-moon-20140611?cm_ven=FB_JB_61204_5

 Calling all Pagans (and pagan hearted sympathizers), tomorrow there will be an Auspicious Event in the skies, a beautiful "Honey Moon", so called for it's amber color.  For some of us, Friday the 13th is not a bad luck day at all, in fact, it's auspicious for the Goddess, and highly misunderstood.  And as for honey moons, that also is something with  a bit of little known history.

For one thing, "Friday" originally was dedicated to the Nordic Goddess Freya, otherwise known as "Freya's Day".  Freya was one of the oldest of the Nordic Gods, one of the Vanir** known for her beauty, her compassion (amber is still called "Freya's tears" ), and  importantly, she was the Goddess of love, sensuality, and, along with Odin, also associated with Seiðr,  sorcery, which may very well pertain to pre-Christian shamanic practices and beliefs.  

There are further connections between "Friday the 13" and the Goddess, the most notable being that the number 13 represents the number of lunations in a year, and in many traditions is sacred to the Goddess or the feminine aspect of deity, because there are thus 13 menstrual cycles in the year.  In many early cultures the year was determined by the number 13, the number of moons.  And last, of course, the Moon is very often associated with the Goddesses, including Selene, Isis, Artemis, and so on...............a lot of "feminine" energy, imagery, his-story, and symbology going on here, and depending on your theological point of view, either very superstitious, or very fortunate!

Last, many people may not realize that in medieval Northern Europe it was often the custom to give a newly married couple a months supply of honey mead, which was considered a very special, rare, and rather magical brew, in the hopes that it might help to bring about fertility and love.  Hence, the "Honeymoon".

John Bauer "Freya"

**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanir

In Norse mythology, the Vanir (singular Vanr) are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods (the other being the Æsir) and are the namesake of the location Vanaheimr (Old Norse "Home of the Vanir"). After the Æsir–Vanir War, the Vanir became a subgroup of the Æsir. Subsequently, members of the Vanir are sometimes also referred to as members of the Æsir. 

Boxless Mind..........

Ever had one of those days that you're sure must have some symbolic meaning, but you can't quite figure out what, exactly, that might be?  No angels or wizened sages are turning up to enlighten you, so you'll just have to grumble your way through it.  About a month ago I indulged in an online rant that made me feel better, having been frustrated by several sources, but then I took it down as inappropriate, which was appropriate.  But I still like some of the images I found to go along with my being such a kermudgeon sometimes. 

The point of my rant was "thinking outside the box"...............glad I'm not ranting anymore, but hopefully, doing some "thinking outside the box", or at least, looking up occasionally...........

  

French Role Reversal Video - Provocative!

Funny, but painful..................

http://youtu.be/V4UWxlVvT1A

On what seems to be just another ordinary day, a man must deal with  sexism  in a society ruled by women.......

With Pierre Benezit, Marie-Lorna Vaconsin, Marie Favasuli, Céline Menville...
First song: Comme un garçon, by StereoTotal
Last theme: Pocket Harmony feat. Moïra Conrath

Masks Used in Willits Protest

 Delighted to see these photos of Ann Weller and Mana Youngbear wearing the Gaia and Pachamama masks at a protest against the proposed Highway 101 Bi-pass project by Cal Trans, which would destroy much beautiful redwood forest and other local eco systems.

 

Remembering "Rites of Passage" Gallery

The Morrigan prepares for Battle!

Found these great old photos of myself invoking Fire at the Gallery I had in Berkeley, California. Being a double Leo, I've always had a thing for fire.  And a lot of great photos of other people.   What a great group of people I knew there.....thanks to all for the memories!  They say "if you build it they will come" and it was so very true - create the space for magic to happen, and it will.  Make the Circle sacred, and all the more so.  ***

Evelie Posche

 

Flynt Garner

The God and the Goddess for Beltane

 

The famous Snake Dance

 

Arjuna Blessing the Space with Tuva singing

 

Serene Zloof dancing with Kali and with Fire

 

Blessing of the Priestesses

Ann Waters as Sophia holding the Mirror of Self

***I've often thought of opening a gallery again, here in Tucson, especially since Tucson's "art district" is diminishing to just about nothing, along with most American cities, thanks to gentrification, "real estate" investment, and a relatively hostile society that tends to think of the arts as unimportant, if not suspect, and if they should be around at all they should color coordinate with the sofa, or sound good on a Hallmark card.  Alas, I can't afford to do it any longer.

I have many times  ranted about the importance of low rent districts, and cultural creatives.  There would not have been Modernism and Post-Modernism if there hadn't been cheap warehouse in Soho.  There would not have been the Visionary Arts Movement, the Summer of Love, and the Beat Poets movement if there hadn't been cheap rent in Haight Ashbury.  There would not have been a genre of poetry, art, and music that has profoundly impacted American culture  if there hadn't been cheap rent and coffee houses in the Village.  There probably would not have been Impressionism if their hadn't been The Left Banke.  These were places where creative people could come, create and share ideas, show their work, perform, speak, and they could still eat.  Without cheap rent...........would there have been a Rothko, or a Seurat, or Bob Dylan, or Alan Ginsburg, or Pete Seeger, or..................?


The fact is, all of this is changing in our urban centers.  The arts are being de-centralized, and even more trivialized (I like to call it "Cultural Soul Loss").............because there are so few spaces where people can live, work, or show.  It's no secret that innovative arts (innovators in general) usually don't "sell".  And most non-commercial  galleries generally don't make money................well, I see I'm ranting again.  I wrote an article about this when the Muse Community Arts Center (Requiem for the Muse)     was destroyed 10 years ago, to become condos.

Bast

Her paws whisper on temple floors
Her eyes are luminous as the moon
Her ears pricked, alert to danger
Her whiskers sense currents from the unseen world.

Guardian of cats and women and children
Possessor of the uchat, the all-seeing eye
Bast wards against dangers in the spirit world
Evil beings, enchantments, nameless things
Visible only to cats.

Daughter of Ra, the sun
Lady of the East, the Moon
Her eyes hold light in darkness

Listen:

Ra the mighty sun appears at dawn as a baby
At sunset he is dying, and when he dies
Darkness falls but Bast prowls the Nile,
gazes into the setting sun
Holds his fire in her eyes
Shining in the dark, until Ra is born again.

Bast is Mistress
of the science of relaxation.
She luxuriates in her sensuality,
She plays  with her children
But leaps ferociously to their defense -
The One Who Tears, Little Lion -

Her sharp claws are the vengeance of Ra.

Those who love Bast honor every cat
Speak to them with respect
Lay gifts at their paws.
They call to her:
“Mau Bast! Mau Bast!”
They petition her blessings by stroking her soft fur
Which She may accept, or ignore.

Here is her secret wisdom:

Sunny spots
are best for dreaming.
Never waste a moonlit night,
and accept reality with
supreme indifference 

To the opinions of mere mortals

.

#YesAllWomen: Rebecca Solnit on the Santa Barbara Massacre & Misogynist Violence

This is what the return of the Goddess  means to me, just as much as the beautiful, nurturing, and contemplative.  The Return of the Goddesss is also, and profoundly,  the arising of women, who say, like the brilliant author  Barbara Solnit, "Look at this.  Take a good look at what it really is, how it's everywhere,  and what it does.  And it has to stop." 

Misogyny kills.

#YesAllWomen:  Rebecca Solnit on the Santa Barbara Massacre & Viral Response to Misogynist Violence

 "Santa Barbara is grieving after a 22-year-old man killed six college students just after posting a misogynistic video online vowing to take his revenge on women for sexually rejecting him. The massacre prompted an unprecedented reaction online with tens of thousands of women joining together to tell their stories of sexual violence, harassment and intimidation. By Sunday, the hashtag #YesAllWomen had gone viral. In speaking out, women were placing the shooting inside a broader context of misogynist violence that often goes ignored. In her new book, "Men Explain Things to Me," author and historian Rebecca Solnit tackles this issue and many others. "We have an abundance of rape and violence against women in this country and on this Earth, though it’s almost never treated as a civil rights or human rights issue, or a crisis, or even a pattern," Solnit says. "Violence doesn’t have a race, a class, a religion, or a nationality, but it does have a gender."

http://youtu.be/iIHg7IY_31s



http://youtu.be/PmexrnazNhE        
(Part 2 of interview)

**See also, 

By The Numbers: How The Santa Barbara Shooting Reflects A Culture Of Violence Against Women

CREDIT: Adam Peck/ThinkProgress

• More than one in three women will experience rape, violence, and/or stalking at the hands of an intimate partner in their lifetimes.
• Eighty-five percent of intimate partner violence victims are women.
• About three women are killed by their partners every day. One in 13 murder victims are killed by their intimate partners.
• Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44. One in six women with bone or joint fractures is a recent victim of abuse.
• Violence is often paired with controlling behavior: women whose partners are jealous, controlling, or verbally abusive are significantly more likely to report rape, physical assault, and/or stalking from their partners.
• A domestic abuser who has access to a firearm is more than seven times more likely to kill his partner.
• Between 2009 and 2012, 40 percent of mass shootings started with a shooter targeting his girlfriend, wife, or ex-wife. In nearly 60 percent of mass shootings during the same time period, the gunman killed a current or former spouse, partner, or other family member. In at least 17 incidents, the shooter had a prior domestic violence charge.
• The leading cause of death for women at the workplace is homicide, most often at the hands of an intimate partner.
• While the rate of intimate partner violence declined by 64 percent between 1994 and 2010, most of that decline came before 2001, and since then the fall has slowed and stabilized while the overall crime rate has kept dropping.
• Domestic violence support services get more than 75,000 requests for assistance on a typical day, but last year they had to turn away more than 9,000 people thanks to tight budgets.