My New Ostara Ritual

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow night.

Hold outside if possible.  If not possible, have a living plant on the altar.  Decorate altar with flowers, edible seeds, and a green cloth.  Symbols of the God are important since this day celebrates his return to earth and his increasing awareness of the Goddess.  Incense that is flowery or herbal is best.  White candles and pastel colors are important.  Eggs represent the potential for life as do the seeds.  This is a time to feel the earth awakening and readiness to burst forth the life of the season.

Cast circle- bless and consecrate the water, salt, set incense and candle burning

Recite blessing:

            I call upon the renewing energies of the earth,

            The life-spring of the planet come forth!

            Rejoice with the Lord of the Hunt and the Lady of the Moon,

            And together with the elemental realms attune!

            Entwine with one another, surround this space,

            Rain blessings within, among, and around the earthly base.      

Invoke Goddess and God

            Maiden Lady, beautiful Goddess of nighttime skies,

            Join and offer your abundant blessings to this Ostara rite.

            Young God, rise from your slumber and begin to burn,

            Join and offer your fiery blessings on Ostara’s turn.

Feel the energies of the earth either through contact with the plant or through the soil if you are outside.  

            Mother earth, I feel the heat of the God rising through you!  Your energies rise          together to free us all from winter’s chill. Light and dark in balance with the Lord and Lady to renew, regenerate, rejoice!  On this paper my goals are three: creativity to           solve the problems we face, peace for the tribulations of the world, and an end to     suffering of all living things.  Take them into the fire and set them free as the world awakens to spring!

Light paper on fire and place in cauldron to burn out.   Meditate on the changing season.  Celebrate the Simple Feast.  Close circle.

I Hope "8" Is Enough

Last night I watched a new play, “8.”  It reveals the happenings in the courtroom during the Proposition 8 hearings that were closed to the public.  The staged reading contains actual transcripts from the trial combined with sincere, candid, and at times comically absurd--albeit truthful--scenes.  Here’s an article about the play .  The goal of course: to reveal what happened in the courtroom since cameras were barred.

I must say that the list of names in the cast definitely encouraged me to watch last night as the play was live streamed on YouTube.  From a theatre point of view, it was simple, straightforward, and of course, not without its foibles such as, “Say all rise” being repeated because the woman reading the bailiff forgot that part.  Ah live theatre!  Martin Sheen indeed captivated.  George Clooney revealed more through is standard swagger and smirk than I thought possible—how did he and John C. Reilly not just lose it during the cross examination?  Really?  Brad Pitt as the judge surprised me, but he did well with his understated portrayal.  The most exciting point to see was the change that occurred with the boys of Sandy Stier (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Kris Perry (Christine Lahti.)  They went from complaining about missing soccer practice for the trial to understanding how wrong it was that their parents even had to go to court at all over an issue such as this.  That scene at the end when they have nothing more to do than to wait for the decision—between mom and son (you’ll know which one)—brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. If that's not enough, they had Jane Lynch too.

My assessment of the play aside, I firmly believe that this is an important piece of American history and theatre and culture.  It is to be watched by every citizen because as Theodore B. Olson said, “We put fear and prejudice on trial, and fear and prejudice lost.”  It became glaringly apparent to me that the idea of denying marriage based on sex orientation harms everyone involved.  It harms individuals, couples, communities, countries, the whole human race.  It does this by seeking to relegate a group of people to less than human status.  When we allow that to happen, we cause untold harm.  As humans, haven't we done this enough in our history to know better?  The parallels to the abolition of slavery are not hyperbolic or irrelevant.  The transcripts show that when asked to put proof on the table, the arguments for banning same sex marriage have no basis in fact just as the laws that denied human rights to slaves did all those years ago.

I along with about 200,000 other people watched enthralled last night.  Talk about courtroom drama at its finest!  Law & Order ain’t got nothing on the real thing, baby!  I hope you take some time from your busy  schedule to watch.  This play brings to light what it means to be human.  Period.  Labels are just labels.  In the end, we all become dirt.  While we are on this rock trying our best to muddle through, we should seek to uplift one another, not degrade, deride or deny that another human being holds the same rights as we do.

Here’s the link to the American Foundation for Equal Rights page devoted to this brilliant piece of drama. 

Don't Mind Me

"To shape the immediate circumstances of one's life to bring the natural flow of the Universe through our being and therefore shape our reality according to the Divine Design so that we may evolve, learn and express our divine gifts of beingness."

I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately about the HigherMind.  If you don’t know what that is, don’t fret.  It relates to the psychic mind—the part of our brain that transcends the earthly world of the day to day life.  The Higher Mind in some philosophies is what connects us to the metaphysical and the Divine Plan.  You can read this article about that notion, although I’m not much for the implication of the Divine Plan.  It’s that whole fate vs. free will argument and frankly, I’m just not sold on either side of that debate.  I suppose that’s where my Buddhist leanings come in—just try and live in the present when worry and doubt and fear try to take control.

Anyway, some schools of thought teach that the Higher Mind is aligned with the right hemisphere of the brain and it’s what facilitates creativity.  Whether you reach Higher Mind through meditation, prayer or slapping paint on a canvas matters not in my opinion.  However, if you think the concept is utter new age rubbish, consider this:  have you ever tried to recall and name or a detail and the harder you tried, the further away that factoid was?  Then later when you were performing some mundane task like brushing your teeth (personal fav) suddenly it hits you out of the blue?  Why is that right?  Well that’s when your logical self is calm and quiet and your psychic channel opens up to other possibilities and BAM!  You get hit with that detail that so vexed you earlier.  In his wonderfully thought provoking book Courage to Create Rollo May discusses this point at length.  If you get a chance, check it out.  It really makes sense when put in that context rather than the off-putting fluffy nature of some writings on the topic.  My practical goatishness (Capricorn rising and moon) tends to get huffy about articles like the one linked in the first paragraph.  It’s rather out there in its discussion in my opinion.  People who aren’t accustomed to such conversation would probably write it off as nonsense.  May on the other hand, takes a different tack that might appeal to the less metaphysically minded.

Whatever the case, the concept is fascinating.  Human beings have a need to create.  Whether we create a comfy, decorative house or a delightful baby book for a child, or a masterpiece of bronze, humans throughout time have created beauty and at times even pushed the boundaries of society.  Bourne states in his article that creating for the fun of it is one way to attune with the higher mind so long as there is no concern for the outcome.  I can just hear my theatre professor from college telling me to, “Give up the result…stay in the present moment!”  Leonard Schlain also addresses this idea of higher consciousness through art in his fascinating yet cerebral Art and Physics.  His supposition is that in many instances through art and science history, artists have preceeded science with advances in concepts and theory relating to our world.    Hindsight and analysis are wonderful aren’t they?

I’ve experienced this access to the Higher Mind though.  Sometimes when I least expect it like washing my hair or staring into a fire.  I know I have felt that shift of awareness, that transcendent sensation of utter being and beauty.  I didn’t call it Higher Mind, but those experiences in meditation, spell work, prayer, dance, theatre or art are the easiest ways I can explain this concept.  

I hope you can see my point that there are multiple ways humans can reach this Higher Mind.  All of them have value and none of them are wrong in my opinion.  I think the greatest wrong we could do is not to seek it at all.

Postscript:

On a side note—my goatish doubt about trusting the Universe to provide and “go with the flow” despite being terrified must hang its head and nay with apology.  Oddly enough just after I had finished this post today I was grappling with how to raise $700 dollars for a trip to Las Vegas.  This trip would be for a belly dance conference and all my dancer friends are going.  I didn’t think I was going to be able to get the money together and I was starting to brainstorm ways to make it happen.  I actually thought, “Man!  I could really use a tutoring assignment…even a short one.”  I kid you not—within 20 minutes of that thought I got a request for a student who needs tutoring while he recovers from surgery.  3-6 weeks which means $300-600 for my Vegas fund!  Add that to my belly dance performance pay between now and September and I have a lot less work to do. Ok Universe!  I’m listening.