East Star

I love Easter - always have...it's my fave modern holiday.  Yes, I understand enough theology to know & appreciate the significance of death and resurrection - and I'm grateful for all books including the bible.  Whatever is comforting - any knowledge is good.  If people would study before they speak about life & death we would have a better world.  In my constant search for origins of our beliefs, I came across some literature a long time ago - so here it is to share with you.

The Empress, Trump card #3 in the Tarot deck sits with The Papess (yes, there were female popes) Trump Card #2.  The Papess is known in more recent times as The High Priestess, of the moon.  The Empress is a spirit of Springtime and creation.  She is 'All-Mother' or 'The Lawgiver'  Her ius naturale or natural law governed matriarchal societies in ancient Latium.

Tarot Trump cards are paired, first with last, second with second last and so on.  Why?  Unknown reasons but any theories are always good!  The Empress wears a crown of stars (count them - everything in Tarot is for a symbolic reason)and corresponds to The Star, Trump card #17.

There are older names the Empress had - one was Ostara, who was the same Goddess Eostre that gave her name to Easter.  When we talk about stars, endless possibilities come into focus, literally.  We are talking about stars rising on the horizon in astrology, and star constellations & their myths in astronomy.  We are talking about space & cosmic travel, perhaps advanced civilizations who are waiting for us to either heal our planet through love, or watching us as a failed experiment as we destroy ourselves and Earth.

If we keep our minds open and combine everything using logic, deduction and imagination we can see there's so much to learn about Easter.  I like to think of Jesus dying for us...and I believe he was the son of a god, he knew much of ancient Orphic mysteries and he knew how to use the forces of natural law.  He was not just a magician as some people recently claim - he was a genius speaking in parables.  I believe he walked among men and tried to show them what he knew about love.

I believe everything has to do with light & stars.  Rays & angles of reflection.  Heat & life. I believe everything has to do with love.  Easter is a beautiful time, the first Sunday after a full moon.  What a wonderful pagan concept!  The silver moon.  Wild violets are just starting to blossom and their scent is in the air. Lambs are being born.  Do you know the only word that rhymes with 'silver' in the English dictionary is 'chilver'?  A chilver is a female lamb. Mysteries of life abound.

Happy Eostre!!

 A Faberge Imperial Egg for you, given to the Empress many years ago!  Sail on & happy journeys...still thinking of going back to Maui and getting a condo there away from Canadian winters!

St. Pat's & Druids in trees

According to my  sources, St. Pat lived very close to the Druids and much of symbolism originated in paganism long before he was born.   A shamrock is trefoil, used in Tarot, sign of Wands and as meanings of Tarot are obscure as the deck is of unknown origin, we've lost the symbolism and can only use what limited info we have from every source.  More importantly we have to use our imaginations.  Why?  To help Earth.  "Do no harm" is a mantra.

 Later, Wands became Clubs in a standard deck to this day.  The shamrock corresponds to number three, which is a trine in astrology, triple goddess in paganism and Holy Trinity in modern religion.  Basically, a trine is harmonious angles and perhaps perpetual motion, which perhaps involves a smooth way of travelling through the cosmos.  A triangle is pyramids.  Speaking of a Trinity, what a coincidence the new Pope is from Argentina and a big fan of San Lorenzo, like Viggo M!  This is a cool connection,   How do I know what's to be?  Who knows, I follow the signs of nature, like in LOTR.

  I hope Pope Francis took the name partly because of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and environment.  Our world's animals need help, as does our environment.  Please help in any way you can - if you must eat meat (and I don't see why), do your health a favor and choose farm raised organic, not factory farmed.  Okay, I'll step off the soapbox...just saying!

What does all this mean about St Pat's?  Everybody's right, nobody's wrong!  We all modernize the deck we're dealt with and play it our way...but I like to think of  magic and druids.  To me all that lost knowledge holds the key to our existence.  I love to be in a place, physically and mentally, that's healthy and harmonious angles. Every myth began as reality...so I continue to have myths as a basis of my reality.

I'm learning much about the myths of Hawaii.  Here's a tree near a beach in Kihei, Maui when we were there  a couple of weeks ago. It was at one of those many beautiful beach areas where you can just park a car nearby and go for a swim in the ocean!  In the background is a changeroom. There are so good things of nature to notice in Maui.  You can almost see a spirit and faces of this big lovely tree.

Good to know Robert took a hol in the islands before his gigs down under... Here's a vid for you.

But really...who will champion MsMerlina?  Lancelot?  I love the tale of Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory..

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Mahalo & Aloha...

I'm back now - although part of me is still in Maui, Hawaii...in my dreams, thoughts and inspiration as I walk through sleet & chill of late winter here in this B.C. valley.  Spring is approaching in my neighborhood and new green shoots of tulips help me to think ahead...but Spring here isn't what it was in the days of my youth.  Back then it was a tourist/orchard & sparkly lake area - now, especially now after Maui...I'm not sure what this place in the Okanagan B.C. is - definitely city planning wasn't with thoughts of beauty and serenity...we can't get it back.  Traffic here is nonstop, the city is not clean - can't be as healthy as it was in the 70's.  The lake, in most areas and definitely at public beaches in my hometown area doesn't pass my swimsuit test - my method of measurement of clean water.  In summer I can smell lake water in varying degrees depending on beach attended after I wash my swimsuit with mild soap & hang it to dry.  In Maui my swimsuit smelled...like mild soap after I washed it.  The water in Maui is clean - I can say this affirmatively as I'm a beach & water addict!

I know for certain after experiencing Maui's fresh, scented air, the clean water of Kihei, Launiupoko and Kaanapali, the absence of billboards and litter...I know for sure the Okanagan is not purely where my heart is anymore.  Maybe it was that last photo I took of the antique poster in our Lahaina condo - the one of those surfers in the year 1935 where they all stood in a row with their boards behind them...the flash of my camera was right against a young wild Hawaiian surfer boy's heart. I think a surfer spirit jumped into my soul at that moment...and it was meant to be.  Here's a photo of me in the warm waves of Kihei.  We went to many beaches, so casual to park our rental car anywhere along the road as there are so many beaches, all open to public with change rooms, picnic tables and most of these beaches with very few people around.  Lovvvee the beaches and water everywhere, they're all fantastic!

Maui is a romantic, beautiful, dreamy place with warm breezes everywhere and quaint shops on Front St, Lahaina where we watched sunsets as we sat at different open air restaurants nightly...up on the second floor always, overlooking the harbour.  We sat and passed around a huge piece of Hula pie - my sister, my Mom, my niece and I as it melted into a chocolate macadamia whipped cream mounded confection - we passed it like someone would pass a joint around the table, but this was a giant piece of pie consumed to the sounds and sights of 3 Hawaiian guys playing guitars & ukelele & singing.  What paradise this island is!

We went to the Whale Museum at Whaler's Village Kaanapali and read histories of sailors who owed the ship money after 3 years at sea catching whales and then they had to sign on for another 2 years at sea to pay the ship back after risking life and limb.  In the museum we saw giant immense hooks and a huge black cauldron for blubber - many momentos of ships and sailors - I could feel the history & hardship.  One day we toured with the Pacific Whale Foundation and saw many whales in an area past the harbour in shallow waters, their sprays of water visible like alternating sudden fountains across the blue ocean surface everywhere.  They surfaced and dove.  I'm glad I belong to this foundation - the people do much to save these gentle, graceful creatures...and we heard whale songs from a submerged microphone, with amplifier in the boat.

We sat at gorgeous Banyan Tree Square in shaded daylight.  At dusk, thousands of birds going to roost sing so loud - an amazing chorus and as night falls they are quiet.  Here's a pic of the Banyan tree and an unknown little girl passing in front of this gigantic wonderful tree with its many offshoots all around.

There were so many interesting things to do...but we relaxed as the pace of the island is not conducive to running around in haste.  We did a lot of things outdoors.  There's Art Night every Friday and more art galleries in Lahaina per capita than any U.S. city...and Fridays they serve champagne and wine.  Hawaiians are friendly, great people everywhere with much dignity and spirit. I'm now learning the Hawaiian language online, and in learning I also consulted their dictionary of words on the internet.  I see how intriguing the meanings of their words, the basis of their language is - so mystical with only a few consonants - it's a flowing water language, with whale and bird songs and no harshness at all - it's like they don't want any "s" for hissing like invoking the spirits of volcanoes, devoid of any hard hitting sounds also.

Our condo was lovely and I would love to buy a place there, in Lahaina, where Maui weather is warmest.  I dream of going back and having a place there for part of the year...now I have to think of how to make this dream a reality.  Here's a photo I took of a Hawaiian ginger plant in blossom at our condo.  To all the wonderful, gracious people I met on this enlightening, healing, and loving holiday I say Aloha and Mahalo.  The vacation is a memory my loved ones and I will cherish always.  I will go back...a spirit surfer has entered my soul.