Myth & Folklore
Somewhere in the darkness, someone or something is calling to you.
You have heard it in your dreams,
And within your quiet moments alone.
You have heard its whispers as you gazed into the crashing waves of the ocean,
Or wandered under the canopy of old growth trees.
You have seen it in the swirling waters of the babbling creek,
And in the mountain mists in the early morning light.
You have felt it with the crickets on the darkest nights,
And within the howling voices of storms and hurricanes.
Something deep inside the recesses of your own heart whispers your name.
Mysteries from within the deep and ancient places are calling to you.
Maybe it is time for you to answer that call.
February 13th -16th, 2009
(Presidents Day Weekend)
An extended weekend filled with myth, mystery and magick.
Includes 8 meals and three nights lodging along the picturesque Potomac River.
Early registration opens September 1st.
Posted in
Submitted by katrina on Wed, 08/06/2008 - 8:17pm.
Posted in
Submitted by katrina on Sat, 08/11/2007 - 3:43pm.
One of the problems I have with the western magickal tradition is how so much of it is informed with sexually based imagery, and heterosexual imagery at that. With all the active thrusting into passive orifices, one wonders how early alchemist, qabalists and magicians managed to get any work done between masturbatory reveries.
So I often wonder what would have happened if the reigning metaphor had been birth instead of copulation. Lessee, a smallness sleeping cradled within the larger darkness, awakening to sensation and movement. Being pushed toward consciousness and manifestation. And ultimately being born into the light.
Many creation myths are in fact based on a birth metaphor. What is interesting however is how so little of the cosmologies associated with western (or even some eastern) spiritual traditions retain this metaphor. So many fall back on dualistic systems that immediately forces one of them to be the bottom, er the submissive female, within a heterosexual pair.
Although many systems recognize the mother and child polarity, Demeter/Persephone, Isis/Horus, and Mary/Jesus come to mind, at some point many revert to a sister/brother or husband/wife metaphor where most if not all of the gods are married off. Some pantheons combine the two metaphors into mother/consort or god/human combinations such as Inanna/Dumuzi. And still others completely eliminate the feminine principle and focus on the father/ruler exclusively such as the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions. Catholicism’s adoration of Mary, both with and without her son, seems almost healthy by comparison.
But what is so hard about retaining the birth metaphor beyond creation and allowing it to inform the spiritual symbology and philosophy anyway? The cycle of birth, ripening, consummation, repose and death/rebirth are not so hard to comprehend. Then we get have our sex but also our adolescence, maturation, old age and transformation too.
We have this cycle somewhat in triple gods like Hekatae, Brigid and Thoth/Hermes. We see it in the cycle of maiden, mother and crone. We sense it in both the solar and lunar cycles. I am talking of course about the cycles of life itself. Sex metaphors only work so far it seems to me. Whereas birth metaphors seem to include the totality of life at all levels and, notably, no one has to bend over unless they want to.
So as a Libra / Scorpio cusp child, constantly choosing between sex and death, for the moment I choose death -- or rather, death and rebirth – as my cosmological principle. Now all I have to do is to re-craft a Tree of Life, an alchemical process and an entire symbolic vocabulary to match. For now, however, I am just going to let it gestate just a little bit longer.
©2007 Katrina Messenger
Posted in
Submitted by katrina on Fri, 07/13/2007 - 9:05pm.
It is so much easier to deal with problems, issues and conflicts when they are external. It is harder to be objective or have sufficient distance in order to truly assess, analyze or even get the big picture when the source is internal.
That is why so many of us externalize our inner conflicts. We want to work on it in the “real” world rather than enter the more difficult arena of self-awareness, self-reflection, self-evolution and growth. If we are lucky, we can enmesh all our loved ones in the drama of projected conflict and never have to actually look at ourselves deeply. We collude with each other in this fashion. I will participate in your drama, if you participate in mine. We call this madness “healthy interaction.”
But what would it be like if we each owned our internal conflicts. And instead of colluding, we resisted entanglement and encouraged others to own their inner conflicts?
Well one consequence might be our being able to work on real world problems devoid of all the continual crazy making and distractions that inhabits so much of the communal, national and global dialogue.
But it is also our human ability to project that creates much of the world’s great literature, poetry, art, film and architecture. Without our ability to project, we would have never developed mathematics, physics, technology or even, mythology.
Externalizing our inner conflicts is what mythology is all about, the communal externalization of a group soul’s inner landscape.
And so we come full circle. We externalize because in this way we can all collude in the creation of a living breathing global dream.
And so projection can be both natural and distracting.
Maybe if we all simply owned our projections. I will own my projection onto you, if you own your projection onto me. And I will lift my petty story of rivalry into a universal quest for meaning. And you can be a hero in my story, just like me. And together we will climb the sacred mountain and discover what beauty lives there.
And then maybe we will come upon a solution to the thorny issues of global warming, or peak oil or globalization or crime or disease or slavery or even … what’s for dinner.
Lets bring some consciousness and intent to our projections. And instead of calling them facts, call them experiences. Instead of carving them into stones, whisper them into the seeds of dandelions and let them blow away. All statements of fact are already silently prefaced by, “In my opinion” anyway. So lets just own it and say it out loud.
In my opinion, life is meant to be lived in the present moment, not just behind our eyes where the images are projected. I truly want to see you, and not just the accumulation of my inner litany of offences. Can you see me? Look closely. There is a myth being born every moment, every moment is another creation story in the making. But right now, right here, we are alive. Lets live our lives within this cauldron of transformation called now. Look at me, look at your self. And tell me, what do you see?
(c)2007 Katrina Messenger
Posted in
Submitted by katrina on Fri, 04/13/2007 - 3:41pm.
This sounds like something I need to do. I hope that I can work it out.
Connect DC is TEN?? Wow. Time flies.
Did I ever mention to you that I think the impact that working had on me was to connect me to DC? I'm so hooked in here ... just call me "swamp thang."
Speaking of which ... isn't it margarita weather? Let's get together.
Much love,
Reya
p.s. So cool to see my drawing again! Thank you for publishing!
"Such beautiful dreaming! Such clear work. You sound so much in-focus just now.
I honor this work and delight in reading your words ... and I'm moved to participate in the dreaming-work, perhaps more than is appropriate.
I think I'll take the risk, and I hope you'll tell me if you'd rather I not do it again.
In the dream group I used to work with, we would read one of our dreams aloud and then go around the room, each one beginning their remarks with "If this were my dream..." and then sharing whatever the pieces seemed to illuminate for them. And then the next person might see something quite different in the same images, the same words.
In that sense, if this were my dream just now, in my dream I am surrounded by water -- my life is filled with emotion, covering and drowning everything else, so that all I can see is my feelings.
The gathering of song and all these incredible people -- my life, friendships, the harmony we make together. And in my dream, I am beginning to see myself moving on. Does this mean a change of geography? a change of emphasis? in my life this minute this could be about gradually shifting some of the focus of my everyday spiritual community from the UUs to the Yoga studio, or it could be something quite different. If I had this dream last week sometime, it would look like the impending end of an important relationship.
And in all of those possibilities, I am so present to the sadness with which I gather up what is mine to take with me, make my farewells, and lose my ability to remember the words. In all of these possibilities, even as I'm leaving I'm rethinking the choice to leave ... do I really have to? why?
In my dream, I look for my car because I want to escape ... and I can't find my car because there's no way out. As I'm searching the beautiful dark man in the hotel uniform helps me -- the hotel uniform telling me that wherever I am is only a way station, his beauty telling me that I can enjoy and appreciate his help, his darkness telling me that sometimes I need to look closely to see what is important (other times everything is well-lighted).
I keep looking for the way out even as the hotel man would make me welcome, and eventually the welcome is withdrawn as he leaves. And then I am lost and wandering, trying to find my way home -- having ignored help and support, I find I can't find the way alone after all.
And now that my dream has ended, I see there is much here that I can use in my waking life, too. So thank you for dreaming this dream, thanks for sharing it, thanks for letting me dream it, too.
Many blessings, Dear One"
"I sit staring out the window, not lost in thought, but feeling completely and totally blank inside." I have been sitting in a similar space.
Your post reminds me to trust and to listen for the song.