When Colors Come Alive

Commentary from Garden Of The Dark Moon Jubilee on the Torah portion, Noah.

When Colors Come Alive

Tagged

כ"ט תשרי התשס"ט
Phasma Priscus 1

Having been tagged by Hex, here are 6 random things about me:

1. I usually don't participate in tag games, but I had a perturbing day at work today, so I am doing it this time.

2. I hate being a nurse, truly, madly, deeply.

3. I love working with data, truly, madly, deeply.

4. I love my personal time most of all and guard it jealously.

5. I gag inside every time I hear a manager say "be a team player" because 99.9999999999% of the time they are using it to browbeat people, and I REALLY hate that.

6. I'm not the type who will shiver in her shoes when the boss says she's not a team player, so be careful if you value my work and want me to stick around.

The rules of the game:

· Link to the person who tagged you.
· Post the rules on your blog.
· Write six random things about yourself.
· Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
· Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
· Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Let's see who might play ... I'll tag:

fairiegodmother
real_bethy
lishablog
lil_tike_oon
muninn's kiss
calizen

Across The Borders Of Time

כ"ז תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 28

I am who I am.

Beyond Temptation, paraphrased lyrics of Say My Name

I tell you my names
So you will know I'm back, I'm here again
For a while
Oh let us share
The memories that only we can share
Together

I tell you about
The days before I was born
How we were as One

I touch your hand with my vision
These colors come alive
In my heart and in my mind
I cross the borders of time
Leaving all behind to be with you again

We breath the air
Do you remember how I used to touch your soul?
I'm aware
My hands keep writing
I know that you are here

We soar and fall
Now we are raised
To where we belong

I touch your hand with my vision
These colors come alive
In your heart and in your mind
You cross the borders of time
Leaving all behind to be with me again

Know my name
Remember who I am
You will find me in the world of today
Drift with me again
You are near to where I am
When you don't have to ask me who I am

Know my name
These colors come alive
In our heart and in our mind
We cross the borders of time
Leaving all behind to be together again

Know my name
Please don't ask me who I am



(turn off page music below)

Circle Of Strength

כ"ז תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 28

Strength To Strength

Avalon is a mystical place where there is no pain, hunger or thirst and where no one ever ages. It is separated from the mortal eyes of humans by a veil. Home to the spirits of the ancestors, Avalon is also known as the Summerland, Annwyn, Isles of the Blessed, Isles of Apples, Tir Na nÓg (Land of the Living) and the Otherworld. Living mortals may enter Avalon in exceptional circumstances, at certain places, and in certain times. One of those times is during Samhain. The other time is during Beltane. During both Samhain and Beltane, the veil between the living mortal world and Avalon thins, enabling the worlds to touch.

As shown in the film, "The Mists of Avalon", Morgaine gives Arthur her strength on the way to Avalon (that is, from a position initiated from within the living mortal world):

Give Him Your Strength

As shown in my entry, "Candle In The Womb", Arthur gives Morgaine his strength on the way from Avalon (that is, from a position initiated from within Avalon):

Give Her Your Strength

chazak, chazak, venischazek
Let us be strong, let us be strong, and together we are strengthened.

Wholeness Caught By The Eye Of A Witch

כ"ו תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 27

In today's commentary on Bereshit (Sabbath Soul From The Mist Of Ab Duir) arose the topic of rings, taba'ot (טבעת).

From Torah Tidbits on rings:

TET-BET-AYIN-TAV, meaning RING, appears 38 times in Sh'mot (concerning the Mishkan or Kohen Gadol's garments. The only other place in Tanach that has a lot of rings is Megilat Esther (6 times). (Only two other occurrences - B'reishit and Bamidbar.) In singular, the word is TABA-'AT. In plural (most common) it is TABA-OT in its free-standing form - rings, and TA-B'OT (SH'VA under the BET rather than KAMATZ) in its S'michut form: rings of gold, rings of the Aron, rings of copper...

Interestingly, Torah Tidbits links the concept of rings to the heart (like the two opposite human/divine triplets discussed here and the 6 occurrences of טבעת in Megilat Esther) of the Shema (embodying the concept of Unity in Multiplicity) through the link of a linked discussion (see Torah Tidbits link). Links upon links upon links. Rings and rings and rings.

Other than the 38 times found in Shemot (Exodus), the only other two occurrences of taba'at/taba'ot found in the five books of Moses are one in Bereshit (Genesis) and one in Bamidbar (Numbers). In Bereshit (41:42), ring appears its singular form in the word construct meaning "his signet-ring" (את-טבעתו). In Bamidbar (31:50), rings appears in its plural form in the word meaning signet-rings, taba'ot (טבעת). Pharaoh's signet-ring is singular in Bereshit, and corresponds to the Unity aspect of the Shema. The signet-rings of the Israelites in Bamidbar are plural, and correspond to the Multiplicity aspect of the Shema.

With these ideas taken together, we can see that the Shema is not whole without Pharaoh, and that the two occurrences of טבעת outside the book of Shemot are intimately linked to the wholeness of the Shema.

Like the two occurrences of טבעת linked with the wholeness of the Shema, in my waking vision this morning, as described in Sabbath Soul From The Mist Of Ab Duir, two ideas arose simultaneously to my singular mind linking together in wholeness the prophetic Mist of Avalon with the soul of messianic consciousness "falling" into apprehension and "caught by" comprehension.

And, like taba'at and taba'ot, both the "ring" (Transforming Curse Into Blessing) and "rings" (Sabbath Soul From The Mist Of Ab Duir) link to my experience and to my reality as a Divine Spark made with both the soul Pharaoh the soul of Israel.

I am Pharaoh. I am Israel. I am what I am, and I Am One.

ברוך שם כבוד מלכותה לעולם ועד

Sabbath Soul From The Mist Of Ab Duir

כ"ו תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 27

Sabbath Soul From The Mist of Ab Duir at Garden Of The Dark Moon Jubilee

The Toadstone

כ' תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 21

Walking outside in the sunshine on this beautiful autumn day, I saw a toadstool patch had sprung up right in the middle of the yard. The faeries are smiling with me. It's time to designate my ninth shaman stone.

A simple grey river stone I found near a lake in the woods recently, it's a rather plain and ugly rock to the common senses. Yet, it elegantly represents the beautiful within the homely, simple truth within a maze of illusion, and the extraordinary within the ordinary.

The ninth shaman stone, represented by the Toad spirit, a Guardian of the Land it inhabits, is called a toadstone and calls us to see beyond the obvious.

Transforming Curse Into Blessing

י"ט תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 20

The Old Ways, Transforming Curse Into Blessing

The eighth shaman stone in my Temple Collection is a tektite. Among the driest rocks on earth, "with an average water content of 0.005%", yet thought to have been formed in underwater craters through meteor impact, it shamanically represents the Ancestral Well of Knowledge and Transforming Curse into Blessing.

Oddly, all week I have been planning to write of my eighth stone today, and yesterday evening, my mother obtained a DVD to watch over the weekend. That video was The Ring. In the video is a well exactly like the one pictured for the chapter on this shaman stone in my book.

At the end of the film, the main female character who ultimately survives her viewing of the film's "video curse", in trying to figure out how to save her son from the curse when others have perished, she asks herself the question with respect to another viewer of the video who failed to survive - "what did I do that he didn't do?" She realizes that she had made a copy of the video.

She had made a copy. Interesting. Kabbalistically, making a copy is a function of Atik Yomin:

The term Atik Yomin, "the Ancient of Days," implies absolute transcendence in relation to "the days of the world," the normative consciousness of created reality. The word Atik in addition to "ancient" means "to copy." It is the Divine power "to copy" a higher reality or world onto a lower. Thus, the Atik of a world serves as a totally superconscious DNA-like code to copy higher reality onto lower.

Catrin James (Doorways to the Otherworld) writes of Ancestral Knowledge of the Old Ways which is borne in the blood:

(He) was born with knowledge of the old highways and byways, the mountain routes, that these were in his blood too. He did not need to learn them, he had inherited them, he already knew them. I remember in my own childhood too, old women with herbal knowledge. They said that they too did not need to learn, they had been born with it. "In the Blood."

We inherit much more than just the colour of our eyes, or whether we are tall or short, and so on and so forth. We inherit the dreams and memories of which I speak, we inherit gifts, which may go far beyond mundane gifts or even creative gifts, they may be gifts of the soul, like how to calm a storm or still the seas.

The synchronicity of the DVD showing up with its well symbolism just as I prepared to write of the Ancestral Well of Knowledge shaman stone clearly informs me that I and my stone have surely tapped into this magical-mystical reservoir, from where the power to make a copy of the higher reality and to project it onto the lower reality dwells. Knowledge of the Old Ways lives in my Blood and has surely been resurrected in my life. What an absolute treasure for me me as I near the holy day of Simchat Torah and the sabbat of Samhain!

With ancestral knowledge a theme of this entry, using a design based upon those from medieval Celtic tradition, shown (one closed atop one open) is the handmade grey leather pouch in which my shaman stones are kept. It's 17" wide when open, 8" wide when closed, and has matching drawstring soutache cording. In Celtic tradition, this is called a Crane bag, and appears in a Welsh myth of Ceridwen, one of my primary magical Patronesses. Crane bags are similar to Native American medicine bags and an Irish version of the Holy Grail - both of these traditions are also among my ancestral inheritances as is the Jewish tradition of transforming curse into blessing. All come together with perfect peace in my practice.

Incorrigible Enigmatic Blessing

י"ז תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 18

A humble beginning. Check out my commentary, Evidence Of Blessing Beyond Description, on parashat Vezot Haberachah on Garden Of The Dark Moon Jubilee.

Paradoxical Holiness

י"ג תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 14

In follow-up to earlier entries on the rescue at Gibraltar and the gates of the seasons, in regard to the paradoxical nature of holiness, paraphrased from the lyrics of Samhain by Inkubus Sukkubus -

comes old Death a-riding on the storm,
with hungry eyes for funeral fires
to burn at the morrow's dawn
but the fire of life still burns
and the wheel of life still turns
and those marked for death
go back home for Samhain
and in the night sky
on the lunar light they fly
as witches await the feast
the Dark Mother takes us in

Have a blessed Samhain! So mote it be, אמן!

Gates Of The Great Rite

י"ג תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 14

In follow-up to my previous two entries (Sanctuary Of Delight and Consummate Life To Enliven), where it is brought forth that even as the Gates of Prayer are closing and the Gates of the Temple are opening, I further note that connected to these Yom Kippur Gates of "closing" and "opening" are two Gates of the Celtic New Year, Beltane (now closing) and Samhain (now opening).

The Gate of the Celtic New Year is opening (as are the Gates of the Temple), becoming fully open at Samhain. Samhain is the Gate to the dark half of the year (corresponding to Essential consciousness). Beltane, the Gate to light half of the year (corresponding to emanated awareness), is closing (as are the Gates of Prayer).

The two Gates of the Year, represent a time of consummate interinclusion among the worlds (of both witchcraft and kabbalah) where worlds unite - symbolized by the Great Rite ritual (the originally "hidden" divination card) - to bring forth that which is greater than anything in the worlds alone - an experience of Essential Being.

Consummate Life To Enliven

י"ג תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 14

Documenting the synchronicity of today's news event with my divination last evening during motzi shabbat:

Shattered Ship Drama
October 12, 2008, Foxnews

The crew of a cargo ship were lifted to safety before their vessel was smashed in half in the Strait of Gibraltar, The U.K.’s Daily Mail newspaper reported Sunday.

The Liberian-registered Fedra was caught in a strong storm Saturday as it passed through the strait, and was pinned against a cliff by devastating waves despite dropping anchor, The Mail reported.

At first, Spanish maritime rescue helicopter was able to airlift several crew members off the doomed ship. But as winds got stronger, rescuers were forced to suspend the mission after a rescue helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing. The storm later subsided just enough to finish the job before the ship was shattered against the cliff, the paper reported.

My divination, described in Sanctuary Of Delight, brought forth 3 Hebrew letters:

עצ ק

which I translated as "focused through the eye of a needle".

The two letters עצ can also be translated as "narrowing, closing"[1], as is the Strait of Gilbraltar narrow, and are the Gates of Prayer associated with the Neilah service (the fifth and unique service) of Yom Kippur closing.

The letter ק which I translated as the eye of the needle (associated with the Temple Gates and the "expropriation of transcendent Divine lifeforce by the material realm" as described in kabbalah) can also be translated as to refer to redemption through the mystical meaning of the letter itself.

So, even while the Gates of Prayer have become closed into a narrow place through which passage is difficult, the Gates to the Temple Sanctuary of perfect delight, are open to provide sanctuary and redemption from the devastating waves and stormy winds of life,



so the physical vessel housing the life which enlivens is not shattered into halves at the narrow place, but remains ever whole and joined together like the Ogham letter of my divination, luis (rowan), a letter of two lines united by one - which is translated through my divination as "a sanctuary of delight with the strength to turn away negativity." None of the ship's crew members perished. All were treated and released from the hospital following rescue.

A card from The Hidden Path not shared in my divination entry last evening was drawn following the Ogham letter. That card was The Great Rite, symbolizing "perfect union, formed to create something greater than the parts can be on their own, a consummation beyond personal matters and limitations."[2] Last evening was the first time I have used this deck. Last evening's divination was its initiation into my practice.

Footnotes:

[1] Etymological Dictionary Of Biblical Hebrew, Matityahu Clark

[2] Seeker's Guide To The Hidden Path, Raven Grimassi and Stephanie Taylor

Sanctuary Of Delight

י"ג תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 14

Tonight's divination performed under the waxing gibbous moon 90% full during the planetary hour of the moon, brought forth 3 Hebrew letters:

עצ ק - focused through the eye of the needle

and a single Ogham letter:

luis (rowan) - a sanctuary of delight with the strength to turn away negativity


Oh, what secrets lurk in the ways of a witch, I shall never tell.

Palin's Vision For All America

Shudder. Shudder. Palin envisions a modern day crusade against non-Christians. She's a fascist who will give us all the "opportunity to change allegiance" or "be displaced".

Sarah Palin Dedicated Alaska To Jesus At Her Inauguration

On June 13, 2008 Mary Glazier told attendees at the "Opening the Gate of Heaven on Earth" conference, who represented many of the New Apostolic Reformation's top leaders, that she had been present at the inception of Sarah Palin's political career and that Palin was in her personal prayer group :

"There was a twenty-four year old woman that God began to speak to about entering into politics. She became a part of our prayer group out in Wasilla. Years later, became the mayor of Wasilla. And last year was elected Governor of the state of Alaska. Yes! Hallelujah! At her inauguration she dedicated the state to Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"

Sarah's prayer partner, Mary Glazer further told Peter Wagner and the other New Apostolic Reformation leaders at the June 12-14 "Opening the Gate of Heaven on Earth" conference,

"There is a tipping point, at which, at which time, because of the sin of the land, the people then have to be displaced.... God is preparing a people to displace the ones whose sin is rising so that then they tip over and the church goes in - one is removed and the church moves in and takes the territory. Now, that does not mean that the people are removed, because God removes them from the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light. They are given an opportunity to change allegiances."

Newsflash Sarah, Alaska is not your kingdom to give, nor is America.

Evening Star

Evening Star

ז' תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 8

The seventh shaman stone in my Temple Collection is an emerald.

emerald fire
wyrdly redeeming, evening star
walker between worlds, giver of light
ancient soul, riding wings of the night

Breath Of Immortal Life

Breath Of Immortal Life

ו' תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 7

The sixth shaman stone in my Temple Collection (the second stone found with the fifth shaman stone as described in Days Of Awe) is represented by the spirit of Butterfly. In ancient Celtic tradition, Butterfly represents the immortal soul in contact with the Ancestors, and alchemically represents transformation of the Dark Shell into the Flight of Light. The spirit of Butterfly in Celtic tradition therefore corresponds to the phenomenon of the Holy Shell in Jewish tradition as taught by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Secrets Of The Redemption).

As Blodeuwedd is linked to Butterfly through my very real experience, so too is Blodeuwedd linked through Butterfly to the reality of redemption as written above. Through the idea of redemption (perfected consciousness), Celtic Blodeuwedd corresponds to Jewish Chayyah, the mother of Immortal Life and the alchemical rectification of the soul of Eve.

Days Of Awe

Witch's Shofar, Days Of Awe

ה' תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 6

The fifth shaman stone (from the yard outside my bedroom window) in my Temple Collection is represented by the Celtic goddess Blodeuwedd in the form of an owl (as opposed to her fair flower form as discussed in a previous entry, Relentlessly Faithful And True). It is in this form that she is definitively known as a Dark Goddess.

The short chapter in the book Doorways To The Otherworld (Catrin James), which discusses Blodeuwedd in her owl form, is introduced with the picture of a feather. Not with an owl, but with a feather. Interestingly, right before my Rosh Hashanah encounter with the cricket (קריקט), searching purposefully around in the grass for stones, I came across a single very small feather. I picked the feather up, gathered it into the folds of my skirt with two stones I had found (side by side) just moments before, and continued walking. A few seconds later, I encountered the cricket (a totem of "finding light within the dark", אתהפכא חשוכא לנהורא).

I wasn't looking for a feather, but I found one and kept it, knowing that its purpose would come to me later. What indeed is the connection between Blodeuwedd in her owl form, a feather and a cricket? The thread of connection is active release from a ritual binding and subsequent resurrection.

Catrin James writes of Blodeuwedd in the form of an owl:

It is through becoming an owl that Blodeuwedd escapes the manipulations of men who seek to confine her. Also (in the myth under discussion) Blodeuwedd as flower woman and owl is the only one not to be drowned ... And even as Blodeuwedd does not drown in the lake, so too you will find that in holding on to your truths at this time of transformation, you too will not drown ... In swimming in the ocean of the mystical, others may drown by listening to the wrong words, or identifying with ego, but in holding things lightly yet at the same time paradoxically realizing the sanctity of these messages, these visions, you are coming to a greater wisdom ... The owl dreamstone is to do with silence, stillness, and if you find anything belonging to owl, or indeed any other gifts of the sacred creatures such as feathers, these too can be added to your collection, amongst your most sacred things ... it is a visitation of the goddess, it is the unseen and she has put her hand upon you for a reason that you may not know right now but in the fullness of time will develop, even as darkness gives way to light.

Finding Blodeuwedd's feather on the second day of Rosh Hashanah is yet another amazing "coincidence", just like with my encounter with the deer on Erev Rosh Hashanah (as described in Witch's Shofar).

Taking the feather symbolism further into elucidating the thread of connection, a feather is used in preparation for Pesach (Passover) during the ritual called Bedikat Chametz (a ritual search for chametz, a substance which spiritually is that which can sour the outcome of spiritual development or mystical work). The important idea, especially within the unique context here with regard to Rosh Hashanah and the entire High Holy Day period, is that the sacred point of bedikat chametz is not to find chametz, but is to resolve all doubts. The existence of doubts implies the existence Amalek (collective negative energies which seek to destroy a person or people). Bedikat chametz therefore symbolizes the ritual destruction of Amalek (which in my case, would be all the negative energies which seek to destroy me and that which I am).

Rabbi Wein writes of Amalek's success as a destructive force throughout history in an article pertaining to Rosh Hashanah:

The centerpiece of our Rosh Hashanah observance, prayers, and sounding of the shofar is the remembrance of the akeidah – the binding of Yitzchak to the altar and Avraham’s apparent willingness to sacrifice him as worship to God. The akeidah has followed us throughout our long history. There have been millions of akeidot in Jewish history and most of them ended in the death of the victim and not in him or her being spared.

Yitzchak emerged from his experience of the akeidah (a wizard's binding ritual) alive (symbolized by the shofar), just as I emerged from my akeidah alive (symbolized by the appearance of the antlerless deer by the roadside). As Yitzchak was not slaughtered by knife, neither was I slaughtered by becoming involved in a fatal collision of my car with a deer. Finding Blodeuwedd's feather destroys all doubt that I am spared. And, as Yitzchak was resurrected from the Rosh Hashanah altar of Avraham, so too am I resurrected from the Rosh Hashanah altar of the Sacred Earth, through my encounter with the cricket subsequent to finding Blodeuwedd's feather. As a totem creature, cricket "is about resurrection. Awesome!

Thank Goddess, She has released the bound. Of course, upon my fifth shaman stone shall be written matir assurim (מתיר אסורים) in Hebrew, Ogham and Bardic runes. Interestingly, the shoresh-root (תור) of the word matir (meaning 'who releases') can, among its many meanings [1], mean "purposeful searching" (like I was doing, looking for stones) and "foraging for grass" (like the cricket was doing when I, looking for stones, saw her).

My Torah is Her Torah.

Footnote:

[1] Etymological Dictionary Of Biblical Hebrew, Matityahu Clark

Creaturely Encounters

Faeries

ג' תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 4

Walking about in the grass of the yard this afternoon, a cricket hopped into my path. And stood there, looking at me. It watched me in my shadow and it watched me in the sunlight. After several minutes, I laid down in the grass not two feet from it, and watched her too. I moved my face to within a foot of her and still, she watched me as she nibbled on a blade of grass. I watched her and she watched me for quite a length of time.

Eventually, I got up and let her eat her grass in solitude. As I walked, a butterfly flew across my path, right in front of me.

Cricket and butterfly, these two creatures came to me on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

The totem cricket symbolizes "finding light within the dark." It is a familiar spirit who watches over and guards the home.

The totem butterfly is a symbol of "transmutation and the dance of joy." It brings the sweetness of life into expressive being.

Relentlessly Faithful And True

Spirit Of Blodeuwedd

ב' תשרי התשס"ט
Blodlessing 3
Rosh Hashanah 2

The fourth shaman stone in my Temple Collection is represented by the Celtic dark goddess Blodeuwedd (pronounced blode-ae-wehd), the flower woman. Blodeuwedd "was made out of 9 flowers by two male magicians, Gwydion and Math, to be the bride of Llew, " yet once made, she had her own ideas regarding the path her life would take. And forge her own path she did.

In the minds of most men, Blodeuwedd is considered the epitome of the faithless woman. Faithless Blodeuwedd is not. On the contrary, Blodeuwedd epitomizes relentless Faith in her own inner vision of the Divine and the courage to follow one's own inner Truth.

Catrin James (Doorways To The Otherworld) writes of Blodeuwedd:

She calls to you to take courage, not to listen to the calumny or slander of others, to do what is right for you. Out of bondage. To see through the darkness of other people's opinions and the shadows of the everyday world into the heart of the matter. You came to earth for a purpose but it is not the purpose imposed upon you by others. Listen to your heart, listen to that still inner voice. It will not betray you.

Blodeuwedd, Blodeuwedd, Blodeuwedd ... oh, how I am made like you! My truest patroness, my own path I forge too!

I've chosen witches' amber (jet, a black fossilized wood), linked with the earth element, for the shaman stone corresponding to Blodeuwedd, the flower woman.

Faith (אמונה) and truth (אמת) in Hebrew will mark the shaman stone, as will Welsh faithful (ffyddlon) and true (gwir) in Ogham letters, Gaelic faithful (dílis pronounced DEE-lish) and true (fior) in Bardic runes, and Potawatomi truth (de'bwe'wIn) in English letters.