Tattoo Heritage

What is my heritage? How many different peoples populate my genetics? Where were/are they from? What have they passed on to me?

From my parents and grandparents, my sole inheritance is Polish. In some very ways, that leaves open the possibility ~ more likely, the probability ~ that I have a variety of genetics. Poland's history is a country often overrun by outsiders. If recent history is any tell, that means the men being killed and the women being raped and left pregnant with mixed blood children.

My father was dark ~ black hair, olive skin, brown eyes. My mother, fair ~ a 'carrot-top' child, chestnut-haired adult, medium-toned skin, blue eyes.  How did two such varied types come from the same small land? It was explained as 'the hill people' and 'the valley people' ~ presumably those from the open valley being more subject to raids and intermarriage. Were those my mother's people?

So why the interest in women with tattooed faces? Because I feel drawn to these women. I always have. It's as though something within me searches for the tribe or tribes from which I've come.

The woman above is Armenian. The image is from the Genocide Museum. Her coloring and features ~ straight nose, wide eyes, dark brows ~ are so close to my father's. Could I have come from her lineage?

Then there's the Kurdish woman. Blue-eyed, fairer-skinned. Is her lineage akin to mine? Her eyes are deeper set, but that dimple on her left cheek looks like the one I inherited from my mother.

What about your heritage? Is there some cultural element ~ a tattoo, hair style, movement ~ that attracts you without your knowing why? How much does it matter where we come from? What tribe do you claim and belong to now?

Marzenna

From 365 Goddess by Patricia Telesco:

Marzenna's themes are spring, weather, protection, winter, death, rebirth, cycles, change and growth. Her symbols are dolls (poppets) and water (including ice and snow). The Polish Goddess for whom this holiday is named represents an odd combination of winter, death and fruit field's growth and fertility. As such, She oversees the transitions we wish to make in our lives.

I walked into a used bookstore and saw Telesco's book. When I picked it up to check the Goddess of the date, I saw a paper marking today's date. It was the page for Marzenna. Since my heritage is Polish, I decided to check Her out.

This is a time of transitions, of changes in our world. That's especially true for each person individually as well as the community in total. Spring is about rebirth, changing the death time of Winter into the new greening of Spring that blossoms into the fullness of Summer. It's a time of transformation.

My life right now is about celebrating the changes, the transformations, that are happening within its boundaries. Around me are a variety of changes: deaths, graduations, surgeries, retirements, marriages. Some of them are directly related to me ~ some are even mine ~ but many belong to the people around me. These affect me deeply in a manner different from those that are directly tugging on my heartstrings.

Marzenna is the Goddess ~ and the celebration of that Goddess, or more precisely, the passing of that Goddess of Death, Rebirth and Change. In the celebrations a straw poppet of Marzenna is burned so that Newness can come into being. It's a passage and Marzenna is the Guardian of Change at the gate.

What Spring holiday or holy day resonates most for you? How do you celebrate the passages of time? What is transforming in your life in this moment? How will you support it?

All Hallows Day

All Saints' Day in Poland

My personal and spiritual continually unfolding myth includes both the Pagan celebrations, such as Samhain or Hallowe'en, and the Christian celebrations, like All Hallows or All Saints' Day. Both encourage the honoring of the ancestors, of those who have already passed through the veil from this world to the next.

The image above is of a graveyard in Poland where there is an honoring of those who have died. Flowers and candles abound as far as the eye can see. It reminds me of a variety of festive days: weddings, family birthdays, funerals, graduations. Any of the days we choose to celebrate are decorated with floral arrangements and honored with lit candles.

I knew few of my ancestors. My maternal grands died when my mother was a teenager. My paternal grandfather died when I was perhaps five. I recall very little about him, except that my brother and I would play on his sick bed and he enjoyed our company. My maternal grandmother died when I was seventeen. My high school graduation was her last family event. I have stories of all of them. Images and words surface in the dreamtime, arising from that stored genetic pool of memory. This is a day when I can sit within that dreamtime, connect with them, talk through my day, the course of my life, gather tidbits of wisdom from them. At the close of day, I blow out the candles with a heart filled with gratitude, joy and grief. What an amazing time.

How do you honor your ancestors? What do you feel when you think of them? What would you like to say to them? to ask of them? to share with them? What do you want from them? Are you pleased with their responses?