Continuing the Season of Death

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn; ....
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything 
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility

~ Mary Oliver

Today was a day for encountering and addressing death.
As I volunteered at a literary fair early in the day, a young woman shared that she was writing a book about death. We discussed the awkward way our culture encounters or ignores both death and the processes that bring us closer to it. We shared resources on the topic and I felt that simple sensation of synchronicity ~ being in the right place at the right time and paying attention to what surfaces. When I asked her what she was writing, she could have dodged the question. She didn't. Her directness opened me to share a resource I'd recently received on the same topic. A brief, but touching conversation and a recognition of not being alone in my explorations of topics relating to death.

Leaving that setting, I received a message from a friend about the likelihood of taking her old dog to the vet to have him put to sleep. She was struggling between her desire to have him out of pain and her attachment to having him in her life. We spent a few moments slipping between that quiet space of friends sharing the unknown sadness and conversing about how or when it might happen.

My next stop of the day was the church where we were going to celebrate the life of a friend who had recently died. I was helping set the hall for the reception happening afterward. During the memorial service, family members and friends shared stories and memories of our absent friend. It was good to share the space, the stories, the farewells. Continuing the celebration and memorial at a local pub, we chatted about the health of other friends and what those challenges might mean in the near future.

As I drove home, I reflected on the conversations and the deep heart space I shared with each and all of the people on this day. I thought of Mary Oliver's poem When Death Comes. Her words talk about grabbing life for all its worth, being alive fully, so that when death comes, which it will for each of us, we can say we were present to all life had to offer.

Until death comes for me or for those close to me, I face the choice of avoiding it or confronting it or embracing it or acknowledging it. They aren't mutually exclusive choices ~ and my choices may change from one moment to the next.

Where do you stand in your expression of life? How much do you invest in avoiding the topic of death? How do you want to be remembered when you die? What more would you like to do in your life?

Memory and Music

Every now and again, a song or a performer strikes the heart deeply enough to rock us to the depths of our souls. The right music. Different songs for many people. Different performers for them as well.

Last night, one of those performers played his heart out in one small bar. Why was this performer different? What did he have that touched our souls? Not an easy answer. Perhaps it is that all who were there to hear him were immersed in the same mythos ~ the one created by and for this particular performer.

Over a decade ago, we celebrated this performer with and at a fundraiser because we were certain he'd be leaving our presence soon. He'd been living with AIDS for a decade and things were looking dubious. He remains with us, in this world, on this side of the veil, and filled with a passion when he performs that puts all in his presence to shame.

Although he no longer has the stamina to play three or four hour gigs, what he does play brings all of us to that point of letting go and riding the wave of the music to forgetfulness or remembrance, whichever place we need to reach at the moment. During one of the songs, with a band consisting of drums, piano, trumpet and trombone complementing his guitar and vocals, I was swept into an ecstasy of spirit that had nothing to do with the half-glass of wine I'd consumed. I could feel the music within and beneath me, carrying me away. Even as a music lover, very few performers and performances bring me to that point. Suddenly, everything was in its proper perspective, The music, the people, the time ~ all was right with the world.

What music brings you to that place of forgetting or remembering? Is it a type of music? a performer? a particular song? Does certain music bring amnesia? Other music bring memory? Are you in the moment with the music? To what era/time in your life does it transport you?

Dreaming the Answers

Some friends and I were discussing the upcoming,or perhaps better stated, ongoing election. There is an incredible reign of terror being perpetuated by every side. As we touched on the possible outcomes, we acknowledged that when we meet again next week, the election will be over. I gradually became aware that I was the only one holding the high road that Light and Beauty would prevail ~ no matter what. As one of my friends said, "We're influenced by the prevailing energies that are out there."

Although the specifics of the conversation have left me, the sadness, fear and anxiety my friends voiced has not. Oddly enough, this quote was in the margin of the book we were studying together. I took it as a sign of hope.

Our dreams come in a variety of waves through our lives, night time imagings being one of the possibilities. More importantly, we have the power to interact with those dreams ~ in all their forms ~ to uncover the answers, the deep and true meanings. The answer to the question What does this dream mean? is not to run to a book of dream image meanings, but to ask What do you/I think in means?

More than two decades ago, I had several similar dreams over the course of a month. The primary constant in each of them was the predominant color in each of them: orange. The sky, the landscape, the very air held an overcast tint of orange. Although I can recall much of those dreams to this very day, I knew ~ and still know ~ little of their meaning. What I can say is that in less than a year of having those dreams, I was standing on a corner in Nasr City, Egypt ~ where I would be living for the coming year ~ marveling at the orange hue everywhere. Had my dream led me to Cairo? or had Cairo called to me through my dream? I cannot say for sure. I only know the two were clearly connected.

I believe we can call forth dreams of a better world or community or family or job. We only need to open ourselves enough to let those dreams come through. I am always open to being proven wrong ~~ but of this I am certain: our words and our visual imagings carry their own power into our lives and into the world.

What do you believe about dreams? Where did that belief come from? Do you believe dreams have power? If so, are you open to their power? What dream have you had that came true in some way after you dreamt it?

All Souls Day of the Dead

All Souls Night by Loreena McKennitt

All Souls Day. The Day of the Dead. Another day to remember and honor our dead. Another day to recognize the thin veils between the worlds. An electrifying time of year as people feel the energy and pressure of those on the other side of that incorporeal veil.

Loreena McKennitt's song All Souls Night describes today in haunting terms:

Standing on the bridge that crosses
the river that goes out to the sea.
The wind is full of a thousand voices.
They pass by the bridge and me.

We find comfort in our search to know what's happened to our loved ones after death. We long to know they are safe, holding space for us. This day we honor our ancestors ~ as well as reiterate they are on the other side of the veil. It's a time to visit, to acknowledge our continued connection, to express our gratitude, to heal.

After spending most of our year in the solid reality of our daily lives, having a day or two where we feel or hear or see those who have gone before us can strike us as eerie, scary, unnerving. Many of our workaday worlds teach us that death means our loved ones, our ancestors are gone. So when we feel the breeze of their presence or hear a long lost voice or catch a glimpse of someone clothed with familiar clothing, we are shaken and assume we are crazed.

Not today. Not in this brief season from All Hallows Eve to All Souls Day or the Day of the Dead. Now we allow ourselves to be comforted by the watchfulness of our ancestors. We have them momentarily near us again. Watch for them. Thank them and let them go. Today is the perfect day for that.

Which of your ancestors do you most miss? To whom do you feel connected? How does this season show up in your life? How do you sense the passing of the souls on the bridge between the worlds? What rituals do you use to honor them? to let them go?

All Saints' Day 2016

Sojourner Truth, Bartolomé de las Casas, Miriam, Origen, Malcolm X, Queen Elizabeth I, Iqbal Masih, & Teresa of Avila

Considering the seasonal closeness and thinness of the veils between the worlds, thoughts of the saints dancing nearby, celebrating with and in spite of us, brings a smile to my lips. In that place beside yet distinct and distant from us, there is no more separation. The saints find joy in everything. They celebrate, love, embrace, and glow with the light of their joy.

Where we find ourselves in the world, in this same moment, can be trying or frightening or enraging or sad. We are influenced by the moods, words and experiences of others as well as our own. However, the word influence comes from Latin and means into flow. We have choice of what influences us, what flow we step into. We can be in the flow of a mud-slinging election season. Or in the flow of the severe changes in our work environment. Or in the flow of the grief and death of a friend. All of these things touch our lives in their particular way. We can choose how much, how long or how deeply we want to allow ourselves to be in that flow. Don't deny the feelings. Don't wallow in them either. Learn the power of balance.

Sometimes, the immediacy of someone's words or actions or disappearance in our lives whacks us off our emotional feet. That is what being embodied humans is all about. We feel in all possible ways. It's good to feel ~ to allow the joy or sadness or grief or love to rush over us. It's also good to take perspective on those feelings, to look at the joy of the dancing saints in the icon above, and recognize ourselves in that as well.

At this season, the closeness of the saints can bring us to tears of sorrow, grief and joy all at the same time or perhaps wildly in turns. While we feel our own personal feelings around them, may we have the grace to touch into their dancing too.

What do you feel about the saints who have passed through your life? Who are they? How have they affected you? What can you do to acknowledge their presence in this season?

New Moon in Scorpio and Halloween

The season of Halloween, or Samhain, opened with the New Moon in Scorpio. New Moons bring with them a new wave of energy, the turning of the dark time as it heads toward fullness. As New Moons are literal dark times filled with potential, it is perfect for this one to be in Scorpio, the sign of secrets and shadows. This is a time of deep dreaming and intuition, a time for looking inside. A Scorpio New Moon is receptive and quiet ~~ hidden.

Scorpio is considered by many as the most powerful sign with those who are born under this sign being very powerful souls. Scorpio is all about dying and being reborn again, going into the deep slumber within the greater Self, the ultimate Consciousness.

Scorpio is ruled by Pluto and Mars: Pluto exposing the dead and decaying to throw in the transforming cauldron; Mars lasering in on the will, desire and achievement. Together they create the energy for dancing closely with our personal Shadows, to interact with the mysteries hidden within us.

This is the time to let go and shed the old skin as well as plant the seed of power to transform death into new growth. The strong Scorpio archetypes for doing this are The Healer, The Shaman, The Alchemist. This is a time to reclaim lost or hidden power and when the Divine Feminine and Warrior will be empowered to integrate more fully into world.

As the Scorpio New Moon leads into Halloween, it is evident that only those who believe in magic will find it. Halloween ~ All Hallows Eve ~ and the two days following ~ All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day ~ are days when the veils between the concrete, physical world and the ethereal, spiritual world are at their thinnest. Also, the veils between the living and the dead. Many people burn candles or dance for ancestors no longer with us. It is the time we not only acknowledge the passage into darkness and death, we ritualize and celebrate it.

How do you celebrate this time of year? What connection does it suggest to you about your ancestors? Do you light a candle to remember them during this time? How do you experience the thinning of the veils? What do you wish to reclaim during this New Moon? What will be reborn in you?

Love Law

I never cease to be amazed at the combinations that show up when I play Teabag Tarot. I often combine two teas in one extra-large travel tumbler.... and I have no idea what their messages will be. When these two arrived in the same brewing, I was bopped over the head with their message of the law of love.

Much discussion with friends and others focuses on the need we each and all have for love. Questions that surface:

• How do we search for it? 
• Who do we feel disappointed us? 
• When did we have a time when we had enough? 
• What does enough love even mean?
• How does that search for love drive us at work? at play? in our families?

When I saw these messages, it was more like a strum on the heartstrings than on the head. Why search for love when that is what we are? I recognized that it's been awhile since I was drawn into actively searching for love.... since I felt as though what I was, what I AM, wasn't complete or enough.

Even so, was I practicing that last statement ~ the one that says Love is the ultimate law of life? Maybe not completely, but more at this time of my life than I have in the past. There's a wildly caustic election battle going on around me. Even though I am appalled by many of the revelations surrounding one candidate, my emotions have been more curious, more fascinated, more intrigued than hateful or spiteful. Even when people accuse or shame others about their candidate ~ no matter which it is, I find my head tipping to one side, my thoughts wisping to Huh, my heart reaching out to theirs. Is that practicing that Love Law? I think so. I believe that any time we release the option to hate we are allowing love to flow. As long as we ~ as I ~ continue to do that, hope remains alive in the world.

How do you practice the Love Law? What triggers your search for love? How do you know when/if you believe you are the love? When do you know you're complete? How does that Love Law show up in your life?