shhh....

Maybe it’s because of the book, “The Secret” that’s all the rage right now, but I’ve been hearing and reading a lot recently about abundance and manifesting what you want. In particular, statements such as, “the universe is a kind and loving place”, or “the universe wants you to have all that you need”. Really? I’m not sure I believe the universe is a sentient entity capable of knowing my desires or proclaiming what is kind vs. unkind...and anyway, I’m pretty sure that if it were I’d be a mere spec in it’s consciousness.

So does that mean everything that happens to us is just a series of random events; is the way the universe operates really just chaos beyond anyone's control?

I think you can attract various circumstances in terms of the logical predictability of cause & effect, but I think things can just as easily come out of left field. If you participate in risky behaviors, you might die -- cause and effect. If you always date the same type of person you will continually have similar relationships -- cause and effect. If you eat like crap, you will be more prone to disease. But carrying this thinking too far can become a slippery slope...what about the person who gets blindsided by a cancer diagnosis who has no family history, no behaviors that put them at risk -- did they "attract" cancer into their lives? We can easily fall into blaming the victim with ideas like that. I think we invite some things into our lives, either intentionally or not, but I think a certain amount is purely random. And yes, I do think it can be both.

Lucky things happen, so do terrible things. The point is how we transcend the difficulties life throws at us. What matters is how we interpret events and endow them with personal meaning, and then how we weave them into the fabric of our lives.

I don’t believe the law of attraction is a law in terms of physics, but I do know what you focus on expands, if only by allowing it to fill up your awareness and leave room for fewer other things to think about. What we dwell on becomes the central adjective describing our lives. If we practice gratitude, we feel grateful and live with abundance, if we practice peace, we feel peaceful and live with more tranquility. I think it's a bit too strong to say that thoughts create our reality, but I do believe they shape it -- and certainly they shape our attitude & experience of life.Pretty simple stuff when you get down to it. But to quote the Indigo Girls, “The hardest to learn was the least complicated”.

Of course that's no secret.

in her image

Who, or what, is Goddess?

It is my basic contention that all deities are human-generated creations and not supernatural or immortal beings. Certainly there is no robed divinity sitting upon a magical throne controlling our destiny and listening to our petty grievances or petitions for intervention.

This is not to say that I don't believe in the power of prayer or affirmations to affect change -- because I actually do. I’ve experienced the powerful effects of creative visualization, of prayer, of affirmations. But I don't think boons derived from that sort of thing can be attributed to a divine being granting me my wishes. For one thing, why my wishes and not someone elses? What would the decision process be for determining who deserved what?

No, I think maybe prayer works the same way positive thinking does; depending on how you frame your intentions you get different results -- if you dwell on the negative that's what you will be most subconsciously aware of and so too with searching for the positive in any given situation. Surely at the very least prayer is a means of finding comfort & reassurance and by doing so we are better able to solve our own problems.

You know, I always cringe when a person averts or survives a horrific tragedy and says that God/dess saved them. What about the other people that didn’t make it – does God/dess value them less? It makes me wince when a sports team wins and the coach thanks his god and/or personal saviour. God/dess chooses sides in football? Does s/he have money on the game? I think not. Even if I believed in a literal Supreme Being that was capable of doing so, I would think that wasn’t fair, or god-like for that matter. Wouldn't there more important things for God/dess to do? Like bringing an end to war…or is that about choosing particular sides too, as our politicians would have us think.

Now, I do believe it is possible that every God/dess that ever was or is could be symbolic of some sort of universal energy, a force or power, if you will, that we sense exists but cannot quantify. Of course maybe it’s just a common, universal feeling to think there really is something bigger than or beyond us as individuals. Perhaps deity is actually reflective of that certain something dwelling at our center that links all people together – a sort of immanent spiritual collective unconscious. Or it may be all of the above and more. Either way there seems to be something larger or deeper than ourselves that inspires awe, and in many, a feeling of worshipfulness.

Since the nature of this awe inspiring force is essentially incomprehensible to our present known and experienced levels of consciousness, we need to name It, to explore and maybe come to know It better in some way. This is how individual deities and their accompanying mythologies are born…thru an inspired need/drive/desire to claim relation to that which is felt at the very core of our being.

But back to the original question; who in particular is Goddess? Since deity is created in the image of humans it therefore depends on a conscious choice. Choosing to personify deity as Goddess, as sacred feminine, is an act of spiritual empowerment and healing in contemporary culture. Goddess restores balance to a long lopsided paradigm. The present dominant religious patriarchy is essentially a denial of half the human race’s divinity. By recognizing divinity as feminine we are acknowledging the innate sacredness of not just that disenfranchised female half of the human race, but of everyone -- after all, we are all born from a mother. Obviously it takes both male & female to initiate a new life, to provide the building blocks -- procreation 101. But it takes the body of a female to use those building blocks to create, nurture and birth that new life into being. In the beginning of our fragile little lives, biologically speaking, our very existence depends on mother for sustenance, and not on father. This is powerful stuff. If we are created, brought to form and nurtured by our mothers, but the mother archetype is denied sanctity, yet we are literally half of our mothers genetically -- what does that say about the level of sacredness bestowed upon all of us, women and men?

Bottom line: Goddess shouldn't be relegated to the realm of "merely" a feminist metaphorical attempt at re-visioning the world. Goddess is a universal visage capable of inspiring all of us to continually co-create our own world. Better yet, She IS our world.

OSTARA: The Dance of Renewal

Spring is the budding time, and Gaia is donning Her soft green mantle. Warm sap, like life’s blood rises and flows thru the trees and buds begin to break. Perhaps a few hardy spring flowers are starting to push up bravely thru the muddy, moist soil and will grace us with their vibrant colors – much appreciated after winter’s grays and browns. It is a time of growth, of possibility, of resurrection, renewal and rebirth. During this emergent stage of the year the whole world seems more active, the earth energy seems to vibrate a little higher, a little lighter and just a bit quicker paced now. New life can be found sprouting, burgeoning everywhere. If you take a deep, cleansing breath on a spring day you can positively taste the freshness in the air. There is an almost tangible sense of the unlimited potential for dreams to be born and realized…for miracles of all kinds to occur; for they do, all the time.

The vernal equinox is the first official day of spring. Observance of spring’s return has occurred throughout history under many names: the Druid’s Alban Eilir, (light of the earth), the Persian celebration of NawRuz (new day), Lady Day, elements of the Jewish feast of Purim, ancient Roman Bacchanalia, Christian Easter, and as Ostara, the latter being the name we shall use.

Ostara was originally a fertility festival in honor of spring’s awakening. The name comes from a somewhat obscure Germanic Goddess and means “movement towards the rising sun”. She is the maiden of growing light, the dawn, and of springtime, and Her name may also be related to the Greek dawn Goddess, Eos. Ostara is also known by a Saxon name, Eostre or Eostar, meaning “light in the east”. Aside from lending Her name to the holiday of Easter, it is also thought to be from Eostre that the word estrus is derived, which describes the phase of time when female species of mammals are receptive and able to conceive…and this also happens to be where we get the name for the female reproductive hormone estrogen. Suffice is to say, a prevalent theme that runs through Ostara is that of fertility. So, it is quite apropos that the rabbit, or hare, acts as an emblem for this holiday, for fairly obvious reasons!

Aside from being a fertility symbol, rabbits represent the earth and were thought to be able to travel between the world of the living and the underworld. During this time of awakening from winter’s slumber many myths around the world tell of the previous autumnal descent and then joyous homecoming of a god or goddess, who brings the returning warmth of spring with them.

Throughout these last months of winter we drew inward, we too descended, as if snuggled deep in our own rabbit warren. Now it is a time to look outward, to awaken after hibernation, to shed our winter coats -- both on a physical & spiritual plane, to peel off the layers like a snake sheds it’s old outgrown skin. This is an opportunity to make way for the new, to continue the creative energy spawned at Imbolc. It is a time for the seeds of prosperity and abundance to be sown in the fertile soil of our spring-gladdened hearts, for the promise of bounty to come.

Many symbols and correspondences are relevant to spring celebrations, but perhaps none is more closely associated with this time of year as the egg. Wild birds of all kinds are nesting now, a sure sign of spring’s triumphant return. More than merely a signal of spring’s rebirth, eggs are a symbol of new life. All manner of creature begins from a simple egg; insects lay eggs…reptiles…the ovum contained in the ovaries of a female mammal are also known as eggs. Eggs can represent the very universe itself as in the mythological cosmic egg. Nothing encapsulates, literally and figuratively, the marvel of pure potentiality better than a seemingly unassuming little egg. It’s all there: new life waiting to be initiated, evolving, developing, transforming, then tentatively cracking open a constraining shell, hatching, yet just a little hesitant to leave the safety of a cloistered world behind. Finally, emerging like a butterfly from a cocoon, awkward and fledgling at first, but then…slowly wings unfurling…a long magnificent stretch at the dawn of incarnation --ready to embark on a wondrous new journey!

Eggs represent the ultimate beginning, the first spark of life waiting to manifest. They are perfect little holistic packages designed to contain nothing less then the awesome power of creation. They are fragile, yes, but let this be a lesson to us in how precious the miracle of each our lives truly is…how we should handle ourselves and each other with care, be gentle spirits, for we too are containers of awesome miracles.

Now, there is an often-perpetuated myth that abounds this time of year regarding eggs. It is frequently suggested that only on the Vernal Equinox can you get an egg to “stand up” or balance on its end. I’m sorry to shatter anyone’s illusions, but this is merely the rural equivalent of an urban legend. An egg can be stood on its end any time of year. This feat depends solely on the individual egg and the level of human patience applied.

However, it does seem fitting that a connection is made between eggs and balance, for another common theme of Ostara is balance. From the day after the Vernal Equinox onward the hours of sunlight will be ever increasingly longer than those of darkness until we reach the Summer Solstice. But on the Equinox itself the hours of light and dark stand poised in almost perfect equilibrium for just a brief moment in time. This graceful balancing act of light and dark is fleeting, but can serve as a reminder for us to examine other points of duality in our lives. I know many of us, myself included, are striving for balance, trying to exist in a more congruent way. This idea of seeking balance is not about the achievement of some state of perfect stability – for that is impossible, and boring! It is about continually making the attempt to strike a balance, to keep all the different parts of our lives in perspective. The rewards & benefits come from the process itself, from living in a conscious and sincere manner.

To pursue a life in more harmonious balance is an art, like a dance. There is the push and pull of everyday living, the rhythm and pulse of trying to keep step with life’s ups and downs, of meeting demands and embracing pleasure. Each stride can be a fluid motion or sharp staccato step and everyone hears a different tune. Erratic tempos can send us twirling – but how glorious to spin with abandon! The ecstasy of being empowered and free, of giving ourselves over to the irresistible and enticing draw of dancing our own dance is pure magick.

Still, as we spin, if we don’t keep our eyes focused on a single point we might become dizzy and fall – losing our innate sense of equilibrium, disrupting the dance. Yet conversely, to stand still in the corner is to ignore the melody, the beautiful cadence, and the throbbing beat of life itself. So, it is that single point, that focus that makes staying on one’s feet possible yet allows us to dance & sway to whatever music we may hear…oh, and there is such beautiful music to be heard! For many of us that point, that focus-spot, is our faith and our sense of spirituality. Grounded in the rhythms of the earth we find our balancing rod, our ballet bar. The divine, in whatever way perceived, is the ultimate partner for the magnificent sacred dance of life.

So, kick up your heels and cut loose, hop for joy and give in to that spring fever. Times like these call for a strong tonic, something to heal the winter weary soul and restore balance to the system. I can think of nothing more fitting than to dance a wild dance, to spread your wings and revel in the deep, innate spiritual grace that we all possess.