26th Day of the Seventh Lunar Cycle

"I'm one with the Goddess
and open to Her Wisdom."


26th Day of the Seventh Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Hecate
Lunar Tree Cycle ~ Duir/Oak
Moon Phase: Waning Last Quarter
Moon rises: 1:14AM EDT Moon sets: 4:14PM EDT
Moon in the Fixed Earth
Sign of Taurus
Ceridwen's Cycle of the Moon
Mercury goes direct 10:16PM EDT
Solar Question for the Day: What
old story are telling against yourself?
What new story waits to be told?"
Lunar Meditation: The richness of
your inner treasury.
"Action is the antidote to despair."
-- Joan Baez
July 9th, 2007


"Hey! She has a light step, don't she?
Hey! She has some fine clothes!
Hey! She dances down richness!
Look at those bracelets shake!
Her bracelets like water!
Water, like the bracelets of Oshun.
Dance when she shakes those bracelets,
dance and call Oshun. She can do
what the doctor can't. She can heal
with just cold water. Call Oshun.
All her answers are wise ones.
Call Oshun. She always say:
Live, my children, live without fear."
-- African chant to the goddess of love

There is only one way we can completely heal the injuries life brings us, and that is to live and lover without fear. To live is to endure pain, whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. But we can choose how we can react to that pain. If we clench ourselves in fear of more pain, we live cramped and unsatisfying lives - and we will not prevent ourselves from being hurt. If we open ourselves to life, we will still feel pain, but we will feel joy and pleasure as well.
We have, each of us, deep fears within us that prevent us from totally grasping life and its many joys. Discovering and healing those painful areas is the work of a lifetime. But without doing that work, we will never truly live.
[Source: "The Goddess Companion" by Patricia Monaghan]


Following Our Path

'Whence do you come and whither do you journey?
I journey on my own errand."
-- Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, from "The Mabinogion"

When Pwyll (POO'ilh) first encounters and is questioned by his future wife, Rhiannon (Hee-ANN'on), he gives her a polite but noncommittal answer as to his identity and purpose.
It is not wise, after all, to disclose too much about yourself upon any first meeting, unless you have a clear idea of the other person's intentions. As it turns out, Pwyll and Rhiannon are traveling the same road, for she has come from the underworld with the express purpose of marrying him. Discovering and following our own path is something that is our personal business; it is not something that one person can do for another. We each have to make our own contract with Spirit, rather than existing as an unwitting signatory to someone else's previously drawn-up contract. We have to read all the fine print before we sign, learning everything we can about the obligations and commitments before showing our hand. Spontaneous response and heartfelt enthusiasm are not good bases for decision making.
When we search for our spiritual path, we need to reassess, consolidate, and recommit our spiritual focus - and check contractual details. It is all right to change course as we seek the best way to Spirit, it is equally all right to stay where we are - as long as we realize that compromising our truth is dangerous.

"If you are oriented on your path by a set of rules not of your making, or coasting along with a
contract you have not fully consented to, ask yourself what strongly held beliefs that course is
ignoring or causing you to change or diminish."
[Source: "The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year" by Caitlin Matthews]

25th Day of the Seventh Lunar Cycle

"I'm one with the Goddess and open
to Her Wisdom."


25th Day of the Seventh Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Medusa
Lunar Tree Cycle ~ Duir/Oak
Moon Phase: Last Quarter
Moon rises: 12:52AM EDT
Moon sets: 1:43PM EDT
Moon in Aries v/c 1:01PM EDT
Moon enters the Fixed Earth Sign
of Taurus at 1:53PM EDTCeridwen's Cycle of the Moon
Solar Question for the Day: "What
broken or fragmentary parts of your
life need mending?"
Lunar Meditation: The strength and
beauty of the little things.
"People see the Goddess everyday,
they just don't recognize Her."
-- Anon.
July 8th, 2007



"Fragments of fire,
darting white flames:
weave stars into my dreams.

Dancing white flames,
star-insects, fire-fragments:
weave stars across my dreams.

Flitting white fires,
dashing little fireflies:
waft your star-torch over my dreams.
-- Ojibwa firefly song

Nature presents herself to us in such variety. In winter, trees make stark silhouettes against a leaden sky; in spring, soft colors draw the eye; in fall, the vivid hues of dying leaves delight us.
And summer? Summer is a festival for all our senses. The sound of insects humming and buzzing, the blaze of color in flowers and leaves, the feel of warm breezes on our skin, the taste and smell of fresh food - we are lavished with beauty by our mother during the summer season.
Summer nights have their own special beauties. Whether we experience the opalescent white nights of the subarctic or the humid heaviness of the south, we feel our senses stirred. And our souls as well, for our bodies and souls are not separate but deeply interconnected. Summer nights stir memories, both lovely and frightening. The glimmer of fireflies lights our way to deep inner connection and peace, if we only let it.
[Source: "The Goddess Companion" by Patricia Monaghan]


Irritations

"I went in the hill and I got it.
I sat on a knoll and I sought it.
And if I would get it I would leave it.
Since I did not get, I took it with me."
[A thorn in the foot.]
-- Scots Gaelic riddle

There is no surefire way to avoid irritations, no magic formula that will ease them out of our way. They arrive without warning to plague us, and we have to get on and deal with them. Some of the tiresomeness can be alleviated, however. If we see many of our irritations as reminders of neglected areas of our life. The laws of cause and effect set in train a whole series of actions, similarly, undone actions have effect upon our lives. The things we neglect return to plague us from the overdue car service, to the dental examination we keep meaning to have, from our failure to reply to an important letter, to the long silence we have meted out to a close relative. Breakdowns, aching jaws, lost opportunities, aggrieved friends, and irate family members suddenly loom large in our schedule, neatly overturning everything we had planned.
The universe has its own way of getting our attention and making us attend to what is important.
Sometimes little irritations that go unattended become larger ones. A thorn in the foot can be removed, but if gangrene sets in, the whole leg may have to be removed. The little irritations may bite and worry us, but they certainly do not take kindly to compromise or neglect.

"Review the irritations that you have currently; trace back their root cause, where possible, and find
any connections between your negligence and their arrival. Act swiftly and appropriately if particular
irritations seems to recur frequently."
[Source: "The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year" by Caitlin Matthews]

24th Day of the Seventh Lunar Cycle

"I'm one with the Goddess and open
to Her Wisdom."

24th Day of the Seventh Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Medusa
Lunar Tree Cycle ~ Duir/Oak
Moon Phase: Last Quarter - 12:53PM EDT
Moon rises: 12:22AM EDT
Moon sets: 1:41PM EDT
Moon in the Cardinal Fire Sign of Aries
Rhiannon's last Cycle of the Moon day
Solar Question for the Day: "What is the
source of vital power within you?"
Lunar Meditation: The beauty of the enduring stars.
"Where there is no struggle, there is no strength."
-- Oprah Winfrey
July 7th, 2007


"There was a monster, Argos,
with a hundred eyes of fire,
fire that saw everywhere at once,
and then went out, every one at once.
When he died, the goddess Juno
saved those eyes, by setting them
in the tail of her pet bird. She was like
a jeweler as she set them there
like stars in the peacock's tail.
Daughter of time, Juno worked
in a frenzy of creation on this task."
-- Ovid, Metamorphoses

Today was the day Roman women celebrated one of the most important festivals of Juno, the great goddess of women's power. Although every Calends, or first, of each moon-month was dedicated to Juno, the Nonae Caprontinae on July 7 was - with the March 1 Matronalia - the goddess' public festival. On the day, girls staged mock battles under wild fig trees and all women engaged in similarly unrestrained behavior. For Juno, who was castigated as an overbearing jealous wife in late mythology, was originally a complex goddess who ruled all of women's energies. And women are not only nurturing and kindly; we are also sometimes angry and fierce. Both these aspects of feminine reality - and many others as well - were in Juno's domain.
Finding ways to resolve conflicts, especially with other women, is one of life's ongoing challenges. Roman belief was that each of us has a deep and abiding strength that helps us move toward the right path. Looking within for this strength will bring us in touch with the strength of the goddess within us.
[Source: "The Goddess Companion" by Patricia Monaghan]


The Divine Feminine

"There was an Old Woman lived under the hill
And if she's not gone, she lives there still."
-- traditional British rhyme

Feminine and masculine are the left and right hands of God. We have only recently begun to remember the divine feminine and to respect her again, but she has never been far from us. Earth
herself reminds us of the living presence of the feminine principle as she unfolds her many faces through the cycle of the year. The Old Woman who lives under the hill is the oldest grandmother of us all: our very substance derives from her; and as we trace her many aspects through the seasons, we appreciate the different gifts with which we are endowed.
As a young girl in spring, she is innocent; playful and delightful, she responds to beauty with joy.
When our hearts are in springtime mode, we are filled with clarity and truth, in touch with our integrity. In Maytime, when blossoms' heady scent of desire is in the air, she reaches the borders of womanhood and looks with desire upon the beloved of her heart, rejoicing in the song of summer's freedom. When our hearts are in summer mode, we have power and self-confidence.
In autumn, she becomes mother, fierce protector of all that she loves. In autumn, we reflect this face as our creative vision fulfilled. When winter comes, she strips bare the bough, clarifying each soul. But many do not choose to know her now, for she grows thin and gray. Yet she is stronger,
as ice and snow cover her with a new mantle.
Those who fear the Old Woman's features never kiss her or call upon her wisdom. But she welcomes all, calling us to look again and find in ourselves the reflection of her wisdom. She calls us to realize that she is in every part of the universe, that the earth is but our most immediate mirror of her features. Her truth, beauty, compassion, and wisdom are in every place, in every face.

"Mediate upon the divine feminine."
[Source: "The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year" by Caitlin Matthews]

23rd Day of the Seventh Lunar Cycle

"I'm one with the Goddess and
open to Her Wisdom."

23rd Day of the Seventh Lunar Cycle Ruled by Medusa
Lunar Tree Cycle ~ Duir/Oak
Moon Phase: Disseminating
Moon rises: 12:00AM EDT
Moon sets: 12:29PM EDT
Moon in Pisces v/c 6:07AM EDT
Moon enters the Cardinal Fire Sign
of Aries at 10:56AM EDT
Rhiannon's Cycle of the Moon
Solar Question for the Day: "What
pattern is emerging from your spiritual
path to date?"
Lunar Meditation: The scent of flowers.
"All serious daring starts from within."
-- Joan Baez
July 6th, 2007



"Through the flowers,
through the blossoms,
they come, they come,
they come to my song.

Through the bright dew,
through the blossoms,
they come, they come,
they come to my song.

Through the pollen,
through the flowers,
they come, they come,
the deer come to my song."
-- Navaho hunting song

How east it is to forget that we are fed, every moment of every hour of every day, by the planet that is our home. The rivers that wash our continents quench our thirst; the plants and animals satisfy our hunger; our lungs fill themselves, thousands of times each hour, with the sweet air of Gaia. Our primal hungers are today easily satisfied and so we concentrate on other hungers; we want more prestige, or more power, or more possessions.
Our forebears spent much of their time satisfying their physical hunger and thirst. As children of affluence, we must learn to distinguish the soul's true hungers from the anxiety provoked by a too-easy life. A true hunger drives you toward satisfaction; a false hunger can never be satisfied, for each new possession, new toy, new enthusiasm leaves us feeling greedier than before. It takes wisdom to live with so much. Pray for that wisdom.
[Source: "The Goddess Companion" by Patricia Monaghan]


The Familiar Road

"Mony an ane speers the road he hens well. [Many a one inquires
about the road he knows well.] " -- Scots proverb

Our anxiety to know that we are on the right road and performing life's actions in the correct manner often leaves us a long way from our destination. This syndrome is found in perpetual students, who are always taking courses, and in those who take every known therapeutic aid even though their health is good. It can be caused by an excessive perfectionism, by a longing for approval, or by a sheer blind doggedness. A lack of confidence or validation often prevents us from realizing the obvious: if we perpetually seek some outer approval for our actions, we will never consciously walk our own road.
A Welsh proverb that complements this Scots one tells that 'he travels fastest who takes the road that knows'; in other words, the path of least resistance yields speedier results. Swimming against the tide is hard work, requiring more energy than we may have to give out, exhausting us before we arrive. If we can recognize the tides of our own life, we will begin to move with their flow with grace and ease.
Of course, it is not always of benefit to only and always take the road that we know best. Choosing the predictable path, never exploring the byways or parallel tracks that could enrich our journey, may lead to complacency and a dull demeanor. But it is good on that predictable path, to get in touch with our own power and purpose, to not always be seeking the approval of someone else.

"What destination have you already reached (and yet are still struggling
to attain)? Where are you swimming upstream in your life?"
[Source: "The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year" by Caitlin Matthews]

22nd Day of the Seventh Lunar Cycle

"I'm one with the Goddess
and open to Her Wisdom."


22nd Day of the Seventh Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Hestia
Lunar Tree Cycle ~ Duir/Oak
Moon Phase: Disseminating
Moon rises: 12:00AM EDT
Moon sets: 11:17AM EDT
Moon in the Mutable Water Sign
of Pisces
Rhiannon's Cycle of the Moon
Solar Question for the Day: "Where
are your energies overextended?"
Lunar Meditation: The role of
ecstasy in your life.
"Language exerts hidden power, like
the moon on the tides."
-- Rita Mae Brown
July 5th, 2007



"Come from Lebanon, my sister, my bride,
come from Lebanon, come!
You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride,
you have ravished my heart.

Open up your petals, like roses planted near
running waters; send up a sweet scent like Lebanon.
Break forth in blossoms, like the lily, yield fragrance,
bring forth leaves in grace, and praise with canticles."
-- Canticles and Ecclesiastes

The Hebrew texts called the Song of Songs are addressed to an unknown woman sometimes called the Shulamire, a woman who is 'dark and comely' and who embodies feminine power and beauty. The songs addressed to her are filled with images of fruit and flowers and vegetation - symbols often associated with the goddess as our earth mother.
Summer is a time when the power of the ripening earth readily draws our awareness to the goddess. Yet the inner truth of goddess religion is that of the planet's cycles. What is now growing will someday die, what is now warm will someday be cold; what is now light will someday be dark. Loving the world, our Mother Earth, means embracing all of these apparent opposites. Winter is
far away from us today, but the glorious summer moves inexorably toward it - and its briefness is part of its beauty.
[Source: "The Goddess Companion" by Patricia Monaghan]


Goddess of the Door

"Dark is the night, far is the dawning.
Sing for the shining of light on the way!
Harken, be ready attend to my calling,
Sing all your guardians who wait at the door."
-- Caitlin Matthews, "Midsummer Song"

One of the ancient names for the island of Britain is the Island of the Strong Door, a title that is associated with Merlin's magical defense of the land. Another guardian, the Goddess of the Door, is discernible within the story of Merlin as a distinct archetype who works in association with her prophet. When he is still a little boy, he prophesies the history of Britain, ending with the appearance of the goddess who comes to close the door of the aeon. At the end of his life, Merlin's sister, Ganeida, takes over his prophetic role, She builds an observatory with seventy doors and windows into which he retires.
The ancient Goddess of the Door turns the key of prophetic inspiration in those whom she appoints to the spiritual guardianship of her land. The task of prophet of the land passes from man to woman to man to woman down the ages, every time the Goddess of the Door turns her key. These prophets successively enter her service as guardians of the door, becoming the timeless singers at the threshold between the worlds.
The Goddess of the Door stands at this nexus point between the worlds for all people, regulating
the flow of sequential time in our world and rejoicing in the timeless knowledge in the otherworld, She gives us each prophetic insight that enables us to guard our own boundaries and thresholds.

"Visualize and visit the places between the worlds where understanding
and insight come to you. Greet the guardians there, and find one who
will instruct you to guard your thresholds."
[Source: "The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year" by Caitlin Matthews]

21st Day of the Seventh Lunar Cycle

"I'm one with the Goddess
and open to Her Wisdom."


21st Day of the Seventh Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Hestia
Lunar Tree Cycle ~ Duir/Oak
Moon Phase: Disseminating - 1:23AM EDT
Moon sets: 10:05AM EDT
Moon rises: 41PM EDT
Moon in the Aquarius v/c 5:44AM EDT
Moon entered the Mutable Water Sign
of Pisces at 6:51AM EDT
Rhiannon's Cycle of the Moon
Solar Question for the Day: "Which of
your dreams do you most want to
come true?"
Lunar Meditation: The shores of home.
"Deepest communion with Goddess is beyond words,
on the other side of silence." -- Ursula LeGuin
July 4th, 2007



"The heart's depth cannot be measured.
It is a fathomless ocean. On its floor
lie gems of wisdom, precious beyond belief.
You must dive and dive to find them.
More than once. More than twice.
Do not believe the ocean's bed is empty
if you fail at first. No, take a deep breath
and dive again. Dive, and make your way to Kali.

Speak Kali's name and dive. Dive deep.
Avoid the alligators who swim there -
anger, greed, and all life's other distractions -
or swim smeared with that turmeric, discrimination,
whose smell drives them all away.

Innumerable gems and shining pearls:
these lie on the ocean's bed. Plunge in,
the poet says, and gather your own treasure."
-- Indian poet Ramprasad

What would be true independence? Today we celebrate a festival of birth, of a people's freeing themselves from tyranny. But each of us remains, in our hearts, subject to secret tyrannies. Perhaps it is a familiar pain we cling to, or a habit we know we have outgrown. Perhaps it is a groove worn in our thoughts by endless repetition, a way of thinking that deadens us to the spiritual dimensions of our life. These are the tyrants, these are the gatekeepers of our inner prisons.
Hindu wisdom urges us to focus on the great goddess Kali, to offer her prayers that we be freed from such tyrannies. She is a fierce goddess, bearing swords and wearing a necklace of human skulls. Her tongue juts out at us, and her eyes bulge. Intimidating as her image is, Kali is a loving mother, for she urges us to cut our ties to the habits binding us in negativity. Mediate upon her, and you will find real freedom.
[Source: "The Goddess Companion" by Patricia Monaghan]


Inalienable Rights

"Three indispensables of a nobleman are: his harp, his blanket, and
his cauldron." -- triad from "Laws of Hywel Dda"

Under most modern laws of distraint - whereby goods are removed from a household in compensation for debts unpaid - there are certain articles that cannot be removed. These usually include the items by which the householder earns her living, the tools of a worker's trade, the bed and the means to make food. in the triad above, from the Welsh legal code formulated by King Hwyel Dda (HOO'wel THA) in the ninth century, we discover that three indispensable objects of the nobleman are the harp by which his bard entertained him, the blanket that kept his body warm in bed, and the cauldron that heated his food. Today these items would probably be equivalent to the television, the bed, and the stove: means of entertainment, sleep and food.
We have become used to the possession of certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, among others, in our modern world. These are rights that we take for granted, that are enshrined in constitutions and maintained by the law of the land; and yet, even within civilized societies there are many who do not enjoy these rights. The poor, the disadvantaged, and others who live on the margins of society need the actions and voices of those who honor the commitment to the inalienable rights that we should all enjoy.

"If you could take only three things from your house right now, which
would they be? Of all your basic, inalienable rights, which do you most
cherish?"
[Source: "The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year" by Caitlin Matthews]