Somethin' About Yeshua, Pt. 2

In a continuation of last week's post, I have further the pondered the significance of Yeshua ben Joseph and his impact on the world just by showing up on this planet and being who he was.

No less than several significant thoughts have floated around in my mind about this whole thing...I will share with you the two most prominent ones.

1) What's the deal with the belief of Yeshua supposedly "dying for our sins"? 

Last I checked, Yeshua only died because the Sanhedrin got jealous of Yeshua's popularity with the people to the point of being really pissed off. The idea of him dying to "save us from our sins" didn't come along till the philosophical doctrine of "original sin" entered the world playing field. Now, you talk about us humans getting creative with our power dramas...you'd think we'd be smart enough at the first to see through the papal bullshit. But no. A good many of the Christian followers were illiterate, and the Church counted on this illiteracy to stay in power.

So because of this illiteracy, the idea kept getting perpetuated that we're no good unless we acknowledge Yeshua as some sort of almighty savior who's going to rescue us just by allowing himself to get whipped severely, nails put into his hands and feet and being left for dead until some devout followers (and still-observant Jews) come and have him cut down before sundown on the Sabbath.

Sounds like another "ghost story to scare the kiddies into behaving" type of thing. And then there's the whole "worthy is the lamb who was slain" thing. Yeah, Yeshua was a pretty upstanding dude...I mean, the most passionate of hippies--including my Druidic self--could get behind this fella. Not only did he have long hair and sandals, but he said some pretty deep, yet simple stuff like "Love thy neighbor," "Turn the other cheek," and "Take the plank out of your own eye before you remove the splinter in someone else's." But apart from some feelings of awe from his followers at his trippy tidings of joy (and believe me, I've felt that same awe at Jon Anderson's gorgeous, inspiring lyrics), I wanna know what qualifies Yeshua to be "worthy" of "being slain," which goes right into that whole "Lamb of God" thing.

The only remotely logical reason someone would create an ephithet like that is that waaay back when, animal sacrifices were made to God (or whatever deity the tribes decided was high enough--and therefore perhaps vindictive enough--to need regular appeasement) in order to be granted boons, favors or other special requests. The base of such requests was fear that the deity or deities in question would be angry at us humans for making some silly mistakes. Another fear-belief was that the deities supposedly had specific rituals that we were supposed to follow just for the sake of following the rituals, and if we did not do so on a regular basis, we'd be punished somehow.

Can you see how the concept of "if you are bad, God will punish you and send you to hell" might have gotten started? And of course, this extended into the whole "Santa Claus will give you coal if you are naughty" spiel parents often have given their children. Oh, the ideas we dream up to keep people under our petty tyrannies of fear and mind control.

As for Idea #2?

The part of me that continues to believe in Love, Peace and all that good stuff keeps telling me that what will 'save us' from our 'sins' is not the whole crucifixion thing Yeshua went through. That was a very violent result of what he came here to do, but that's not really what we should be focusing on...neither that or the supposed 'resurrection' thing. Yes, the 'resurrection' might have happened literally, but I think it was more shamanic than anything.

No, I think the key to Yeshua's purpose on earth was to be yet another embodiment of the kind of heavenly love that might make you regret the things you've done, but you'll still feel accepted by the Divine Presence despite all that...because heaven is Home. What is true Home but being accepted and loved despite your missteps and failings? THAT is what will help humanity get it together again...that is what will stop us going wrong.

Love...

So perhaps I can once again feel comfortable with the word "savior" being applied to Yeshua. It's a bit of a messianic, apocalyptic hyperbole of a word, IMO, but if we apply what Yeshua set out to teach us, along with what Buddha has given us as well, then we'll perhaps have helped fulfill whatever mission it was that Yeshua set out to accomplish. Maybe he wasn't meant to "save us" outright...but that he was to kickstart us on a different way of being.

I have yet to puzzle it all out...all I know is:

1) I still enjoy the Nativity story because it signals a new beginning for humanity (and considering this guy was born, like the rest of us, of a female, I relish the notion that the Divine Feminine part of the Force was behind Yeshua's arrival all along!)

2) Christmas is definitely more than just Rudolph and Frosty, and paired with the Winter Solstice (known as 'Alban Arthuan' in the Druidic parlance) that we Pagans celebrate, the holidays are that much more magickal when all blended together. (Remember, I have that 'Happy-Everything' Sagittarius ascendant kind of running the show in my chart)

3) As always, no matter what you believe, the Time is Now...the Word is Love...

Blessed Be,
Rev. Kat ^.^

Somethin' About Yeshua...

Christmas fast approaches. And even though I consider myself a Druidic sort, the scholarly "Happy-Everything" Sagittarian in me can never quite resist going back and revisiting the topic of Yeshua, aka "Jesus." After all, his birth has been celebrated on December 25th for centuries now, starting around 354 CE, within the Roman Empire.

This date is approximate, given one particular fact: The Jewish calendar is lunar and so the attempt to calculate the day based on solar measurement places the date of Yeshua's birth around December 25th...or April 6th, depending on the source of info. In fact, there has not yet been a month in which scholars have NOT tried to place Yeshua's arrival, simply because he was truly born so long ago, we don't know precisely when his birth actually took place. For all we know, it could have been December 25th and no one would truly be the wiser.

Oh, sure, my fellow Pagans are keen to argue that the December 25th date is also the Roman festival of Saturnalia, which also falls on the week of the Winter Solstice, a scientifically provable solar event, whether or not you are a Pagan or any other spiritual path. :-P My fellow Pagans--particularly the more vociferous ones--also opine that the date of December 25th was chosen solely for the purpose of converting the pagans of the time to Christianity.

Upon researching further, I discovered a few interesting tidbits.

In the year 354, (the earliest time recorded for celebrating Yeshua's birthday on the 25th of December), Constantius II, one of the sons of Emperor Constantine I, was Rome's head cheese, the direct predecessor to Julian, another of Constantine's sons. Julian himself went back to being a Roman Pagan, and thus earned the title "Apostate." But that's a topic for another time.

Constantius II partly subscribed to the philosophy of Arianism, NOT to be confused with "Aryanism." A church priest named Arius posed the question "Is Jesus unbegotten?" The upshot of this challenge to the more popular trinitarian view of Yeshua (The whole Father-Son-Holy-Ghost schmere) was that Yeshua was created like any other human soul, and Arius backed up his hypothesis by referencing John 14:28, in which Yeshua says that the father "is greater than I", and John 17:20-26, where Yeshua requests of his disciples to "become one as we are one." Both scriptures indicated, at least as far as Arius was concerned, more of a oneness of will and thought, rather than ultimate unity within a Trinity.

End result? Arius was branded a heretic, but his ideas ended up becoming the longest-running controversy within the Church. (This tells me he was likely onto something, at least philosophically speaking, because if something challenges the political powers-that-be, that means their ideas are not very solid and they darn well know it.)

So, what about Yeshua, anyway? Begotten or not? After all, the word "begotten," in this sense meant that the Divine Essence had always existed, and theforefore Yeshua did, too...that is, if one believed that Yeshua was the "only begotten Son of God."

Whether or not Yeshua was "begotten" or "unbegotten" does not necessarily matter to me, personally. His intent was Love, and that is that, to my mind. Same thing with the whole "Messiah" deal. The concept of his being "begotten" and the idea that he was THE Messiah are long-intertwined, but as far as I am concerned, Yeshua was simply a good, loving man with some pretty extraordinary gifts for healing, if the Synoptic Gospels have any ring of historical truth to them, regardless of what time they were written.

That being said...

Such an apocalyptic view of someone--ANYone--anticipated to be a Messianic figure in the time of John (Yohannan) the Baptist and Jesus (Yeshua) was a popular one, given that the Israelites were under the harsh thumb of Rome at the time. I mean, if I were in that time cycle, in that tribe of people, having to deal with the way Roman emperors made such dictatorial--and often cruel--decisions about the populace, I'd kinda be a bit anxious for some relief, political or religious, or a bit of both.

And when you put that anxiety together with some pretty convincing prophecies by Micah, Nahum, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and a bunch of others, you have a recipe for the multitudinous cries of "Save us!"

Add a pinch of "original sin" doctrine of one type or another, and you have a religious mixture that lends very well to the well-entrenched belief and action of "taking Jesus as one's personal savior," and "Jesus is the reason for the season" holiday cards and lighted yard signs at this rather magical time of year.

Do I believe in original sin, as put forth by many religious scholars and priests? No. I do not. "Adam and Eve" to me are simply symbological names given to the evolutionary jump from Homo Erectus to Homo Sapiens. In evolutionary theory, there existed no such being as "the Devil," no matter what form such a being might take. "Sapiens" is loosely translated, according to my inferences of the phrase "sapiential eschatology," as 'human being with the ability to think or reason.' "Sapiential eschatology" in this sense, is the concept of using reason to act in a 'Godly' manner, thereby not requiring God to intervene as far as the concept of the "end of the world" is concerned. Perhaps it is a philosophical stretch between one 'tribe' and another, but I think the Hopis said it best: "We are the ones we have been waiting for."

Besides, I have personally come to the conclusion that we never really were "separated" from the Divine in the first place. Okay, so we lower our vibrations in order to manifest in, and "operate" a physical body...but does this mean we are somehow "faulted" or "weak" because we are embodied spirits and have been this way since humans first existed as a result of some sort of "temptation"? Not by my reckoning. The only "hell" that exists is within our minds and hearts, in our false assumptions about ourselves and others, in our illusions about human nature ("we behave badly therefore we are inherently bad").

My point, and I do have one, in all this meandering around from subtopic to subtopic is this...

In my readings about Yeshua and other topics (inside and outside of my college religion classes), I have come to understand three salient ideas:

1) Yeshua very likely existed; he was raised in the extant faith of the time, but seemed to develop some very controversial ideas that, in the minds of the Sanhedrin, posed a religious threat to their power as well as a threat to Rome, who might punish the Israelites for "aiding and abetting" someone who might advocate the beginnings of a revolt against the Empire.

2) Yeshua did not come here to purposefully BE a revolutionary, though his ideas of "love your enemy" and to be self-sacrificing on behalf of someone else who is in trouble were certainly eyebrow-raisers. This dude was more like Gandhi or Buddha and less like the "uber-warrior" that the politicos of the time thought he might be.

3) Ultimately, he came here and showed us a very beautiful way to live in the Divine Light of Love.

Is the fact that his approximate birth date, (at least according to the Jewish calendar day, which has been roughly translated into the solar day of December 25th), happens to fall during the week of both Winter Solstice (a scientifically observable occurrence) and the old Roman holiday of Saturnalia a coincidence? We have no real way of discerning the factual truth of it, considering Yeshua was alive and kicking a good 2.5 millenia ago.

So perhaps we may be allowed to put aside our scientific hats for a time, and put on a more meditative mystic's robe, and ponder a while the mystery of the healer and teacher so many have come to revere. Whether or not he is some sort of "savior," is doubtful to my reasoning mind (what a burden that ephithet must be!), but what I am never doubtful of is what he taught, and what he taught can be used by the rest of us reasoning members of Homo Sapiens to better ourselves in the hopes that swords CAN be made into plowshares, that we will one day taste the sweet juice of peace and never again the bitter flavor of war.


In the words of my Yes-brothers: "The Time is Now, the Word is Love."

Always Love...


Brightest Holiday Blessings,
Rev. Kat ^.^

Divine Fabulousness

I find it highly improbable that I would be referencing a book by a fashion maven in a blog that is supposedly devoted to "spiritual" things.

But I feel compelled to write anyway...

As I posted in my Foolbard blog, I just finished reading a book by gay fashion maven Simon Doonan. It's called "Eccentric Glamour: Creating an Insanely More Fabulous You."

And as I finished the last few delectably witty pages, chuckling till the end, I realized that in many ways, I could suggest this book be reviewed in "SageWoman." Okay, so SageWoman is not a fashion mag, but for me, the book he wrote was a nod from the Goddess Herself to be my own woman and not try to look like anyone else as far as how I use clothing and makeup to show my individuality. I am having difficulty finding the exact words to describe how I feel after getting this huge nudge from the Goddess-Force...

And how I would connect it to being more of what it might feel like to embody the myriad facets of the Goddess...Her Divine Fabulousness...that too is challenging my skills, and I think I'm a pretty decent writer.

Heh...unbidden, yet welcome, comes a line from a Jon-n-Vangelis song, into my head: "Be the Light you are." I think my Spirit Guide or Guides like to use the lines I like to bite me in the butt or hit me over the head if I'm talking or acting in a rather dense way. I, like other humans, can be a bit thick.

Anyhow, back to the book. Doonan writes that the allure inherent in being eccentrically glamourous is largely a state of mind. As a Witchy Woman, I can't argue with this. If we think we are not glamourous, we're not going to be...we're going to sit round the house all depressed and negative about ourselves. We especially do this if we're brought up to believe that glamour belongs to the wealthy and being wealthy is somehow bad...that old chestnut.

Yet, in magickal work, a 'glamoury' is nothing more than a mental charm, a spell cast to enhance what is already there, or even disguise a feature.

And what is the artful application of makeup, perfume and spiffy clothing that suits the wearer but a gigantic glamoury on not just others (think of a woman seeking out a date) but herself?

Scent alone has the unbelievable glamoury of either setting one's chakras spinning in sexual and even emotional arousal, or turning someone off completely because someone *else* wore that perfume or aftershave and that someone else broke hearts--perhaps including yours--like a squirrel breaks walnuts.

Okay, so I'm writing this to women, as a woman.

What about men who are eccentrically glamourous?

I can name a few...and it doesn't have anything to do with the clothing they wear or their orientation. Again, it's all about the allure...the mindset that they have about themselves that draws women--and even other men (gay or straight)--like bees to nectar.

Most people would call it charisma. But what is charisma but an enhanced glamoury--apart from being physically attractive?

It's sort of like 'Austin Powers' (Mike Myers) in the scene with the fembots in the first movie. They're all like, "You can't resist us, Mr. Powers." And Powers says, "Au contraire, baby! I think *you* can't resist *me*!" 'Austin' knows he's attractive, he knows he's got the mojo to get the ladies going in AND out of bed, so he figures he might as well live life to the fullest and enjoy the effect he has on women. Yet what really gives 'Austin' his allure is his UN-James-Bond-like sweetness and shyness...for instance, in the beginning credits for the first movie, one scene shows him hiding in a phone booth with a disguise on, hoping to outfox the ladies chasing after him...which is probably why they *are* chasing him to begin with...we ladies love a guy full of contradictions.
 
For us, that's what creates the allure a lot of the time.

Talk about your je-ne-sais-quoi and Divine Fabulousness! ;-)

Speaking of Divine Fabulousness, I seek to create some of that in my room later on, but I seriously need some of that fabulousness called 'shuteye.'

Blessed Be,
Rev. Kat ^.^

Learning Stuff...

I recently finished Joe Vitale's "Hypnotic Writing" book. I had been reading it at work, and whilst I was in the tail end of the book, one of my Native American co-workers, Melissa, saw what I was reading and seemed curious about it.

So I told her, thinking "Okay, here is another potential writer friend." I don't know if she truly wants to be a writer, or she is simply seeking knowledge for its own sake (which isn't all bad). But yesterday, she asked me if I'd finished reading the book and when I said yes, she asked if I'd learned anything.

On the surface, it seemed like a silly question. If I didn't want to learn from that book, I wouldn't have read it. However...I've been turning that question over and over in my head, in my usual Virgo-midheaven tactic of overanalyzing stuff (or at least the potential thereof), and wondering if I didn't go through the book too quickly.

See, I get this feeling that the two Natives who have been the most friendly to me so far in the manner of wanting to get to know me (without being like Miss Queen Bee) don't take knowledge and learning lightly...and I would love to spend more time with them, in order to confirm those hunches. And I would dearly love to know more about their particular traditions. Not so I can steal them. Not only would it be silly of me to try, as I don't look a thing like a Native American (for starters) but it would be very disrespectful of me.

It is an interesting experience being around the Meskwaki people just by working at the casino. And that's understating things. Perhaps I am romanticizing things a bit, but from day one of getting my first approval letter from the Sac & Fox Gaming Commission, I have not once taken this whole opportunity lightly.

My co-workers may view the casino as just a place to earn money, but for me this experience represents an extraordinary range of thoughts, feelings and chances to start fresh with my life.

And it's an opportunity to experience being around those whose ancestors were here before mine ever were. And the more I am around them, the more I feel so, so torn, and so elated at the same time.

I've felt that way just being around Quentin, even though he does not choose to practice the traditions of his own people.

And I think, what is it that the Native Americans have or know that my own race does not? Am I or other modern members of my race even allowed to have such knowledge? Should we be allowed to have it, since we have deprived many First Nations members of their rights as human beings? To give you a better idea of how torn I feel, here is an example:

My heart couldn't even get into the usual 4th of July celebrations because my mind was on my new friends' tradition of Proclamation Day, something that is specific to the Meskwaki--it is their own way of claiming their 'State of Independence,' because they got smart and bought their own big piece of land from the US government and instead of it being a "reservation," it is considered a 'Settlement.' They took control of their own tribal destiny and owned it fair and square...not unlike the American colonists who took their destiny into their own hands, and created a new nation for themselves just because George III of England was basically being a controlling jackass.

...yet...years later, the Native Americans were viewed as lower than the black slaves...and then not much later many tribes were made to live on government-sanctioned reservations (with the obvious exception of the Iowa branch of the Meskwaki)...we Caucasians repeated similar, controlling mistakes our English ancestors made, only towards another race--a race that wasn't even "imported" from another country, but had been there many hundreds of years before the Puritans--or the Spanish conquistadors, if you're attuned to the Mesoamerican 'vibe.'

We took their lands, their sources of food. And now it seems many modern spiritual seekers are drawn to Native culture too (I am not exempt from feeling drawn, either), and are all too willing to incorporate it into their own practice without considering the feelings of those from whom they are taking such beautiful traditions and watering them down to suit European sensibilities. Is it any wonder that many tribal elders are fearful, angry and feeling rightfully disrespected?

Yet not all seekers are like that...some are indeed very respectful, and would honor the Native ways deeply and mindfully, in an effort to heal many centuries of cultural conflict, to build bridges of friendship based on mutual honesty and trust--albeit hard-earned trust. Still, there is the matter of ancestry --and all that karmic buildup that resulted--to be resolved. Because of this matter, how far deep should we Caucasians go into learning Native ways without disrespecting the paths of the Elders?

I think the most fair and balanced answer to this dilemma is from this one Native elder who told Druid priest Philip Carr-Gomm and his wife Stephanie that the white folks "need to make peace with their own ancestors." Once they do, "then they can come to us." I honestly can't argue with that.

It is knowing and feeling the power of that statement churning in my soul that brings me back to Melissa's question of whether or not I learned anything from "Hypnotic Writing."

It does not have so much to do with the actual topic of that book. But rather that the Native American and the Caucasian worlds are far enough apart in geographical and traditional ancestry, let alone philosophy of thought, as well as feeling and sensibility, that the way the First Nation peoples--at least those who still get to practice their ways--might view learning and knowledge is vastly different from the way Caucasians see it: cautious, humble and soulful in stark contrast to our tendencies to get high-n-mighty and more than a good deal self-important as we glibly cogitate, regurgitate then graduate.

And yet, the two Meskwaki people who have truly gotten curious enough about me--in a genuine way--are open to learning more about the Caucasian members of the human family, instead of being like Miss Queen Bee and making fun.

One of them, named Edwin, used the jazz music of a car commercial on tv to break the ice further with me, and asked me what music I liked. I told him about Jon Anderson and Vangelis' influence on me, and told him about two of my favorite of Jon's songs: "Change We Must," and "Hurry Home." He even took out a notebook and wrote down the titles of the songs to look up on YouTube.

I think if there is any Meskwaki person I'd want to get to know better, it's Edwin. His energy is quiet and soulful. He does not take himself too seriously, I don't think, but he seems willing to deeply consider any new, incoming information that he thinks he might learn from. I did notice that he seems to be a deeply spiritual man...he was reading a book called "Welcome, Holy Spirit."Based on this one observation, I can probably assume that he is most likely a Christian, but given most well-known Native perceptions of what the Holy Spirit is like, I would be deeply interested to know and understand his take on the book he was reading.

He asked me what book I was reading, and I showed him my copy of "Way of the Peaceful Warrior," by Dan Millman. I told him that a movie had been made of the book and asked if he'd heard of it before. He said he hadn't. I wonder if he will ask me about it later or simply Google it.

And underneath all this mental chatter about my new friends, I am wondering if all my own searching within as a result of beginning work at the casino has attracted certain people within the tribe to begin to speak with me and be friends. I mean, I didn't necessarily ask the Universe specifically about becoming friends with at least some of the Meskwaki. But if we're talking specifics...why Melissa and Edwin and not others of the tribe? "Vibe" match, I suppose. :-P

I know...I am probably analyzing this experience into the ground, but still, wrapping my head and my heart around this whole thing has been one heck of a ride.

I have spent much time on this and not enough time in my Dreamwalking. I better go grab at least *some* semblance of shuteye. Perhaps Brother Lizard will guide me to deeper understanding through my dreams as to any underlying reasons or purposes why the Universe led me so quickly to a job at the casino.

Blessed Be,
Rev. Kat ^.^

State of Independence for Jon and the Issue of Owning One's Power

Twice in a row.

Twice. That is how many times the rest of the Yes-boys have decided not to tour with Jon as their captain, leader and front man.

I found this out from Jon himself on his Facebook wall. I could tell he was disappointed by this, yet still hopeful for next year.

While this allows Jon a bit of extra recoup time to regain the strength to withstand the emotional and physical rigors of touring, they did not call up Jon to ask him whether or not he was up to touring with them. They decided on their own.

Or did Chris Squire pull another fast one and Steve and Alan, et. al just went along for the ride, taking that cheeky tribute-band upstart Benoit David along with them? I don't mind Oliver Wakeman being on keyboards, as he is Rick's son. That is not a big problem with me.

What I have a deep-down problem with, is behavior from Chris that has always seemed like near-mutiny ever since Jon got sick and Chris re-announced the tour after hiring Mssr. David. I am not the only one who feels this way. I have a friend over at MySpace who also does not get a very nice vibe from Chris. Our feelings were confirmed when one of us read how contentious Chris could be sometimes.

Well, he never did claim to be the truly spiritual sort.

It is, as many of us humans have discovered, far easier to get angry and stay that way, not forgiving easily. So for Jon to sit back, take it on the chin once more, yet forgive them all and still claim them as brothers and hope for a tour next year...that takes a seriously evolved soul, not to mention gobs of courage.

And you wonder why I admire him, beyond his sun-god voice and winning smile? ;-)

Yeah...his soul. He seems to have the strength to say, "Okay, I'm not touring with them. They want it like that for now. Maybe next year...so, in the meantime, perhaps I can do some touring and singing on my own."

It's not like he doesn't have a decent solo career anyway...still, I wonder how many times they will dis Jon and jeopardize the band's future before he sighs and says, "Enough is enough. I'm officially retiring from the band and doing my own thing...maybe get back with the School of Rock, or something."

If he does that, well, it will be a sad day for Yes fans who remember fondly the times they saw Jon with the others in concert umpteen years ago, because quite frankly, Jon IS the true heart and soul of Yes. And for that soul to permanently go away because Jon might finally get tired of the mutiny the other Yes-boys have committed would pretty much sound the final death knell for the group. Because as I've observed on MySpace and Facebook, there are not very many people who want to see the Yes-ship without Captain Jon Anderson at the helm.

But it might be a state of beautiful independence for this lovely man who has not once deserved the crap Chris has dealt him.

Sooo....Vangelis, Kitaro, Mike Oldfield, wherever you guys are, or whatever you're doing, if you have a mind to, you might want to give your old musical comrade Jon Anderson a call, and he'll set his Moorglade on a course your way...

And he'll just keep on pouring out the lovely vibrational beacon he's been sending out to people all these years, with or without the other Yes-dudes.

Because Jon is his own man...he plots his own course, Goddess bless him.

And therefore, whether or not he is with Yes, he is *my* captain as well, even though I'm not with the band.

Because he inspires me to own my own power, my own energy, and not let anyone else try to dictate my course of life. Of course, you might say, "Well, isn't allowing yourself to be inspired by others giving them your energy?"

Not necessarily, my friends. One can be inspired by someone one admires and still own one's own power. For instance, I never would have picked up the guitar again if I had allowed other people's ideas about my desire to purchase one of my own dictate whether or not I saved back the money for the instrument.

But I remembered how much I enjoyed learning the guitar back in college, despite the fact that the guitar I had was my dad's and it was too big for me. I was already feeling my oats about wanting to learn songwriting on the guitar just because it's far more portable than a baby grand piano.

On top of that, Jon's music just kept on feeding the fire inside my heart to get back to my own musical talents, and the more I heard his considerable skill on the guitar, I thought, "To heck with whatever anyone else says, even my own dad, because damn it, I can't not write music and sing."

Next thing I knew I was in a pawn shop, plucking the downtuned strings of a used Ibanez, and the sound-energy just snaked through me, causing me to vibrate and I said, "Guitar, you are SO mine!"

And now that lovely piece of carved, hollowed (hallowed?) wood is sitting in its beautiful burgundy-red-lined case (how appropriate a color for plumbing the cthonic depths of the soul!) against my east-facing wall.

"...my sun shall rise in the east...so shall my heart be at peace..."

With Jon as my Muse, keeping that peace in my heart is not very difficult...;-)

Here's to discovering your own source of inspiration, your own Muse, whoever that may be and may you drink long and heartily from it all the rest of your days.

BB and Namaste,
Rev. Kat ^.^

Fear...

Okay, so I didn't wait THAT long to post about fear.

And it's a loaded topic, with so many twists and turns that it would take weeks and weeks of blogging to unravel it.

Science has its explanations of the physical changes that accompany the emotion of fear. But do the chemicals make the fear? Or does the emotion of fear spark the chemical response?

Fear, as it is understood in both psychology and anthropology, is survival-based. It has its roots in our hunter-gatherer origins. I know this statement is oversimplified, but I'm blogging before work and I need to make this brief.

Natural fear reactions, just as they are, are natural. We are here on this planet. We live, we breathe, we grow. We're animals, and we want to stay alive, perhaps for no other purpose than to experience being human and to pass on our human genetic code to future generations.

But if there is one thing I have noticed about humanity, is that along with our larger skulls, larger brains (and in the view of natural selection, the idea that larger genitalia make for better survival of the species), we seem to have also developed notions of:

Rank or class
Superiority/Privileges (or lack thereof) based on rank or class
Inferiority/Privilges (or lack thereof) based on rank or class

Granted, other species also have something of a hierarchy, but their associations seem to be based more on physical size rather than finances or expertise in one field or another.

We humans, however, seem to attach much emotion and meaning to the above notions of rank, class, privilege, inferiority/superiority. We manipulate and shove people around emotionally and mentally because of these attachments, creating fear in people where there was none, originally.

Why? What's the purpose? Is it ancient, primal survival tactics that are merely blended in with modern times and the development of currency?

If that's all it is, the notions of financial and educational equality have been achieved to great success in many parts of the world.

But what of religious fear and the use of power and cruel manipulation to make the "common people" do what the people in power want done, supposedly in the Divine Name?

That, my friends, I have never understood, and I am still trying to wrap my head round it.

I am on a high right now, listening to Jon Anderson's "Toltec" album, so I am not necessarily in a very "academic" mood. ;-)

BB and Namaste,
Rev. Kat ^.^

The Mystical and Concrete

I've come to a rather disturbing understanding of an aspect of myself.

For all my mysticism, I can be very concrete in my thinking at times.

And I wonder why. Where do I get these hardcore ideas and why do I attach so much meaning to them?

And do these ideas become hardcore BECAUSE I'm so attached to them?

Is it that part of me that is so zealot-like? I know I can be that way...having very limited ideas about the world, even if they are high-flight mystical notions that I tend to treasure like Gollum treasures the One Ring.

And then I turn around and gripe about the zealots whose ideas are opposite my own, that I feel are harmful to human freedom and free will on many levels.

To which do I object more: their harmful ideas, or their stubborn, childish hardheadedness that makes it impossible for other ideas to come into their minds and soften their position and thoughts?

I've a gut feeling that it's the stubbornness, the hardheaded attitude that causes the problems. Fear, I am sure, is the root. But there's part of me that says "Surely it is not as simple as that."

But what if it IS as simple as that? And why DO we fear in the first place?

That's another ponderance for another time.

Dreams and Visions, Brought To You By the Geico Gecko...(j/k!)

Another very strange, very powerful dream occurred. Last one was about ETs and leadership, the deeper meaning of which still rather has me befuddled. I may do some Tarot work to clear that up.

This newest one was about vocation, career, life path. Not surprising since this is what I've been focusing on lately.

What DID surprise me consisted of the following elements:

1) My boyfriend and I are in the house (very well-appointed, I might add) of a leader of this odd spiritual sect that has recently garnered much favor in people's eyes. He also has a wife and children. One of them, the nine-year-old, is sort of skinny, frail and a bit like Charlie Brown in that he does not, by nature, have much hair, or that it is so light and fuzzy that it makes the child appear slightly bald. His brother is also skinny, but much older at seventeen, with a mop of fine, dark hair hanging past his collar. They do not play too much of a role in my dream, except as a natural part of the background, and that they are like their father: ancient and wise beyond their years.

2) He invites us both to stay overnight, as it is late and the service/workshop of his we recently attended has just ended. Plus, I am also there to answer his advertisement for a manager's position in a New Age shop he owns. He would be the boss, fronting the money for product purchases and whatnot, but allowing the manager to run the shop as he/she saw fit, trusting that he/she would use their intuition to know what the business needed to thrive.

3) We go ahead and stay over, sleeping in a bed that is situated in the man's very large personal study, as it's the only guest bed in the house, despite the large amount of square-footage of the home. When we awaken, the man is sitting across from us in his chair. I can now see his face and it is quite craggy, as if his face were carved rock. He also feels quite old...MUCH much older than he looks.

4) It is now that I begin to perceive that he is not as he seems. Not that he is "bad" or "evil," but simply hiding something about his true nature from me. The scene switches and we are all in the kitchen, sitting at his dining table. His first words to me, as he looks me squarely in the eye, are: "You don't really want that manager's position, do you? I know you. As soon as you become ensconced in that job, you'll be wishing you could work on your writing and music. Please be honest with yourself."

5) His wife, who wears Coke-bottle glasses and long ash-blonde hair says, "Yes. I was the same way...going from job to job, wishing I was doing what burned in my heart. Now I have created my dream job, my life's work, and I couldn't be happier."

6) The man and his wife ask Q and me to stay for dinner. Q wants to get going and leave, but I ask him if we could stay, as I felt it would be rude to refuse a meal when they were being so hospitable. Plus I want to speak more with them both. Q agrees and we sit down to a meal of cheesy vegetables and a side of leaves, twigs and flowers with insects in them.

My thought upon awakening was "Who the heck was this guy?" and then it dawned on me that "Lizard," a power animal from Stephen Farmer's Power Animal Oracle Deck had been showing up in my readings of late, representing Dreams and Visions.

I HAD to look up the diet of a lizard, particularly that of the type of lizard featured on the card. Aye, sure enough...most lizards are insectivores, with some enjoying many varieties of fruit.

This suggested to me that perhaps the man was the Lizard totem in disguise, because why else would insects show up on the menu? And there WAS that odd feeling of something being hidden from me...not to mention the man's feeling of being ancient despite his relatively youthful appearance (he looked like he was in his 50s or 60s). Lizards also represent Primal, Ancient energy, which might explain that "ancient" feeling from the man.

Again, as I said, even his kids felt older and much wiser than their years--though one was playing video games and one was simply happy to run around the room with a balsa-wood model plane in his hands. I didn't see the eyes of the 17-yr-old, but the eyes of the 9-yr-old were deep hazel-blue, beautiful, thoughtful as well as playful, as if he were meant to take his father's spiritual reins later on in life--and was more than willing to do it because he knew what his father was doing was correct: healing and guiding folks to better-lived lives.

Anyhow, I really doubt this dream needs much more interpretation than what I gave it just because it was THAT vivid and powerful...

So far the themes have been:

Leadership/Answering a Call
Being Honest With Myself about My Vocation.

Yeah, pretty powerful stuff, I'd say.

BB, and Namaste,
Rev. Kat ^.^

So Long Ago, So Clear..

So long ago so clear...

...are the memories of when I first became aware of the way people treat each other sometimes...

So long ago so clear...

...are the memories of when I first heard the sunlike, sparkling voice of Jon Anderson when I was 8 years old...and I still cannot get enough of his voice, his lyrics, his songs...

So long ago so clear...

...are the memories of when I first went off to college at 18, so desperate to be on my own, yet not knowing the financial ramifications of doing so without a lot of my own money, not knowing what I really wanted, not knowing how burnt-out I'd be from the pressure to do everything and be everything to everyone...losing my True Self in the process...

So long ago so clear...

...are the memories of when I heard more of Jon's work with Vangelis, plus got fully introduced to his being front man for Yes (thanks to a long-ago acquaintance in a New Age chatroom)...and I began my journey Home to my Real Self...

I no longer felt, or feel, alone. I felt, and feel like there is a kindred, but older, spirit lighting my way...so that I can light the way for others...

Maybe that last phrase sounds a bit egotistical...but is it egotistical to want to pay forward all the Universal Love and Peace I feel within the music of my favorite musician and his co-collaborators, both of whom continually inspire me to continue on my personal Quest?

Is it egotistical to want to share how it feels to finally know what it is to divest oneself of all the pain, hurt and anger, simply by sitting and absorbing--not just listening to--beautiful words that can bring one back from the edge of one's personal hell, and close to--and even over--the edge of knowing one's True Self? 

I may never get to meet Jon in person, but in the Universal scheme of things, I feel I know him anyway...I feel I know his soul, at least through his music...but most importantly, I know what he means to a lot of other people, too. He's not just a front man for a prog-rock band, nor is he just an entertainer with a beautiful voice and instrumental talent from here to his old hometown and back again. 

He's someone who's come here from the stars to remind us all of the peace and beauty of Home. 

...So to think how far I've come, spiritually...oh, sure, I've put in my own efforts..but...how much extra effort would I have put in had I not known Jon's music?

'Tis something I think about...particularly on my birthday (or thereabouts).

Can't help it...it comes with the territory of realizing where I am in life and how much further I have to go...

...and how I've not completed my Earthly missions just yet.

Blessings and Namaste,

Rev. Kat ^.^

Thoughts Surrounding my Birthday

Tomorrow is my birthday. And tomorrow, according to Central Standard Time, is in 40 minutes. 

And I am staring right into the face of my own personal crunch time. 

I will be 31 years old. It has been seven years since I moved back in with my parents after trying to live on my own, and it has been almost six years since I met Quentin.

What I am facing is this: 

1) I am hypothyroid and overweight, with PCOS on top of everything, which is going to make it very difficult for me to get pregnant without the aid of the medical community. A woman's childbearing years are limited, and the older a woman gets, the higher the risk is for Down's syndrome. Not sure I want to face that risk.

2) Quentin and I don't have our own place yet, and he just got laid off. I've also been unemployed for a good year and a half. 

3) I want to get my own creative career going pronto, for my own emotional and financial peace of mind. I look at where Jon Anderson and Vangelis were, career-wise in relation to how old they were when they first collaborated (Jon was 31, not quite 32, and Vangelis would have been 32, not quite 33)...and by comparison, I feel so far behind...especially when I look at Jon's daughter Jade, who's already made something of a name for herself, and she is two years younger than I am. 

I think part of my problem is, I have so many ideas in my head, so many things I want to do in my life, and it feels so overwhelming that I have troubles just getting started as there are things I still don't know and sometimes the learning curve for certain things is so sharp that I spend more time learning than I spend time actually DOING the things that require all that study. 

Then just yesterday I read something in an article about Beyonce' Knowles. She said something to the effect that she picks and chooses which projects are going to enrich her and pay dividends emotionally and spiritually in the long term. The key words here are "enriching in the long term." 

And this young woman is not only beautiful with a beautiful voice, her work ethic is unbelievably strong. She'll push forward with one more run-through of a song when everyone else is pushing her to take five. I just hope she doesn't push herself so hard she lets herself get run down, physically. I know it takes a lot of work to execute your goals, but there's gotta be some balance, and I'd like to know how she works it all out. The Goddess-of-Mystery-Force is definitely with Beyonce'. ;-)

*My* problem right now is, I am a night owl, and in order to get things done, the necessary thing to do is wake up early. So how do I get myself to stop working even after my favorite TV programs are over ("Paranormal State" on Mondays at 9 and "Hell's Kitchen" on Thursdays at 8)? Because when those shows are over, I am compelled to come back upstairs and pound out just one more Hub at HubPages or read others' Hubs, or write on my stories. 

And I'd *really* also want to focus on my spiritual studies, and it's tough to do that when the siren call of typing on the computer (whether or not I'm working) gets very loud. So...what kind of solution can I come up with to get me to switch off the computer and devote some time to restoring my spirit and Self?

Something tells me an alarm clock of some sort might help me. Maybe I'll take a look at the Opera widgets before I go spending money.

Anywho, I'll close off for now, and report back later.

BB,

Rev. Kat ^.^

Springtime for Me and my Blog...

Since it is almost spring, I figured I'd change up the colors on my blog...I wanted a minty green background, but the turquoise-ish text that is in my post "Springing up Synchronicities" (March 2nd) for some reason can't be changed now, and therefore doesn't show up well against the pale green. Not sure why the text editor is not letting me change that turquoise color. And I am having that dream interpreted by someone over at personaltarot.net, so I don't want to completely change that post for the sake of readability till my email's been replied to. 

Anyhow, it is a beautiful, almost-spring day...and Ostara is almost here! Woohoo! Time to go write some Hubs I think...after I do some Tarot work, that is. ;-)

Blessings and Namaste,

Rev. Kat ^.^

Perfection and Adaptation...

Okay, I am laughing at myself right now because I had a blog post with quite the word count going, and I accidentally clicked a button on my browser that took me to a completely different page. I hit the 'back' button, thinking that the "draft autosave" would have kept my words in the cache. 

Yeah, right.

What met my eyes instead was a blank text editor with just the title of my post.

This Homer Simpson "D'OH!" moment was brought to you by this one lesson:

Don't expect perfect results from your efforts every time, especially on this planet, 'cause you ain't gonna get it.

If things don't turn out according to plan, who's keeping score, anyway? You? Your parents? Grandparents? Neighbors? Yeah, they're all just waiting for you to screw up, aren't they?

But what if they're not? What if it's all in your mind, this incessant drive to do things right all the time and never make mistakes, never mess up? That sort of thinking can lead you down the road to extinction...a supposed mistake in a piece of DNA code, for example, could be a blessing in disguise...an adaptation that helps your end of the gene pool learn to survive on this planet even better than before.

So even if our mistakes make us look funny, shouldn't we be the first ones to laugh at ourselves? Not so much to beat others to the punch, but to laugh at how idiotic we can be by thinking that mistake should never have been made.

Yeah, sure, we all want things to come out right, like our attempts at a difficult recipe. But what if we don't have the recommended ingredients, yet have substitutes that would work just as well?  Or if we think one ingredient is the same as another and we discover that we were wrong--yet it works in a fairly similar way, just not in the way that the recipe recommends?

I would think that sort of instance is a good way of learning to adapt and think on one's feet, instead of whining and crying about how our recipe doesn't look precisely the way it does in the cookbook or magazine. I think of it this way, when it comes to cooking...as long as it tastes good, as well as looks good, then why should it matter if the recipe's not followed to the letter? If the general intent is there, despite the substitutions, then people will most likely dig in and munch.

Meaning that, in other situations, if you did your best at something, most people will accept that it is your best, for the time being, and not have a major problem with your efforts. So it's not really worth spending the extra energy beating yourself up for things not going according to plan--especially if you know you did your best.

Yeah, I know. There *are* people that try to keep score, just because they're more interested in being right than being happy.

Which tells us that they got taught to feel insecure about their own doings. They, too, are caught in the web, the cycle of lies and deceit that comes with the mentality of extreme perfectionism.

But you know what? Once you realize you've been lied to that way, you can break that chain within yourself and say, "I do not have to be that way anymore. I do not have to compete with them for energy and attention."

How to break that chain, then?

Everyone's got their own methods, so I'm not going to say how you should do it. Besides, it's better if you come up with your own ways of breaking such cycles, because those ways would have *your* personal signature that you alone can resonate with. And even if you borrow ideas of coping and healing from other people, you still end up molding them to how *your* brain operates. But if you still think you have to follow those other people's ways to the letter, then you are completely missing the point. 

I oughta know. I've been retraining my own mind to get out of those idiotic agreements I made with myself about all of what I just wrote: the perfectionism, the do-it-right-the-first-time attitude, that sort of thing.

Like I said in a previous post...this is all one Big Dream...and we all share it. I would think it's time to wake the heck up!

Blessings and Namaste,
Rev. Kat ^.^

The Big Dream...

Recently, I've been re-reading Don Miguel Ruiz's "The Four Agreements," as part of my decision to start from the very beginning with regards to my work in the realm of magickal manifestation. I chose the Pagan path back around the Summer Solstice about eight years ago, and sadly, my studies have been rather hodge-podge and scattered here and there as it's taken me a while to really home in on what I feel to be the Truth of Reality.

Of course, one of my chief focal points of study is Druidry, a deep nod to my Celtic ancestry. It feels right to study and practice this, so this is one of my main branches of my personal "World Tree." So why the Toltec wisdom book, when I'm the Druidic sort?

Because I deeply feel that wisdom is wisdom, no matter what faith path you travel.

The Source of that Wisdom informs the myriad beautiful spiritual ideas that exist. Any path you travel that contains the highest expressions and ideals of Love, Truth, Beauty and Ultimate Wisdom, is the sort of path that will feed your soul and never tell you that any other path is supposedly wrong and that you must convert all to your ideas. 

The paths that tell you that any other path is wrong and that it is somehow the "one true religion" are trying to sell you a bill of goods that turn more and more sour the longer you stick with them. They are simply products of this Big Dream we all share. 

If you are happy with Christianity, Judaism or Islam, that is fine. They each have their merits if you look beyond the thick veneers of dogma that humanity has placed over each of these religions, and really begin to see the core, the seed of the best ideas of those paths. The root of all of these is honoring the Force within...and the Force is Love.

It is simply a pity and a shame that people have wasted millenia trying to claim each is somehow the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, when all you have to do is look at your neighbor without that mask of fear, without the mask of the Big Dream, the illusion of separateness, and see the core of the Love of the Great Spirit within. 

When you learn to look at your neighbors this way, the Big Dream reveals itself as a dream, and you can't help but laugh at the silliness of it all: the fear, the dogma, the made-up rules and attachments to false ideas we create because we don't understand how this or that could happen, let alone why.

So how *do* we learn to look at our fellow human beings as the sparks that we all are? 

How do we begin to see in each man and woman BOTH the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine? 

By learning to dig down deep and rid ourselves of all the self-hatred based on the lies we got told about ourselves. Not an easy task, to be sure. But it is something we must learn to do for ourselves, to begin to heal, to begin to see ourselves as we really are: Divine sparks of Heaven come to explore and play around with being the creature called a Human Being.

And once we have healed ourselves, then we can begin to help heal others, for once we see ourselves as Divine Sparks, we see others this way and we can help them see how beautiful they truly are...that the veneers of depression, anger, fear and trained reactions are just that...veneers, illusions...part of the Big Dream.

And we can help others realize that we are brothers and sisters in this Dream, that we are meant to understand that it is a Dream and we can create anything we want to within this Dream, thus laughing at, and thereby throwing out the raggedy old conceptual towels called powerlessness, victimhood and fatalism.

Speaking of dreams...time for me to go visit the Dreamtime...

Blessings and Namaste,
Rev. Kat ^.^ 

"I Has a Amazon Store!" Says the LOL-Kitty.

LOLKat: "O Hai! I has a Amazon.com store!"

Umm, yeah...sorry...my inner LOL-Cat is being playful. Too much icanhascheezburger.com.

*ahem* Anyway...

I'm writing to announce my new Amazon.com affiliate store, "Kat's Treasures From the Divine." It consists of various items that have inspired both my spiritual path and my path as a writer and musician, and of course, the two have always been braided together. My main goal is to balance and blend such things, and make Earth a bit more heavenly to live on. 

Not just for myself but for others. 

And I couldn't live with myself if I didn't pay forward all the inspiration the Living Force has given me through Jon Anderson, Vangelis, Enya and many, many others.

So I made a store at Amazon to do just that, until I can create my own music. And if you got to my store from here, there's a link on my store back to this blog.

Oh, and if you visit other places I've written, such as HubPages (my username there is 'bardscribe'), you'll probably see a link to my store woven within my hubs from time to time, depending on the content of the Hub.

LOLKat says: "O Hai! I almost forgot...here iz teh link 2 teh Amazon store:

http://astore.amazon.com/fool-20

kthxbye!"

Until later, and Namaste,

Rev. Kat ^.^ 

Springing Up Synchronicities

Happy March!

I am opening this post by sharing with you the fact that I have been having some very interesting experiences lately.

One of these experiences is repeated confirmations of the last part of a dream involving a UFO and its inhabitants.

I am hereby reposting pertinent sections of the blog post I wrote over at MySpace, just so you can get a sense of how recent confirmations of the dream have made me feel:

(FEB 12th, 2009)
Over the course of the past few years, I have had recurring freaky dreams of UFO's shining their lights into the windows of a house I am staying in, whether it be my parents' home or that of my boyfriend and his own folks.

I had a similar dream just the other night, but it changed a bit. In this dream, I am in my parents' basement. It's night-time of course, and there is this huge flash of blue light coming through the basement window over the clothes dryer. As usual, I'm rather freaked out and want to hide, but in this dream, my dad notices the light and seems to know what's going on, so he tells me to walk up to the window and show myself to the UFO, to let whoever is in there know that I am waiting for their message, if they have one.

So I go ahead and walk past the window, not liking the idea of them seeing me, still wanting to hide like before, but I suck it up and do it anyway.

Instantly I get this strong thoughtform of..."leadership, being a leader," and precisely who the beings are in the ship.

Still freaked out, but in an awestruck sort of way, I hurry back
over to my dad who is calmly watching TV, and I say something to the effect of, "They want ME to be a leader...the Pleiadians.....they want me to be a leader."

I wake up, still feeling a bit frightened, but the thoughtform is still thrumming through my midsection...

(End original post)

So where are the confirmations coming from?

Well, one major source has been the channeled messages from Sedona Journal. The other sources have been various synchronicities that seem to have followed on the heels of this dream, especially that of discovering a Jon Anderson song I'd not heard of prior to having the dream in question. (Scroll down to see this blog's post for Thursday, Feb 19th)

And I am still not sure what to make of it all, except I cannot ignore the feeling in my gut that I should heed these synchronicities...I just know that I feel I am on the right track for what I need to be doing with my life.

And it is definitely NOT standing behind a counter asking customers "D'ya want a combo meal with that?"

BB,
Rev. Kat ^.^

Interesting Confirmation

Just yesterday, I was reading a channeled message in a special prediction issue of "Sedona Journal," and the entity being channeled said something about remaining positive despite seeming setbacks is what will help ease the transition from one way of living to another. Now, I'm paraphrasing here, mind you, but that's the gist of the thoughtform.

While racking my brain for something to blog about, I came across a headline via BBC News Online, that mentioned something fairly similar...that remaining positive about things coming back to normal will actually be just as self-fulfilling, maybe more so, as being pessimistic.

Which confirms my own personal feelings that things will bounce back after a time. We *are* having to recover from an 8-year barrage of ultimate negativity. Our economy would have recovered just fine after 9/11 if the former prez had just left things alone and not gone and assumed that Saddam was behind things. That was just countering negativity with negativity.

But then, perhaps we can use the results of the previous president's misdeeds to spring forward and think of something new. If we allow ourselves to change, that is.

Then again, whether or not we allow ourselves to change, change we must, no matter what our egos try to tell us.

BB,
Kat ^.^

A New Header

For the last two days, Jon Anderson's song "Change We Must" has been floating through my head, stirring the pot of creative inspiration.

On top of that, the New Moon was yesterday. I had a germ of an idea for a computer wallpaper/background, and I kind of knew the colors I wanted in it, but that was about it.

I wanted to do something splashy, but sadly, my drawing skills do not match my very inspired feelings a lot of the time.

But as my wallpaper developed within my sketchpad (thank heavens for watercolor pencils and talking to myself!), I realized how simple my idea could be and still be nice-looking and even somewhat spiritually effective.

Okay, so it's not the Roger Dean work I had up there originally. I will probably put that one back up once I am done showing off my own work. :-P

At least until my own skills improve, anyway.

Anyhow, I rather hope you enjoy what I created. I'm honestly rather proud of it, actually, but my goal *is* to improve.

BB,
Kat ^.^

New Blog/Website Discovery and a Bit of a Ramble.

It took me a long time to StumbleUpon a spirituality-related web page tonight.

First the wireless signal was acting up. In wireless' current stage of mere toddlerhood as Windows/Linux compatibility issues are concerned, a wonky signal is a constant reminder to me to cultivate patience. Something that we Aries people are not best known for.

Then once the signal steadied out after many reboots (my 32-bit processor probably wants to attack me "verbally" in machine language. It's a good thing I don't understand "binary." :-P), it took me two and a quarter hours just to find something related to this blog.

What I did discover was a beautiful blog called "Open Spirit," which you will see over in the blogroll. It's written by a lady named Elsa Joy, and she's got a larger website, with her name as the domain.

I only just discovered the blog and the main website today, but I am keeping it in my list of favorite bookmarks.

In her most recent post, Elsa asks what we've fallen in love with today. What an exercise to remind us to be more in the present!

Well, as for what I fell in love with today...

1) My new hairstyle. I needed a cut, and found an adorable style that is not only good-looking on me, but is also practical and business-like. Best of both worlds.

2) I fell in love all over again with Devonshire clotted cream. Not only am I a long-abiding Anglophile, I do feel like I have a British soul even while having been born here in the US (why else would I be more into Yes and the Beatles than any bands from the US?).

So when my future M-I-L and I discovered a British foods store in the town where we usually do our shopping, I was over the moon and back again. On our first visit, we bought just one tiny jar each of this Devonshire clotted cream (pasteurized to keep US officials quiet), plus scones, of course! It didn't take me long to dig into my jar of the clotted cream and fall completely, head-over-heels in love with it. Especially when I took the storeowner's suggestion of pairing it with strawberry jam, a long-time custom over in the UK, apparently. You can well imagine my Sagittarius-rising foodie heart kicking up her centaurian heels at finding a new source of Divine culinary pleasure. Oh, and I discovered the whole sardines-on-toast thing, another something they've done often over in Britain.

(If anyone is curious as to where Devonshire is, if I remember correctly, it is fairly close to Wales.)

Oh, and yes, I did go back to the British foods store and get myself a larger jar of the clotted cream. Heaven in a jar straight from Albion (an old name for England.)

Is it any wonder that William Blake wrote the poem "Jerusalem"? If you're not familiar with the poem, check them out as lyrics to Charles Hubert Hastings Parry's tune, which got used in the 1982 movie "Chariots of Fire," one of my many favorite flicks.

My favorite verse is the second, which was the inspiration for the movie's title:

"Bring me my bow of burning gold,
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear, oh clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!"

Now...pair this soul-searing poetry with that stunningly spacey score from Vangelis, and it's a match made in Avalonian heaven...not unlike Jon Anderson and Vangelis' collaborations which make me feel like I'm about to turn into some big phoenix and be reborn again and again, leaving my old life behind me.

Ahhh, the life of a mystic.

BB,
Rev. Kat ^.^

Beautiful Food for Floating on the Clouds of Bliss

Normally, I only post here on Mondays, but I absolutely MUST share this YouTube video with you.

It is a video set to Jon Anderson's song "Change We Must," from the album of the same name.

Between Jon's ever-so-beautiful voice, lyrics and music, and the visual graphics, I was floating by the time I got done listening to and watching the video for the third or fourth time...

And I'm not kidding. This is pure float-on-a-cloud Goddess-honoring blissful music!

With the following video, I bid you good night.

Dreams and Horoscopes

I was talking with my mom in the kitchen this afternoon while having a snack. She said she'd read my horoscope. She didn't say whether it was yesterday's or today's. Doesn't matter, since Time is an illusion. :-P

Anyhow, she said my horoscope said something along the lines of improving my culinary skills, wanting to try new recipes.

Whoa.

For once, a newspaper/internet-based daily horoscope was accurate. But since nothing is written in stone with regards to one's chart, astrology mostly represents potentials for this, that or some other event or occurrence.

Still, I found it interesting that the most recent horoscope was actually reflecting what I have been thinking about lately: looking through my Vegetarian Times magazine issues for relatively easy, budget-friendly recipes.

I have been wondering also what it would be like to go to culinary school, especially one that focuses on healthy eating. I have no problem fixing meat for others if they want to eat it, but I choose not to eat it myself, for personal health reasons, let alone the ethics of vegetarian/pescatarian cuisine. But I would *prefer* learning at a vegetarian-centered school. But the only one that *I* know of, that's been advertised in "Shambhala Sun," "Vegetarian Times" and "Yoga Journal" is this one that's way out in New York.

And finding a veg cooking school in the Midwest, a region known for beef, pork and chicken, is likely slim to none. :-/ And finding a place that also focuses on organic? HA! I might as well start my own school here in the Midwest with those objectives, because in Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, vegetarian eating, let alone organic fare is usually only found in the larger cities.
But it would be great to get more Midwestern people hooked on organic eating at all, let alone the vegetarian path.

I think if I was going to start a school like that, and I went ahead and featured a vegetarian/pescatarian frame of study, with a meat option (for those who insist on using beef, pork and chicken), I would want to try to get my meat from free-range and even kosher-kill sources. Because if I cannot hunt for it, it has to be purchased. And if I purchase it, I want also to be sure that the animal is kosher killed (plus find a way to learn kosher cooking), so if there were any observant Jews in my school, they would feel comfortable being there.

Also, because I would be cooking some amount of purchased, albeit free-range meat, I'd want to try to observe some sort of ceremony before the meat gets placed in the freezer. Because the animals, after all, would have given their lives to feed people and be something of a source of nourishment (for those who still choose to eat meat). That is not a sacrifice I can take lightly. Not as someone who respects the animal kingdom as much as I do.

And if someone had a problem with that sort of thing, they would sooo be in the wrong cooking school.

Anywho, I'm just sort of daydreaming at this point, because while I love to cook, I don't know if I'd have the passion to start such a thing, just because stress is NOT my friend.

I think for now I will stick to learning the tricks and tools of cooking, and not worry about the business end of it.

But that's not to say that someone else reading this blog can't take my ideas and run with them! ;-)

BB,
Rev. Kat ^.^

Imbolc, 2009

Hi, All!

I find it interesting that, this year, Imbolc (or 'Oimelc' if you want to get linguistically correct...or St. Brighid's Day if you are Catholic) follows on the heels of Mercury finally going direct (as of Saturday, the 31st of January). To me, not only is this a day where Lady Brighid features most prominently of all times of the Pagan (and mainstream spiritual) year, but this specific sequence of astrological goings-on (Merc. going direct, then Imbolc) speaks to me of new seeds of growth and abundance, particularly via communication and travel. Which ought to bode well for my doings in the mundane world, especially with regard to my job hunt, and very recent interview at a Native-American-run casino a mere 15 miles from my home.

It is also not lost on me that, this year, Imbolc dawns on a time of financial crisis for millions across the US and even across the globe. Lady Brighid's day for us Pagans, it seems, comes just in time to help us petition, magickally, for abundance on both a personal and global scale. This kind of downturn, complete with job losses numbering in the thousands, and perhaps into the 1-million-plus mark, is probably making people feel quite uprooted and powerless, despite the old "pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstrap" philosophy that social conservatives like to bandy about, in an attempt to excuse themselves from helping the down-and-out. To those reading this blog who the economy has adversely affected: I completely understand where you are coming from, feelings-wise. You have my total empathy and sympathies.

This whole thing is somehow connecting, in my mind, to a personal incident that happened early last week.

Last Sunday or Monday, I discovered my lavender plant had died. I had truly meant to plant it in the ground before winter came, but never got around to doing it, "saving money" being my only (ostensibly) plausible excuse. Seeing the plant's withered leaves in a pot, despite good intentions from my dad (who placed it in his home office in an attempt to give the plant the sunshine it needed), really made me feel like a dolt.

For one thing, I hold plants in high regard for their healing properties. They are no less than brothers and sisters to me, and the fact that I did not take the best care of my lavender plant in light of how I regard the plant realm did not sit well with my conscience.

It did not help that our water is frequently chlorinated and otherwise treated to remove harmful bacteria and other nasty stuff. (My mother, for this reason, makes sure and lets any water for plants sit for at least a day so the chlorine can evaporate. Still didn't help, really.)

Also, I noticed that my plant, while it was still alive, was putting out long tendrils. I remembered the way my boyfriend's lavender plant usually looks in the spring and summer, with low-slung branches close to the ground that had rooted themselves in the soil, and I realized that's what my plant was wanting to do. It was searching for a place to take root with the long tendrils, and it could not. Being in the pot stifled its ability to literally branch out and grow firmer roots.

From that understanding sprang the following realization, which I wrote in one of my paper-and-pen journals:

"We cannot survive unless we have our roots in the Divine Mother. We can only live so long in the 'pots' in which we place ourselves. Pots, like self-limiting actions and thoughts, provide very little room to grow. If we are planted within the nurturing soil of the Creative Force, we are more likely to thrive, since we are thus able to spread out and take nourishment better."

And it made me wonder about my own path of growth, on all levels. It made me wonder as to what sort of thoughts and practices were placing me in a "pot" of limitation, what sort of "food" I was taking in, what source of Light I was getting, if any. And it made me wonder whether the tendrils I am attempting to put down into my spirit-soil are going to take root, or die for lack of nourishment and support (read: personal will).

Another thing that my lavender plant's death confirmed for me was that plants carry the same sort of Living Force that we do. Plants have spirits, just like we do. Oh, they are of a different weave of Creation, to be sure, but they are of Creation, nonetheless.

"But Kat," I hear you say. "Lavender is a perennial."

Yes. Lavender *is* a perennial, which why I was initially stupefied at its demise. But, I think it had more to do with its lack of nourishment from sun, water and a place to branch out and grow stronger.

We all need encouragement, the light of the sun, a good source of potable water and a place where we can branch out emotionally and spiritually, and become stronger than we were before. If we do not get any of these things, or if we get most, but not all of these things, then we end up dying. Our spirits feel crushed. We feel alone and all we want to do is just cross over and leave behind the pain of not having the loving care from the world that we so rightfully deserve.

I do not doubt for a moment that that is what my plant felt. I did not take care of it, so it felt neglected...chances are it felt its only choice was to leave its mortal plant-shell behind. Another reminder to this Jedi "wanna-be" to be always mindful of the Living Force, and to properly take care of whatever that Force inhabits.

So, when spring comes, the first thing I am going to do when I purchase ANY sort of perennial herb, it is going straight into the ground, close to the Mother, where it rightfully belongs.

The question still remains for me, though: How and when will I properly root myself in the Mother, taking the best care of me that I can possibly manage? Perhaps this question is ringing in your mind, too, especially when the cost of just taking care of basic needs has skyrocketed over the past near-decade.

Oh, the answers are simple enough, for me, at least. They're on the tip of my brain and tongue. The ultimate question is of personal will, for it is personal will that determines one's course of action--or inaction, as my will is, admittedly, somewhat weak from constantly being fed a diet of fear, and unfortunately, it is still a bit weak from feeling too powerless to stop that "diet" and substitute a new one of hope, encouragement and acknowledgement that I've just as much chance as anyone else of succeeding.

So, how do I become more rooted in the love of the Great Mother, and forever pull up the roots deadened by fear and doubt? How do I transplant myself from the limiting pot-thoughts of powerlessness and no secure place to feel at Home in the world, to the wide expanse of the Mother's embracing, rich ground?

Those questions are currently being brought to the fore as the faint Imbolc sun dawns on a new life I hope to make for myself. I pray earnestly to the Mother that this new life includes a job at the casino, which will provide a path for me to pursue my objectives.

May you and yours also be blessed this Imbolc/Feast of St. Brighid with Brighid's abundance, fire and courage to forge your own new lives, even in the face of this current downturn in our national and global economy.


Brightest Imbolc Blessings,
Rev. Kat ^.^

Time and a Word, Fulfilled: Aquarian President

Well, folks, today was the day of Barack Obama's inauguration.

Many, including myself, were in tears of ecstatic joy, disbelief, and even relief.

But those sorts of tears were made possible by the choices we've made over the years to look beyond the color of someone's skin.

...and in my heart of hearts, I feel that not only was Dr. King's dream fulfilled beyond King's own imagination, but a song by Yes (which I feel was a bit prophetic in many respects), "Time and a Word" has also been fulfilled, and will continue to be fulfilled...

Because in his inaugural speech today, Pres. Obama said many things that, to me, clearly reflected what I think the Age of Aquarius is all about: working together to move even further towards peace, equality, and most importantly, love among all people, even through the challenges we face, both foreign and domestic.

...I could say more...but I can't. I don't have any more words that haven't already been said before, by me, or by anyone else in this world of media and mass communication.

I only know that not only is Barack Obama the American President, he is an Aquarian president.

And to think...We the People helped make it happen.

Now that's what I'm talkin 'bout!

Brightest Blessings,
Rev. Kat ^.^