Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

 Winter Solstice in the shortening of days, their shuddered abbreviations, the way a swing awaits midway - expectantly, the trajectory of its flight, so too the planet sits back - up - on its heels, its sprung haunches, ready to pounce and a-go. as it does, it giggles, like a maiden, or a youth, a care-less turning round of itself, admiring its reflection - a clever trick, pleased to have fooled the sun to ride, for one more cycle, to  stay to me, for yet another year.

January Live in the Now - Capricorn - Plan Mer-Goat. Saturn. Earth.  Saturn is the planet of perspective. It is the furthest of the naked eye planets and is named after the granddaddy of the Gods. The other name for Saturn is Cronus - he was the father of Zeus. In Saturn, we have the cool eyed, detached perspective of the year that has passed and the year which is to come. We reflect on what has gone before and that which is yet to occur. It is the time for planning and organisation. Of resolutions and possibilities. The Capricorn is depicted as a half goat half fish being. The ancient nature of the zodiac is found in the animals which it has chosen to honour. Our agrarian is commemorated by the inclusion of not only the Goat, but the Ram as well as the Bull. In the Goat we have a barely domesticated animal who is far more at home on the slopes of mountains, eating anything that it encounters. All of nature is depicted by the goat-like being Pan in Greek mythology. The ...

The Zodiac The story of the zodiac comes to us from many different sources. The zodiac I use is the one which is used by Western astrology/astronomy. There are Chinese, Australian Aboriginal, Indian etc zodiacs. As long as human beings have been able to look into the skies, they have found patterns to everything, and nothing made prettier and more meaningful patterns than the stars. Most of our Western zodiac originates in the Middle East - and India. Under those clear desert skies, the stars glittered like they were alive. And there were so many of them. However, the brightest, most charismatic made gigantic shapes into which stories about gods and animals could be stitched. So the stars which we have these famous names - like Aldeberan (Taurus) and Hamel (Aries) have names which originate with Middle Eastern astronomers. These names then were carried to the Greeks and eventually found its way into Medieval texts and then to us.  Of course the first thing people think about when t...

In January this year I decided to do a calendar which captured everything that was special for me in the year. The wonder of being on this planet and our capacity to behold it was the deepest mystery. That we lived here, with so many wondrous creatures, magical to behold, under a sky that held an infinitude of stars, in a universe that had seemingly been made for this Earth -  thinking of all the coincidences and possibilities to lead us here - this calendar was a celebration and a meditation of everything which I held dear. It was during the 12 Holy Nights which the idea was grown. It was that magical spell between Christmas and the New Year where everything seemed to be suspended. Time had stood still and I think I was also standing still. It is a time of deep reflection and many wishes are planted at this time of the year. Time indeed, as I soon discovered as I did this calendar, is a strange thing. The days are long but the years are short, and as I write this on the last day o...