Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

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...

  I think I began this like all things I began because I wanted to combine things which I liked. Here we have astronomy, astrology, natural sciences, mythology and art. I just thought why the feck not eh? Sacred geometry and numerology as well. Just put everything in. I began this in January and it proceeded in a fit and start type manner. I became stuck on Aries because I have an awful time with Ariens and then I was watching Lucifer as the new season had dropped. And I had for a long time told myself that Tom Ellis was going to be the head in Aries. So I was inspired I guess and I decided to make it landscape to fit both the heads in - Ram's and Man's. It doesn't look like Tom Ellis and it isn't supposed to - it was just something to keep me happy while I was drawing it. OK it looks a little bit like him but not really. It was supposed to be more of a man from the middle east. Which it does. I am ECSATIC about the entire thing. I am going to write an accompanying test...

  Finally sat down and did the Aries picture.  Took me ages to do this one... Aries is the constellation of the Ram. It is also rules the head. So, here I have the head of a man - because Aries is also resolutely male. It is the element of fire, which I decided to depict in light split into the colours of the spectrum. The fourth month - is depicted in the salt crystal. Salt crystals are cubes. Salt makes it appearance in many fairy tales - in tears and most famously in the story of the Cap o Rushes. Salt is what makes us human - it is the symbol of the Earth. Finally, here we have the Bighorn sheep. The egotistical nature of the Aries is redeemed by the trope of sacrifice. The sacrifice of the Ram is seen is many biblical stories, including Christ being called the Lamb of God. It is also not an accident that Easter falls in April. The traditional story of the sacrifice of the shepherd Dumuzi to the Goddess Inanna also took place at this time of the year. I really loved doing ...

I got up at 5 am. The sun had already risen. The birds were singing but not as loudly. I could not longer sleep. I had gone to bed after a half bottle of prosecco shared. I was already very silly by the half glass. I am no longer interested in drinking. It is good to know I am not alcoholic. I lay in bed for a little longer and then got up to tidy the house. Put away all the things. After that I tried to watch some Lucifer and then thought of my run. So I went for that instead - at 6.45 am. It was the first time I ran along the seashore in Holywood. It was empty. The sun laid down its warm rays and I ran in them for an hour. An hour of seeing the sun and the waters and there being barely a breeze. Nothing. Oystercatchers. Swan. Herring gulls. Possibly some kind of goose. Canada probably. All those birds which helped me through the winter as I drew now manifest in the light. As if they were woven from the light. The tide stretched out, exposing the green slippery hairy rocks and sand. A...

Finally made it to Navan Fort. The sacredness of the site was unmistakable. You would have to be a complete omadhuan to not feel it. And it was soooo beautiful when I got there. The hawthorns were blooming and we were all alone. Only the very LOUD tractor mower was cutting grass... but apart from that there was the gentle countryside and just the open skies. Ash trees planted around the mound, possibly around 50 years old, were swaying in the breeze with their gentle feathery leaves. Maybe there was ash dieback on some of them. That was sad. The scent from the flowers in the last days of May made me feel as if the entire world was singing. A skylark perfected my heart's song. I could hear the centuries running into each other, the millennia upon millennia layers and I felt the people moving around me. Cuchulain, Conchobar, Conor MacNessa, the men of Ulaid. This place was now a silent place. This place was now in disguise. The stars fanning across the skies smearing themselves as th...