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St. Verena, Coptic Healing Saint
February 21, 2013
St Verena of Egypt
I first knew St. Verena because I stayed many times a year for many years at her hotel in Baden Switzerland. It is a fantastic Belle Epoque building with plaster elephants on the dining room ceiling and a direct access to the hot spring mineral baths. Verena served one of the best ever Swiss breakfast buffets, which is saying a lot. The Swiss hotel breakfast buffet is designed to wow you, fill you, and make you a loyal customer of the establishment. As a vegetarian I do not care about all the cold cut and caviar stuff, but am an expert in knowing a good muesli bar when I find one. Verenahof had everything, but the stairs were noisy and creaky, the elevators smelled highly of sulpher, and the surrounding hotels had closed. Now it looks like Baden, with a history of spa since Roman times is having a grand reopening. I am so pleased to know that Verena will once again be serving breakfast at the bad.
I did not think too much about her until I visited Bad Zurzach on the Rhine a few years ago. She is buried there in a church. The mineral spring there was not discovered until relatively recently, but Verena was a big deal there for centuries. I saw all kinds of statuary and art of Verena, and made an attempt to read about her in German (ha!). It looked like she was from Egypt and lived in a cave in Switzerland ( aka Rome) where she became a magical healing saint. Since that was way too weird, I decided I must be translating very badly. I went to her grave and lit some candles and hung out all by myself with her a few times at the church. She does have a heavy vibe, based on the people who have come here to see her for centuries. When I arrived in the states I looked up her story and read about Coptics in the Roman army in English. Her story is even wilder than I could have imagined.
Verena grew up in Luxor and traveled to Italy to receive a Christian education. When she learned of the fate of St Maurice she went to Switzerland to look for the Theban legion. They had been decimated by the Roman Emperor Maximian. Since her army was slaughtered, she found herself in a strange land with no language skills, so she went into a cave to pray and meditate. She came out of the cave healing like crazy, and was even imprisoned for it. She is typically depicted as holding a water vessel and a comb, symbols of her work with the sick and the poor. Today you can visit the cave where she had her big empowerment. Who would guess that a third century Coptic saint would end up at Swiss spas? Another great reason to visit Bad Zurzach, where the healing complex is extensive and elegant, is the hand organ festival which they hold each year.
Do You Believe God Loves You?
February 16, 2013
Julia Sweeney of SNL fame performed the opening of her show “Letting Go of God” for this TED talk. She is witty and insightful as she talks about her childhood exposure to religion. We all had different parental models. My parents were not religious but they belonged to a church they rarely attended. They got the big idea that I needed to go to this Presbyterian church when I was about 11. They made no bones about the purpose of my Sunday school enrollment. It was punishment. I am not sure what the infraction was, but I was to atone by being a Sunday school student. It fully sucked. I successfully physically fought off my mother in the ladie’s room the first time she tried to leave me at Sunday school, but eventually I had to go for a couple of years. I even was baptized and confirmed at the same time, since in infancy I was not baptized. My overall impression is that it was a drag, but I do know some of the songs still today. I asked my father why I had to go and they did not. I always remember his answer. He said, “I believe in God, but not like that.” Why they thought I should be indoctrinated like that is still odd to me.
The Gossip Archetype
February 15, 2013
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If you have attended an elementary school you have been involved in gossip. Private information spreading is power for the gossip. It can have two distinct patterns running at the same time. Damaging or false information may be spread as well as flattering or promotional stories. This is a member of the creative family and can be considered to be artful and expressive. Dr. Phil and his ilk fit into this category. Networking can be a positive form of gossip designed to help others. To make the best of your own gossip within notice the news you spread and why you do it. To a certain extent we all make our own PR as well as our own self image. We spotlight or eliminate part of the story for effect, even if we are unconscious of it, and even in our memories.
How can the gossip teach us to respect the feelings of others? If you observe your own communication carefully you can spot trends. The shadow gossip my bring you news of all kinds, but it is not your job to share it. I know plenty of people who do not watch cable TV but are still influenced to believe what they are told, read, or hear. Due diligence is your friend when it comes to discernment and discretion. Know what you mean to say and why.
Genealogy is Like Crochet
February 12, 2013
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tatted doilie
My grandmother did tatting, a lace work done with a tiny plastic shuttle which produced doilies. I have a large variegated doilie that she made but it is in the closet. In my house it would be a big dust collector. When I was young I did crochet, embroidery and some knitting. I taught myself to sew at boarding school when I was 14. When I was 17 I learned to weave on a loom. I like the art and enjoyment of crafting things for my own fashion purposes. My mother was an advanced self styler creating matching hats, shoes and belts to go with her dresses. All of these activities are so satisfying until…..you make a mistake. Then you find there is only one way out of your predicament..rip it out and start again. The entire time you are ripping it out you must take care not to damage the materials, which requires that you not enter rip out rage too deeply. This was agony to me, so I became a potter. If you blow your creation before firing you simply quickly turn it back into mud. If my pots were ugly and I did not want them to live I put them in a bush in the desert and shot them with a 22 pistol. There was no ripping and remorse. A different kind of patience is required to make pots. You just accept that a certain percentage will fail and that is fine.
Last week I opened a message on Ancestry.com from a common descendant of Swain Smith. I am always happy to hear from my fam on Ancestry because they bring extra data and sometimes have documents and pictures to share. This cousin pointed out to me that I had an obvious error in my tree. Swain’s father married twice, and I had listed his mother as the second wife. Since he had been born before the second marriage my mistake was easy to spot. I have revised my tree, and now have no clue about the pedigree of Swain’s real mother. I can only rip out the branches of the tree that I built on a specious assumption and start again. I am so totally back in crochet world. I have to go back to the place where I skipped the loop of my 4th great-grandmother, Sarah Archer, born in New Jersey in 1787. She is my new mystery woman.
Sarah Archer (1787 – 1866)
is my 4th great grandmother
Husband of Sarah
Son of Henry and Sarah
Son of Swain
Daughter of Jerimiah
Son of Minnie M
Son of Ernest Abner
I am the daughter of Richard Arden
Mark Bittman on Food in America
February 5, 2013
Mark Bittman is a foodist supreme and an omnivore. He and Anthony Bordain are my food persona idols. Although they both do eat all manner of animal products, they do it in awareness. In this TED talk Bittman details the history of eating and agriculture in America that has brought us to this point. I am about his age so I relate totally to the diet he describes on his childhood table. Like him, I was inspired my mother’s God awful cooking to learn to cook early in life. Unlike him, I became a vegetarian at the age of 19. In 1970 in North Carolina I can assure you that vegetarianism was completely foreign as a concept. My diet was not yet healthy, but it was mostly homemade. I was a baker of biscuits and bread. I was lucky that my roommate had mother who sent us really tasty canned produce from her garden in South Carolina. Over time I met vegetarians for health (from northern California, of course) and improved the ingredients I used. I garden and enjoy cooking and eating produce now, but my learning curve has taken place in a time when all agriculture has become progressively less healthy. I hope you will have time to listen to Bittman’s excellent talk, but if you need a summary here it is:
- Animals are responsible for 20% of the air pollution and much of the lifestyle disease in America
- Eating plants is known to be healthier than eating animals
- Agribusiness and the USDA are not our friends
- It is simple to change one’s own diet and thereby make the most important contribution
Women in History-Anima Projection
February 4, 2013
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The celebration of Women’s History Month will take place in March, 2013 with a theme about innovation and imagination. A salute to women in engineering, math and science must include the women who broke into those and other fields after a struggle to be educated. By following a timeline we can see the contributions women have made. The Queen archetype, both in history and in mythology has power to rule with wisdom when she is at her best. Queens inherit the power and responsibility of ruling people wisely. The shadow queen is ruled by her own heart and lacks boundaries.
It is obvious that without women there could be no history, no men, and no archetypes. Our collective consciousness is full of both reality and projections. To create a better and more wholesome future it behooves us to sort out delusions in order to enlighten both men and women. When archetypes are understood well the need to perceive the world by using stereotypes can vanish. Stereotypes are cliche. Archetypes are infinitely instructive. When you look around the world do you notice examples of both? How do you avoid being a stereotype?
Gradual Decline
January 29, 2013
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The people who have gone through natural disasters and survived can tell us change is never what we expect. The people who languish in unhappy circumstances often believe that fate has trapped them without options. The appearance of permanence is a mind boggler. The sensory world seems permanent and meaningless, virtually everything it is not. You are an element of change, weather you acknowledge it or not. Some folks imagine they are preserving the world, others think they are destroying, ruling, or upgrading it. If sudden events alter the world around you, you will both adopt new ways of coping and adapt new skills. This is true for gradual change as well.
The median income in the U.S. of all but the top 10% of earners has remained relatively flat since 1967. Not all family groups, but most, own less than they owned three years ago. A small increase in household income is enjoyed by the top 5 percent of earners, but the middle class has lost income since the big crash of 2008. The adaptation to this reality does not look like healthy acceptance and appropriate response. The concept that the future is always better casts a dark economic cloud over real budgets. Spending as if there is no tomorrow usually results in a future of gloom. Paying the piper is inevitable in terms of karmic as well as financial debt. At both a personal and a national level new skills and perspectives are needed to break the cycle of gradual decline.
Saboteur Archetype
January 28, 2013
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archetype card deck
The saboteur archetype is at the heart of the reasons you do not attempt change. Each person has a saboteur, but few of us have any knowledge of how it works. When this archetype speaks it is important to decipher the message. It wants us to give up, put off, or just forget our aspirations. It offers plenty of reasons for you to be discouraged from trying any kind of change. It takes a dim view of just about everything.
What can you learn from the nagging pessimistic voice in your head that will lead you eventually to contentment? You can openly learn the language and the logic it uses in order to engage it in a meaningful dialog with you. Listen to the voice of your sceptic in order to understand how and why you stay stagnant, unable to accomplish what you set out to do. Begin to identify the script your inner critic uses to deflate your hopes and postpone your dreams. As in dreamscapes, there might be themes that are literal or more symbolic. There are deeper interpretations to archetypal insights, but basically our saboteur teaches us how to see through fear founded in insecurity. The reasons we believe we are not capable are usually unexamined. Once the issues are observed in the light, the lesson can be to use logic and wisdom rather than fear to draw boundaries. The energy and power bound up in the struggle between our whole selves and our personal traitors is a tragic waste. Sit down and have a drink with your saboteur. You both sabotage and are sabotaged in ways you do not currently recognize. Long term analysis will not bee needed to find the main talking points used to discourage you on a regular basis. As with a human bully, be firm and polite when dealing with your inner punk.
Mood Magic-Forgiveness
January 23, 2013
— 10 Comments
To alter your mood is to change your world. When you are happy and you know it you attract and notice joyful people and events around you. When other emotions dominate your mental landscape you notice others in the same boat, whatever the boat happens to be. One way to describe the mutual misery bonding is woundology. This term was coined by Carolyn Myss to explain how and why people retain rather than heal from their wounds. Contentment is not always possible, but clear intentions can be.
Pity and compassion are not the same. Solicitation of pity requires that you also pity others and the outrageous fortune they encounter. Pity is a currency of pain, highest value being placed on the heaviest suffering. The journey to well being involves mind, body and spirit. The distinction between seeking power through pity and creating well being through compassion is key to living a full life. If information and data were the source of good health we would all be very healthy. The element of forgiveness unlocks the possibility of a happy and healthy future.
Where is My Shadow?
January 22, 2013
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“You don’t just integrate your “shadow.” It’s not an aspect of personality but a mysterious element in the human condition.” – Thomas Moore’s tweet of the day today. @thomasmooreSoul is on twitter, like @Pontifex. They both know Latin, liturgy, and the Holy Ghost. Their twitter streams could not possibly be more different. Thomas Moore tweets a dab of darshan daily to his small following. Nobody tweets crass insulting things to him, like they do to the Pope. It is a quiet, one way stream, like the Tao itself..bringing us closer to the truth every day. The truth is always downhill, and flow always involves removal of obstructions. Today he is tweeting about the much misunderstood Jungian theory of the shadow. Shadow can very well be the prime obstruction to living a happy full life. So, where is this mighty shadow, anyhow?
The shadow is the part of your self, or your society, of which you are unaware. It is hidden by your extreme belief in what you are fed by your ego. The ego is the weakest link to reality, in a way, because it only wants to confirm and uphold status quo as it prefers it. Meditation, contemplation, or artistic endeavors bring perspective needed to see this shadow. It is the reason you are in whatever rut you occupy. The rut is like a bunker maintained by your self image. Like a city with big buildings, no shadow is cast down in the bunker, except maybe at noon for a while. In the “reality bunker” the ego rules and keeps other aspects in the belief system you know as your rut.
With Groundhog Day fast approaching, consider celebration this year by leaving your thought bunker to risk seeing your shadow. How might a gentle reader do such a thing? Silence is the threshold. Meditation is the key. Mandala is the map. Wisdom is the reward. Walking a labyrinth is a wonderful way to begin.
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