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Charism
October 26, 2012
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Hendrix in Tune
The idea that we all have access to deeper or higher powers is indicated in religions. It is also embedded in medicine and mythology. The individual is called on to find courage to discover and develop the talents or graces given for spiritual development. Some are called to musical interpretations, others to various forms of creativity. These vocations, or callings are the gate, the opening through which the divine enters the world. By carefully copying others or projecting an image to please the public one specifically stops unique gifts from being expressed. Charisma is an attraction to a special, unique force. Charism is the influence exerted by the unique force.
When kids learn patterns from adults today they are likely to be focused and stuck in the physical appearance or status of a person place or thing. The Dalai Lama once advised in his teachings to seriously observe the way you feel about an object (place or event works here too) you desire. He added that the details of the feelings are the most important parts to observe. Noticing the feelings toward the object when you decide to buy it, at the moment it is acquired, and again three months after the purchase tells a story of fleeting emotions, and perhaps buyers’ remorse. This desire/want more syndrome is the nature of the physical realm. If no attention is given to individual gifts or talents the cycle of never ending desire will be the only path taken in life. The treadmill of wanting what others have will consume all available time and energy.
Artists find both beauty and divine inspiration in practicing their arts. A charismatic person accepts responsibility for nurturing his or her talent. The path of creative expression focuses on personal ways to distill the beauty of nature for enjoyment by all. Charism is not a commercial effort or ROI on some training received. It is the bold decision to connect the physical world to the cosmos through mediation and art. The kids today do not need to join an order or commit to a religious vocation to be exposed to the idea that their special gifts are worth discovery. The talents are worth development because they are also gifts for the entire world. Kids need encouragement and appreciation of their artistic abilities, and exposure to the artistic work of others. Can you find your own charism and use it to inspire other people?
Yaqui Man of Knowledge, Cachora
October 25, 2012
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The first time I saw Cachora he was sitting in the shade using a needle and thread to thread tiny seed beads. He was about 85 years old, wearing no glasses. The sight of him actually able to do this made me laugh hard out loud. He commented without looking up, in Spanish, saying he was just another Indian doing handicrafts. I had been told that he was Don Juan. He spreads this rumor himself, but it is not hard to figure out that he isn’t.
Cachora at the bead table
I asked him if he was a shaman, to which he responded negatively. He said he was a man of knowledge. He then began to tell me his entire cosmology. He began with his birthday and place, then his parents birthdays and place. He and his father were born in Rio Yaqui, Sonora, like Don Juan. Cachora’s mother was from Oaxaca. His parents had met while collecting plants for medicine. He told me his parents had never used pesos in their lives, but had traded medicinal plants for all they needed. This was their craft and way of life. The vest he shows here belonged to his father, and was worn for healing ceremonies. That is the case, if Cachora is telling the truth about this vest. He is what is known in the world of medicine as a coyote. He lies a lot, misleading and amusing himself with the confusion of others. So I took the birthday information and went to a book store to buy and reread A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda. The first fact given about Don Juan is this birthday, many years before Cachora’s.
symbols on the healing vest
This man of knowledge became my friend. I called him on the Don Juan thing on my second visit. I also remembered to bring him what he wanted rather than money. This practice made me a favorite. His first requests were for some specific stone beads, some hummingbird feeders, and some reading glasses. I returned with his wish list items about three months after we had met. I used to hang out and joke with him, learning a little about plants. He told me that I am a siren.
Cachora and the healing vest
I spoke with a friend in Tijuana last year and learned that he was still alive and kicking. His much younger wife, Josefina, had died, but he was in the company of a young girlfriend from Spain. He is not Don Juan, but, as he puts it, there is some of him in all those books. South of Tecate, in the valley of the sorcerer, a Yaqui hombre de conocimiento named salamander (that is the translation of Cachora) is still in the business of knowledge.
beaded vest
Royal Lovers
October 23, 2012
Katherine Swynford
I found one woman from Manhattan who was my ancestor twice. When her first husband died, she married and had another child. Both a daughter from her first and her second marriages became my ancestors. I have been thinking how odd it was that the step sister’s issue married 5 generations later. I decided 5 generations was enough genetic mixing, and since they were Knickerbocking there were few other fancy Dutch reformers to marry. This is not so odd. The truly striking coincidence in my tree is a royal Brit named John of Gaunt ( born in Ghent).
I have discovered that John of Gaunt is my ancestor three different ways, with three different wives, and of both of my parents. He was involved in a famous royal love affaire more bizarre than Charles and Camilla. He had a mistress, Katherine Swynford, who later married him. They had four children together, and as his last wife she acted as step mother to the children of his two previous marriages. Katherine and John had a daughter Philippa, who is 6th great-grandmother to Gov. Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts Bay Colony, my 10th great-grandfather.
John Gaunt Lancaster PLANTAGENET (1340 – 1399)
is your 18th great grandfather
Daughter of John Gaunt Lancaster
Daughter of Philippa
Son of Beatrix
Son of John
Daughter of Richard
Daughter of Anne
Daughter of Mary
Son of Susanna
With his Spanish wife he had a son John who also became the 8th great grandfather of Gov Thomas Dudley, by way of Scotland
John Gaunt Plantagenet (1340 – 1399)
is your 19th great grandfather
Son of John Gaunt
Daughter of John Marquis Somerset
Daughter of Joan
Son of Joan
Son of John
Daughter of Robert Lord
Daughter of CATHERINE
Son of Lady Elizabeth
Son of Capt Roger
Daughter of Gov Thomas
Son of Anne
Daughter of John
Son of Mercy
Daughter of Caleb
Daughter of Mercy
Son of Martha
Son of Abner
Son of Daniel Rowland
Son of Jason A
Son of Ernest Abner
the daughter of Richard Arden
His first marriage was a happy one, that produced another ancestor, on my mother’s side. After 15 generations my parents met in Houston Texas and married. What are the chances of this happening?
John of Gaunt – Duke of Lancaster – Plantagenet (1340 – 1399)
is your 16th great grandfather
Daughter of John of Gaunt – Duke of
Daughter of Joan
Son of Duchess of York Lady Cecily
Son of Henry
Son of Henry
Son of John
Son of Francis Gabriell
Daughter of John
Son of Elizabeth
Son of Richard
Son of George
Son of George
Daughter of David
Daughter of Minerva Truly
Daughter of Sarah E
Son of Lucinda Jane
Daughter of George Harvey
the daughter of Ruby Lee
John of Gaunt is some kind of karmic common denominator of my genetic heritage. I think I need to study him and all of the grandmother wives. Maybe everyone has an ancestor like this, but I find it to be incredible. I have achieved the triple crown of ancestry…now what?
John Prince of England, King of Castile
Heaven on the Ceiling
October 21, 2012
When we identify ourselves we use memory and words to describe our personalities. We play different roles in our lives, which can be broken down into archetypes. Understanding the ancient pantheon or modern breakdown of archetypes at work will reveal your true motives and those of others. The use of astrology in art is a way to place different aspects of life in alignment with different personality traits. In the Renaissance it was suggested that by painting the gods and goddesses that rule each planet of the birth horoscope on the bedroom ceiling as a reminder of the many forces at work, a student of magic/medicine would be well served. The plants and medicines were ruled by planets, and the maladies each had a planetary influence as well. To practice medicine was to be in tune with all that science could offer and all that folk medicine could prove empirically. Symbols work directly in the healing arts just as they do in religion. Beyond words, meaning conveyed through amulets, talismans, astrological paintings, and other magic objects goes to work at a subconscious level. What is your environment saying to you?
To unplug from our own daily delusions through meditation and retreat is healthy. Carl Jung built his stone tower to surround his soul with art that directly symbolizes his inner being. To be fully individuated was the intention behind building the tower by hand in Bollingen and living/decorating it with the symbols that had meaning to him. Living off the grid, and on the water Jung was able to create a retreat that embodied his own psyche. Using his own nature combined with the spirit of the place Jung built a living evolving hermitage. He was interested in alchemy at the end of his career. He was an esteemed shrink with many followers, yet when he went symbolic alchemical on them they did not appreciate the work he had decided to pursue. He was in a position to do as he pleased. The publication of The Red Book after his death has revealed how much he did exactly that.
If you had a place on the water with funds devoted to your building of a retreat what kind of temple would you construct? If you had your choice of materials and colors how would you design your surroundings? If there is no lakeside property in your holdings, do you have a corner of a room, or a space on your window sill to set aside as your own altar or sacred reminder? Is there an inherited item that belongs in the spot, or does it need some art created by and for you? Do you successfully use your gifts as they arrive, while always developing a deeper, more confident, content sense of yourself in this world? Do you have a big backlog of inherited symbols that do not belong with you at all, but are still hanging around in your life? How much of your environment feeds your soul? Can you find a place for personal art and meditation, whatever that means to you? Do you have a few minutes each day to be still and know? These small steps can be a change in direction toward a full happy life. Find a space and a few minutes. See what you can do with them.
Dance with the Dead
October 18, 2012
At the end of October the costumes come out of the closet. This is the big masquerade time in the US. Other cultures have dress up traditions for Carnival and other holidays. The political side of costuming has always been woven into the idea of playing the role of another. Well known faces or looks are popular. In Tucson the Day of the Dead is celebrated in a grand public procession. The costumes in this event are not intended to mimic the living, but rather to show the look of the dead. The visit of the departed souls to earth is celebrated by glowing in the dark, dancing as skeletons, and enjoying the earthly pleasures our dearly departed ones chose while they were alive. The happy honoring of the souls of the dead is a symbol of our connection to all the generations who lived before us.
Royal Coat of Arms
October 18, 2012
An armiger is a person who has the right to bear heraldry. In the United States there are no legal limits to bearing or designing your own coat of arms. In UK, Spain, Ireland, and Canada, places concerned with historical authenticity and royal ancestry, the use of the heraldry is regulated by law. I am not sure what would become of you if you went out with heraldry that was bogus to you, but it is against the law. The rest of us are free to create coats of arms for any occasion, on the fly.
When the Mayflower sailed to Plymouth the Pilgrims left the religious restrictions they had known in England. They took extreme risks to pursue religious freedom. They had their own costuming and strict code that bound them together in this adventure. They originated near Sherwood Forrest, fled for Amsterdam, then Leiden, arriving in 1609. The trip to America began there not only for the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony, but for many branches of my family tree. It appears that almost all of my ancestors were anxious to high tail it out of Europe in the early 1600s. There is much research to be done, but it seems that they all took these risks sailing across the Atlantic because they had extreme convictions of various sorts. Some believed as traders and planters they would prosper and thrive. That seemed to be enough for the Dutch ones. The Brits and the French who sailed out of Leiden were all on big religious trips. As Thanksgiving approaches I am pretty obsessed with my Pilgrim ancestors and all their deets. I truly enjoy living vicariously through the discovery of the actual history of my ancestors.
After about three years of working on my family tree I have collected many coats of arms from my branches. The tree grows ever wider as it goes backwards in time. Some have heraldry. I was thinking about making a piece of art with some of them, and one that I make myself. The real ones have symbols that were meaningful to the family. Mine will have symbols that are enchanting for me. The Queen of your Own Life book includes guidelines for creating one’s own coat of arms, as well as a coronation ceremony to claim sovereignty over body, mind, and spirit. I adore the positive and contemporary way Queen Cindy and Queen Kathy present alchemy, ceremony, and magic. To eliminate the negative is to create space for the essence, the distilled spirit, the powerful talisman. I am pleased to live in a country where I can, as a queen wild and free, create and fly my own royal heraldry without fear of retribution by authorities. I plan to make use of this inalienable right. Have you thought about the symbols that you would use to express the essence of you?
The Yoga Coast of California
October 15, 2012
Self Realization Fellowship, Encinitas
I am visiting the super highly charged driving world of So Cal. Here it seems to me that all my friends are driving at least half of their waking hours. I am a Tucsonan, and almost a non driver when I am at home. I can bike to almost everything I like to do, and a typical month of milage amounts to less than 150 miles total. I have been in Encinitas for 5 days and have done more driving than I do in a regular month at home. I knew the gas prices had been raised. I knew they did not establish any more parking places for me at the beaches. I knew I would become irritated with all the traffic and the never ending search for parking space. Why did I decide to enter this zone? I consider this zone to be the very best place to drive, ironically. The access to the beach is the obvious excitement, but by no means the only reason to visit and drive to the many attractions.
The natural food lifestyle and vegetarian ,organic, all pure, eco-enhanced products abound. I laughed when I observed a big sign advising that the hot dog on a stick stand had two vegetarian options, veggie dog, and cheese on a stick. Gluten free everything is everywhere, at elevated prices. Surf equipment, beach styles, brew pubs, and hip action sports programs are all over the place. I do look at the ‘fornians as lotus eaters, but enjoy coming out to chomp a few lotus myself. The casual and the sporty people mingle with little distinction in style between the super affluent and the full time surfers. In fact, it seems like the common goal is to become affluent so one can afford to live here and surf every day. Little formality and a taste for the well designed, the gourmet, and the latest of everything defines the coastal lifestyle. This is not a good place to try to assess people’s wealth or status based on the way they dress. Dressing for success here is likely to be baggies and a very rad board.
The concentration of so many of the best yoga teachers in Encinitas is not an accident. Paramahansa Yogananda built a temple on a cliff overlooking the sea here in 1937. His hermitage was a gift from a devotee who acquired the property for the purpose. The building was on the side of a cliff and eventually sustained damage that was too costly to repair, and had to be demolished. Today the center and meditation gardens are extensive, but the buildings are safely set away from the stunning view the first hermitage possessed. The Self Realization Fellowship continues to be a thriving center bringing visitors from all over the world to study or simply enjoy the gardens. I always spend a few minutes and a few dollars in the book and gift store there. The selection of books, art, and clothing is outstanding and the free stuff from the teachings is also available in English and Spanish. You don’t have to be a yogi to appreciate the history and the impact the swami had, and still has in this area.
Yogananda’s first hermitage
swami’s view
Birth of a Blogger
October 12, 2012
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I play the part of Auntie Mame to three kids who live in California. I am not grandmother, aunt, or even Jewish, which gives me a distinct place in the family order. I have creative freedom that the other players do not have. I can be indulgent, which I am. I can go home and ignore them, which I do all the time. I feel a responsibility to model for and with them a fair and loving friendship between kids and an adult. This means the authority card can not be played unless there is a dire emergency. We are equals. Of course if I lived with them full time this would collapse quickly, because adults do need authority in order to hang out with kids at all.
They each have distinct talents and abilities. If I have a favorite it would be Max because we share similar interests in technology. This is the child every Apple share holder wants to meet. I think he wants to marry Siri. The kids inherit my old Apple products and are now officially hooked. The issue is that when a boy is alone with his computer, he is likely to just play stupid games and become addicted to it like to the TV. They need restrictions in order to have balance, so mom has very reasonable rules for tech use, which is a powerful force in discipline. To loose privileges to be with the electronics is severe for these guys, so they do behave in order to avoid it.
Yesterday I negotiated the permission for Max to start a blog. He quickly set up his WordPress page and published a picture of himself from the morning as his first post. I convinced mom that the archive will be her most precious possession that she will not need to file or protect. It will be there. Now comes the fun. He is extremely enthusiastic and interested. Mom is happy too because now he does not like to write. I have urged him to be consistent and thoughtful about his content. We talked about technical quality and how to develop interesting posts others want to read. I am curious to see how this will develop. I wonder if his enthusiasm can be maintained, and if he will use this practice wisely. Do you know any kids who blog, and how they got started blogging? I am very interested in finding other youngsters who are involved in this world.
It is with great pride that I present to the blogiverse the talented, the witty , and the very young Mr. Max Levy:
Max in front of his house
I ripped off his first post, which is this picture. Please join me in wishing him blogging success. We may all learn a lot from this young man. He teaches me all the time. Go Max!!!
Non Stop Bucks
October 10, 2012
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I am not the only one wishing the political campaign dollars had been spent on the real problems instead of talking about those problems while blaming others. If you have children who must compete for attention, dollars, education, etc, picture a nation of these children. The soon to be elected leaders are trying to become head of our national household. They are advertising, traveling, and spending money like crazy to convince voters that they are the best for the job. The race it self is boring, but the budgets to bore are outrageous. Vast sums that can be traced to donors, and even bigger super pacs whose donations remain anonymous run the heavily negative ads.
Imagine how your life would be if the members of your household voted on the leadership who control the money spent in the household. What kind of ads would be run to woo the members of your family? Politics always chooses winners and losers by crafting legislation. This never ending cycle of winning/loosing/changing the laws is paid for by the people subject to those laws. Parents and monarchs can dispense with being elected or making a promise to anyone. We know what to expect from their performance after we observe them in action. Some are wise, some silly, egomaniacal, or weak. The good ones seem to get better with time and experience. They do not need to constantly campaign to stay in the monarchy or parenthood, so they can develop wisdom with all that spare time.
The country that allows all this wasteful expenditure on political campaigning is not in a position to afford to blow so much money. Part of the big argument is about the nation’s debt. I do not see any future in keeping the system that proclaims that we are too big to stop borrowing and too cranky to agree on how to spend money. The Swiss are famously cranky about how to spend money, but have solved this problem within their political system. They keep the tax revenues in the canton, working for the people who paid the taxes, as they see fit. They have, but do not go overboard, with the idea of a federal government. There is a beautiful building in Bern to house the congress, which has two chambers, similar to our own. There are no lobbyists, no free parties for the federal employees who serve in the Bundeshaus. In fact, congress is in session in Bern for only 25% of the year. The rest of the time these civil servants go live at home and make a living like other citizens. The salary to serve is not high, so they must want to do it for the service aspect. I wish the US congress could be treated like that. If they did not have that full time free lunch waiting for them every day from lobbyists, they might be able to work effectively for the people who paid all those taxes. Throwing new groups of bums out every 4 years does not seem to be leading to enlightened governance. It makes sense to throw out the system that creates all these bums.
Mumming and Masquerade
October 8, 2012
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The traditions that exist around costumed rituals abound. Mumming may be from the Irish, may be from the Celtic, but now is interpreted by many modern Brits to honor an ancient tradition. The costumes are significant both in the way they change and in the similarities to ancient customs. Straw boys represent good luck, and are sent to visit newly married couples. There are specific plays and characters for Christmas and Halloween in modern mumming that are uninterrupted traditions from ancient history.
Today people have avatars, play games as super heroes, and give themselves any title they please in their on line lives. I think it is interesting that there are so many groups passionate to preserve the costuming and cultures from history, from Civil War reenactments to the merry mummers of the British Isles, to Helldorado Days in Tombstone, AZ. The tradition of mime is related to the mummers. The costume tells much of the story, just as it does in many Naive American dances. Will you dress up for the end of October? Will you do anything special to honor the dead? It is the perfect time.
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