Goddess Of the Week - Kwan Yin, the ultimate Mother

Kwan Yin is a Goddess who stands at the meeting place of two great archetypal rivers: the very ancient Chinese Great Mother and the Bodhisattva of Compassion, who appears elsewhere as a masculine figure.

She is also one of those very rare deities who quietly belong to several religions at once.  Always changing, always Herself, her image can be seen on Buddhist shrines throughout the world as well as in Taoist places of worship.  Her calm gaze watches over countless ancestors on Confucianist shrines in China, Shintoist shrines in Japan, often found close to Her own.

As the Great Mother, Her compassion radiates in harmony with the blessings of Tibetan Tara,

African Yemaya

 

or South-American Virgén de Guadalupe.

All over the world, women have always prayed to the Great Mother for the healing of a sick child or to find solace from life’s troubles.  Always She hears, and Her Presence consoles the grieving, cools the burning brow, relieves the pain. Kwan Yin means “She who hears the cries of sentient beings.”

In Tibet, She becomes He: Chenrezig, “Loving Eyes”. One of his representations shows him with a thousand arms forming a mandala around him in his endeavour to help all sentient beings who call for His help.

In Her sanctuary, Kwan Yin awaits you.  In Her hands she holds the vessel of nectar which She pours on the world’s suffering.  The wheel of Her mantra, Om Mani Padme Hum, revolves infinitely, emanating light in all directions.  Take the time to bow before Her and allow your heart to express its sincere wish.  Allow Her subtle presence to reach out to you.

It’s perfectly all right to ask for oneself, but isn’t it even sweeter to ask for a loved one?

 

 

All of the information in this post came from a wonderful site listed below:

Goddess of the Week - Oya(Change)

“In Africa, Oya is the Yoruban Goddess of weather, especially tornadoes, lightening, destructive rainstorms, fire, female leadership, persuasive charm and transformation.  She is also one of the most powerful of Brazilian Macumba deities.  When women find themselves in hard to resolve conflicts, she is the one to call on for protection.”  Wine is her favorite color, and her sacred number is nine.  (courtesy of  The Goddess Oracle) 

 

Oya comes into my life to tell me that it is time for change.  I have been floating along in my life, just existing, not making decisions, not making changes, afraid to move forward, afraid to move anywhere.   I am now acknowledging my paralyzation, accepting the need for change, craving change.  It is now time for me to step forward, make changes, and leave the bog of eternal stench (my traumas) behind me. 

Goddess of the Week - The Erinyes

This evening I picked the Goddess of the week - and it has turned out to be The Erinyes. The Erinyes represent Crisis, according to the The Goddess Oracle.   The Erinyes were the feminine personification of Vengeance in the Greek Pantheon.  The Erinyes were three netherworld goddesses who avenged crimes against the natural order.  Virgil mentions three of the Erinyes in his writings.  They were Alecto - who punished for moral crimes, Magaera - She was said to be the cause of jealousy and envy, and caused people to commit crimes, especially marital infidelity, and Tisiphone - who punished for crimes such as murder.  The Erinyes were connected with Nemesis as enforcers of a just balance in human affairs.  The Erinyes were known to drive their victims insane. 

According to The Goddess Oracle - “The Erinyes are howling after you because you and/or your loved ones are in crisis.  The way to nurture wholeness for you now lies in reaching out and asking for help.  Whether it is from the human, animal, or spiritual kingdoms, help is required at this juncture of excess, psyche-breaking stress, and instability.  Identify and name the the kind of crisis you are in.”

I think this is excellent advice.  Often when I am in crisis, I am not aware of how acute it is affecting me until it is almost too late.  Identifying and naming your problems, taking the leap to be honest with yourself when facing your issues is one of the most difficult things to do. 

Goddess of the Week

I have decided to focus on one Goddess each week.  I am going to use the Goddess Oracle cards.  (http://www.goddessoracle.com/GOF-home.html) 

I think this will be interesting psychologically and spiritually.  This week the card I drew is Inanna.  Inanna represents embracing the shadow.  In The Goddess Oracle by Amy Sophia Marashinsky, she states “It is a time to dance with your shadow, reclaim what you’ve denied, embrace your own Dark Sister/Dark Self.  You need all those aspects of yourself that your parents, caregivers, teachers, society have deemed unacceptable in order to achieve wholeness in your life.  Whether it be your talent, your beauty, your inner vampire, your anger, your madness, you are required to surrender to the journey and embrace your dark side.” 

What does this card mean for me in my life right now?  I think what it is indicating is that I need to embrace my talents.  Growing up my accomplishments were never recognized.  In fact, at times, I think my parents were embarrassed by my creative work, especially my poetry.  I think because they could read between the lines that spoke of my abuse, they hated it.  They never came to any of my plays, and tried to squash any attempts I made at creativity.  This is one of the reasons I have such tremendous self-doubt and self-hatred to this day.  It is time for me to recognize and celebrate the creative spirit inside me!  I need to stop listening to the negative messages programmed into my brain that create paralyzing self doubt.  I need to embrace my shadow self.  I need to nurture her and let her create.

13 of My Favorite Goddesses

Thirteen of My Favorite Goddesses 1.  Kuan Yin - Goddess of Compassion.  Exerpt from Goddess & Heroines by Patricia Monaghan  Just as Catholic Christianity has provided an antidote to pure theological patriarchy by encouraging the reverence of the Virgin Mary, so Chinese Buddhism evolved a feminine bodhisattva, or Buddha-to-be, named Kuan Yin. And just as Mary captured the hearts of Catholic worshipers, so Kuan Yin far outstripped the male bodhisattvas in popularity. Both in Japan (as Kwannon, who is often pictured as male) and in pre-revolutionary China, this semidivine being was honored in virtually every home; she was the most powerful being in the entire Chinese pantheon. It was said that Kuan Yin was so concerned for humanity that, upon receiving enlightenment, she chose to retain human form rather than transcend it as pure energy. And so she would stay until every single living creature attained enlightenment. Her name translates “she who hears the weeping world”; Kuan Yin sat on her paradise island P’u T’o Shan answering every prayer addressed to her. The mere utterance of her name in prayer was said to assure salvation from physical and spiritual harm. Even better was the observance of Kuan Yin’s own testimony of peace and mercy; her most devout worshipers ate no flesh and lived entirely without doing violence to other beings.  **************  2.  Oya - Change 3.  Brigid - Inspiration. 4.  Isis - Mothering 5.  Hecate - Crossroads 6.  Pele - Awakening 7.  Maya - Illusion 8.  Artemis - Selfhood 9.  Vila - Shape Shifting 10.  Maat - Justice 11.  Lakshmi - Abundance 12.  Sekhmet - Anger and Rage 13.  Ix Chel - Creativity

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Jewelry and Art Objects

This has been a busy week.  I have been working on getting my jewelry ready to sell.  I will be selling them on etsy.com.  I have been making new pieces and taking photos.  My store name is AmethystsArt.etsy.com.  I hope to have everything up and running today.  WhooHoo!!!  Check out my healing stone jewelry.  I want to coincide the start of my site with the New Moon.  This is a great time to start something new.  I send love and light to everyone!!!

Thursday Thirteen Plus One Extra

Thirteen Things About Colors - Plus One WHITE Meditation/  Dream: Truth of the highest order. Enlightenment. Energy in its most pure form. Divinity. Aura: Never a predominate color in the aura unless you are looking at an angel or an ascended master. Healing: Charging the energy field,  bringing peace and comfort, divine light or whole white light entering.   VIOLET  Meditation/  Dream: Conjures feelings of enchantment, wishes fulfilled, of dreams made fact. Transformation of the self or of some aspect of your life into a higher form. Connecting to your higher self. Aura: This color in the aura is the highest vibration for the human spirit. A person who is in command of his life and energy. A visionary. Violet with a gold outline is a person who is one with spirit and is in service to mankind. Healing: Connecting to spirit, the opening of the third eye, the clearing of the head, purging the auric field of distortions.   BLUE  Meditation/  Dream: Blue is the energy of pacification, self protection, sweetness and tenderness, and of loyalty. It represents contentment and reunion with the Earth. Aura: Blue in the aura represents a teacher or a very sensitive person. They are kind and caring and will do much to help others grow.  Healing: Cooling, calming, restructuring of the etheric level, taking away pain when doing deep tissue work and work on bone cells. Blue also helps to expand a person’s field to connect to his/her life task.   GREEN  Meditation/  Dream: Taken most directly from nature, these hues often are expressive of constancy, self-affirmation, security, self-esteem, and of deeply rooted pride. A healing meditation may contain green, as it is the color of new growth. Aura: Green in the aura signals a very intellectual person who may possess healing gifts. At the very least it signals a nurturer personality and one that will do what they can to make another comfortable. Healing: Charging the heart chakra, balancing the aura, general healing, sometimes charging the aura to ensure well being and health, and to remove illness.   YELLOW  Meditation/  Dream: Representative of cheerfulness, radiance, relaxation and release from burdens. It is warmth of sunlight, the halo around the Holy Grail. Yellow is hope and also intelligence. Aura: Yellow, like green also signals a very intellectual person. They are powerful thinkers, and idea makers. Healing: Charging the brow chakra, clearing a foggy head.   ORANGE  Meditation/  Dream: Symbolic of fire, of expanding energy, power and the omnipotence of the sun and the majesty of sunsets. Energy to accomplish ones goals. Aura: A very ambitions person who needs to succeed and has the energy to do so. Healing: Charging the auric field, increasing sexual potency, increasing the immunity system.   ROSE  Meditation/  Dream: In meditation or dreams represents self-love, also resurrection. The color of flesh, of sensuality and emotion, romantic love, and supportive love. Aura: A person in-love with another or in-love with one’s created environment. Healing: Subtle healing and love. This energy puts back a sense of self love and self worth.   RED  Meditation/  Dream: Red represents the will to achieve, energy, intensity, and struggle. It is also appetite, desire, and reproduction. It is life in the “now.” Aura: People with mostly red in their aura are fiery spontaneous people. They are often fearless, or appear that way. Red’s make good police and firemen and soldiers. Red will also be found in the normal aura for brief periods during great anger or passion. Healing: Super charging the auric field, burning out cancer, warming cold areas.   GOLD  Meditation/  Dream: Divinity transforming lower energy to upper energy. Spiritual power in all aspects operating for the greater good. Aura: Gold in the aura is rarely a predominate color, however you can find it as an outline to another color, like violet. Gold as an outline in the aura adds the dimension of spiritual nobility and rank, a person that has and is achieving great spiritual progress and work. Healing: The restructuring of the seventh layer of the aura.   GRAY  Meditation/  Dream: Grey in a dream or meditation signals excessive energy being burnt off. it is also a lifting of intense fear or some life-threatening situation. Aura: A person who’s life-force is leaking away due to unhappiness, sadness, depression, or illness. With the color black a person with advanced cancer. Healing: Only used during a healing when excessive energy must be removed because the person can’t handle it.   BLACK  Meditation/  Dream: In the shinny black variety it is a closing in of energy and resource to protect ones self. The velvet or shinny black is not a negative color to get in a meditation, especially if you are feeling burnt out. A velvet black light opens up the Aura so that it can accept higher colors. Aura: A dull lifeless black in the aura shows a person who is very far removed from the constructive forces of the universe. With the grey streaks, it shows a person being destroyed by his or her own actions and lack of spirituality. Note: Wearing black is very common and it opens up the human aura to all the other colors.  Wearing black also protects your energy from leaking out to others. Healing: The velvet black color is used to bring a patient into the state of grace, silence, and peace.   SILVER  Meditation/  Dream: Silver relates to the moon, the subconscious, and the female aspect of the universe.  Aura: Not a color usually present in the aura in any great quantity. Healing: Used to purge the auric field and to charge the sixth level of being (karmic level), to remove old karma that is no longer needed.   INDIGO  Meditation/  Dream: Purple or indigo in a dream or meditation signals  some kind of psychic power or ability or some kind of psychic force. Aura: In the aura shows a very intuitive person, a person with prepackaged abilities that come from before birth to be used physically in this incarnation. These people tend to be square pegs as far as society and fitting in is concerned. This will change as  more of the current generation is born with this color and takes its place in society. Healing: The opening up of intuition or of some psychic ability.   CRYSTAL  Meditation/  Dream: Transformation into a new form or a higher energy state. Crystals amplify and a crystal light will amplify your own energy to a higher level. Aura: A crystal aura around a person is clear but will have other colors intermingled with it. This is the ‘chameleon’ aura. People with this aura will take on the attitudes and ways of those around them. The aura of others becomes their own aura. It is important for these crystal people to only surround themselves with the best influences possible, for obvious reasons. A person with a crystal aura must learn how to separate themselves from everybody else.  Healing: Sometimes used to fill in an empty spot where some energy was removed, so that nothing unwanted takes it’s place, till the person’s energy field can replace the vacuum with its own energy field.

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Friday Fill-In

1. Ahhhh, it’s so nice to drink a warm cup of tea on a cold day!
2. One of my favorite things on my desk or bureau is my large amethyst cluster.
3. Japanese Cherry Blossom Tea is a wonderful blooming flower tea.  http://www.herbs-teas.com/
4. Curled up in my bed when it is cold, or, outside under a tree by a pond and on a blanket is my favorite place to sit and read.
5. Spiral Diner’s vegetarian barbecue sandwich and 8 layer burrito are delicious!http://www.spiraldiner.com/
6. I love to watch Magic in movies.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to getting some rest, tomorrow my plans include the momentum meeting and Sunday, I want to go to circle and see my friends!

Friday Fill In

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about Chakras.  1. The Crown Chakra is at the top of the head, and the color for the Crown Chakra is Violet. 2. The Crown Chakra works with metabolism, central nervous system, head, cerebral cortex, upper spine, and hair. 3. The Third Eye Chakra is between the eyebrows, and the color associated with it is Indigo. 4.  The Third Eye Chakra deals with the endocrine and nervous system, autonomic nervous system, hypothalamus, eyes and the pituitary gland. 5.  The Throat Chakra is located in the throat area and is associated with the color blue.  6.  The Throat Chakra deals with the parathyroid, balance of Yin and Yang, ears, sinus, thyroid, and respiratory system. 7.  The Heart Chakra is located in the chest, and is associated with the color green. 8.  The Heart Chakra is the center of love for self and others.  It deals with the heart, lung, lymph system, immune system, allergy, blood pressure, and circulation. 9.  The Naval or Solar Plexus Chakra is located around the solar plexus, and is associated with the color yellow. 10.  The Naval Chakra is the bodies battery.  It deals with the digestive system, stomach, liver, pancreas, gall bladder, bile, and small intestines.  11.  The Sacral Chakra is located above the genital area.  It is associated with the color orange.  12.  The Sacral Chakra deals with life force issues, energy, abdomen, spleen, urinary tract, kidneys, ovaries, uterus, and blood sugar. 13.  The Root Chakra is located at the base of the spine and is associated with the color red.

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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Ikebana, Tea, Furoshiki

This weekend I went to see the Crow Collection of Asian Art with my friend J. from work.  We had a great time!  I learned about Ikebana, Japanese Tea Ceremonies and Furoshiki.

When we got to the exhibit, we meandered around beautifully painted Japanese Art, Carved jade pieces and the largest pure crystal sphere I have ever seen.  The jade bottles, carvings and boxes were amazing!    Then it was time for the Tea Ceremony discussion.  It was fascinating.  The lecturer was one of the owners of The Cultured Cup,  A gourmet tea, coffee, and chocolate shop located in Dallas.  I got to taste three different types of Japanese green teas; Hojicha, Genmaicha and Sencha Midori.  I loved them all, and was amazed by the different flavors they all had.   Kyle, the speaker was very knowledgeable.  I learned about Chabana - the special floral arrangements used for tea ceremonies, and “Wabi-Sabi style”- which basically means that in life one should appreciate the beauty of things that are imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.  That is why the imperfection of the Japanese Tea bowl is viewed as beautiful.  Kyle passed around examples of Japanese tea bowls, and a German made perfect porcelain cup.  This helped in emphasizing his point, that it is important to appreciate the beauty in the imperfect. 

After the Tea Ceremony presentation, we went to see the Ikebana.  They were beautiful.  In principle, Ikebana is a disciplined art form where the arrangement is a living thing in which nature and humanity are brought together.  It is steeped in the philosophy of developing a closeness with nature.  Many practitioners of Ikebana feel that the spiritual aspect of Ikebana is very important.  One becomes quiet when one practices Ikebana.  It helps you to live “in the moment” and to appreciate things in nature that previously seemed insignificant.  One becomes more patient and tolerant of differences, not only in nature, but more generally in other people.  In some Ikebana, the relationship between heaven, earth and man is represented.  There are many different schools of Ikebana, each with their own methods and techniques.  Americans tend to just throw flowers in a vase.  In Ikebana; thought, composition, spirituality, and connection with nature, are all explored to create a living work of art. 

The final event of the day was a demonstration of Furoshiki.  Furoshiki is the Japanese art of cloth wrapping.  We even got to try our hand at it.  In 2006 in Japan, their Minister of Environment recommended that people use Furoshiki to help reduce waste in the environment.  She wanted the utilization of  “Mottainai Furoshiki“ to contribute to reducing household waste from plastic bags.  I am going to make myself a purse using this method with one of my old scarves. 

All in all, I had a great time!  I learned some very fascinating things about the Japanese culture, and I definitely want to explore this some more!