Spring is Beginning......Candlemas

Here is a Threshold Invocation (to be said at the front door of the house

on the eve of Imbolc, 31 January, in the evening)

Midwife of Mystery, open the door,

    Infant of the Infinite, come you in.

Let there be welcome to the newborn truth,

    Let there be welcome to the Spring of the Year.

In cold and darkness you are traveling, 

    In warmth and brightness you will arrive.

May the blessed time of Imbolc

    Kindle the soul of all beings,

Bringing birth to innocence and integrity

    From the depths to the heights,

From the heights to the depths, 

    In the heart of every soul.

Traditional Brigit's Cross

The mystical Scottish writer, Fiona McLeod, had a vision that in the coming aeon Christ would return as a woman: the second coming would be the return of Bride. She wrote:

"I believe that though the Reign of Peace may be yet a long way off, it is drawing near; and that Who shall save us anew shall come divinely as a Woman – but whether through mortal birth, or as an immortal breathing upon our souls, none can yet know. Sometimes I dream of the old prophecy that Christ shall come again upon Iona; and of that later prophecy which foretells, now as, the Bride of Christ, now as the Daughter of God, now as the Divine Spirit embodied through mortal birth – the coming of a new Presence and Power; and dream that this may be upon Iona, so that the little Gaelic island may become as the little Syrian Bethlehem. But more wise is it to dream, not of hallowed ground, but of the hallowed gardens of the soul, wherein She shall appear white and radiant. Or that, upon the hills, where we are wandered, the Shepherdess shall call us home."

How to Make a Brigit's Cross
Gather together:
3 dozen wheat straws, grasses, reeds, or rushes which are the same length
String for tying ends
A clothespin for holding the center of the weaving together while working (optional)

Directions:
Soak your weaving materials in hot water about thirty minutes or until they are flexible. Various materials may require longer soaking times. Remove the straws from the water and wrap them in a damp cloth to keep them flexible while weaving.

Imagine the face of a clock measuring the year of time. Place one straw vertically pointing towards 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock. Fold a second straw in half around the center of the first pointing towards 3 o'clock. Fold the next straw in half and place it over the second straw pointing towards 6 o'clock. Fold the next straw over straw one and three pointing towards 9 o'clock. Continue to work in a circular pattern of folded straws, progressing outward, carefully weaving straws side-by-side. Tighten straws and reposition to fill in gaps when needed.

As you move around the circular pattern, meditate on the progression of the woven events in the seasons of your life, past and present. Visualize what you desire to manifest in the coming year as each straw weaves a dream for the future.

When at least 28 straws have been woven for the center of the cross, tie off each arm of the cross, leaving about 3 inches of straw to create the arm. Trim ends evenly.


Another Type of Brigit's Cross

The traditional time to make Brigit’s Crosses is after the evening meal on the eve of February 1st. In Ireland, all the members of the household made the crosses together, so try it with your family or group of friends.

Traditionally, a young girl representing Brigit brings the materials into the house. She should go outside and knock three times, saying after each knock:

“Go down on your knees, do homage, and let Blessed Brigit enter the house.”
After the third time, all inside respond: “Oh, come in, Brigit, you are a hundred times welcome!”

Hang the crosses over your front door and leave them there to protect the house with Brigit’s blessing until the following year. Children’s crosses are traditionally hung above their beds so that Brigit will protect them through the night.

FLORA CORONA tm

Introducing FLORA CORONA! take a look......it's AMAZING! (click on the title of this POST to find Deborah's webpage)

Inviting New STARSISTERS!

Dear Bright ONES!
I would like to expand the readership and authorship of this STARRY STARRY BLOG! If you have someone you would like to invite to participate as an author....send me an email (click on Sandy on the sidebar and my email will come up!) and send me the email address of the person you would like to invite. I think it is wonderful to have folks from ALL OVER THE EARTH participating!

I have posted two emails from Deborah Craydon (I hope that is ok with you Deborah) because they are SO INTERESTING! We seem to have a Majority of SUSANs on this blog.....you might want to click on EDIT PROFILE and let us know more about you! Check out SUZANNE's profile....it is the most complete. This is getting FUN! Blessings to you all. Sandy

Geographic Medicine-

Dear Flowers & Gems-
Geographic location affects how people work with vibrational essences - Because of various locations I've worked with clients over the years- it began to stand out- that geography has a distinct impact on how different populations flow with these energies:

Sebastopol, CA- a town located on granite rock moving up into the Redwoods- before descending down into the rocky Pacific Ocean coast- and bound also at the edge of the fertile Santa Rosa Valley- which is clay soil-and filled with vineyards-

These clients have goodwill, stayed with the process long-term, often moved through all 7 Meta-Flora levels of flower essence therapy-AND- there were long standing 'stuck' patterns- that took many, many months to unravel, and in rare cases- persisted. Other healers I know have commented on this deep 'stuckness' with clients in this area. Being on the edge of clay- which pulls DOWN on the body- and the elevating forces of granite- which elevate the body- seems to be the geographic reason for this.

Hawaii- The forces in Hawaii are deeply polarized- alternating extremely high/ paradise-like with very dense and low. Clients here were polarized as well- those who could FLY with the very pure original paradise energies of earth there- and those completely submerged and shut down- in order to protect themselves from the very dense lava rock energies that surface when you live on volcanic rock. This was the ONLY location I've practiced in- where a few clients couldn't take on the messages the flowers were bringing to them- and actually projected what arose for them back - as in "What are you doing to me?". On the other hand- the many healers there 'flying' with the energies- wanted to use the Flora Corona bottles themselves- for self-healing. No real middle ground here.

Boulder, Colorado- A mountain foothill town at the base of the huge granite Rocky Mountains- Boulder is on a plateau and already at (5.000?) feet elevation itself. It was a privilege to work with clients here. Everyone sees multiple healers- many are healers themselves- many core healing modalities now used world-wide were first birthed in Boulder. Clients invariably went the 'whole mile' (Denver- the nearest city- is called the 'Mile High' city- due to it's elevation). I've not worked with clients like these anywhere else- enlightenment consciousness- and this due to the high elevation- the granite rock- and the 'in-spire' of the air in this elevation. On the downside- this 'elevated' geographics- also enhanced a sense of almost superiority- well deserved- & lacking balance.

Santa Cruz- A seaside beach town- to reach Santa Cruz- you have to travel over Redwood mountains- which separate SC from the rest of the land 'over the hill'- where Silicon Valley- birthplace of the .com -is--Santa Cruz is not ON some of the major earthquake fault lines- its ON THE OTHER SIDE of these fault lines- therefore it lies--REALLY ON THE EDGE- and actually- WITHIN the Pacific Ring of Fire. Strong Hawaiian energy lives in Santa Cruz- the various surfing spots here- all have various vibrations from the various Hawaiian islands-

The native people- both in North and South America- say the Santa Cruz ('Saint of the Cross') is where the North/South currents MEET-the town is very much like this- you start down one street to get someplace- and have to go around corners- often which don't meet up in the near location you're trying to get to- there's a spiraling movement on the earth here- as though 2 currents from North/South are keeping things-'stirred up'-- Night times down on the beautiful outdoor Pacific Mall- are very 'stirred up'--street musicians- drummers beating to 'their own drum'- its rather wild- Going there during the day- it always feels like a celebration-

I'm finding clients here- to also be quite 'stirred up'--emotional--a bit 'dizzy'--hard to focus their forces- which I feel is due to this nexus point geographically. I would love to hear how some of you experience your clients- main themes in your locations.

oxo- Deborah

Floral Acupuncture!! welcome DEBORAH!

Dearest Suzani-

I will send the 2 dolphin along with the 12 Hawaiian flower essences-when you contact Suzanne, Susan and your sister Sandy-
send them to the Floral Acupuncture link! (click on the title of this post).

This is the water research my husband and I are doing-and will help them get a picture of the Flora Corona work-and where it is going- ( I just did a book review in Lilipoh on Andreas Schultz's book 'Water Crystals'- the water aspect of this work is core.)

It would be such a blessing to have this group of women join the training- and bring this light to the color & light work / vibrational essences / new water research-

The starrystarrynightsistersblogspot-- oh my goodness-this is a gift offering! I think I would love to be part of this Suzani- so do ask the others if they would like to have me join their group-thank you! (Rena Osmer- former head of Early Childhood Education from Rudolf Steiner College just graduated from the group- )

I've long been holding the image of awakening to the location fixed stars at your birth chart in order to read your cosmic destiny- have done some of this in my own chart (you have to move the whole star chart to see where these fixed stars were when you were born- complicated-I spoke with Robert P about this to ask if the way I was doing it was correct, which he affirmed.

The flower essence training- gradually highlights--aligning the physical body with Galactic North & the center of the earth- in order to allow the new hara line chakras to arise-

I'll be sending lot's of info soon- as you move into the course-
Starry starry night- beautiful sister,

Deborah

I'm here

Guess what now I'm getting blog sauvy- well for me that is -Sandy is visiting us in Jamestown and showing me the loops. Hope to see more of your exchanges.

Is Mars direct yet?

I sure hope so since my Mars is in Pisces just like my sun sign and I've not been able to get going.

Cheers,
Susun

Robert Powell's talk 7-06 on Sophia

I recently listened to a recorded lecture of Robert Powell from July '06- in Vancouver, entitled "Cosmic Background to Contemporary Events". Always so good to hear what RP is thinking about. Some of this is familiar, but if you are like me- it helps to hear it all again.

He sets out the grand Imagination of the Incarnation of Lucifer in 2600BC in China as the Yellow Emperor-- bringing in Wisdom (that we must transform to be able to use it rightfully-- like the Gnostics did). And then the Incarnation of Christ in Palestine--- bringing Divine Love into the earth and anti-doting the effect of the Fall. And then we have to look forward to the Incarnation of Ahriman, or the AntiChrist, right about now. (this is where it gets interesting). If Lucifer is about wisdom, and Christ is about Love-- then Ahriman is about POWER. And a kind of power that we (again) must transform in order to make it useful and righteous.

The power of Ahriman is about controlling the whole world- nothing less, and then making the earth a base for further attacks out into the solar system.

All this is foreordained, predicted, set up---and all is revealed in Revelations!!! So these challenges.....which are essentially temptations....we must face and overcome. No way around it. And we all chose to be here because we felt we had at least the seed potential to do this work.

NOW.....the best......the antidote to Ahriman is SOPHIA. As Christ was the antidote to Lucifer, so Sophia is the antidote to Ahriman.

RP says (and I have not really heard it like this before) that Christ and Sophia are GALACTIC BEINGS. And they are of equal stature. They come from the Galactic Center (27º Sag tropically), which is to the whole Milky Way Galaxy what the Sun is to our solar system-- the heart of the galaxy. (Think on that for awhile--as Pluto has just blocked the Galactic Center this last year).

He says that he has researched the Zoroastrian texts and found- first hand- reference to Ahriman, as the "evil twin of Ahura Mazda (Christ)". Ahriman is jealous of Ahura Mazda...and sets him a wager. He bets that he- Ahriman- can lure away humanity from Ahura Mazda/Christ. He says he will do 3 things: 1) Make humans come over to his side. 1) Make humans hate Christ, and 3) Make humans destroy Christ's creation (which means the earth, as Christ, the Logos is behind all creation). But then Ahura Mazda says--- okay--- but there has to be a limit to this bet. 9000 years was agreed upon.

RP thinks, since Zarathustra lived 6500 years ago-- that we are now approaching the end of this 9000 year time. Powell thinks that the end of the Mayan calendar may well mark the end of this 9000 year period. Which means that the 3 and a half years given to the actual incarnation of Ahriman must occur before Dec 21, 2012. That means alot is happening and will happen in the coming 5 years.

Also in 2004 there was a "Venus transit", which is an astronomical term for when Venus actually goes in front of the Sun (rare-ish). It will do it again in 2012!!! He thinks the years between these two dates are very significant...... and significantly ending in 2012.

Then he speaks so wonderfully about Sophia. She brings 3 things (thinking feeling willing). Or rather She asks us to find and develop 3 things in ourselves- that come from her.
1) Divine Love---compassion. Love for all beings. Heart-centered feeling for the earth and all her creatures.
2) Gnosis-- divine knowing. Love that streams up from the heart into the head. Knowing from the inside. Connection with our Guardian Angels.
3) "Sacred Magic"- love streams down into our deeds. Thy Will not my will. Here is the resolution of the power impulse from Ahriman. "The strength of the Human Soul lies in the fulfillment of the will". We find the way to mediate external power in a superior way.
Sophia helps us on all three levels.

There is another Story that I never heard before. RP says that Sophia is uniting with our earth--- she is incarnating. Just as the Christ came out of the heart of the galaxy into our solar system and into our Sun, and then into the earth itself, so too Sophia has left the heart of the galaxy, has come in already to our solar system and will unite with the Sun around 2375 (the beginning of the astrological age of Aquarius). This, he says, will bring about dramatic changes to the problems we face now. She now works directly through the 12 constellations of the Zodiac.

He says that when we focus on Sophia-- She is with us. And this is the antidote to the problems of our times. Our job is to be awake!

Some images and thoughts to share on this wintry, snowy day.

Suzanne

January - CAPRICORN

Tomorrow is about Jan./Capricorn (the Goat). And so forth through the zodiac. You can use the Virtues that correspond to each sign (Robert Sardello has done such good work on the virtues if you have his writings). Capricorn is “The courage to redeem what has gone wrong”. Chew on that for awhile!!!

This was in the CHRISTMAS post by Suzanne... referring to the day after Christmas, as a pre-view for January. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL THE CAPRICORNS in our lives. I have not read any Sardello books. Anything more to add? I was going to go back and look at Meditations on the Signs of the Zodiac. More soon.S

the BEAR!

hi all....we are well under a foot of snow and it's coming down at the rate of 1-2" an hour...! A GREAT DAY to HIBERNATE! I was re-reading what I posted last night. When I was in HS my drama teacher (and friends) nicknamed me "BEAR" because I love to sleep, hibernate, dream! There have been periods in my life (and I know Suzi can attest to this in her life as well) when I could hardly stay awake in the afternoon. I HAD to SLEEP sometimes for days. Many would say this is DEPRESSION or not having enough to do...but it never felt like that. For many years I felt I was practicing BEAR MEDICINE. what about you folks...do you have any totem animals running through your lives? S

a new LEGEND! I have never heard this before

The legend of the seven sleepers has given origin to the word syvsover (literally seven-sleeper) in both Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, as in 'one of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus'. It has come to refer to someone who "sleeps hard and long". The word secondarily refers to a hibernating rodent, the edible dormouse. The word "Siebenschläfer" in German and "hétalvó" in Hungarian bear a meaning similar to the Scandinavian; they characterize someone who usually sleeps long, waking up later than what is considered necessary or proper. (click on the TITLE to see the link)

and now....on a PERSONAL note!

Hello Starry-starry-night-Sisters...wherever you are.

I guess you could say that I just pulled my head up above water! I have been treading through so much holiday and family stuff these past weeks....it feels GREAT to "pop above water", and see with a new clarity, what I THINK will be a manageable amount of LIFE for the next few months!

Tonight we are expecting a BIG SNOW, AGAIN. I love when it snows... I feel like something so special is falling down on us. Blessings? crystalized calmness? when the snow piles up on the roof our house becomes warmer, literally! with the extra snow insulation. But it's the "heart" feelings that always make me so happy on a snowy morning.....like a special unexpected vacation. We make pancakes, drink tea, put a fire in the fireplace and the kids get out the GAMES. It's great. A break from the norm.

I am grateful for the snow, and the people in my life. I am grateful for new friends and old friends, for the comfort of knowing that we have so much to LEARN and so much to SHARE!

Hope you are all well, tonight.
xxxoooo S

WOW! look what I found.....

Starry Starry Night~National Dark Sky Week
Petoskey News-Review 4.07

April 2007- This week of April’s first new moon marks the observance of National Dark Sky Week, April 17 through 23, 2007. The observance was inaugurated in 2003 by high school sophomore and amateur astronomer Jennifer Barlow from her home in Virginia. Celebrated each year since during the April new moon, National Dark Sky Week is an attempt to establish an officially and widely recognized time on the calendar for turning off all extraneous lights in order to truly experience the majesty of the night sky, and for recognizing the desirability and feasibility of protecting it.

Here in northwestern Lower Michigan we have the advantage of being bounded by a vast body of water upon which lighted development cannot occur. This may seem elementary, but when you consider how much one misplaced light can crowd innumerable stars and night sky phenomena from view, then the desire to protect this vast resource becomes all the more precious. Challenge yourself to get outside and look around. How many lights can you turn off so that you and your neighbors can enjoy the stars? And how can you encourage our local businesses and schools to observe National Dark Sky Week?

Consider, light pollution is not the only thing threatening our ability to see the night sky. This threat also stems from our losing the stories, and their subsequent influence on our cultural life. Take for instance the stories of Ursa Minor, widely known as the Little Dipper. Most of us are aware that Ursa Minor is the Little Bear, and that the star at the tail end of the Little Bear is Polaris, the North Star. What most people don’t know is that even though Polaris marks the way due north, it is not the brightest object in the northern skies. In fact, Polaris is tricky to find even in dark skies, despite the help of the pointer stars on the outside lip of the cup of the Big Dipper which lead directly to it.

Perhaps it is only coincidence that simultaneous to the growth and development and subsequent increase in light pollution we have witnessed a decrease in knowledge about star names, their positions and their lore. But it is no coincidence the effect of light pollution from urban areas deep into some of America’s most remote, wild places, such as the National Parks, and, well, our own local communities.

Light pollution also has wide and devastating ecological consequences, affecting everything from the nocturnal migration of birds to the disorientation of turtle hatchlings on nesting beaches. Certain types of electrical lights are said to contribute to global warming, and ecologists report that 44% of Americans live in places where it does not become sufficiently dark for the human eye to complete the transition from cone to rod vision. Nearly 19% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface experiences night sky brightness that is polluted by astronomical standards. How could the Egyptians have built their mighty pyramids and oriented them to a star under such conditions? The star Thuban in the constellation Draco was their Pole Star, and from the central passage of the Great Cheops Pyramid this star could be seen, both day and night.

There is a tale formerly associated with the stars of Ursa Minor, that there in the north this constellation marked the mountain which was the seat of the gods, and that Polaris marked the star at the top of said mountain. The seven stars of Ursa Minor were also once related to the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, early Christians who, under persecution by Decius in our 3rd century, slept for nearly 200 years in the grotto under the earthly mountain that served as counterpart to this heavenly mountain. The story predates Rip Van Winkle by many hundreds of years, and tells of how these seven young men hid themselves in the mountain, and there fell asleep, never aware that Decius had a stone sealed over the entrance to their cave. Nearly 200 years later, the stone had crumbled and Christianity had spread far and wide, and the seven sleepers awoke. They were found out because they sought to buy bread with gold coins no longer in circulation, and they were eventually canonized and celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church until 1969.

National Dark Sky Week, observed in this season when both the Big and Little Dippers move toward the zenith of the night sky, is endorsed by the International Dark Sky Association, the American Astronomical Society (professional astronomers), the Astronomical League (a large confederation of U.S. amateur astronomy clubs) and Sky & Telescope. Locally, National Dark Sky Week is celebrated by the Outdoor Lighting Forum with its annual awards luncheon during which they honor community members, professionals, academics, and individuals for outstanding efforts to curb light pollution. The OLF has many brochures and ideas about alternate lighting methods for businesses and developers, and can be reached at 231.348.1731.

With all due respect to the inventive mind of Thomas Edison, let it not take 200 years for us to wake up to the opportunity to make a difference in the night, even by turning out one simple light.

~ Mary Stewart Adams