Let's start with Skywatch Friday!
Some dawns give interesting features...heavy frost (which I had to scrape off my car windows before going to an appointment that morning - but Barry our maintenance man helped!). And the fog rises from the river valley between my hill and the mountains to the south.
The mist changes second by second!
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Our connections to the past:
"Long ago, in shamanic cultures, we knew how to communicate with the Life of the Earth: with the spirits of the plants, the water, the mountains, the animals, and with the Life of the Cosmos — the sun, the moon and the stars in the night sky. We also knew how to communicate with the ancestors and their wisdom. Today, we have lost those skills and are increasingly losing the skill of communicating with each other, listening to each other, respecting each other.
All this has come about because, over centuries and millennia, the visible, material world has become separated from the invisible one. We have lost the thread of Ariadne that once connected us to our cosmic Source. Belief, directed by powerful priesthoods, became a substitute for direct shamanic experience of the Source. We have lost touch with our soul — even the awareness that we have a soul. Cut off from soul, our mind has become impoverished, rigid, dogmatic, and inflated. In compensation for the loss of relationship with soul, it has become driven by the need for ever more power and control, which is why we find ourselves in the extraordinary situation we are in today when millions are suffering the effects of wars and from physical and mental illness, and we are threatened with becoming inducted into a technology that could replace our species with a transhumanist one created by AI, which could bring our species to an end. We need urgently to find our way back the way we have come, towards nature and the ground of our own nature."
-Anne Baring, Divine Wisdom and the Holy Spirit: The Forgotten Feminine Face of God.
Posted in Girl God Books from Norway on FB
Sharing with Sepia Saturday - a week late on the needlework! Sorry, no musicians this week!
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Today's goddess:
In the unique ancient art of Cyprus, the female form of the Goddess is often associated with prayer and birth. It seems to be the birth of the world, the birth of trees
and nature. Before Bronze Chalcolithic Limestone Praying Goddess, Cyprus, 3000-2500 BC.
Thanks Jenny Mendez FB site
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Winter Solstice is in 9 days
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New header (for phone reading where headers are cut!)
A bit of blurry Santa's sleigh, with the various cars to give juxtaposition across the street further in the distance. Taken through the Peri Social house window.
No comments here at 8 am? Wonder why...
ReplyDeleteJust now at 2:30 posting and reading others blogs.
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI do not enjoy scarping frost off my car windows, it is so darn cold.
I love all the Christmas decorations and the tree!
Take care, enjoy your day and happy weekend.
So glad to hear from you Eileen! I thought for a minute there was a glitch in blogland...or even worse to consider, the internet, to which I'm quite addicted!
DeleteWe have lost so many connections and skills
ReplyDeleteYes, and some of us try to re-connect these - to practice creating art, to stay aware of all of nature. Thanks for your efforts.
DeleteI always want to retort who's this we when I read miserable writing about how "we" ve lost this that and the other. Makers are still connected, thank you. Don't spread misery!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear your opinion Boud. Creative people are all around us, connecting us in new ways all the time.
DeleteI like the through the window shot of Santa and the building and cars across the street.
ReplyDeleteKind of brings things down to earth - parking lots compared to fantasy sleighs!
DeleteBlack Mountain truly does have a lot going on for the people, by the people and of the people. I love that my grandsons will always be a part of this, tied as they are by birth and by living there part time.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t know how you’re connected here…but I hope we can meet sometime in person!
DeleteI love the Christmas/Solstice touches.
ReplyDeleteThere you are! I missed your early comments. Sigh. Everyone’s so busy these days!
Delete...I had a 8 am doctor appointment and and just got home after a few errands. I love the "This Yule!" Be warm and well.
ReplyDeleteI figured either an appointment or a problem...you've become so dependable with your comments! Glad to know all is well.
DeleteWe do seem to be losing our ability to connect with each other (ironic, because supposedly we live in a "connected" world!). That's a beautifully decorated tree.
ReplyDeleteOur connections are so well described when people sit in the same room texting one another! Glad you liked the tree. There will be more!!
DeleteThat is a nicely decorated tree. I like the view through the window.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I liked the hand made ornaments!
DeleteI often wonder what would happen were we to lose all dependence on artificial intelligence? It would certainly be the end of the world as we know it, but could it actually be the ultimate saving of the world? It would, of course, be a catastrophe at first,, but forced to go back to our roots, we might find ourselves again! Hopefully . . .
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you’re equating the internet with AI. I avoid AI as much as I can. I support the areas where real artists create things, and local stores sell them. I don’t like the feeling of being spied on if I look up something and then a bunch of ads come my way afterwards…the algorithms are a pain. I want to keep communicating on the internet as a free agent, without being followed by bots.
DeleteIn Winter we have periods of rain in Hawaii. It gives us a nice wintry feeling and makes the sunny days wonderful when they come back. Thank God I don't have to face scraping ice off of my car! Best wishes to you my friend and to all here. Aloha
ReplyDeleteRainy winters were also a frequent pattern in the south of the mainland. Not sure how things are changing. But yes, a sunny day is mostly welcome
DeleteI certainly agree that we need to find our way back to nature (she said while using her computer,)
ReplyDeleteYou are one of my blog-friends who are much closer to nature in your life than myself. But isn't it a treat that some clever people devised this internet thingie!
DeleteMy childhood was spent outside ... Do children even go outside today? Nature is so important - to walk through, touch - it lifts the spirits.
ReplyDeleteSuch beautiful blue ornaments. I admire trees that have one palate. All Christmas trees are beautiful with their variety of styles, but when someone picks one or two colors, it strikes me as more elegant.
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays.
Susan
Barbara- what a beautiful, thoughtful post with much to reflect on. My Favourite part the Yuletide poem - such a simple prayer and one we should all heed. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI'm a few days late, but thankfully we don't have to chip ice off of a computer screen! I regret that where I live in Asheville I don't have a view of our mountains to the east. But every morning as I walk my dog I get to see the view of Mt Pisgah to the west. Sometimes clouds hide the whole range or thick fog settles in the valleys making the mountains look like islands. Lately it's been covered in white sugar like a confection cake.
ReplyDelete