Dawn on Winter Solstice...the furthest into my apartment that the sun would shine around 8 am. The growth of daylight hours each day past the solstice is very slow at first.
My new little friend, a Christmas Cactus graces my old sewing basket. It is now happily soaking up winter sunshine, but has lost all it's blooms, sigh.
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Today's goddess:
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Inanna, The Queen of the Night (Burney Relief) fired clay, Mesopotamia, Old Babylonian era, 1800-1750 BCE.
In the misty origins of ancient Sumer, the goddess Ishtar (originally known as Inanna) stands as a paradoxical figure of staggering complexity—a "Mother Goddess" who, interestingly, was rarely depicted as a literal mother or wife. Known as the Queen of Heaven, she personified the raw, untamed forces of both sexual desire and the violent chaos of war. To the ancients, she was the "Lady of the Morning and Evening Star" (the planet Venus), representing the dualities of life: the beauty of the sunrise and the looming mystery of the dusk. Her most famous myth, her descent into the Underworld, reveals her as a deity of profound transformation; by stripping away her royal garments and facing death itself at the hands of her sister Ereshkigal, she embodied the cyclical nature of the seasons and the fragile threshold between the world of the living and the realm of shadow
Source: The Secrets of the Ancients FB page
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Today's quote:
Love is to life what life is to death. And so we risk everything trying to touch the ineffable by touching each other. Over and over. Again and again… Patterned behavior alternates like shadow and light… We can change, evolve, and transform our own conditioning. We can choose to move like water rather than be molded like clay. Life spirals in and then spirals out on any given day. It does not have to be one way, one truth, one voice. Nor does love have to be all or nothing.
Terry Tempest Williams
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A time when my shaky fingers posted this in error...namely on Dec. 8. But here it is, again!
Today's new header - I think I was trying portrait settings on the iPhone. It created that halo effect on the central blossom.
Joining Floral Friday Fotos (which is already open!)
Thanks for the flowers! I'm hoping my resting orchid will wake up at some point.
ReplyDeleteIt's always nice to have a plant or two around to give the air a bit of oxygen, and beauty.
Delete...Barbara, your Kalanchoe in your header looks happy. Your "Christmas" cactus is actually a "Thanksgiving" cactus. Christmas cactus has rounded leaf segments Thanksgiving cactus have pointed leaf segments.
ReplyDeleteOh, I always wondered how you could tell besides when they actually bloomed. I think I've always had Thanksgiving cacti.
DeleteMy Christmas cactus only had two blooms, but I was happy for those. :)
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly fun to see those little shrimp-like flowers.
DeleteYour winter flowers always look so wonderful. I still have the poinsettia on Lacey’s podium.
ReplyDeleteOh that's good to hear...a bright spot in the greys of winter.
DeleteBeautiful winter blooms! Thank you Barb. I think we all needed to see these!
ReplyDeleteSo glad to share what makes my life have beauty right here in my home.
DeleteI am still bemoaning the lack of camellia blooms here. In all the years past I have been awash in them by this time of year. I have many buds, only the sasangua varieties are opening. I have not given up hope.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever come across the Mayan goddess Ixchel? She is my lady. Her powers are many, her roles varied. She is one of the Meso-American goddesses the Catholic invaders replaced with the Virgin of Guadalupe whom I also admire but who is, in my opinion, a meek substitution for Ixchel.
Thanks so much. I do love the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe since it includes Ixchel's being the original goddess of that place of worship. I'll look to see if any figures remain in the archives of the original goddess.
DeleteOh thank you! I so appreciate our friendship. i love the things you publish and your visits always carry heart You are my goddess of the day! Aloha
ReplyDeleteWe are all carrying the goddess within us...the divine feminine lets us have compassion and forgiveness, love and sorrow as well. And sometime even anger and determination to change things!
DeleteHappy 2026! Beautiful plants on your windowsill, Barbara! I have a few flowering cacti plants that seem to like to bloom during November, so they are Thanksgiving cacti. I love orchids but I think our climate is too dry here for them to flourish long as I have had no luck growing them.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear dry climate doesn't promote orchid growth. But succulents do pretty well. I always thought the time when a cactus bloomed determined it's name, but Tom is a former nursery owner so I trust if he says round ended leaves means Christmas Cactus, it is probably true.
DeleteLovely blooms. And I'm intrigued by Ishtar's chicken feet.
ReplyDeletegorgeous orchids and the Kalanchoe.....a favourite indoors of mine aswell.
ReplyDelete