Color the Sky by Two Steps from Hell - The meaning of life

This song...holds the meaning of life. Not just of life, as we think about it in petty human terms, but of all existence, for all time. Honestly, I listened to this song for three hours straight, and had a spiritual revelation. It's hard to describe, because to understand it you must be in this trance state. It went a little something like this:

Life is transience

Time is an delusion

Existence is a divine illusion

The whole of all is rapture

All stems from the whim of creation

God is an author who lives through his characters

We are all God

God is all of us

Life unto death unto life again

Plunging in and out of existence

Eternally reinterpreting self

Circle, circle

Forever

I wish I could explain it better. I really do. But it cannot be explained, only experienced. You must forget everything. You must forget your sense of self which tethers you to a single form, a single mind. You must realize that you are everything--that neighbor cutting his grass, that pilot flying through the sky, that dog barking as you pass by, trying to protect his home. Everything, everyone, every life of every kind is the same thing. Everything exists simultaneously. There is no past, no future, only the moment, and all happens within the moment. The moment of creation, of experience. The divine is experiencing life as an ancient hominid, wandering nomadically with their tribe at the same time as it is experiencing being a minuteman in the American Revolution, at the same time as it is writing this blog, fingers tapping on the keyboard, at the same time it is staring at a computer screen, reading this other person's blog. Time does not exist. We are all the same force played out over and over again, reinterpreting, experiencing, becoming, changing. Everything exists separately as it experiences all from one consciousness, but everything is happening simultaneously. Consciousness' interact with one another, because time is a delusion.

God is not a form, a person, a figure. God has no gender. God is only the Divine, that from whence everything comes, and everything returns. The Divine is simply a force of creation, taking rapture in creating, experiencing everything, like a newborn child, or an author. This is God. There is no good or evil. Only existence, and the whole of existence is rapture. The divine goes through one full existence as a single consciousness, then is reborn as a new one. The divine is both aware of itself in its primal form and unaware of itself in it's eternal transmutational forms of existence.

I'm sorry. This is getting really confusing sounding. As I said, it can't be explained, only experienced. I think authors will grasp it more easily. They write to experience from a certain consciousness. To create. That is what they an impulse drives them to do. They cannot not create. At the same time that they are their character Mathew enjoying a cup of coffee and reading a great new book in their favorite cafe, they are the waitress Allison at that cafe, asking Mathew if he'd like more coffee, and Mathew's friend Shawn, showing up and seeing Mathew unexpectedly and feeling a rush of serendipitous joy. At the same time they are Mathew's father, fighting in WWII, meeting Mathew's mother as a nurse. Keep going. Keep the story unfolding. Past and present are created simultaneously, because time is a delusion. The story never ends. It continues on forever.

As Tsou, who is my character and therefore myself, just as I am also a 'character', puts it, "Such is mortal life: a fleeting rapture."

In a way, as we are but an experience of one consciousness, and our characters are but an experience of one consciousness, we are equal, and neither is more "real" than the other. All fiction is real.

Happy Ostara Everyone!



Happy and blessed Ostara!
     Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but there's been a huge warm spell where I live, and so it feels almost like summer already! This makes today (or depending differing traditions on when you celebrate it, the 18-22nd), the Spring Equinox, Ostara, even more wonderful. Ostara celebrates the return to life in the land, and the near equal times of night and day, looking forward to Beltane as the light keeps increasing. Ostara was named for the Norse goddess Ostara or Eostre, harbinger of spring, fertility, and playfulness.

Other Goddesses from around the world that are celebrated in the spring are:

	Aphrodite from ancient Cyprus
	Ashtoreth from ancient Israel
	Astarte from ancient Greece
	Demeter from Mycenae
	Hathor from ancient Egypt
	Ishtar from Assyria
	Kali, from India
	

     Colors of this holiday include pastels like yellow, green, pink, purple, and blue, in correspondence with he small flowers poking their heads up through the earth this time of year. Ostara's main symbols are eggs, rabbits, and flowers. It is a celebration of rebirth, joy, and hope. Sounding a bit like Easter? Well, maybe that's because Ostara came before it, and Christians incorporated much of the meaning and symbolism of the Pagan holiday into their religion. Easter even came from the other name of the virginal goddess: Eastre. Ever wondered what rabbits and eggs and such have to do with a holiday that celebrates the return of Christ? Well, other than them all fitting into one big metaphor of new life, almost nothing. You won't hear Jesus lecturing about rabbits and chickens in the middle of the desert.

For more info on the Pagan origins of Easter, click here: http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm

     This seems to be a common theme, I've noticed, of mainstream holidays. On Christmas half the kids or more are way more interested in St. Nicholas/Father Christmas than on the birth of Jesus, and the same goes for Easter; most kiddies are thinking about what that big fluffy E. Bunny is going to leave them than what their pastor's going to say at church. I think the lesson of this is that no matter what, religions should work cohesively together and incorporate all the good aspects of each other. One cannot completely exclude the ideas of another. If you say that all the traditions, all the Old Ways of yesteryear are wrong, you're bound to be leaving a gaping hole in people's heart. I say let people rejoice in whatever way feels cohesive to them personally. Actually, heck, that should be the whole point of religion--do what feels right to you as is good for all other people as well.



     Some things just feel right. Spring is a time to celebrate the reawakening of the earth, and it's going to be celebrated that way no matter what religious dogma is imposed on the Season. Mother Earth has a lot to teach us, and ignoring the changing seasons as inconsequential is denying something that is and has always been inherently human. We are bound to the earth and as she fills with abundance so do our hearts.



     Some of the things done to celebrate Ostara are to take a nice long walk around the yard and see what's popping up, to plant an herb garden, to color and decorate eggs, and to do some sprucing up around the house or yard to maintain a healthy feeling of change.

     My personal favorite thing about this time of year are the hyacinths, which are absolutely my favorite flower because they just smell like Spring, potential, and hopefulness. Plus they are totally adorable.

     Another thing to do is to grab your besom and sweep off your front porch (if you have one) and sidewalk to invite good luck, wealth, and prosperity into your home (not to mention some old friends).

     I also like to watch all the birds busily building their nests (A pair of mourning doves, my favorite small birds, are nesting in a pine near my window) and hopping about looking for worms. You could make some bird treats for them if you like, like rolling a pine cone in peanut butter and wild bird seeds and hanging it up in the trees, or putting out a bird feeder or bird bath.

     Another thing to do is to make some wreaths or take those plastic Easter eggs they sell and tie them with ribbons to the branches of the trees or bushes outside. This will make your yard more colorful and maybe even inspire your neighbors.

     For the more daring sort, (and for those who have adequate space and time) you could buy some little chicks and start a chicken coop in your backyard! These will provide you with nice fresh eggs all year round and will most certainly put a smile on your face.

     Above all this is the time of year for making big plans for the future, getting active, eating nutritiously, and getting in touch with nature as the earth is waking up from it's slumber.

     For more information on Ostara this lovely website has some insight and seasonal crafts by StormWing: http://citadelofthedragons.tripod.com/ostara.html
and another by Herne: http://wicca.com/celtic/akasha/ostara.htm

Blessings,
     -Autumn

Because I Could Not Stop for Death (poem)

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

 

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labour, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

-Emily Dickinson