Happy New Year and thank you!

New Mexico sky (c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life....You have a soul in you of rare quality, an artist’s nature; never let it starve for lack of what it needs.

-- Marcel Proust, Swann's Way

Happy Winter Solstice!

Sunrise at First Sight

(Photo by keattikorn)

Robert Moss at the dream gate of Jung

Jung's Underworld journey: Not for the timid
by Robert Moss, Beliefnet, October 31, 2010

Happy Samhain!

Views from Water Canyon trail
Cibola National Forest, New Mexico
(c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

hummingwitch blog wishes you a Happy Samhain and every bright blessing in the New Year!

And to those of you who celebrate our holiday as Halloween, have a fun day and night, too!

Offensive beer label gets witch's attention

Witch’s Wit Ale to Change Label After Complaints
by Mark Oppenheimer, The New York Times, October 22, 2010

The magic of numbers

The Magical Properties of Everyday Numbers

by Daniel Gilbert, The New York Times, October 17, 2010

Be The Fool

Using Tarot’s “Fool” card in psychic development

Please visit my new Tumblr blog -- trancelucent!

Eckhart: From image to manifestation

The soul throws an image before her
by Robert Moss, The Robert Moss BLOG, August 9, 2010

At home in both worlds

Weekdays, the Adman Worked. Sundays, the Shaman Healed

by Samuel G. Freedman, The New York Times, July 23, 2010

When you're ready to move beyond Oprah...

The gorgeous, always imaginative Rubin Museum of Art is well into a series of seven Wednesday evening conversations called Tibetan Book of the Dead Book Club in association with its special exhibitions, Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife and Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures. Each Wednesday, curator Ramon Prats explores the TBD from different perspectives with an expert representing a particular discipline. They inquire: Does the TBD have relevance, wisdom and practical application for us today?

This week, I attended Prats's talk with Jungian psychoanalyst Morgan Stebbins on "The Analysis of Dreams," a topic of perennial relevance. According to Tibetan Buddhist beliefs, dreams will always be relevant as long as humans exist, as long as humans remain unenlightened. Enlightened beings do not dream. They no longer have to, for to dream is to open onto an altered level of awareness in which we come face to face with avoided, unknown or normally inaccessible issues.

Stebbins discussed how Tibetan ideas and traditions around this heightened state of awareness parallels the theories and practices of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's psychoanalytic approach, he said, represents a journey into the "totality of one's being--the Buddha nature" where one can gain information on unconscious patterns of behavior, insight into so-called symptoms that are actually "symbolic attempts to get to somewhere new." Dreams herald a shift towards liberation.

And the TBD considers this liberation through hearing, as Prats mentioned, in his intriguing introductory remarks. Why hearing, I wondered? One sentence from a TBD passage read later suggested the reason: "So, recognize what I show you without distraction." We are simply too distracted by illusion to get with reality. Like children in school, we have to be brought to attention and made to hear. The Bardo afterlife process, Tibetan Buddhists believe, first brings the soul to that required place of attention and learning before it can move on in its journey. But dreams offer powerful opportunities for growth within our lifetime.

And what of the images of deities of wrath, featured in so much Tibetan art? And what of our own terrifying nightmares?

"Psychologically speaking, nightmares are great news," says Stebbins. "Wake up! Look at this! It has a lot of energy. You have a lot of energy you're not using. Change is scary."

Upcoming TBD Book Club sessions will feature Rabbi Neil Gillman on "The Death of Death" (July 28), Brooklyn Museum curator Edward Bleiberg on "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" (August 11), medium Jesse Bravo on "Channeling the Dead" (August 18) and Roshi Enkyo O'Hara on "How to Die" (August 25)--all at 7pm. Click here for full information and tickets, and promptness--in both ticket purchasing and showing up to get a good seat--is strongly advised.

Rubin Museum of Art

150 West 17th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), Manhattan

Directions

Toni Bernhard offers a practice for life

I've had the great fortune to be introduced to Toni Bernhard, author of How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers, scheduled for publication in September (Wisdom Publications). In this lovely, informative volume, Bernhard tells of how she suddenly fell ill in the spring of 2001 while vacationing in Paris with her husband. What at first felt like a tenacious, energy-sapping flu was, in fact, a far more serious viral infection that would make it impossible for her to resume life as she'd known it. The university law professor with a treasured marriage and family soon found herself unable to work, shop, travel, meditate or even enjoy the visits of loved ones without a flare-up of debilitating symptoms.

Bernhard remains ill today, usually confined to her bed. Her book describes how she came to apply her longstanding Buddhist practice to this new reality and to the feelings of frustration, grief and envy of other people's freedom that often arose. Would it surprise you, though, to learn that her difficulties have inspired a lively, enjoyable book? With endearing candor and lucidity, this fine writer and teacher explores principles and practices that should help anyone who suffers, whether physically sick or well, and whether or not that person identifies as a Buddhist.

I have always respected Buddhism but felt distanced from its philosophical ideas and approaches to life and spirituality. In fact, there was much about it that I could not fully grasp. But Bernhard leads readers through easy-to-follow discussions and illustrations of practices such as mudita—taking joy in the joy of others—that not only offer liberation from resentment, loneliness and suffering but, in and of themselves, are just delicious. I suddenly realized that I've been practicing mudita and metta most of my adult life: It has always felt wonderful to enjoy the happiness of others and to sincerely wish them well. The trick is to extend this to all sentient beings and, trickiest of all, to remember to offer this loving gift to oneself. Bernhard shares what has worked for her.

Bernhard's experience reminds us of the preciousness of vulnerability, the impermanence of all that is, the value of the present moment, and the importance of releasing one's anxious tendency to grasp and desperately quest for answers that may never come. She admits that her life with chronic illness is a work in progress. Well, every life is a work in progress, and it is a fine thing to have allies and guides along the path. I am happy to have met Toni Bernhard through her generous teachings in this book and, in gratitude, I wish her peace and freedom.

How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers by Toni Bernhard

Paperback, 185 pages

ISBN-13-978-086171-626-5

Coming September, 2010 from Wisdom Publications 

Also see What are you reading this summer?, posted on InfiniteBody blog on June 29, 2010.

Now, where was I?

Discovering the Virtues of a Wandering Mind

by John Tierney, The New York Times, June 28, 2010

Happy Summer Solstice!

Wishing you a beautiful Summer!

(c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Talk to stone

"Talk to stone. Tell it words you want it to remember." -- from Primer by poet Anna Rabinowitz

Introduction to Psychic Tarot

Curious about my psychic practice? Here's a handy intro I've just recorded: http://db.tt/yiRBe2.


For more information and to set up an appointment, visit my site.

My "Moment in Time"

(c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

At 11am EST today, I took this photo and submitted it to the New York Times's A Moment in Time project. It contains images of Mary of the wounded sacred heart; Yemaya, the Afro-Atlantic goddess of the sea; and endangered animals. Mindful of the oil spill tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico, I call this assemblage The Wounded Heart of Mother Earth.

Margot Adler on the contemporary Pagan movement

The Moonfire series of public presentations will host a workshop facilitated by National Public Radio journalist Margot Adler:

The Pagan Movement: What's New, What's Different, What's Changed

Saturday, May 22 (5pm-7pm)

For complete information, see my announcement on InfiniteBody blog: Click here.

Call me crazy but I love these cows!

Oh, those Crazy Little Cows!

All at once, Sabrina Dehay's work-in-progress deck has become my favorite of all time! Take a look and see. I'm sure you'll find it irresistible, too!

Let's hope she'll find a publisher soon!

"back home where you came from"

So much sorrow... http://bit.ly/4nWxhz

Posted via web from Eva Yaa Asantewaa's posterous

Jay Smooth on Haiti

Mini Doctrine: On Haiti
YouTube

Helping the people of Haiti

There are many online sources of information about how you can help the people of Haiti. Be cautious, though, because the inevitable scams have also quickly emerged.

Here are some lists of reputable humanitarian organizations:

Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute (New York Times)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/haiti-earthquake-relief-h_n_421014.html (Huffington Post)

How and where to donate to Haiti (and avoid scams) (Lifehacker)
Please keep in mind my personal favorite, Doctors Without Borders, whose facilities in Haiti were devastated in the earthquake. They do excellent work and will need much help to get continue serving the people.

Thank you.

Eva

What ATM really stands for!

ATM now stands for “Always Trust Magic”
by Amy Krause Rosenthal, Mission Amy K.R.

Mary Daly, radical feminist theologian, 81

Mary Daly, a Leader in Feminist Theology, Dies at 81
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, January 6, 2010

Poetry: make a charm

make a charm

take a coin from your pocket
or change purse any amount
rub it briskly until it knows you
musky hot from your palms
place this coin say a foot and a half
away from you on a table
gaze at it send vibrations images
think about what you want to see happen
do you want a sunny day?
send the energy of sun
six times to your coin visualize
the sun’s emergence at the dawn of winter
become apollo the angel raphael or ra
or strip down and clown for amaterasu
so that she barrels forth
from her mountain’s depths and laughs
a thousand gongs from its heights
transfer white gold rays from mind
into quarter or nickel penny or dime
until you see feel the subatomic dance
do this once twice thrice six times
wrap your coin in silk or parchment
or just place it apart from all others in a high place
until the sun rolls up in the sky
then you must absolutely must
spend or give it away give it back

what other charms can you make?
send energy once for unity
twice for harmony
thrice for love and fertility
circle a coin with it four times
to multiply that coin twice thrice and more
and anchor it beneath each gate of eden
send energy five times to make revolution
seven for peaceful reflection
eight and none may vanquish you
nine and come tomorrow
you’ll shed the skin that bore you
come tomorrow you are a coin
unwrapped of silk dancing
dissolving

©2003, Eva Yaa Asantewaa