Happy Winter Solstice!

Here comes the sun, and I say 

It's all right...

Spirit in Afro-Atlantic culture

Que viva Chango!: West African deities in the Americas
by Denise Oliver Velez, Daily Kos, December 4, 2011

Some news from ancient Stonehenge

Stonehenge Reveals New Clues of Ancient Worship
by Rossella Lorenzi, DiscoveryNews, November 29, 2011

Happy Samhain!

To my pagan kin, Happy Samhain!

To everyone else, Happy Halloween!

James Hillman, 85

James Hillman, Therapist in Men’s Movement, Dies at 85
by Benedict Carey, The New York Times, October 27, 2011

OWS: Alternative healers wanted

 

Looking for Professional Healers
to Volunteer Services at Occupy Wall Street
 

I've just received an appeal from a friend of a friend, Reiki practitioner Louisya McFarland, who is helping to organize alternative healers to offer services to everyone down at Zuccotti Park--from occupiers to the security detail. Click McFarland's name to email her, or contact Jean Menges, L.Ac. as noted below.

The need is for "anyone comfortable working in a street medicine setting and on protestors suffering from physical, emotional and mental trauma." All types of community healing services will be offered from 10am to 10pm, daily.

Looking for a way to make a difference and support OWS? This could be the right move for you.

Contact the OWS-Community Healing Volunteer Coordinator, Jean Menges, L.Ac. Click name to email. Call or text 646-319-2959. Call 212-245-0335 (office).

The revolution will be playful!

Raising the level (c)2011, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

hummingwitch and InfiniteBody blogs support Occupy Wall Street.

Check InfiniteBody blog for future announcements from OWS' Arts and Culture working group.

To see more of my photos from yesterday's OWS demonstration at Washington Square Park, click here.

Why Occupy Wall Street? Visit We are the 99 Percent and see.

New reviews: Gaians and dragons

The Gaian Tarot

reviewed by Eva Yaa Asantewaa (http://hummingwitch.blogspot.com)

Now, here comes artist Joanna Powell Colbert's Gaian Tarot published by Llewellyn (September, 2011; ISBN: 9780738718910). It's a deck that clearly announces, "I have new stories to tell!" And it's right on time.

If you've worked with Tarot for many years, pick up this deck and let its amiable, nature-oriented images take you to these new narratives. If you're a Tarot newbie, never fear: Allow your mind to wander around within this deck, and you will easily find yourself at home inside these many stories. They're a non-traditional but perfectly valid and viable place to start.

Those readers who feel more secure with imagery that hews closer to traditional Rider Waite-style imagery might discover wonderful surprises in the Gaian. Don't ignore anything within the frame of these standard-sized cards; each one is power-packed with archetypal symbolism drawn from the cultures the world over, as are the people depicted within. Take out your magnifying glass--sometimes that's necessary, I've found--so that you don't miss a thing.

I fell for this deck on first sight. Grounded in the natural ways and wonders of Earth, it reflects so much that I love and value. No longer do I have to make do with terminology (Empress? Chariot? Hanged Man? Judgment? Page?) that, over many years, I've grown accustomed to. Now I can enjoy thinking of the Empress as The Gardener and exploring all of the rich implications of that inspired renaming. By the way, Colbert's complete rethinking of The Emperor should be of interest to readers who sometimes find this figure off-putting.

The external structure of Tarot, as rendered by Colbert, remains the same--78 cards; Major and Minor Arcana; four suits, each including court cards. So, even though you might be asked to adjust your thinking in some ways, you will not find yourself too far away from your comfort zone. And don't worry: This is a gentle but never mushy deck, neither in its art nor its interpretation. Colbert's 288-page paperback manual--Journey through the Gaian Tarot, included in Llewellyn's boxed kit--offers meaningful light and shadow sides of each card and suggests a wealth of questions to help you and your querents go beneath the surface of a reading.

This deck came to me just as I felt ready for a fresh approach in my practice, and I look forward to getting to know it better. I think you will enjoy it, too.

To learn more about Joanna Powell Colbert's multifaceted work and watch a video of imagery from the Gaian Tarot, click here. For publisher's information, click here, and to purchase the Gaian Tarot on Amazon.com, click here.

(c)2011, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

###

The Dragon Keeper's Handbook

reviewed by Eva Yaa Asantewaa (http://hummingwitch.blogspot.com)

Sci-fi/fantasy writer Shawn MacKenzie has a handsome, astonishing book out from Llewellyn, called The Dragon Keeper's Handbook: including the Myth & Mystery, Care & Feeding, Life & Lore of these Fiercely Splendid Creatures (September, 2011; ISBN; 9780738727851) and it is unlike anything I ever expected.

Call it a rigorous scientific field guide--complete with language accessible to the layperson, helpful line illustrations and delicious wit--sharing every possible factual detail about these magnificent and varied beings which, we all agree, do exist and proudly exist pretty much all over the world. (Right? Agreed?)

Oh, baby, what a joy this book is! Just get it. You won't put it down. Later on, we can figure out how to remove MacKenzie's tongue from her cheek.

For publisher's information, click here, and to purchase The Dragon Keeper's Handbook on Amazon.com, click here. 

(c)2011, Eva Yaa Asantewaa 

Happy Lammas--and some big news!

(photo by Deborah Feller)

Happy Lammas! 
Big news!

As of today, I am legally registered with the City of New York as an ordained marriage officiant!

I am experienced in counseling and ritual and would be happy to work with you in the creation of a ceremony that reflects your identity and values. (LGBTQ-friendly, neopagan-friendly but open to all.) Please feel free to contact me, and please pass the word along to your friends. Thanks!

Eva :-)

For my beloved fellow New Yorkers...

For my beloved fellow New Yorkers getting married tomorrow: a classic love song for you!

You're just too much

and just too very very

to ever be in Webster's Dictionary.

And so I'm borrowing

a love song from the birds

to tell you that you're marvelous,

too marvelous for words!
(Johnny Mercer)

Have a beautiful day, everyone! Congratulations and best wishes!

Love,
Eva

hummingwitch's new look

Dear Friends,

I hope you like the new hummingwitch template!

I woke up this morning with the thought that she needed a fresh new look. When I opened the Blogger page of template thumbnails, I hit on this one right away but just to try it out. It was really too small to be judged until I applied it to hummingwitch. So I took a chance, and it turned out to be gorgeous! It took me mere seconds to choose and make the switch when I had anticipated having to go through many templates and spending a lot of time customizing my choice. Amazing!

Let me know what you think!

Thanks!

Eva :-)

Brazil's "Chico Xavier"

Chico Xavier
a film by Daniel Filho
(Brazil, 2010; 125 min.)

from Chico Xavier
Photo courtesy of Lereby Produções

Daniel Filho's film--making its U.S. premiere this week at the Museum of Modern Art's Premiere Brazil! festival--traces the life and work of Spiritist medium Chico Xavier (1910-2002). From childhood, Xavier ("Chico" is the diminutive for Francisco) just knew things about people, and his touch could center and calm them. The youngster's abilities unnerved his abusive godmother and ran counter to the teachings of the Catholic Church. But Chico drew widespread support as he grew into a gentle, unassuming young man who dedicated his life to serving the needs of the people, refusing to profit from what he says he had been given by the spirit world. Bringing individual messages and numerous books by way of automatic writing, he toiled--through personal suffering and sacrifice, through family dissension and turmoil--to offer comfort to others. Xavier became an important figure in Brazilian culture where Spiritism--introduced by the writings of the Frenchman Allan Kardec--accounts for a wide swath of spiritual practice, even among people who are, ostensibly, Roman Catholic.

How will non-Brazilian film-goers--especially skeptics or those with little interest in metaphysical practices--take to Filho's moody and languid narrative? The film has a muted, even dark, palette and can often be lulling over its two hours. But it benefits greatly from the presence of sweet-faced Ângelo Antônio who plays Xavier in his young adulthood (1931-1959). Antônio first appears on screen, and we grab him like an anchor. Few things can throw this guy--the character or the actor playing him--off course.

Visit the Chico Xavier movie site.

MoMA screening schedule:

Friday, July 15 (5pm)
Thursday, July 21 (4:30pm)
Friday, July 22 (4pm)

For a complete program information and schedule of Premiere Brazil! screenings (July 14-27), click here.

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan
(directions)

Review of Teresa Brady's "Ignite Your Psychic Intuition"

Ignite Your Psychic Intution: An A to Z Guide to Developing Your Sixth Sense
by Teresa Brady
Llewellyn Worldwide, 2011
paperback, 269pp
ISBN: 978-0-7387-2170-5

No surprise that Teresa Brady is not only psychic but also works as an attorney. She wields a clear, assertive, persuasive writing style. She's confident and clever--but not overly clever--and aims to instill a similar confidence in her readers. All of that, and some entertaining tales of how she has used clairvoyance in her legal practice, might be the most valuable things about this guide. Unfortunately, the A-to-Z format looks a bit gimmicky and forced.

Brady employs "...a 26-letter mnemonic method I believe will make recall of the tools in this book easy and fun to experience. Years after reading this book, you will instantly remember chapters just by thinking of their corresponding letter" (p. 59).

Do we really need separate chapters on "Breathing" or "Keep Journals" or "Love" or "Peacefulness" simply because of the initials B, K, L and P? This format might visually set Ignite apart from other New Age-y psychic development workbooks, but the material within lacks sufficient distinctiveness and substance. Now consider that Llewellyn's market for books of this nature is probably not absolute newbies but readers who have already eagerly consumed a lot of information--good, bad and indifferent--about all things psychic and paranormal.

Brady's advisory chapters are less useful than earlier passages that help readers connect to one woman's actual experience of being psychic. For instance, she mentions that the heightened senses often overlap, and we simultaneously receive "messages coming through more than one sense" (p. 5). She acknowledges that "third eye vision" might be a misleading term since "you can experience third eye vision from the top, front, sides, and back of the head; or when your eyes are open, closed, looking up or looking down" (p. 8). Her description of how she uses directionality and color in clairvoyance to determine the time factor in her received information can be helpful to psychic development students struggling to recognize, accept and utilize their own idiosyncratic ways of getting and interpreting information.

Ignite is advertised as being "designed for people with busy lives," but if your life is truly so jam-packed that you need a lightweight introduction to opening your mind to the Universe, that condition already offers you a lesson worth learning.

by Eva Yaa Asantewaa, hummingwitch

That warrior stance

Recommended:

Mother India: The Goddess in Indian Painting

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

June 29, 2011–November 27, 2011

I loved the wall plaque that read (paraphrasing as nearly as I can remember): “Devi looks like she’s dancing but actually she has taken a combatant warrior stance.”

Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Plan Your Visit page)

It's "Eva, naturally!"

Inviting you to Eva, naturally on tumblr!

Rampant (c)2011, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Visit, follow, enjoy! Thanks!

Enjoy your holiday!

from Liberty State Park (c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Hey, InfiniteBody friends all over the USA! Happy 4th of July! 

But if you're not really feeling those Sousa marches, try this.

I love New York!

Thank you, Governor Andrew Cuomo. 

Thank you, State Senator Tom Duane. 

Thank you, all state senators of good conscience. 

Thank you, fierce activists, and thank you, straight allies. 

Thank you, New York!

What a Pride Weekend this is.

What a great example for our nation and for the world.

And to those couples who will be marrying in New York State, I wish you all the blessings you can hold. You do us proud.