could scuff through them and breathe deeply their pungent earthy smell — grounding magic for city dwellers. On Saturday the sky was clear and the winds were down. Very early that morning when it was still dark. I shuffled my tarot deck and drew a card: The Empress the Greek Goddess Demeter. She’s shown as a beautiful earthy woman with flowing hair wearing long gowns woven of plants and hemmed with boughs. She stands pregnant in lush fields surrounded by mythical beasts and protected by the papyrus. I was hardly surprised to draw Demeter. After her incorrigible daughter Persephone had forsaken her it was a time when Demeter ruled the planet. It was fall going onto winter and time for her journey— a very different voyage. And she was bound to take me on it. Demeter is the Great Mother the Matriarchal Goddess ruler of nature the laws of the cosmos and the orderly cycles of seasons. Without her benevolence we are faced with a bleak chaos. She is the Fertility Goddess and the power of the earth itself a power so strong it needs no validation from the Olympian Male Gods of the heavens. She taught men to work the soil and women the arts of grinding wheat and baking bread. At Ileuses the people offered thanks to her for their bounty. And in Paris we celebrate her with the precious daily
Her era signals a time to take care of our earthly body. It’s a time to nurture the Great Mother within us and connect not merely intellectually but in a grounded and intuitive way to our passion and creativity. Otherwise there can be no fruit of our creative labors. While Persephone was the secret wild child. Demeter is open and receptive. She is symbolizes female energy creativity and intuitive power—the archetypal mother lover and teacher. Principal protagonist of the Eleusinian mysteries. Demeter’s legends are many. She protected Persephone from worldly conflicts and her abduction violently changed their peaceful happy life. Demeter was said to have wandered the world in an anguished search for her daughter. As punishment to mortals and Gods she let the earth go barren and renounced her role as Goddess of Growth. It was Hermes who finally brought Demeter news that Persephone had been taken by Hades and brokered a deal to bring mother and daughter together for nine months of the year. And still she insisted as her part of the bargain that the earth lie fallow and barren for the nine months until her daughter returned in the spring. I’m not so sure Demeter was appeased by this devil’s bargain. Though ruler of change it was change that she resisted. It’s a natural impulse but adaptability is Demeter’s lesson and ours. Legend has it that she was in a rage as she wandered the earth looking for Persephone. But maybe not. Maybe Demeter lost without her daughter alone in her empty nest wanted time to explore the world herself. On Saturday after drawing her card. I took the journey Demeter commanded. It was time to take care of my earthly body feed it with EveryDayMagic a la Demeter. I had an appointment at the chiropractor and I wanted a swim before riding up the steep hill to Rue Blanche in the 9th arrondissement near Pigalle and the Moulin Rouge where Marie-Helene practiced her healing art. The wind was up but only a bit and I was cozy in my red pashmina layered sweaters boots and mittens. As I walked to my bike my eye caught the spotlighted sculptures in Madame La Roche’s stunning gallery. Gabrielle La Roche is a true Empress and Goddess. Her newest piece is a mystical beast—a female creature of stone with impressive wings and bared teeth hanging from the ceiling. A flying fire dragon crossed with a griffin. I smile and capture a few shots on my camera. Demeter’s EveryDayMagic is already at work. The sun had just risen east of the Louvre as I ride my bike up to the River Seine. It shimmered dark green in the half light under a deep blue sky. Waiting for the light to turn. I glanced back at the corner buildings on Rue du Bac and Quai Voltaire one time home to the dashing d’Artagnan captain of the King’s Musketeers. I imagined him called before dawn from his lover’s arms riding his stallion across the Pont Royal to the aid of Louis XIII and his Empress Queen Ann d’Autriche. I bet Demeter found an emperor several kings and more than one handsome d’Artagnan on her journey. Riding my bike across the bridge. I am treated to an extraordinary sunrise a long thin fold of rose petal clouds in peach and fuchsia. I smile and thank Demeter as I fly free across the bridge. EveryDayMagic is definitely afoot. It’s good to ride early on Saturday or Sunday when no one is up. I take the shortcut to the pool along the edge of the Jardin des Tuileries to Rue de Rivoli. The deep blue sky draws my eyes through the west gate. A couple holding hands walks amongst the statues. The view is so clear and I can see the entire west end of the historic axis of old Paris with its monuments on the geometric line. Through the Tuileries is the Obélisque in the Place de la Concorde and beyond the full length of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées the Fields of Eleusis. A nod to Demeter. The tiny blue lights festooning the famous tree-lined avenue are still alight giving it an otherworldly look. At the end is L’Arc de Triomphe and further west still. Le Grand Arc surrounded by the Manhattanesque skyscrapers of La Defense. I arrive at my pool in the former 17th century home of the Count de Noailles. La Fayette was married in the 16th century chapel. But I am there for the swim and I pray Demeter’s favor that I might have the pool to myself. A plastic curtain is hung across the entrance and I frown at the smiling young attendant. “Mais non madame,” she says. The pool was open but I had to use the men’s dressing room. They were refurbishing the women’s chambers. Hah. I smile ruefully. The Great Mother Goddess up to mischief. Two men were in the pool but Demeter’s power frightened them off. Not long after I dove into the cool waters of the turquoise pool. I was blissfully alone communing in my Great Sea. Exhilarated. I headed out into the bright day with a stash of dark chocolate and smoky lapsong souchong tea for later. In the mood for adventure. I chose a different route through the Place du Marche St-Honoré. Demeter delights me again with an organic. “bio” market just setting up around the glass building that was once the market itself and now sadly home to furniture stores offices and an Audi showroom. The market’s tables are laden with fruits and vegetables that marry the end of one season and the beginning of another—the last peaches of summer and Persephone’s seasonal forbidden pomegranates along with a colorful assortment of pumpkins and squash. I dismount and stop to taste a tiny square of moist chocolate cake. It’s still early and good to ride the streets. I fly past the Opéra Garnier pedaling uphill past Galeries Lafayette and then around Trinité onto Rue de Clichy. Finally. I turn onto Rue Blanche almost to my chiropractor. I ride uphill the wrong direction on a one way street. There is no one about. The street is barren as winter. I don’t see danger and I feel safe. Admiring the architecture eyes lifted to the powder blue sky. I don’t spot last night’s empty pint of vodka lying on the street. The bike refuses to ride over it and I take a spill. Now my earthly body really needs an adjustment. I am grateful to see the mother healer. Marie-Hélène. She smiles and gives me a virtual pat on the head for my bobo a strawberry scrape on my left knee. After the séance mindful of my newly ordered body. I reflect. The message from Mother Demeter is that this season’s voyage should be taken slowly. And then I hear her whisper. “Mother doesn’t mean giving up magic and fun!” Early October is the time of Libra ruled by the planet Venus the Goddess of Love and Beauty. And Venus and Mars are both in Scorpio. It is a juicy time of year. Arriving home. I find a fresh lot of wood for my fireplace to keep me warm during early morning writing on cold days to come—courtesy of a nurturing landlord. And on Monday. Demeter must have been behind a surprise call from a friend who drops by for breakfast with warm croissants. We drink thick Italian expresso with the buttery croissants talk classical literature and listen to Chopin. I think about Demeter’s journeys and the one I am about to begin to reconnect with my Southwestern roots. Not once did Demeter really look for Persephone. Wouldn’t she have found her such a powerful Goddess? She took care of herself and though she may have had her times of anguish and dark rage she still ruled as Earth Goddess and enjoyed the ride of EveryDayMagic. As for me the next time I head up to Rue Blanche. I will ride down from Boulevard de Clichy the right direction like the bevy of cyclers I saw as I left heading down from Montmartre all wearing as one might expect black berets. “Don’t forget your hat!” I hear Demeter say
Many people today resist religion and spirituality because they have jumped to conclusions about what these things are. A great many people who consider themselves religious seem to fear those who find their spirituality without religion. As I discuss this with people. I have found that there concern is often that the “non-religious” are unstructured undisciplined and so unreliable in their beliefs and lifestyle. Frequently those that consider themselves spiritual but not religious judge the “religious” for being too structured and too dogmatic – focusing on rules and exclusion rather than personal growth. As in many cases the two sides of this divide are really both necessary to a complete picture. A health religious and spiritual life requires both freedom from attachment to being “right” and the benefits of discipline community and guidance. When our path of awakening includes judgments of other and their practices than we have lost the focus and intent of a healthy spiritual practice. Judgment is a function of an inflexible and self-centered ego. We live the energy of compassion peace or joy when we live with judgment. Evaluation preference and personal needs are one thing but translating those distinctions into a rational for thinking less of others is simply not helpful to oneself or the world in general. Whether we embrace our spirituality through religion or find it in other ways judging those that are different impairs the path we have chosen.
Recently while reading a on intelligence in animals. I noticed that I was smiling broadly. When I asked myself why. I realized that it makes me deliriously happy to learn that animals have many aspects of the intelligence that scientists philosophers and theologians have so often reserved for human beings. While having this insight. I thought back to an essay I had read a few weeks previously about a high school science teacher trying to discuss evolutionary theory with his class. He reported that a big blonde boy angrily retorted. “I did not evolve from monkeys!” as if the very thought of this was a slur on his own claim to intelligence. The teacher must have explained that humans did not evolve from monkeys: both humans and monkeys have a common ancestor from which each evolved; in the evolutionary line humans are much closer to apes especially bonobos and chimpanzees than to monkeys. Still the thought that I am related to a monkey does not fill me with dread. Quite the contrary it makes me laugh. Why? Because it reminds me that as a human being I am not alone in the world. I am deeply tied—not only by bonds of sympathy and empathy but also by my DNA—to other living beings on planet earth. “Two little monkeys jumping on the bed one fell off and bumped her head.”Today in the United States there is a debate raging about teaching “Creationism” (based on taking the Genesis accounts of creation literally) alongside evolutionary theory in science classes. I am astounded when the debate between “religion” and “science” is framed in such simplistic terms. In fact many theologians and philosophers have been discussing these questions in much more sophisticated ways for over a century. Broadly speaking sophisticated theologians reject the strictly materialistic worldview of modern science and see the Genesis account of creation as metaphoric. They argue that it is possible to imagine divine creativity in the evolutionary process. Such interpretations may not be required by evolutionary theory but they are not incompatible with it—and they may even enhance it. Teilhard de Chardin’s
are two well-known examples of this point of view. (I recommend them to Sarah Palin and other advocates of “Creationism.”)My own view of the spirituality in evolution is rooted in the insight that “we are all connected in the web of life.” For me this insight is not only intellectual and spiritual but also physical and profoundly erotic. It involves the deep yearning for connection and the fleeting but not less real ecstasy of fulfillment in momentary union. When lived as a day-to-day life philosophy the drama of yearning and ecstasy is transformed to the solid knowing reflected in the smile that sneaks over my whole body whenever I am reminded that I am deeply connected to other beings in the web of life. Yes. I am deliriously happy to know that I am related to monkeys and thrill with delight when I read that they and other animals have intelligence like my own. Next week: the spiritual implications of
EveryDayMagic begins every morning while I am still in dream state. As I putter about my rooms making coffee and preparing for my day. I become the High Priestess of my life. I put on my invisible High Priestess hat and don a red cape which depending upon the season may be cozy cashmere or filmy scarlet silk and sometimes completely imaginary but always sensual beautiful and alive—ready to become my magic carpet for the day. I look to the sky feel the energy and draw a tarot card for a window on my daily journey my everyday mystical quest. The Tarot has guided me since I was a teenager. I love the cards so rich in visual imagery. They evoke the road of the archetypal heroine’s quest especially the 22 major arcana. Before playing cards perhaps even before the oral storytelling tradition before letters or books and an eternity of journeys before we wrote blogs. Art was the original story telling. And the visual archetypes of the Tarot are key to all stories. Last Saturday morning in Paris. I drew The High Priestess traditionally number two of the major arcana. In my Mythic Tarot Deck* she is the Greek Goddess Persephone. Already I know the magic is working and I smile to myself. The card is perfectly fitting not so much for divination as for illumination. That’s what the journey is all about. And we know it’s all about the journey. And I know that EveryDayMagic awaits. The occasion of the Vernal Equinox marks the end of Summer and the beginning of Autumn. During this time the Ancient Greeks celebrated and reenacted the Eleusinian Mysteries. Legend has it that Peresphone was frolicking in a field of crocuses when Hades. Lord of the Underworld came upon her and seduced her. Persephone was a wise budding Goddess daughter of Demeter. Earth Mother and Goddess of Grain known as Ceres by the Romans. The young maiden Persephone was precocious and a risk taker. She outsmarted herself in her escape to find time to herself to play in the fields one last romp at the end of summer before the cold dark winter. (And we can all understand her need—to take some time for ourselves.) Persephone swallowed the pomegranate seed with which the dark and dangerous Hades lured her and thus made her eternal bargain. Hades took her as his bride and she descended to the underworld to live with him for three long winter months. Perhaps as a wedding present and a deal breaker for Demeter and Persephone she was allowed to return to the daylight and play in the fields and above all to her mother for the other nine months leaving Hades to fend for himself. It was a risky but fated road she took. Her mischief that day gave us the change of seasons—a gift of change. The time to renew the ground for the three seasons of planting tending and harvest. For without giving Mother Earth. (and her Mother Goddess Demeter) rest no new seeds could be sewn and come summer no grain to harvest no
It was a cardinal cross-point holiday on the wheel of life marking the end of the year. Today it is celebrated as Halloween and Day of the Dead in Western traditions and for those who like Persephone celebrate ancient pagan rites. New Years or Sahmain. As Goddess of the ancient secrets of the inner and underworlds. I bet Persephone found her journey exciting and provocative—all that time alone. Meanwhile cuddled up in the hellishly warm arms of Hades in his dark cave. Persephone was out of her mother’s purview. She chose her fork in the road and there under the ground in the dark of winter she planned renewed and let her unconscious and the Goddess provide her wisdom. She guarded her secrets. (With Hades none the wiser.) We all have a good measure of Persephone’s magic and wisdom. Sometimes in the dark we see like cats what we cannot ordinarily envision or invite even with a precise map and a good flashlight. On that last Saturday when I drew Persephone it was an unusually sunny day in Paris. You could touch summer. One last reminder of longs days of light and good times. I could just see Perephone go out the door when Demeter’s back was turned whispering.
I succumbed easily to Persephone. I should have been inside at my desk but I turned my back on good Demeter in favor of seeking my daily dose of magic. As my ruse to get to the fields. I chose an appropriate errand and jumped on my bicycle. I crossed over the River Seine from the Rive Gauche and rode along the tree lined quais to the Bazar de Hôtel de Ville. I spent a confusing half an hour in BHV’s overwhelming basement hardware store in search of light bulbs in preparation for dark winter days. My Demeter mission accomplished. I flew back out into the gorgeous sunlight. Pleased with myself. I headed west on my bike to Bastille. One lazy left turn and a few minutes later. I entered once more the land of high summer in search of wild honey. Greek yoghurt and Cretan olive oil. A luscious trip to La Grèc. It was tempting to stay for lunch at one of the sidewalk cafe tables but the sun was already headed west—so I followed the light. I braved the streets and the labyrinthine intersection at Bastille and then rode the boulevard along Canal St-Martin. I missed hitting a man crossing the street by inches as I gazed off into the sparkling water. He might have been Hades for all I knew. But I rode on and didn’t look back. I peddled fast on the bridge over the Seine. (fortunately not the River Styx or the Lethe) back to the Left Bank and in the sunlight. I stopped breathless across from the Jardin des Plants. I imagine there were crocuses and other late summer flowers in the gardens but it was nearly the Full Harvest Moon. Ruled by the Moon’s Goddeses Artemis and Hecate. I was drawn to the river to follow the scent of EveryDay Magic. Lo and behold. I found a path for which I had long been looking—the bike path that runs at river’s edge from the Jardin des Plantes to place St-Michel or so the sign said. In glorious splendor. I flew along hair blowing in the wind a free spirited Persephone. Signs in life like signs along the bike path aren’t well marked. I missed the left-hand fork that would have lead easily home and found myself instead jostling on cobblestones left over from the middle ages carrying my heavy
tourists at Notre Dame. Veering to miss them. I almost fell into the Seine. I was rewarded richly for missing the phantom sign on that unexpected summer Saturday in my equivalent of the Eleusinian field. Avoiding the heavy traffic of St-Germain. I enjoyed a good long ride in the sun along the sparkling river. I bounced along past the Pont Henri IV across from the Dauphin’s Island reveling in the sun at water’s edge. Near the Pont des Arts. I finally took the exit ramp a left hand fork and peddled the last few blocks home. Maybe longer maybe more treacherous and maybe that man who appeared in my path out of nowhere had been Hades lying in wait. Still. I had extra time to myself to look deeply into the waters of my soul the reflections of the River Seine and the coming Harvest Moon and Autumnal Equinox. Once home. I sated myself with seeds of a juicy pomegranate. Greek yoghurt and wild thyme honey from Crete cradle of the Minoan Mountain Goddess. I pondered the mysteries of Eleusis the changes to come and the illuminations that the Full Moon might bring. I savored my delicious day’s journey of EveryDayMagic à la Peresphone. One last summer romp for this daughter of summer.
by I don’t know if its my PhD in Comparative Religion or the fact that I was ordained as an Interfaith minister but whenever I ask people about their spiritual life they immediately go into “confession” and turn me into a priest! I hear apologies for why they haven’t been to church in years or excuses for why they aren’t more active in their religion. I find it unfortunate that a person’s first thought when asked about spirituality is “religion,” and the feeling that follows is guilt. Spirituality and religion are not the same. Spirituality is a personal experience and process. Spirituality is an innate aspect of being human – it is our personal sense of meaning values and identity. Everyone has these qualities. They are necessary to life itself. Not everyone pays attention to these things – but that doesn’t mean they have no spiritual dimension. I know many people who don’t pay attention to what they eat how much the rest and exercise – but they still have a physical body. In the same way you cannot say “I am not spiritual,” you can only say “I am not interested in my spirituality” or “I am not paying attention to my spirituality.”Maybe the challenge for most people is that they can physically see what poor physical health looks like but they assume you cannot see what poor spiritual health looks like. But this is where they are wrong. If you think of the healthiest role models for spirituality you can imagine (think of Martin Luther King Jr. Gandhi. Jesus the Buddha the Dalai Lama. Thomas Merton. Thich Nhat Hanh. Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi – even Yoda) all you need to do is think of the opposite qualities and there is your example of poor spiritual health. We all innately know what healthy spirituality should look like. The average person equates healthy spirituality with compassion peace connection and an ability to relate to the great mystery of life. This common sense is timeless and has been shared by all the great spiritual masters throughout time. Many people have become discouraged by the misuse of religion in the world and assume that the worst examples of fundamentalism religious war and fanaticisms somehow reflect the direction of spirituality in general. This could not be further from the truth. Religion when it is healthy is a vehicle for spiritual growth. It helps us to deepen our experience of meaning values and identity in our lives. When religion is not at its best it can be a block even a barrier to spirituality. Spirituality exists within and outside of religion. Many people find their spirituality in nature family art science and hundreds of other “non-religious” ways. Yet religion - or more specifically spiritual practice and conscious community - are essential to helping people develop a deeper experience of The Sacred in their lives therefore we must all learn to walk the fine balance between our spiritual practices and our intention for growth and healing. Try not to mistake the messenger for the message or the map for the territory… these are common ways people get stuck on the spiritual journey.
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