Los Muertos Skullery

These were sketched last October, after we’d lost my Mum the previous month. I hadn’t yet begun to process the overwhelming grief and shock.
She lived and died in Mexico, and the black paper I was sketching on was from there, so maybe some of the spirit of Dia de Los Muertos came through.

The photos are of local spirits that start coming out about now.  ~rb

“Sorry, we’re full!”

The Tao of Pet Rocks – part 1

Since childhood, one of my main forms of ‘meditation’ has been rock and shell collecting. Particularly while walking where the water meets the earth, but even prior to my first trip to the ocean, finding fossils in our neighbourhood in Montreal. Below is the stone that started it all, acquired with developing Mercurial wiles, age 4 or 5.  We kids came across it in my bully neighbour’s yard. This little Taurus claimed it, in her mind, but knew if even a smidgen of fascination was detected, ‘Eggy’ would have kept it, just to be cruel and I’d never see it again. So I feigned total disinterest. It worked (he wasn’t the science and nature type) and come dusk I was able to sneak outside in my pyjamas and rescue the treasure.

My first fossil, which still sits at my bedside.

It wasn’t so much about the actual ‘collecting’ part – I never had any books on rocks/shells or cared about what sort they were – but connecting with nature and experiencing the thrill when it coughs up a little, personalized treasure. This can be as magical as finding ancient artifacts…because really, that’s what they are. Some are akin to planets. I’m sure any rockhounds reading this are nodding in agreement!

Found fossil driftwood sculpture

Nowadays I take a lot of photos, so I don’t have to keep the physical rocks, except for those extra special ones. My local beach in Vancouver, BC is rich with fossil driftwood from the ancient redwood forests. Sometimes they are tumbled to the point of not being recognizable as ever having been wood. Nature is the one true alchemist. These fossils live here, so if we take them home, we’re temporary caretakers, only. Shells, too, when no longer wanted, should be returned to the sea. However, there are occasions where it’s a special gift, a power stone.

Blue agate bead, a most treasured, beach find.

Many people nowadays buy all kinds of gemstones for healing purposes. (Guilty as charged, my black tourmaline and rose quartz are never far from reach). But much of the time, these beautiful stones have been ripped from their wombs in a savage manner, blasted by dynamite and/or mined by oppressed workers. Not only can they still resonate the trauma, but it’s not a good idea to promote environmentally awful practices in the name of healing. Try to find ones that are ethical, just as you would with diamonds.

Tiny Carnelians found in Marin

A perfectly ocean-tumbled black stone, discovered by you, is going to hold as much or more mojo than a piece of onyx or obsidian bought in a store and will likely be more ‘relaxed’. Gemstones and other stones are made powerful by their connection with you, it’s a relationship.
I’ve found stones or crystals in odd spots, possibly snatched by a crow or squirrel and hidden (I know they steal them from my own flower pots!). But that’s often the key, to not really be looking, to let them find you.

Crystal finds, local

All written content and photos ©Roxanna Bikadoroff and may not be reposted or copied without permission.

Full Moon in Cancer, Lilith, Menopause

Menopause is the new “hot topic”, according to the CBC news.
I’m guessing my Pluto in Virgo peeps “opened the floodgates” (media’s words, not mine) of taboo removal, because if there’s one thing Pluto/Virgo understands, it’s the deep, psychological  changes that are going on, together with the physical, as we enter opposite virginity, amirite, ladies? So, as we’ve now ‘crossed over’,  let us X-gens pass down what we have learned to the next gens.

Menses and month both come from the same root (men also means moon, and there was even a cute, little moon-god named Men, see below). The Moon is our oldest time keeper, as we find depicted on the walls of Lascaux (this is a recent article about it, here I thought it was common knowledge) and elsewhere, because her cycles coincide with those of  the female sex.
In the modern age of electricity, humans became out of sync with these natural cycles and the moods that go with them.

Roman Anatolian  ‘Men’ who presided over the lunar months.

When a woman (or a man, for that matter) is not in touch with her lunar nature, or feels ashamed of it, the unexpressed Moon self is diverted to shadow, where it becomes an initiate of the Black Moon, Lilith – you know, like those secret tiki god bohemian black magic clubs that respectable members of society used to have in their basements. Her creative power, like that of Pluto, can turn destructive, self-sabotaging, in an attempt to kill off the false self. When this finally occurs with age, we stop giving a damn what others think, and Lilith becomes a staunch ally and a force to be reckoned with. (She’ll be leaving Cancer and entering Leo in a couple of days, so, ya).

Fun fact: ‘Hysteria’ and ‘hysterics’ were once thought to be caused by the uterus  moving around through the body at night. (I think mine was actually doing this during perimenopause).

Grandmother Moon has been keeping time and observing all us babies since we were just amoebas on Earth’s watery womb, so if she could talk (and she does), oh the bedtime stories she could tell.  This is especially true under the Cancer full Moon, currently opposite retrograde Mercury. The past is bound to resurface in some shape or form. So how does this relate to menopause?

Venus of Laussel with her calends, Upper Paleolithic

The word itself means a ceasing (pause) of menses. Remember, the menstrual cycle is directly associated with time cycles, both inner and outer.  Perimenopause can be even more difficult than menopause or post-menopause (note the lunar triad within the triad, there), because everything is getting de-programmed and re-adjusted to a new phase, a new kind of time…hormones surge and drop in ways that make Cancerian mood-swings seem like a toy see-saw. This reverse puberty onset can be downright terrifying (I personally experienced losing half my blood and requiring a transfusion). Maiden and mother phases grow smaller in the distance, as we cross the threshold into Hecate’s cold, lunar landscape. Here, the unconscious knows no solar age…in the soul, everything is fluid. 

As beginner crones (root same as crow and crown), we must now become inwardly re-attuned with the Moon, as we feel the ravages of time on our bodies, and face the fact that the physical is temporal. We fear the body loss, because rational, scientific thinking tells us it is primarily our physical self that defines us (see previous Solar Heroes post), that it is the body that ‘has a soul’. But in fact, it is the eternal soul that has a body, or rather, bodies. Grandmother Moon is firm on this. She presides over the inner world like Sun does the outer. At night, we traverse her realm….but, how many of us at this stage find our sleeping patterns are all over the place?  Might it mean that our inner Moon is now wide awake and roaming out of bounds? Or just that darned, roaming uterus?

Will leave you with those thoughts, for now.
Stay tuned for more meno memos!

moon face with lolling tongue blue and white
Moon-faced Gorgoneion,  protectress of mysteries by RB

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Queen of the Night – part 2 – Medusun

Medusun (dark)

The mystery of Medusa’s mythos is so deep, convoluted and extensive, it’s no wonder most people are happy to just accept the classical version : Beautiful, young Medusa is caught in the act – either by or against her will – with Poseidon, in Athena’s temple. Unforgiving Athena turns her to a snake-haired monster so frightful, her gaze can turn men to stone. Solar hero Perseus decapitates her (presumably also putting her out of her misery), en route to rescuing chained Aethiopian princess, Andromeda from the sea-serpent, Cetus. Neither Perseus or any of his incarnations were fond of reptiles, it seems.  The myth of  Perseus slaying Medusa first comes about in the 7th c BC, when the Greeks were establishing colonies in North Africa, but the Andromeda rescue operation seems to have been added, later.

Athena Polias, from her temple and illustration from a ceramic vessel

Athena had long been a major, scale-clad, snake-wielding Goddess, in her own right. Most Goddesses of any clout had a relation to serpents, for obvious reasons – in antiquity, snakes, who dwelt in the ground, among the rocks and in crevices of temple ruins they ‘protected’ were believed to be the children of Mother Earth. The oldest religion was snake worship.

‘The Mask’, Eurasian Upper Paleolithic, approx 23 mm wide, translucent chlorite

However, the Olympian, virgin Athena was born motherless and mess-less, from Zeus’ mind, his contractions merely a bad headache. Her power over life and death was based in rational judgement, not the voices of chthonic, belly spirits. Likewise, the Greeks distinguished themselves from the ‘barbarians’*.

Why have you hated me in your councils?
For I shall be silent among those who are silent,
and I shall appear and speak.
Why then have you hated me, you Greeks?
Because I am a barbarian among (the) barbarians?
For I am the wisdom (of the) Greeks and
the knowledge of (the barbarians.
I am the judgement of (the) Greeks and the barbarians.

– from The Thunder : Perfect Mind  (Nag Hammadi Texts)

First known image of Medusa

At first, Gorgons were not imagined as having a massive wig of writhing serpents. They had some mixed in with their plaits/dreads, plus a pair interlocked as a girdle around their waist. In the first depiction we know of, Medusa is a centaur with  no sign of snake hair, but possibly wearing a snake skin/skirt. Medusa appeared on the temples of other deities and the Gorgon face** was an apotropiac, used on buildings, shields, jewelry, etc…or to protect a mystery. Suffice it to say that Medusa is the face of Athena, once you’ve had a few cups of ergot wine.

Minoan ‘eye’ octopus jug, bronze volute krater handle, 500 BC (Taranto), Corinthian alabastron depicting Athena Owl flanked by lions creating a Medusa face/wings, 595-500 BC, Greek hydria with Gorgon face, sphinx and turkeys or vultures

There’s so much more to her tale than ‘meets the eye’, but perhaps more than any other myth, the decapitation and demonization of Medusa, who was likely a Libyan seer-queen, signifies the final and often brutal conversion from Goddess worship to patriarchal religion. Also, the white-washing. For this ‘Orientalist Fantasy’, I drew inspiration from the romanticized  face of the ancient Goddess, subject of symbolist painters and goth horror. But the title,  like ‘Lilimoth’, harkens back to natural source, the Sun’s too-powerful gaze, which snakes like basking in.

Medusa mosaic, Turkey

Fun fact: The Gorgon also had another three sisters, the Graiae (essentially the Fates), who shared one, prophetic eye and one tooth between them, also taken by Perseus. Interestingly, in the Perseus constellation, Ras al-Ghul or ‘Algol’, the blinking star in Medusa’s severed head and most feared star in the sky, is in fact not just a binary, but a trinary star system.  One theory is that two of the Gorgon sisters were immortal and one mortal (Medusa), because of the three day period of Algol’s variation – the star ‘winks’ out on the third day. We’re the ancients aware of three stars dancing around each other, like Fates?

Nazar ‘evil eye’ amulet (detail)

dread; fearfulness, but also (archaic) the emotion aroused by something awe-inspiring (awful) or astonishing, fear of God (Rasta).

astonish; to stun, to render senseless as by a blow, to strike with sudden fear or wonder (from Latin ‘attonare’ – to strike with lightening/’tonare ‘ – to thunder).

North African hairstyles, Theda Vamp and Prudence Hymen as ‘The Gorgon’ 1964

*To Hellenists, a ‘barbarian’ was anyone who didn’t speak Greek, typically from North Africa (the word comes from ‘Berbers’).

**Robert Graves, in The White Goddess, also suggests there was never any Medusa Gorgon, but that the face had always been a mask worn by the Goddess. He claims Perseus takes it to protect what’s in the sack, her magical alphabet.

Medusun sequinned tapestry

HERE is a wonderful site with lots of pictures of Medusa and Gorgons

Watch Christopher Lee being Perseus to ‘THE GORGON’ (Hammer, 1964):

*All text except quotations copyright ©Roxanna Bikadoroff and may not be reproduced without permission.* You may share via link only. Any of my own artworks that are shared must include a credit: ©Roxanna Bikadoroff and link to this site. Thanks for being respectful.

Read part one of this three part blogpost HERE

Jupiter in Pisces pt 2 – Trust in Mystery

Another important theme of Jupiter in Pisces is keeping faith as we navigate waters that are not always perfectly clear. Jupiter has everything to do with faith, but we should also remember that he is the greater prophet as well as a  triad (with his other expressions being ‘brothers,’ Neptune and Pluto). Zeus-Jupiter’s psychopomp/messenger son Hermes-Mercury  is really just a chip off the old block. Indeed, Jupiter is often overlooked  as having anything to do with death in a chart, but will often indicate whether a person had a ‘good’ death, in the spiritual sense.

Again, this quote:

For the supreme maker first creates things, then seizes upon them and thirdly perfects them…
…Thus they first flow from that perennial fountain as they are born, then they flow back to it as they seek to revert to their origin, and finally they are perfected after they have returned to their beginning. This was divined by Orpheus when he called Jupiter the beginning, the middle and the end of the universe…

~ from Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance, by Edgar Wind

As if to reiterate, the Cerberus, who guards the gates of Hades, has three dog heads, said to represent past, present and future (from an excellent blog, linked below):

One head of the dog represents the past, one the present, and the third is the future. Cerberus characterizes all of the negative aspects of each of these time frames. He aims to freeze forward movement and lock us into negative, repetitive patterns. Obsessing about the past, overwhelm in the present, and fear of the future are his methods.

We all have a three-headed dog in the dark regions of our psyche. If we are to live the life we envision, and not the one we fear, we must overcome Cerberus. The past, present and future can be sources of comfort, inspiration and encouragement. Or, they can be a nightmare. The choice is ours to make.

~ Patrick O’Neill, Extraordinary Conversations

It’s worth mentioning that Scylla, the legendary sea-monster of Greek mythology (ie, yet another demonized Goddess) that haunted the rocks of a narrow straight, opposite the whirlpool Charybdis, also had dog extensions growing from her flanks. This is likely the origin of the expression, ‘caught between a rock and a hard place.’ When we can see no way through a situation and must ultimately turn to faith, have patience and wait for an answer to our request from the universe for help or guidance.

Sunk waist-deep in the cave’s recesses, she still darts out her head from that frightening hollow, and there, groping greedily round the rock, she fishes for dolphins (delphines) and for sharks (kynes) and whatever beast (ketos) more huge than these she can seize upon from all the thousands that have their pasture from loud-moaning Amphitrite. No seaman ever, in any vessel, has boasted of sailing that way unharmed, for with every single head of hers she snatches and carries off a man from the dark-prowed ship. You will see that the other cliff lies lower, no more than an arrow’s flight away. On this there grows a great leafy fig-tree; under it, awesome Kharybdis (Charybdis) sucks the dark water down . . . No, keep closer to Skylla’s cliff, and row past that as quickly as may be; far better to lose six men and keep your ship than to lose your men one and all.’
So she spoke, and I answered her: ‘Yes, goddess, but tell me truly–could I somehow escape this dire Kharybdis and yet make a stand against the other when she sought to make my men her prey?’
So I spoke, and at once the queenly goddess answered : ‘Self-willed man , is your mind then set on further perils, fresh feats of war? Will you not bow to the deathless gods themselves?

~ Scylla and the Voyage of Odysseus, Theoi.com

People often come for readings because of fear and want to believe they have some control over the future by finding out what it might be. This is not really possible – at least not without a grasp on the past and more importantly, the present. For like Jupiter and his brothers, or the heads of Cerberus, the three are all one being. And would it actually even help to see into the future? This is also why Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, is the god of speculation and gambling.

Yesterday, on my low tide beach walk, I came upon a small, dead fish. I noticed the water was very murky. Perhaps it had lost it’s way or  its gills became clogged. More likely it was a bait fish that didn’t get eaten. Each day, the tides bring in something different; reams of ivy cuttings, a dead sea lion, limes, agates, plant bulbs, bits of china and glass, fossil wood, a yacht, rose petals, star fish, bones…manifestations of the cluttered 12th house. From whence did these things come? How did they end up here? And where do they go when they disappear again? Life on earth came from this body of salt water and it’s all still a great mystery to us. This is why Jupiter, traditional ruler of Pisces is the god of religion and spiritual matters.

At this moment, the Moon is at 0 Virgo, directly opposite Jupiter. Virgo is one of Mercury’s houses, and has a tendency toward sorting practical details and analyzing.  Mercury is in Gemini, his other house, and is ‘slowing down’ in preparation for retrograde, beginning on the 29th. Though we will try, we will be unable to see what’s ahead during this time and must now let Jupiter faith and trust in the greater mystery to guide us. Pay attention to dreams, serendipity and omens (such as finding a dead fish).

Remember that symbolic phenomena doesn’t necessary ‘mean’ anything other than what it IS in its mysterious power. Our Virgo/Mercurial analyzer wants to know what it  literally means, so we heed the warnings of priests, superstitions and dream analysis books, not to mention astrologers, rather than just trusting what we felt and that we can’t ultimately know the reason.
(However, an astrologer, like the meteorologist, can tell you what conditions will be like, so that you can better prepare).

As an example, once, when I was not well and had very little ‘qi’, a friend was driving me to a doctor’s appointment, when a crow,  scuffling with another crow, hit the window on my side, like a bolt. It gave me a great shock, as you can imagine. The next day, another bird hit my studio window, which rarely happens, especially not right after another such incident! I could have groped in the dark for meaning and seen this as a ‘bad omen’ (certainly not good for the birds), but instead took it for what it was…life energy literally being hurled at me in physical form. I thanked the bird messengers for their vehicular sacrifice.
Similarly, when things happen or don’t happen due to timing, which is so often the case during Mercury Rx, we get upset and ‘blame the messenger’, when maybe it was a blessing in disguise.

Perhaps you’ve heard this fable?

There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.
“Maybe,” the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.
“Maybe,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “Maybe,” answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. “Maybe,” said the farmer.


All  written content except where quoted in bold is copyright ©Roxanna Bikadoroff and may not be reproduced without my permission, plus credit and link to the site. You may share the article via link.

All photographs copyright ©Roxanna Bikadoroff and must include credit and link to the site, if shared.  Thanks!
(I don’t like having to repeat this every time, but unfortunately it’s necessary).

 

Moby Dick – Jupiter in Pisces

“Herman Melville depicted the great whale Moby Dick as a powerful force of nature, impossible to comprehend fully. He attributes to the whale not only great antiquity, but also divinity. One of the most striking and effective ways in which he does so is by describing the whale as a manifestation (avatar) of the Hindu deity Vishnu, whose mythology he recounts, the Matsya Avatāra. These passages are analysed in the context of the novel’s other references to India and Hindu religious thought. In an effort to interpret the significance of India and Hinduism in the novel, aspects of Melville’s life and thought are also analysed. We conclude that the structure of the myth of the fish avatar is reflected in the novel’s structure, arid that the novel presents a concept of the divine at variance with Christian theological orthodoxy. But in the great Sperm Whale, this high and mighty god-like dignity inherent in the brow is so immensely amplified, that gazing on it, in that full front view, you feel the Deity and the dread powers more forcibly than in beholding any other object in living nature.”

– Bruce M. Sullivan, Patricia Wong Hall, The Whale Avatar of the Hindoos in Melville’s Moby Dick

Award winning Whale Eye photo by Sue Flood

Jupiter comes back to his water domicile of Pisces tomorrow (Thurs May 13) at 6:36 EDT/3:36 PDT. This means both Pisces ‘rulers’ are there, Neptune being the other. This hasn’t happened since the mid 1800s. (Am not really comfortable assigning rulerships to the 3 outer alchemists – Uranus, Neptune and Pluto – but that’s the consensus).

According to my astro day planner, this week sees Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn (Aquarius), Mercury (Gemini) and the Moon (Sun night to Wed morn in Cancer) all in their home signs – i.e., the unadulterated, pure stuff, so if any of you make tinctures or other creations that are under the influence of these planets, a good time to utilize this. Spiritual energy and compassion is available in abundance now if we should chose to tap into it, or if we have been trying to no avail, this will now help.

Jupiter is called the ‘greater benefactor’, but in truth, often he just  blows things out of proportion. The god-like Moby Dick can also be viewed as the outward obsession of man, who has become spiritually impotent in his  desire to conquer nature (ie, the feminine).  It echoes the  ancient Mesopotamian hero-creation myth, wherein the Goddess Tiamat, ‘shining personification of the sea’,  is cut in two by Marduk, dragon-slaying early ancestor of Perseus and St. George. Tiamat’s severed body becomes the earth and the heavens. Then there is also the Inuit myth of Sedna, who was ‘impetuous’ in her refusal to marry the guy her father chose for her, so he takes her out and  tosses her into the sea, then chops off her fingers as she clings to the boat begging for mercy. Her severed fingers become plentiful sea creatures and Sedna, the great Sea Mother Goddess. Hurray for dismemberment and rebirth!

Sedna by Simonie Siakuluk

Could it be, as the human sacrifice-happy Aztecs believed, that when we enter the womb, we are actually being entombed in a body, and it’s when we die that we are actually being born? (You’re welcome, human sacrifices). Is that what our collective death-wish is all about? Is that why Captain Ahab can’t stop following his Behemoth around?

Sedna is currently in the late degrees of tropical Taurus, conjunct Black Moon Lilith in the sign of fixed Earth and nature itself, but will be in the actual constellation for a while, yet. She’s also trine Pluto in Capricorn at the moment. (Venus and the Moon are also within the Taurus constellation, but are in tropical Gemini).

The ancient bull knows all about  being sacrificed to the Gods and becoming one in the process, which is why Zeus-Jupiter was called ‘bull powerful’. Its myth and symbolism is too extensive to go into here, but suffice it to say the bull was the first zodiacal constellation (other early constellations, such as Orion and Ursa Major are not part of the zodiac). So any God who’s anyone has to wear horns, provide food and fodder or at least have a thunderous bellow and a fecund nature.

Planets in Pisces are in  sextile (good, working aspect) to those in Taurus, so there will be compatibility between planets in both signs, starting with Jupiter and Uranus, and Jupiter will be getting a good dose of bull-power. We must seize the day, however, because Jupiter will be in Pisces for less than a year, shorter than his usual stay in a sign, due to retrograde (starting June 20) and return to Aquarius (Jul 28 – Dec 29). So we get a month this year and just 5 months next year of this prime Jupiter time. But he does come back to Pisces during retrograde again, from Oct 28 to Dec 19, 2022.

For the supreme maker first creates things, then seizes upon them and thirdly perfects them…
…Thus they first flow from that perennial fountain as they are born, then they flow back to it as they seek to revert to their origin, and finally they are perfected after they have returned to their beginning. This was divined by Orpheus when he called Jupiter the beginning, the middle and the end of the universe…

~ from Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance, by Edgar Wind

This is the time to:
– dive deep into spiritual  concerns, pray, meditate,  be magnanimous
– put spiritual teachings to actual practice
– turn attention to the plight of marine mammals in captivity and in the Arctic
– find teachings in nature, especially the ocean
– make dreams actually happen; that novel, that new location, that garden…
– sustain soul healing, continuing what the Scorpio full Moon and recent, Taurus  new moon have set in motion
– release from ‘karmic debt’
– wear purple and amethyst to honour Jupiter in Pisces

 

Three types of bronze fish money of the Zhou Dynasty, China. circa 1122-255, BC

If you require a Tarot or astrology reading at this time, please contact me. You can find out more about readings here.


All  written content except where quoted in bold is copyright ©Roxanna Bikadoroff and may not be reproduced without permission, credit and link. You may share a link to the article and include a small, introductory excerpt.
Thank you.

Holly for Christmas

Trees are living Gods.

The sacred Holly is popular at this time of year because it is associated with the Green Man, Christ, truth and love.  Holly is the Bach remedy for envy, jealousy, hatred, and helps to open the heart to compassion and generosity.

“In Celtic astrology, the eighth sign of the lunar zodiac is Holly and it’s ruling planet is Earth, because it marked the fire festival of Lammas or Lughnasa, which was celebrated on 1 August. These celebrations were in honour of their Earth goddess and their Sun god when the fruits of the earth were being harvested. The mystical symbol  of the Holly Tree is the fabled Unicorn, an ancient symbol of royalty and noble spirit. The evergreen aspect of the Holly symbolized eternal life…”

 ~ Celtic Moon Signs, Helena Patterson

We have a lot of Holly in Vancouver, probably from Britain. I stood beside this one today, with the Taurus (earth) Moon above. Found a couple of small branches on the ground, to take home, and left a slightly heart-shaped,  pink-tinted rock in it’s trunk, as a thank-you.

holly tree holly and moon
holly and moon
holly tree
holly tree

Photos ©Roxanna Bikadoroff

Day After Solstice Jupiter and Saturn

Well, we finally got a clear evening, so I stood  glued to the southwest horizon with opera glasses and pocket camera at the ready.  Suddenly there they were…the two interpersonal planet Gods empowered in partnership. My photos are nothing fancy, but am so grateful I got to see this  once in a lifetime event! Got me choked up,  have to say.

jupiter and saturn great conjunction photo

MAGIC GARDENS – Corrine Heline and Stellar Florotica

I stumbled upon author and mystic Corrine Heline (1882-1975) quite by accident, during one of my rabbit-hole, image searches. Heline’s philosophy is basically the same as my own, that what we experience on Earth as flowers are phenomena, the manifestation of a much greater, energetic force. ‘As above, so below.’ Knowing the true significance of the floral Queendom, one can see why bees – Her natural priestesses and priests – were so revered by the ancients. Let us return to the petaled temple…
The following excerpts from Corrine Heline’s book, “Magic Gardens” are from The Way of Love blog. (Thank you very much for providing this source).

Every flower bears a starry imprint,’ declared the illumined seer, Paracelsus. From the zodiac come the veritable secrets of God. The Star Angels are transmitters, and flowers become symbols of their communications. The closer our communion with the angels, the deeper will be our understanding of the mysteries of the plant kingdom and the greater our realization of the spiritual ministry of the world of flowers.

Each of the zodiacal Hierarchies creates its own cosmic flower patterns in the celestial realms. These patterns conform in shape, size, color and tone–every flower sings–with the vibratory keynote of its sign. These cosmic prototypes are perfect in every detail. In the highest heavens, they live and bloom in such wondrous beauty as to have inspired many legends which serve in a humble way to bring to earth some slight conception of their transcendent glory in the higher worlds and also the significance they hold for the peoples of earth. Imbued with eternal life, they never fade, but live and flourish with an ever-increasing splendor through the ages.

It is from these perfect patterns in the heaven worlds that the angels build the reflections which we who live upon the earth, know as flowers, and which, when so understood, become among the most sublime of earth’s teachers. Each flower is given its own special work to perform. Each plant bears deeply within its heart a message to the human family….


Each flower family was fashioned by the angels to represent some specific quality or attribute to be awakened within man. As the angelic hosts impress this ideal upon a floral archetype, its physical embodiment becomes a radiant herald of this celestial message. Flowers are thus literally a medium of contact between the Shining Ones and those who live upon the earth, their fragrance developing and increasing as a beautiful testimony to their work as mediators.
As man becomes increasingly sensitive he will begin to interpret this flower language, and to the degree that he does this, and lives in accordance with its high idealism in his daily contacts with his fellowman, the perfume of our flower friends will be intensified, the colorings will grown more exquisite, and the delicate petals will have greater endurance.



Each plant bears in its life forces the signature of its stellar creation. This creative impress takes form within the heart of the seed, and one who possesses the ‘blessed sight’ can observe within it the complete picture of the plant that is later to come into physical expression upon the earth. So, too, may those possessing the ‘inner wisdom’ discern the message which flowers bring concerning the realities of heaven, and which are awaiting manifestation on the physical plane.

As a man learns to respond to the ideals instilled by the angelic beings into the hearts of flowers, he, too, will develop a quality of soul that will radiate in fragrance, rare and beautiful. He will walk in an aura of radiant light and know the glory of an immortal life that shall never fade.



AMEN!

Thank you for viewing and please help keep the bees alive – don’t buy/use chemical pesticides or neonicotinoids!

All photos herein ©Roxanna Bikadoroff except for the two ancient Melissae