MoonTimer 2017 Calendars are born!

Friends, it has been the case that this year's challenges have delayed production of the calendar. God willing, they will be ready for shipping right around New Year's Eve.

Paypal portal at bottom of the page. Your payment will not be processed until your calendar has shipped. If you are local, do not pay for shipping; we can arrange a meeting to pickup.

Every month in 2017, I will provide a deeper commentary on the calendar for that month, on this blog.

Thank you for your patience and patronage, and for nurturing the sacred Feminine, the principle of connectedness that exists in all people, in all nature. A voice emerging from our collective heart is being felt in the world. I hope the calendar brings you many messages.

February - Magdalene at the Casbah

on the judgement of women in a patriarchal age

 March - The World Keeps Spinning
on the excellence of Nature as our teacher

April - Code Unwritten
the important details of a woman's status may be written in her hair

May - Bird on a Wire

survival and self-sovereignty 

June - Convergent Cultures

two Jewish girls in Morrocco, 1900

July - The Treasure of the House

Hexagram 37: the Family

August - She Had Some Horses
inspired by a poem by Joy Harjo

September - Himsa / Alhimsa (Violence / Nonviolence)

what Ghandi said about self-defense for women

October - HildaVision

Swedish mystical artist Hilda Klint specified that her work not be shown until 20 years after her death

November - The Star Knowledge Returns
indigenous knowledge re-emerges into consciousness

December - The Ever Renewing Cycle
the path of all women

Price Breaks

1- 3 Calendars $20.00 USD 4-6 Calendars $17.00 USD 7+ $15.00 USD

December: Christians, Jews, Rastafarians, and coffee

Ethiopia has an important role in Christianity's history, as the sanctuary to which the Ark of the Covenant was taken for safe-keeping, after the destruction of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.

Replicas of the Ark can be found in nearly every Ethiopian Orthodox Church. On January 6th each year, they celebrate their most important annual festival: Timket, meaning 'baptism' in Amharic, the language spoken by Christ. Eastern Orthodox Christians recognize this day as commemorating the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, while in the West it signifies the recognition of the Christ child's divinity by the Magi, who were led to him by a star.

The Western interpretation may be the reason that many of us know the date as Epiphany, a concept that is beautiful in itself, describing an unexpected insight, an awakening, a realization. Suddenly, the hidden meaning behind something (a symbol, an event, a coincidence, a repeating life pattern) is revealed, and we're given the gift of clarity, in a blinding stoke of light.

Timket is observed with a procession of colorful, elaborately decorated parasols held by priests in ceremonial finery, who bear a representational Ark through the streets. The original artifact is guarded zealously, at St. Mary of Zion church in Aksum, by monks who have taken an oath unto death. Apparently needed structural repairs have prompted the construction of a new temple next door.

Lalibela, Ethiopia, can boast some of the most impressive churches in the world -- not for their gilt and ornamentation, but for the fact that they are carved out, straight downwards, into the earth.

There have been the difficult issues surrounding the Falafa, the Ethiopian Jews whom Israel finally began admitting in the 1970's, after many decades of declaring themselves the Lost Tribe of Israel. Sadly, they face ongoing discrimination challenges there. Middle East Eye.net



The Rastafarians make the same claim to Lost Tribe status. They revere Haile Selassie as their incarnate god, calling him the Conquering Lion of Judah, as his lineage is traced back to the union of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, reportedly 3,000 years ago. It was Menelik I, their son, who moved the Ark to safety.

 image by Stephen Fishwick

Synchronously (because there is no coincidence), the installation of this Emperor led to the crowning of an unexpected King, a bi-racial youth born into poverty in the West Indies.

His messages in music contain the prophetic voice of the indigenous, demonstrated by the fact that over time, his lyrics become more true, more relevant, rather than less so. Having captured the heart of the time, he is known everywhere, and his messages will forever endure. The image can be purchased here: Bob Marley poster.

I could not help admiring the defiant stance of the Hamar woman. The Hamar are an ancient tribal people, with their own traditions, who are adaptable enough to live harmoniously with their neighbors of diverse faiths. The women are especially tough - they can only be characterized as indomitable.

Lastly, my thanks to the Ethiopians, who were the first to roast coffee beans and grind them up, discovering the outstanding brew upon which I so depend. Today, they still observe long-standing ritual in its preparation. Thus, while floating over a sea of coffee beans, the Lion of St. Mark's book falls open to the Rastafarian claim to Ethiopian spiritual inheritance.

Coffee, the miraculous beverage, is at least guaranteed to wake you up, even if it does not provide a full-on Epiphany.
 

November: What Money Can't Buy

At top right of the panel, prayer flags wave over a Tibetan coin and a paper currency note.

The nuns pictured are from the lineage of Tsoknyi Rinpoche in the 1800's. His order provided spiritual and material support for a large number of nuns in Tibet and Nepal, and this continues today. The devotees lead simple lives in pursuit of inner freedom, compassion, and profound love.

Skeletons dancing together are carved on a human skull-cap, a distinctly Tibetan art form in a culture that always "keeps the end in mind".

The only treasure we can bring with us, when we abandon our Earth Suit and journey on, is the love that we have given and received. Ask not for whom the bell tolls - get on with the business of loving.
Love alone prevails.

October: Trauma and Tenderness

Frida Kahlo first survived polio as a child, and was later impaled during a trolley accident at the age of 18, which confined her to bed for over a year (3 months of it in a full body cast). She suffered excruciating pain through 30 surgeries for these injuries, but her confinement is what propelled her to begin painting. This is an extraordinary demonstration of the Power of Limits: seeming misfortunes may contain a hidden blessing.

Frida went on to live a life full of color, becoming an iconic and greatly loved artist. In the calendar's top panel/portrait, she floats over a field of milagros, the charms that are traditionally used, in the Southwest, as offerings in niches and altars, often representing the body part that needs help. The photo of her with her fawn seemed such a testament to the ability of animals, particularly, to unlock the gentle healing of our hearts after trauma.

The periwinkle blue was an attempt to match the color of her house, called Casa Azul; and the window in the panel is actually from her kitchen.

The hands holding water are from a mural by her husband, Diego Rivera. She married him twice, although both of them had other lovers along the way. Some of her lovers were women; according to one source, she enjoyed a liaison with Josephine Baker, another extraordinary pioneer of self-sovereignty, during a visit to Paris in 1939.

Long may you reign in our hearts, Frida.

August: White Buffalo Calf Woman and Lakota Prophecy

The story of White Buffalo Calf Woman, Ptsesan Winyan, is referenced in the panel; she is a primary cultural icon of Lakota tradition.  She brought a sacred medicine bundle to sustain the people, teaching them spiritual laws and practices - the sweat lodge among them - and gifting them with the sacred pipe (canunpa wakan) for use in their ceremonies. 

The basic story is that in a lean time, two young scouts were sent looking for buffalo, and saw a white buffalo calf in the distance. As they got closer, it revealed itself as a beautiful woman dressed in white buckskin. One of the youth perceived her holy nature and was filled with respect and reverence. The other decided to approach her for the purpose of fulfilling his lust. He was struck by a sudden whirlwind of dust (some say a black cloud); when it dissipated, there remained only a pile of his bones on the ground.
I wish all girls had this skill. 

The other youth was terrified, and drew his bow, but the sacred woman explained that he was in no danger, because she could see into his heart. I think most girls DO have this skill. We just have to encourage them to trust their Knowing, to trust their 'gut' (their instincts) and their intuition.

Use of the sacred pipe was, for a time, outlawed by white 'authorities'. The pipe was intentionally constructed in three sections so that it could be broken down; each piece could then be separately and secretly transported, hidden in the clothes and articles of different individuals.

In 1994, a rare white buffalo calf was born on a farm owned by a white family in Janesville, Wisconsin. Even the Dalai Lama honored her by visiting and leaving his white scarf on the fence, with the innumerable offerings made by the tribes and others. This calf was named Miracle, and was heralded as the fulfillment of Lakota prophecy, which states that there will be a proliferation of white animals (not albinos), as a signal to us that we have reached a crucial threshold, a tipping point.

We are now Standing on that threshold. 

Mni Wiconi. Water is Life. I Am Water.

July: Wrath and Intoxication

Most commonly described as the daughter of Ra, the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet was a warrior, and her ruthlessness was feared. She is able to cause - or prevent - all forms of pestilence: natural disasters, epidemics, famine. Her particular association with illness and its cure gives her an authority over those who practice medicine, the skilled physicians and healers of Egypt.

Don't go to her for mercy and kindness. She's not going to coddle you, unless you are the infant Horus, whom she was charged to protect during his 'vulnerable infancy' in the marshes(1). She is said to have seven arrows, and destroys those who dishonor the gods, and those who refuse to live by Ma'at (I suspect that those seven arrows ARE the principles of Ma'at: truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice).

The story goes that Ra got to feeling neglected by humans, so he dispatched Sekhmet to deliver some punishment. Becoming a bit too enthusiastic, she began slaughtering people at random, until a plan was made to stop her: a field was flooded with Khakadi (a mix of beer and red color, to look like blood). She drank, and, becoming intoxicated, passed out; she had to be entertained with jokes and stories while recuperating from the hangover.

As the vengeful daughter of Ra, Sekhmet is essentially a Solar deity (masculine), rather than a lunar goddess. Atypically in this case, alcohol was the remedy, not the cause, of the slaughter, which was dictated and guided by an abusive patriarchal authority. When the Seven Arrows - the sacred principles of Ma'at  - are ignored, anger contaminates justice in the service of personal, selfish interests. Sekhmet makes a statement to us about the proper use of power, which here went terribly wrong, as it so often does.

But what were you expecting, from a woman who wears a cobra snake for a hair tie?

(1) https://henadology.wordpress.com/theology/netjeru/sekhmet/
https://krasskova.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/sekhmet-is-not-a-mother-goddess/
http://www.read-legends-and-myths.com/sekhmet.html

June: Intuition and Self-Sovereignty

A Luna moth rests on the fabric used to make Chinese shoes, of a fashion now banned: the cruel practice of foot-binding, gradually breaking the bones in a woman's foot until it achieves resemblance to a lotus flower. Crippling a woman was beautiful only for the man; a wife who could not walk on her own, requiring servants to help her, is a display of his wealth and status. The independence of a wealthy wife was crushed like the bones in her feet. She might well have wished to have been born into less 'fortunate' circumstances.

When survival depends on an abusive relationship, it is as if a woman is forced to wear invisible Chinese shoes. Even the mouth of the moon is covered, when one is in captivity.

The doors represent decisions, a destiny behind each. One of them leads out of the walled garden. A tenet of intuition (inner tuition) is that everything we need is actually here, now, in the present, and can be found by casting about in the landscape, both inner and outer. Colette, in her book The Vagabond, called this, "Chance"...the reliance on synchronicity for guidance.

 A gypsy, being free, throws flowers to the prisoners. When we penetrate more deeply into the book of life, we will release all our relatives from bondage. 

The portrait is My Sweet Rose, by pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse, circa 1908.