I am writing this in the dark. It is Earth Hour, a rolling blackout around the world intended as a visual, visceral vote for increased awareness and concern about climate change. In fact, it is the first-ever global vote on anything.
All of my lights are out. I can see the Manhattan skyline from the windows in my loft in Exotic Brooklyn. It is eerily dark. Landmarks and iconic buildings everywhere from the Empire State building to the Eiffel Tower, to the Golden Gate Bridge to the Great Pyramids and Sphinx went dark.
I cooked dinner by candlelight on a gas range. How many others around the world were doing the same? How many were sitting around dining room tables at home and in restaurants in the soft light of lanterns and oil lamps? How many cook and eat by a fire every night?
It is estimated that one billion folks in four thousand cities in eighty-eight countries worldwide participated in this massive project. Earth Hour is a graphic pledge to do one’s part for planetary protection and healing. I feel so connected to all the participants as we share this global ritual. For one hour, we are all one, joined in service to our mutual Mother Earth and ultimately each other.
Earth Hour can have very concrete potential consequences if everyone follows through and acts responsibly going forward. For example, if every business and household replaced just one light bulb with a compact fluorescent one, enough energy would be saved that one nuclear power plant could be taken off the grid.
We can turn this crisis around. We each need to do our part. Not just for Earth Hour, not just for Earth Day, but for every minute of every hour every day. We CAN do this. Yes we can!
With blessings to and from and for the Earth.
xxMama Donna
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
The Queen’s Chronicles: LUCKY FRIDAY THE 13th
When the 13th day on the month lands on a Friday, the culturally unfavorable attributes of each are multiplied by infinity. Friday, the day of original sin, the day Jesus died, the day of public hangings, in combination with 13, the number of steps on a gallows, the number of coils of rope in a hangman’s noose, the number of the Death card in the tarot deck, is indubitably designated as a day of portent and doom.
The pitiful suicide note of a window washer that was found with his body in a gas-filled room at his home and quoted in a 1960 issue of the Yorkshire Post, underscores its powerful, popular reputation, "It just needed to rain today - Friday the 13th - for me to make up my mind." Poor sod.
But up until the patriarchal revolution, both Fridays and 13s were held in the very highest esteem. Both the day and the number were associated with the Great Goddesses, and therefore, regarded as the sacred essence of luck and good fortune. Thirteen is certainly the most essentially female number - the average number of menstrual cycles in a year. The approximate number, too of annual cycles of the moon. When Chinese women make offerings of moon cakes, there are sure to be 13 on the platter. Thirteen is the number of blood, fertility and lunar potency. 13 is the lucky number of the Great Goddess.
Held holy in Her honor, Friday was observed as the day of Her special celebrations. Jews around the world still begin the observance of the Sabbath at sunset on Friday evenings when they invite in the Sabbath Bride. Friday is the Sabbath in the Islamic world. Friday is also sacred to Oshun, the Yoruban orisha of opulent sensuality and overwhelming femininity, and Frig the Norse Goddess of love and sex, of fertility and creativity. Her name became the Anglo-Saxon noun for love, and in the sixteenth century, frig came to mean “to copulate.”
Friday the 13th is ultimately the celebration of the lives and loves of Lady Luck. On this, Her doubly-dedicated day, let us consider what fortuitous coincidences constitute our fate. The lucky blend of just the right conditions, chemistries, elements and energies, which comprise our universe. The way it all works. The way we are. That we are at all. That, despite whatever major or minor matters we might think are unlucky, we have somehow managed to remain alive and aware. This Friday the 13th, let us stand in full consciousness of the miraculousness of existence and count our blessings. Knock on wood!
With blessings of luck and love.
xxQMD
The pitiful suicide note of a window washer that was found with his body in a gas-filled room at his home and quoted in a 1960 issue of the Yorkshire Post, underscores its powerful, popular reputation, "It just needed to rain today - Friday the 13th - for me to make up my mind." Poor sod.
But up until the patriarchal revolution, both Fridays and 13s were held in the very highest esteem. Both the day and the number were associated with the Great Goddesses, and therefore, regarded as the sacred essence of luck and good fortune. Thirteen is certainly the most essentially female number - the average number of menstrual cycles in a year. The approximate number, too of annual cycles of the moon. When Chinese women make offerings of moon cakes, there are sure to be 13 on the platter. Thirteen is the number of blood, fertility and lunar potency. 13 is the lucky number of the Great Goddess.
Held holy in Her honor, Friday was observed as the day of Her special celebrations. Jews around the world still begin the observance of the Sabbath at sunset on Friday evenings when they invite in the Sabbath Bride. Friday is the Sabbath in the Islamic world. Friday is also sacred to Oshun, the Yoruban orisha of opulent sensuality and overwhelming femininity, and Frig the Norse Goddess of love and sex, of fertility and creativity. Her name became the Anglo-Saxon noun for love, and in the sixteenth century, frig came to mean “to copulate.”
Friday the 13th is ultimately the celebration of the lives and loves of Lady Luck. On this, Her doubly-dedicated day, let us consider what fortuitous coincidences constitute our fate. The lucky blend of just the right conditions, chemistries, elements and energies, which comprise our universe. The way it all works. The way we are. That we are at all. That, despite whatever major or minor matters we might think are unlucky, we have somehow managed to remain alive and aware. This Friday the 13th, let us stand in full consciousness of the miraculousness of existence and count our blessings. Knock on wood!
With blessings of luck and love.
xxQMD
Monday, March 9, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Saturday, January 31, 2009
The Queen’s Chronicles: OUT WITH THE OLD, BLESS THE NEW
When Kate Clinton invited me to conduct the purification ceremony at a public event she organized for the eve of the inauguration called, Sage the White House, I was delighted. Certainly, after eight long years of dirty deals, dirty politics, dirty wars and dirty little secrets our country was in need of a deep cleansing. And I have a lot of experience as a public blesser.
But focusing our purification intention on the White House was too narrow, I thought. So I was pleased when we were forced to relocate the event to Dupont Circle. This way, we could direct our energy out in a complete circle. We can’t just focus on the president. What about Congress? What about the courts? What about Wall Street?
And most importantly, what about us? We have been culpable, too. We let it all happen through our complacent co-operation. Me might not have approved of what was going on, but what did we do about? We did protest the Iraq war, but where was the mass outrage as one by one our constitutional rights were revoked?
Who among us did not shop and enjoy the lucrative, good times? We need to remember that in a democracy we have not only the right, but also the responsibility to comment on the conduct and ethos of our nation — vociferously, if we have to.
So my ritual was about releasing all that we do not wish to take with us into this new era that we are now beginning — our attitudes and values, our culpability and our laziness, as well as the ill deeds of our government. Once we let all the negativity go, it was important to cleanse the toxic residue that it can leave behind. And then once the atmosphere was cleared and purified, we called in all our good qualities and intentions for a positive change for the good of all.
We accomplished all that in a big way. Nearly a thousand souls gathered at Dupont Circle in Washington, DC to participate in the Inauguration Purification Ritual.
Inauguration Purification Ritual Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1tkLlf5MXE&feature=channel_page
Inauguration Purification Ritual Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TudynPUgnpc&feature=channel
We now have a fresh start. This time, may we step into the fray and involve ourselves, not only in discussions and complaints about our problems, but also in search of creative solutions to them.
With blessings of peace, sanity and sustainability,
xxQMD
But focusing our purification intention on the White House was too narrow, I thought. So I was pleased when we were forced to relocate the event to Dupont Circle. This way, we could direct our energy out in a complete circle. We can’t just focus on the president. What about Congress? What about the courts? What about Wall Street?
And most importantly, what about us? We have been culpable, too. We let it all happen through our complacent co-operation. Me might not have approved of what was going on, but what did we do about? We did protest the Iraq war, but where was the mass outrage as one by one our constitutional rights were revoked?
Who among us did not shop and enjoy the lucrative, good times? We need to remember that in a democracy we have not only the right, but also the responsibility to comment on the conduct and ethos of our nation — vociferously, if we have to.
So my ritual was about releasing all that we do not wish to take with us into this new era that we are now beginning — our attitudes and values, our culpability and our laziness, as well as the ill deeds of our government. Once we let all the negativity go, it was important to cleanse the toxic residue that it can leave behind. And then once the atmosphere was cleared and purified, we called in all our good qualities and intentions for a positive change for the good of all.
We accomplished all that in a big way. Nearly a thousand souls gathered at Dupont Circle in Washington, DC to participate in the Inauguration Purification Ritual.
Inauguration Purification Ritual Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1tkLlf5MXE&feature=channel_page
Inauguration Purification Ritual Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TudynPUgnpc&feature=channel
We now have a fresh start. This time, may we step into the fray and involve ourselves, not only in discussions and complaints about our problems, but also in search of creative solutions to them.
With blessings of peace, sanity and sustainability,
xxQMD
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The Queen’s Chronicles: HAPPY NEW ERA
I don’t know about you, but I am so glad and relieved that we are finally in 2009. And just in time, is all I can say. The house-of-cards-culture of deception, cynical exploitation, excess and greed that has prevailed for the past decades has collapsed under the weight of its own consumption, crushing the lives and dreams of millions of people.
A new year, a new beginning, a fresh start is just what we need about now. New Year is a return to the eternal beginnings. Back to where there is only hope and promise and enthusiastic, well-intentioned energy. Back to the original big bang back seat cosmic conception where all things are possible.
Despite the dismal prognostications, there is definitely hope in the air these days, and excitement at the prospect of change. The freshness, idealism, and renewed faith in the future, even in the face of impending hardship, is palpable and vivifying.
Ironic, isn’t it? And so very heartening.
It is like the entire nation is waking up from a stuporous dream, drugged by too much food and drink, our adrenals depleted by years of operating in frantic overdrive racing to achieve, to succeed, to spend, to accumulate, to expand until we explode. Enough already. Basta!
Time to shake off the shroud of vacuous values and get back to the basics.
People everywhere are girding themselves for tough times ahead, but instead of resistance and resentment, I sense a sincere desire to live in a more conscientious, connected and authentic manner. A yearning for life built on principles that we can be proud of.
This fall I went to the 60th birthday party of a very old and dear friend. Due to budget constraints, the venue was the back room of a funkyish bar. The
refreshments consisted of pitchers of beer and sangria and scant little fried things. All in all, perfect for a college bash, but a bit strange for a room full of midlife women. Or so it seemed at first.
The birthday Queen specified no gifts, but requested a song, instead. And her adoring guests complied. They brought songs alright, complete with costumes and creative props. The show was fabulous — touching and hilarious. And there was dancing. Lots of dancing. It was a really great celebration, rich in all the right components. I can’t remember having so much simple down home fun at a party in a long time.
After all, how many poo-poo foodie parties can you stand? You know the kind I mean. “This cheese is so special, only two cows in the whole world make it! And it only costs $46. a quarter of a pound.” Pulease.
One of my New Year resolutions is to entertain more this year. Not big parties, but intimate dinners with six or eight people who can be depended upon for fascinating conversation and true communion. I am craving old-fashioned one-pot suppers — soups, stews, casseroles, salads. Good bread. Good wine. Good talk. Good quality time.
I remember my mother talking about the depression. It dashed her plans to go to college. Instead, she had to work in a fruit store. But she never complained about that. (Don’t get me wrong, my mother was a great complainer.) She always said about those years, “People stuck together then, and helped each other.” And, “We knew how to have fun.”
With this new year we enter a new era. The main challenge that we will face in these uncertain times is not the economy. Nor is it the unnerving and seemingly psychotic political scenarios being played out all around the world. Not to mention the grief that they create.
Our challenge is to stay in our center come what may. Our challenge is to breathe in the energy of the life force and to exhale respect, reverence and awe. Our challenge is to be unshakeable in our faith. To share our love. And to shine our spiritual light.
This year may we discover and embrace our own purpose, passion and power.
May we accept our responsibility and our rule. May we take our ideas and our skills and use them to create a viable, safe, sustainable and sane world for us all.
With blessings of peace and joy. Peace! And joy!
xxQMD
A new year, a new beginning, a fresh start is just what we need about now. New Year is a return to the eternal beginnings. Back to where there is only hope and promise and enthusiastic, well-intentioned energy. Back to the original big bang back seat cosmic conception where all things are possible.
Despite the dismal prognostications, there is definitely hope in the air these days, and excitement at the prospect of change. The freshness, idealism, and renewed faith in the future, even in the face of impending hardship, is palpable and vivifying.
Ironic, isn’t it? And so very heartening.
It is like the entire nation is waking up from a stuporous dream, drugged by too much food and drink, our adrenals depleted by years of operating in frantic overdrive racing to achieve, to succeed, to spend, to accumulate, to expand until we explode. Enough already. Basta!
Time to shake off the shroud of vacuous values and get back to the basics.
People everywhere are girding themselves for tough times ahead, but instead of resistance and resentment, I sense a sincere desire to live in a more conscientious, connected and authentic manner. A yearning for life built on principles that we can be proud of.
This fall I went to the 60th birthday party of a very old and dear friend. Due to budget constraints, the venue was the back room of a funkyish bar. The
refreshments consisted of pitchers of beer and sangria and scant little fried things. All in all, perfect for a college bash, but a bit strange for a room full of midlife women. Or so it seemed at first.
The birthday Queen specified no gifts, but requested a song, instead. And her adoring guests complied. They brought songs alright, complete with costumes and creative props. The show was fabulous — touching and hilarious. And there was dancing. Lots of dancing. It was a really great celebration, rich in all the right components. I can’t remember having so much simple down home fun at a party in a long time.
After all, how many poo-poo foodie parties can you stand? You know the kind I mean. “This cheese is so special, only two cows in the whole world make it! And it only costs $46. a quarter of a pound.” Pulease.
One of my New Year resolutions is to entertain more this year. Not big parties, but intimate dinners with six or eight people who can be depended upon for fascinating conversation and true communion. I am craving old-fashioned one-pot suppers — soups, stews, casseroles, salads. Good bread. Good wine. Good talk. Good quality time.
I remember my mother talking about the depression. It dashed her plans to go to college. Instead, she had to work in a fruit store. But she never complained about that. (Don’t get me wrong, my mother was a great complainer.) She always said about those years, “People stuck together then, and helped each other.” And, “We knew how to have fun.”
With this new year we enter a new era. The main challenge that we will face in these uncertain times is not the economy. Nor is it the unnerving and seemingly psychotic political scenarios being played out all around the world. Not to mention the grief that they create.
Our challenge is to stay in our center come what may. Our challenge is to breathe in the energy of the life force and to exhale respect, reverence and awe. Our challenge is to be unshakeable in our faith. To share our love. And to shine our spiritual light.
This year may we discover and embrace our own purpose, passion and power.
May we accept our responsibility and our rule. May we take our ideas and our skills and use them to create a viable, safe, sustainable and sane world for us all.
With blessings of peace and joy. Peace! And joy!
xxQMD
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)