"Twins are sacred because they are living representations of the balancing forces found throughout Vodou belief. Together, they represent both the human and the divine, the mortal and the immortal. They form a connection between the physical world and the world of the spirits, and they live in both worlds. Some practitioners of Vodou believe that they are even more powerful than the lwa because of the union they symbolise."

Seven Principles of Huna

* IKE -The world is what you think it is
* KALA -There are no limits, everything is possible
* MAKIA -Energy flows where attention goes
* MANAWA -Now is the moment of power
* ALOHA -To love is to be happy with
* MANA -All power comes from within
* PONO -Effectiveness is the measure of truth

"Divine creator, father, mother, as one ...

If I, my family, relatives and ancestors have offended you, your family, relatives and ancestors in thoughts, words, deeds and actions from the beginning of our creation to the present, we ask your forgiveness ...

Let this cleanse, purify, release, cut all the negative memories, blocks, energies and vibrations and transmute these unwanted energies to pure light ..."

No man is so good as to be free of evil, nor so bad as to be worth nothing.
~ Norse Proverb

The Ojo de Dios (God's eye) is a ritual tool, magical object and cultural symbol evoking the weaving motif and its spiritual associations. For the Huichol peoples of northwestern Mexico, The God's Eye is symbolic of the power of seeing and understanding that which is unknown and unknowable, The Mystery. The four points represent the elemental processes earth, fire, air, and water.

I woman in North Carolina went into a lawyer's office to get help because her ex-husband was harassing her about her religion, Wicca.  Instead of politely declining to represent her, he cussed her out and told her to get out of his office.  I included the link above to her story about it.  I think people have the right not to represent someone if they have issues with their religion.  I wouldn't want someone representing me in her situation who was that against my religion.  But his actions were uncalled for and unprofessional.  If you have issues with this lawyer's behaviour, please sign the petition below.

The huldra is a stunningly beautiful, sometimes naked woman with long hair; though from behind she is hollow like an old tree trunk, and has an animal's tail. In Norway, she has a cow's tail, and in Sweden she may have that of a cow or a fox. Further in the north of Sweden, the tail can be entirely omitted in favor of her hollow or bark-covered back.

In Norway, the huldra has often been described as a typical dairymaid, wearing the clothes of a regular farm girl, although somewhat more dazzling or prettier than most girls.

So what are the implications of the threefold life?  Well, working with the threefold life is similar to using your feet, hands, and other parts of your body.  You have them.  They were given to you for a purpose in your life.  Not to use them if they are functional is to volunteer for self-imposed restrictions that are against the natural plan.  Likewise, the three walkers are vital appendages to your total being, created for use in fulfillment of your potential.  They are always in use unconsciously, for these are natural functions of the walkers.  But in addition to fulfillinf functions, they are bodies of flesh, energy, and liquids that have their own capacities for perception, communication, and power (defined as "the ability to affect change").

Each component of the threefold life has its own characteristics and role in the creative epoch.  The total sum of the threefold life makes up who and what you are.  Not all orders of life partake of this threefold life.  The characteristics of each walker are as follows:

• The star walker has the original plan for your life.  When you pray to the Creator (however you envision it), the prayers are heard and carried by your star walker to the source.  In that way, it is your personal "Christ."
• The dream walker receives this plan as a mirror receives an image and reflects it outward to the surface walker.  The dream walker attracts all of the necessary resources to implement the plan or design of the star walker.
• The surface walker implements the plan.  However, the surface walker is very element-based and can be led by its passions.

Each of the walkers is aligned to one of the three worlds.  The surface walker is aligned to the stone world, the dream walker is aligned to the sea world, and the star walker is aligned to the star world.  In each of these worlds are primary powers, known as the Vision Keys.  Therefore, there is a direct relationship between each specific walker, the worlds in which they reside, and the keys that are dominant powers in those worlds.  Each walker mediates specific powers from its world into the total threefold life of the seeker.  I call these powers "agents," because thye bring with them other powers or potencies, as noted in Table 5.

When the relationships between the walkers, the worlds, and the keys are viewed in this way, we see that the walkers are imprinted with the keys and discover the intensity and dominance of the imprint.  This means that certain keys are dominant in each person.  One or more keys will be "key" in each seeker's fulfillment of personal powers and potencies in the three worlds.

"For He wounds, but He also binds up; He injures, but His hands also heal."
~Job 5:18

Pesach: Passover

Level: Basic
Pesach (in Hebrew)

And this day shall become a memorial for you, and you shall observe it as a festival for the L-RD, for your generations, as an eternal decree shall you observe it. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove the leaven from your homes ... you shall guard the unleavened bread, because on this very day I will take you out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day for your generations as an eternal decree. - Exodus 12:14-17

Of all the Jewish holidays, Pesach is the one most commonly observed, even by otherwise non-observant Jews. According to the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS), more than 80% of Jews have attended a Pesach seder.

Pesach begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan. It is the first of the three major festivals with both historical and agricultural significance (the other two are Shavu'ot and Sukkot). Agriculturally, it represents the beginning of the harvest season in Israel, but little attention is paid to this aspect of the holiday. The primary observances of Pesach are related to the Exodus from Egypt after generations of slavery. This story is told in Exodus, Ch. 1-15. Many of the Pesach observances are instituted in Chs. 12-15.

The name "Pesach" (PAY-sahch, with a "ch" as in the Scottish "loch") comes from the Hebrew root Pei-Samekh-Cheit Pei-Samekh-Cheit (in Hebrew), meaning to pass through, to pass over, to exempt or to spare. It refers to the fact that G-d "passed over" the houses of the Jews when he was slaying the firstborn of Egypt. In English, the holiday is known as Passover. "Pesach" is also the name of the sacrificial offering (a lamb) that was made in the Temple on this holiday. The holiday is also referred to as Chag he-Aviv Chag he-Aviv (in Hebrew), (the Spring Festival), Chag ha-Matzot Chag ha-Matzot (in Hebrew), (the Festival of Matzahs), and Z'man Cheiruteinu Z'man Cheiruteinu (in Hebrew), (the Time of Our Freedom) (again, all with those Scottish "ch"s).

And God said: Let there be lights in the vastness
of sky to separate day from night...
And they shall serve as lights in the
vastness of space, to shine upon the earth.
And it was so.
(Genesis 1:14 -15)

Every 28 years, the Jewish community celebrates the return of the sun to its original place in the heavens at the precise time and day of its creation.
This celebration is called Birkat Hahammah - blessing of the sun.

The rabbis of the Talmud tell us that once every 28 years, the sun returns to the same place, same time of day and same day of the week as at the moment of its creation. (Berakhot 59a). This confluence of events, a restaging of the heavens as they were at the beginning of time, was not a moment to be overlooked in the rabbinic imagination. So, they bid us to celebrate this re-enactment of the creation of the sun every 28 years.

At the first rays of sunrise on this day of blessing, we are to go outside, face east and recite:

Blessed are You, Adonai, our God and God of all the universe, who makes all things in creation.

The next solar celebration marking this event, called Birkat Hahammah, the blessing of the sun, will occur on Wednesday morning, April 8, 2009. At Sunset on April 8, 2009 we begin the first Seder for Passover. Though this is a coincidence, it opens the door for the myriad ways to connect the freedoms offered by the Sun's energy and the Exodus story.

This celebration will mark the 206th cycle of the sun's full return to its time and place at creation.

Originally, the moment selected for this celebration was the spring equinox. But, you might ask, if the equinox occurs in late March (around March 21), why do we celebrate it in early April? While the answer is a bit complex, the short explanation is that the original annual calculations were based on the Julian calendar which counted the year as having 365.25 days. The true solar year, however, is closer to 365.242199.

While that might not seem like a big difference, over a thousand years these minutes add up to a variance of 7.81 days. While the Gregorian calendar corrected for this disjuncture by dropping 10 days from the calendar in the year 1582 c.e., the rabbinic calendar did not make this adjustment. Add the leap days that were not added on the centuries divisible by 400, and you get an 18 day discrepancy.

The astronomical accuracy of this celebration aside, the thrust and message of this celebration endures. We are bidden to take a moment, once, twice or three times in our lifetime, depending on the span of days we are gifted, and to turn our attention to this amazing, blazing ball in the sky which gives us light, warmth, comfort, and energy.

And then we turn and thank God for this divine, celestial goodness that God has bestowed upon us.

istari

Three Witches were stirring at their cauldron when one of them queried~

"What is the strongest of all things?"

One said, "Iron, for it is that which men dig and cut."

Another replied, "The blacksmith for he bends and fashions the iron."

But the first one replied, "Love, for it can subdue even the blacksmith himself."

Tethra

A Fomorian king associated with the sea.

In Lebor Gabala Erenn, the bard Amergin refers to "the cattle of Tethra" which only he can call forth. In Tochmarch Emire, Cuchulain explains "the cattle of Tethra" as a kenning for fish, and the sea as the plain of Tethra.

Tethra fought the Tuatha Dé Danann in the Cath Magh Turedh and was killed, and his sword Orna was found by Ogma; the sword recounted its deeds to him.

In Echtra Connlae, a fairy woman appears to Connla and says:

The living, the immortal call to you;
They summon you to the people of Tethra
Who behold you every day

Connla subsequently falls in love with the woman and follows her to an Otherworld island populated by women.

In Immacallam in Dá Thúarad, Nede, the precocious poet, is asked what he is undertaking. He answers:

l.90. Not hard (to say): (to go) into the plain of age,
into the mountain of youth,
into the hunting of age,
into following a king (death?),
into an abode of clay,
between candle and fire,
between battle and its horror;
among the mighty men of Tethra
among the stations of...
among the streams of knowledge.

The significance of these passages paints not only a king of the sea, but of the Otherworld--specifically, an Otherworld beyond or beneath the sea, perhapse with a secondary association with the Land of the Dead, which in Irish myth is associated with an island in the west/southwest.

"They follow a single leader, an Old Bull, and the cows, when alarmed, conceal their calves in the thickets..."
~ History and Origins of Druidism, page 113

"And here again the Sight had not helped me. Men that have god's-sight, I have found, are often human-blind." ~Merlin (The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart, 44th Printing Ballantine Books Edition, Page 16)