2012 Reading - December is World Egg

New Orleans Voodoo Tarot, image by Sallie Ann Glassman

The World Egg is the cosmic principle underlying all matters in the world.  It symbolizes new beginnings, new ideas, a fresh start. The whole Mayan calendar thing this month is a worldwide awareness of the Cosmic Egg in action.  I’ve seen changes galore just within my own ecosystem – corporate CIOs working from home offices; new moms taking 6 months (and longer) to be home with the baby.  The New Age frenzy has dwindled down, the Catholic Church is all but dead in Europe and people are looking for stability in spiritual groups, with long standing traditions and intimate settings for people of diversity.

Enter the Afro-Caribbean faiths – Haitian Vodou, Cuban Lukumi, Brazilian Candomble.   These faiths build communities based on family structure.  They honor what has gone before – the ancestors, the leaders who made their lives an example.  They support the membership through outreach and small, intimate services designed to bring people together.  But this is a new path that is being treaded, and the leadership is still in its infancy – just like the World Egg.  The manifest possibilities are limitless.

The image of the World Egg shows Danbala carrying it daintily in his mouth.  As the great Creator Energy of the Vodou Pantheon, Danbala knows how fragile new life can be.  And so he carries this new possibility in his protective mouth, offering it to us this month as a potentiality.

The egg is a universal symbol of beginnings.  (what came first - the chicken or the egg?)  In the Tattva system, it is called "Akasha" - the universal symbol of spirit.  When I first came to the magical path, I used Tattvas to increase my ability to visualize.  I would study the symbol and then close my eyes, seeing an afterglow of the shape.  Then, I would move into and through the symbol, to an inner landscape.  I kept a record of my work and even now, when reading through the entries, I find much to be inspired by.  The Akasha symbol was often the most surreal of the five (there symbols for the four elements, plus spirit) I worked with. The potential for the visions to manifest was astounding.  And I am delighted to find the Akasha showing up for this month of spiritual transformation, mental stimulation and just plain old synchronicity.

Contemplate the new beginning you want to have, and pin a drawing of a black oval to your dressing mirror.  Study it each morning for a few minutes.  Envision the change you wish to embrace this month and then allow Spirit to help guide you to it.  Take a white candle, and draw a black egg shape on it. Burn it for a few minutes each day, with the goal of finishing the burn by the end of the month.  As you light the candle, think about the change you wish to make for yourself. Envision your life as you wish it to be – happier, easier, healthy and in balance.  Make an affirmation for yourself each time, that this is how you will begin the new year – by becoming the person you know you are.  And then, put into place those things that will make this manifest.  

Is someone getting you down? Then let them go out of your life.  Is your health not working? Change your diet, change your doctor, change your routine! Put down the phone, the iPad, the whatever and get out into the fresh air. Walk the dog, walk the husband, walk yourself!  Change your hair style, your wardrobe, your shoes – do what it takes to be the best you.

Change is always good, regardless.  And Change is inevitable.  By embracing it, celebrating it and going with the flow, you will find a great secret revealed.  Letting go of the life you have planned, allows you to accept the life that is waiting for you.  My mentor and favorite philosopher, Joe Campbell said that, and I believe it is very true.  You can even switch out “life” for “Lwa”, “job”, any number of things. A good quote is like that – a universal truism that works with all things.  As the Great Alignment/Precession/End of the World/ Great excuse for a helluva party comes around, be ready to embrace it and go for it. As my Mambo Nellie has often remarked, let’s just do it.

Ayibobo indeed.

Going phone free for December

I made a choice this week to turn off my cell phone. I must admit, it's strange -- the electronic toy I've carried around for five years feels oddly missing. I keep thinking I must check for emails - although the computer is always on. I should look at Facebook -- although its always a great distraction, it adds little to my knowledge base or friendships. How strange to be attached to such a Machiavellian device that keeps me linked to a world of trivial noise and time wasting past times. And stranger still to actually miss it. We have a land line for phone calls, I can always call anyone for an unlimited amount of time. My marathon talk sessions really have no end in sight, other than being tethered to a base station. So why do I miss it?

I have a lifetime of projects to to do -- I am recording a new CD that requires cover art and liner notes. I have ten fabulous new bottles to decorate for the Lwa. The altars need their annual cleaning. And lets not forget it's December - the ubiquitous tree has to go up, we're hosting a dinner party this weekend for 12 folks, and there is shopping to do, a new pup to house train, a new dress for the Legba fet to embroider. The list is endless and grows daily. So why am I missing this stupid little electronic habit?

Even in Haiti, the cell phone has become the de rigeur accessory. And not to put it lightly, but you must TWO, because the island has two separate coverage plans. If you want to talk to someone in the north or the south, you need to have a cell phone that covers those areas. And there's no single plan to do that. My friend Jaxx Labrom carts around two phones to talk to her crews in the field. Talk about a ball and chain.

Perhaps it is as St. Augustine says, "a habit if not resisted, soon becomes necessity." My husband was really upset that I chose to turn off the cell. "What will you do if you are out and get stuck?" he asked. Well, I thought, what did I do before I had a cell? I knocked on a door and asked to use the phone. One time, I had a tire blow out on the highway. I pulled over, got out, locked the car, climbed down the embankment and walked to the nearest gas station. It wasn't a life crisis to ask for help in person. Maybe, we need to do more of that -- you know, talk face to face, instead of cell to cell.

I was in the diner having lunch last week, watching a young couple at the next table. They were both staring fiercely -- not at one another, but at their cell phones. My first thought was are they texting one another? -- wierd.

I think we should all put down the cell phones -- even for just one day. That might help the instant gratification issue we all seem to be having right now. We might even foster a dialog with one another -- you know, have a National Day of Talking.

Think I'll go walk the dog and then check my neighbor who just had a baby. In person, too.