obsession with physical appearance, today's youth and other thoughts

The current times' obsession with perfection is nothing else but the mass yearning for harmony expressed in a very childish manner. Look inside and follow instructions instead! ;)

Funny how today's idea of  'beauty' is so uniform and conformist, and how uniqueness is considered a 'wow' factor in the fashion industry nowadays. Things like a Roman nose or a gap in the teeth are considered the 'wow' factor.... little children, grow up! the world is full of this 'uniqueness'! how about different body shapes and styling better clothes by the way?  

Youngsters: women are not 'bitches' and it's not really cool to call someone that, or to be called that. It's stupid and immature and conformist, displaying a lack of imagination. Youngsters: you don't rule the world and you shouldn't even rule the publicity industry as nowadays your spending power and employment potential is equal to very little... Your 'reality tv' programmes are an insult to human intelligence and a waste of money. How about learning to become individuals in the meantime? Please get real because you look like caricatures these days... you're no longer in charge of your own identity.... try to get it back! :)

We are not yearning for outer perfection as a species, as clusters of cultures: we want harmony inside and out. Let's make our lives develop in that direction, our creations develop in that direction.

Just a  though!
Love
Cassie ;) 

SEVEN NIGHTS

SEVEN NIGHTS

For seven nights 

I fell asleep in your arms

and being in love

became believable 

again...

a possibility...

It only took a drink of your nectar,

the Life-Force that dances within you...

there I was,

in love all over again,

blessed by the Star of Venus....

You only had to skim my cheek with your fingers...

and let that look colour your eyes of gold...

your intention so obvious,

your soul wide-open...
... all the walls of my heart’s fortress

came tumbling down....

and my feeling was resurrected!

But then you had to go.

How do you always do this to me?

Is it rhythm of your breath?

The pitch and depth of your voice?

The fire in your hips?

The distinctive taste of your being?

It must be your hands,

your grip can capture me for eternity...

Every single time...

Or is it the shape of our bodies when we join –

our beautifully entwined limbs:

complete and yet so hungry...

The way we move together:

raw and sensual,

we belong to each other in moments like this –

when time stands still

and miracles are born

under the Moon.

You always open 

the door to eternity to me.

You make me feel immortal,

you make my flesh and blood become gold.

I can melt in your presence.

The ego dissolves.

I am back in the Garden of Eden.

I: truly yours.

You: completely mine.

And we are in LOVE.

All I can say is:

I love you.

And you say you love me, too.

We say it without words.

The Silent Language of the Heart.

Always and forever.

So we forget that I can also hate you,

and how you can hurt me, too.

In your arms.

In love.

I become the little girl, 

the kitten,

the one who writes things that make some cringe

and I don’t care.

Back to the core of me,

vulnerable and pure.

And what is more, 

I understand it all,

And it’s ok.

You’re my bridge 

across the most secret,

holy garden of my heart.

You are 

my little secret angel of surprise...

I couldn’t love you 

any more than this.

Every cell in my body 

is singing your name.

Every atom of me 

wants to become you.

I couldn’t love any more than this 

as a woman.

I could love you only a little bit more

if only I were the Sun.

Because my love for you

is the Star of my existence.

Will love endure the test of time,

when we die,

when we leave 

this mortal coil?

Will our moments of splendour –

when our hearts expand 
and we gaze into each other’s eyes

and smile the Silent Smile –

change the course of our life stories?

Who knows?

...do the Stars know?

I am too small, my sweet lover,

to carry the memory of such beauty

inside my chest.
‘This is the life’, you said.

Sublime mortality.

Sometimes.

Hearts like stars.

Eyes like the ocean.

Is this love too much for a lifetime?

What can I do?

How can I love you now?

How can you love me even more?

Can I build a temple to our love

and light a candle every night?

May the wind kiss your mouth

when I’m not there...

may it kiss you like I do...

Languid

Orbit

Veering

Emptiness

Can you see the full moon

from your window 

tonight?

Think of me 

just for a second

and remember

our Star

a little while longer ...

* * * * 

I THINK I KILLED THAT PART OF ME

I THINK I KILLED THAT PART OF ME

I think I killed that part of me

that wasn’t me

but just a bundle

of other folk’s ideas

all about love and romance

and marriage and intimacy

and family, belonging

and relating and all that.

A very serious,

frightened,

impossible to maintain

part of me.

It happened in an instant.

Though once upon a time 

I used to wear my armour

Until one night

of our fine nights of passion,

When my attention crash-landed

Into my heart

And what it stands for

And the kind of love-energy

That it is.

That I am.

Truly:

It happened in a second,

The second when

You touched my cheek gently

And lingered there

For what felt like forever,

Your glance so soft and open.

In that second

I knew

You had fully explored me

And owned me then.

You had the map of my being:

You were that map.

That’s when I saw you

In all your splendour,

Then my heart melted like gold

And goodbye was our medicine.

Now I can’t take the ‘man-woman thing’

seriously anymore.

It’ll never be more beautiful

Than your finger’s soft touch

On my cheek

That night.

Sometimes I wish

I didn’t kill

That part of me

That night.

heartlessly

I wish I could at least be angry at you. I tried to be. My effort was cut short by your cowardice and so I’m left scattering my choked words to the seven winds … I can’t even be upset with you because you don’t know what love is, and so you don’t know how to love. You don’t even know the scope of your loss as you can’t recognise love even when it’s looking you in the eye, staring into your soul, the very soul you hide away from yourself and the world.

I am made of love, I breathe it and give it freely, effortlessly. The palette of feelings at my disposal is a wide as the sky, it stretches over the rainbow. You remain a rock against all that I give you. You look at me as if I was a body, a pretty body that’s true, but only that. You think I’m crazy because I feel deeply and fearlessly, because I let myself feel love even when it hurts.

I try to make myself so very small so that you and your stupid heart of stone can grasp me. But I’m too transient, I’m made of spirit and tears and songs of longing lovers, so you cannot seize me. I’m like a balloon that got away from your hand’s grip. You choose to hate me instead, lest you feel even just an ounce of regret.

The world is full of loveless people like you. I know you’re only scared little children in men’s bodies, afraid of your vulnerability, afraid of death, afraid of admitting your limits. What can I do? I see you for who you really are. And you keep running away from me. But first you make sure I give you my love so that you can run away with it, proud of your theft.

You’re not running away with my love. My love is here, in my heart, surprised at the fact that you didn’t want to let it grow with yours. Love is for sharing, not to be stolen. I am puzzled at the way you’re only running away from yourself and believe I’m the one who’s crazy for wanting to assert the right to love and trying my best to find some good even in someone who treated me the way you did: heartlessly.

Bealtaine - May Day (from "Cassandra in the Mirror")

Uisneach, 1 May 1996

Darkness covered the hill. The light would soon come to bless Bealtaine, May Day. The bonfires lit during the previous night were now flickering embers piercing the morning mist like cats’ eyes. Dances had been woven around them. Couples had let their hair down as their loving ways unfolded, covered by blankets under the stars. The night was dedicated to the Sacred Fire, the Light of the Life Force itself. For centuries, fertility, union and growth were celebrated on this date. These ancient rituals had stood the test of time. Like at Samhain, the doors to the Otherworld flung open at Bealtaine.

Holding torches to find their way up the hill, the party of Light Workers wove their way to the ancient site that marked Ireland’s mystical navel. Two good friends of Cassandra’s were among them: Maria-Carmen and Lydia. The group positioned themselves around the Cat’s Stone. Holding hands in a circle, they formed an unlikely patchwork of people. Some were old and looked like respectable middle class pensioners in tweed jackets and wellies. Others were younger and of a more colourful hippy stock. From their encircled voices, a chant of harmonic sounds bridged dimensions and reached their guides in Shambhala.

Nature listened in, waiting for the arrival of the new day with infinite stillness. Idle cows mooed. Dawn’s rosy fingers tantalised the shadow in a foreplay that culminated in the appearance of the sunrise in all its golden glory. The voices of the Light Workers rose in volume and pitch. Their vocalises contained a secret code, a mystical frequency. Their song grew into the climax of the perfect sound wave. Elsewhere in space and time, the lock of the Gates of Shambhala clicked open, and Cassandra and Oscar bid farewell to their friends in the Diamond City. In their astral bodies, they had gained easy access to the place the night before as they slumbered like lovers do after joining their limbs in Sacred Union. Now it was time to return to their physical bodies that were fast asleep under a blanket on the Hill of Uisneach, under the still starry sky.

The campers started to stir in their sleeping bags. Dawn was upon them, tickling their dreams with its light. It was time to arise and partake in the blessings of May Day. Following an ancient propitiatory custom, people washed their faces with the morning dew that is known to have powers of rejuvenation on Bealtaine. Others wandered around the hill to collect flowers and boughs from the mountain ashes or rowan trees, to be later hung across the doorways or on the outside of the windows of their homes. Coffee, fruit and biscuits were shared in the usual tradition of hospitality and generosity associated with the festival.

Cassandra and Oscar woke up in each other’s embrace. Sparkles came from their hands. To their amazement, they were both wearing a Claddah ring which had not been there when they had fallen asleep. They remembered that they had held an impromptu mock wedding ceremony on the Hill the day before. Now their true vows had also been sealed in Shambhala. Cassandra put her hand on Oscar’s heart as a promise to love and respect him forever. No words were spoken. In silence he swore to love and honour her until the end of time. They could by then read each other’s mind with great ease. Then they anointed each the other’s forehead with the morning dew to symbolise the eternity to their bond. Sacred Marriage vows can’t be broken. Most importantly, they can only be made in heaven.

(From "Cassandra in the Mirror" by Piera Sarasini, chapter 9, 'Magical Pair', p. 166-167; the paperback is available at http://www.completelynovel.com/books/cassandra-in-the-mirror--2 and the ebook is available at  http://www.amazon.com/Cassandra-Mirror-Complete-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B0089LU8L8/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1347097193&sr=8-2 ; photographs courtesy of Mary Gaynor)

The Goddess Sessions - why?

The Goddess Sessions were the monthly meetings I used to run with friends years ago. Initially, we had devised these 'sessions' as our own way to re-connect with the Divine Feminine power in us through a variety of logical as well as intuitive methods: from life coaching to shamanic healing practices, from counselling to magical rituals at sacred sites across the country.

We immediately realised that the Goddess Sessions were a wonderful arena in which we could reach out for our fullest potential through the magnifying power of shared consciousness and ritual. Magic, fun and imagination punctuated our 'sessions' from the beginning. As well as a respect for the sacredness of nature, the timelessness of ancient knowledge.... and a highly developed sense of style! We set out to achieve various goals... and many were reached! One of our aims was to share the 'format' of our sessions with a broader audience in order to expand the energy: we believe that like attracts like.

Eventually, we opened our 'circle' of two to a number of like-minded, spiritually inclined female friends. As a group we would meet on the first Monday of each month, to support each other as we walk on the Path of the Goddess. We all came with dreams and ambitions, experience and knowledge... as well as issues to resolve and obstacles to remove! Now the Goddess Sessions have become an established social feature in many of my friends' lives, and these meetings can be potentially transferred to social networks such as Facebook (watch this space).

Let me outline a couple of important concepts behind the idea of the Goddess Sessions.

WHO IS THEGODDESS?

In the olden days, before the development of rationality and the advent of the Male God, the Great Goddess ruled the minds and heartsof humanity with her reign of magic, intuition and instinct. Now things are different: logic has established itself as the best thinking method, while imagination is frowned upon by the powers that be. In recent times, the struggle between the Goddess of the Ancient Ways of the Earth and the horrors of the modern world with its need for control and lust for fear-based power is, more than ever, becoming magnified.


The following quotes by Daniel Jacob - received years ago from the Reconnections - (http://www.reconnections.net) explain female power vis-a-vis male power in relation to its impact on the individual and on society, and its possible future implications on the planet at large.

"Femalecontrol is not superior to Male control. It's just different,that's all. It moves through the body in unique neuralpathways. Women striving to gain control (in society) is simplyanother reaction to outward circumstance. Though it has sometemporary cathartic value for them, it is really the softening of malepride and aggression that could finally turn the tide of our planet. The drawback of control, whether it is masculine (overt) orfeminine (covert) is the fact that it requires the controller tobe deliberate in his or her methods. After all, if YOU are theone at the wheel of the car, then it is YOU who must decide. And, tobecome deliberate is to de-liberate yourself from the joy of being achild, of being free, of being receptive rather than the Initiatorall the time.

[...]

The Goddess Religions were founded upon many [...] hidden elements [...]: nature, her cycles, looking at theworld from the inside out. The power of the Goddess rests, not merely in hermastery over nature, but also in her deep knowledge of what motivates andstimulates the heart of humanity--what makes it glow, and what keeps it healthyand strong. Is it any wonder that heart disease is a major killer in yourworld today? When the pillars of Her Temples were knocked down, a gooddeal more than a religion was lost.

[...]

The Divine Feminine is re-establishing Herrelationship to the Masculine Dominance that currently fills that planet. What will shine forth in humans, on a small scale, is but a faint glimmer ofthe bigger picture, which is now playing itself out in a whole host ofways.

A grand SPLIT once occurred, between two guidingconcepts, within the Pantheon of Archetypal Being--a split that has affectedhumanity in grave ways. The God/Goddess Rift is reaching its crescendo,and resolution of these conflicts is now close at hand. The Power of ONENESS(integration) is up to us. Meanwhile, all can see the resistance toit playing out in wars, monetary struggles, religious clashes, and many otherarenas in modern culture. And many of us are tired.

The Temples of the Goddess, which some historiansoft referred to as "Houses of Prostitution," were designed ashospitals for the body and soul. They were a place where men and womencould retire--set in elegant and holy energy--to explore the depths of who andwhat they were. In Pagan Society, there was no rift between Spiritualityand Sex. Both were seen as true and vital forces, dancing in beautifulsymmetry."


Perhaps this can be seen as an idealised interpretation of the old Goddess Ways. But perhaps it is not. Perhaps I'm over-romanticising the past and hoping for a future that will never be. But perhaps I am not. Yet the Goddess Flame is burning strongly in my heart these days. Once again, the Goddess is the choice I want to make. I want Her to guide me. I want to feel, not just think. I don't want to run away from my feelings as I'm often told to do. I want to tie pretty ribbons around them and make them so pretty that I'll find them irresistible, that the world will find them irresistible.

WHY THE GODDESS?

She is alive in so many of us ... waiting for that prince's kiss to wake her up ... over and over again ...




I am hungry for symbols: archetypes, totems, fairy tales... I want liminality, I don't need all that clarity ... I want the Goddess Ways to return, I want to understand life also through my heart, through myth, in the language of symbols that speak to the most ancient part of our brain, to our primitive memory, to our DNA.


What is your favourite fairytale? What is your totem? What archetype are you following? Do you know?


I will always love Peter Pan and Pinocchio, hold the butterfly as my proud totem and embody my archetype of the Lover even when the world tells me to do otherwise and my wounds come to the fore. I know no other way...


May all of our dreams come true...

Easter: Rebirthing the Divine Feminine

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, ca. 1485

This is a most powerful, magical celebration, and one to definitely use to our advantage. All we need to do is remember what this holiday stands for, and take a good look at our lives from this perspective ...

The festival of Easter is firmly rooted in pre-Christian pagan traditions. It gets its name in English from the Saxon lunar goddess of fertility and springtime, Eostre, who is also at the etymological root of a cardinal point: the East. 

Eástre (1909) by Jacques Reich

Interestingly, and in line with the concept of fertility and re-birth (resurrection), Eostre is also connected to the name of the female hormone, estrogen, and the biological term 'estrus', which refers to the phase when the female is sexually receptive. 

Unlike other Christian festivals whose dates are fixed, Easter is always celebrated on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox, thus following a nature-based calendar.

Painted eggs and bunnies are among the most ancient and widely found spring symbols, although they were part of much more serious fertility observances thousands of years ago. The hare is also one of the companions and totems of Aphrodite (whose name is connected to the word 'April'), the Greek goddess of beauty, love and passion. 

According to some, the word Easter can be connected to the name of the Babylonian divinity, Ishtar, an earlier embodiment of Venus's womanly energy. Ishtar is also associated with the Egyptian goddess Isis, famous for having brought her murdered husband, Osiris, back to life.

A 1907 postcard

              The Goddess Isis, wall painting, c. 1360 BCE                   Old Babylonian period "Ishtar, Queen of Night" relief.

Finally, chocolate is undoubtedly every woman's favourite food, and wonderful to keep your mood up thanks to the phenylethylamine it contains.

So, Easter is the Festival of the Divine Feminine. Let's celebrate it properly by focusing on new beginnings, on how we want our lives to change in the year ahead of us. Remember, make Easter the day in which you connect with the Goddess in Embryo that you are (or with the feminine aspect of your psyche if you're a man).

This painting shows Paris surveying Aphrodite naked, with the other two goddesses watching nearby. This is one of the numerous works that depict the event. (El Juicio de Paris by Enrique Simonet, ca. 1904)

Rebirth the Goddess that you are and reveal her to the world!

... and by this time next year we will be celebrating our powerful achievements and happy outcomes together.
Have a wonderful holiday, everybody!

love, Cassie xx