ost min kis mik

make way

make way for me, my soul,

my spirit and my shadow

for I am equipped,

I am a transfigured soul

symbols

...a visual tool which speaks directly to the subconscious and deep wisdom of our inner self. It can bypass conditioned or limited rationale in a way that words...cannot. (Sherwood, 2011)

Newgrange, Co. Meath, Ireland

Dating from 3300-2900BC, Newgrange represents Celtic prehistoric funerary practices, as well as technology. But it is the use of symbols at the site that is most interesting:

spirals and geometric design

The spiral 'warps our perceptions of 'reality'. The spiral seen in two dimensional art has the effect of drawing us in, hence it is a symbol of the journey of the Spirit, leading into the womb/cave/void/centre, which is both the beginning and the end. The spiral has no straight lines, and so is also representative of the cycles of nature, the sense of creating and life moving along a time/space curve, returning again and again to a point that is the same, and yet is not, because each thing is different each time that it completes a cycle." (Sherwood, 2011)

the triple spiral

welcome winter

tonight is the first night I have felt the chill on the air. My afternoon routine now includes gathering the wood, the kindling and coaxing my little fire into a roaring blaze. I love the smell of wood smoke. It brings back long distant memories. The soft heat is like being wrapped in a blanket and there is nothing better than falling asleep in front of the fire.......

.....bliss

Eurynome

an eary Greek (pre-Titan) goddess who created the world complete with plants and animals. She ruled over Olympus with her husband Ophion, until Cronos and Rhea removed them. According to the Pelasgian Creation myth, "In the beginning Eurynome, the goddess of all things, rose naked from chaos..." She was worshipped at the convergence of two rivers in Akadia (on the Greek Peloponese) and is often represented as a mermaid (half woman half fish) or as an acquatic deity.



Eurynome on the far left



represented as an acquatic deity

 

3 Graces from a 1st C AD frescoe in Pompeii

Other mythology suggests she was the mother of the 3 Charities (or 3 Graces in Roman mythology)

connection and DNA

to join, link, or fasten together; unite or bind

Mitochondrial DNA - stuff that feeds the cells so they can grow into humans! Very important stuff..... stuff found in females and stuff that allows scientists to trace female lineage way back into the recesses of time...

So why do we follow a paternal inheritence??? Fact is, the important stuff needed to fuel life is provided by the female...... in the male, this important stuff is either killed off during fertilisation, or... and I like this bit.... hunted down and destroyed in the embryo.

Tell me again why the paternal line is so important?

So when you are trying to trace your lineage, it is best to trace through your mother line......

"Because mtDNA is transmitted from mother to child (both male and female), it can be a useful tool in genealogical research into a person's maternal line."

dragon alchemy

ouroborous knot - Celtic

transformation:  from one form to another

alchemy: transmutation into gold, attainment of ultimate wisdom

Dragons have long been associated with alchemy and indeed, appear in many cultures on all continents. Typically, the dragon is biting its tail, creating an unbroken circle...this is known as the Ouroborous.

That the dragon has persisted throughout human history suggests that there is some element of truth behind the legend. The myths and stories paint the dragon in positive and negative light, but all stories have some message for the reader....

Eastern medicine believed that dragon bones and teeth could heal a person's spiritual (or psychological, in today's terms) problems. Such remedies found their way into European mythology as we see in the Norse story of Sigurd and the dragon.

...To kill Fafnir the dragon, Regin advises him to dig a pit, wait for Fafnir to walk over it, and then stab the dragon. Odin, posing as an old man, advises Sigurd to dig trenches also to drain the blood, and to bathe in it after killing the dragon; bathing in Fafnir's blood confers invulnerability. Sigurd does so and kills Fafnir; Sigurd then bathes in the dragon's blood, which touches all of his body except for one of his shoulders where a leaf was stuck. Regin then asked Sigurd to give him Fafnir's heart for himself. Sigurd drinks some of Fafnir's blood and gains the ability to understand the language of birds. Birds advise him to kill Regin, since Regin is plotting Sigurd's death. Sigurd beheads Regin, roasts Fafnir's heart and consumes part of it. This gives him the gift of "wisdom" (prophecy)...



So here we see the transformational powers of a dragon.....