It’s Dia de los Muertos – Day of the Dead,
November 1st & 2nd, with celebrations continuing throughout this weekend.
Tis the Day of the Dead! Dia de los Muertos as it is celebrated in my LOVE Latino culture here in Los Angeles and throughout Mexico and Central and South Americas, and Spain. It is a time to honor one’s Ancestors by creating Altars burgeoning with foods, drink, artifacts of the Ancestors, lighting candles, offering stories, songs, celebrations.
My own community here in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles is hosting an event this weekend on November 4th, with ethnic foods, parades, sacred altars to the Ancestors, music and Aztec dancers.
In fashioning my own Altar to my Ancestors this night, I continue to be with my friends and family, my American peeps on the East Coast in Heart and Spirit as they care for each other and their cities and homes. I am holding a candlelight vigil over this weekend with my Ancestors in their Honor.
It has been a WILD week with the massive hurricane that struck our East Coast. The Sun had just moved into the water sign of Scorpio the week before along with Saturn’s entry into the sign early in October.
Scorpio is represented by the Death card in the Tarot deck. An image of a skeleton wearing a crown and holding a scythe cuts away all that is dying or needs to, all that no longer serves. Its archetypal power emboldens us to look at what needs to die straight in the eye, name it aloud, and let it go/destroy it in order to liberate our TRUE SELF.
The full moon was growing in intensity to its fullness on Monday, the 29th. I knew it was going to mark a powerful moment. I posted on facebook: Take GREAT CARE as this energy can feel edgy… snappy… sharp… like the blade of a scythe. Take extra care this upcoming weekend with all the Halloween parties! BEST thing? dress up like a Skeleton and play the part!
Without consciously knowing the impending catastrophe I was about to encounter, I made my way to New York City on October 27th for a business Mastermind with the group of women I have been growing with and learning from over this last year.
I was experiencing tremendous resistance to leaving. I have so much going on with my program… Unleash Your Sacred Wild Creative Genius & Embody the Mystery of YOU! along with a blog series I am hosting Remembering the Witches & Embody Your Sacred Powers. Lots was happening with my family and I hadn’t seen my lover for a month. Yet I knew this was a precious opportunity to spend live time with these brilliant women who are dedicated to supporting each other in continued growth. And it was an opportunity to return to New York!
I love New York! It was my first American home!
I left my motherland of Edmonton, Canada, to study music in New York at the age of 22. It blew me away! Never had I experienced humanity on this level. The good. The bad. The ugly. The super rich. The suffering poor. All of it sandwiched together on an isle. Yet it was the passionate creative ingenuity of the people which struck me the most. I fell madly in love with it/them and determined to make this my home.
I left Manhattan and eventually made my way to Los Angeles where I live now. Yet that time in New York changed me for LIFE! It initiated me to WAKE UP to my humanity. I LOVE NEW YORK CITY!
So when I realized I was going to be caught in the hurricane during my visit there, in an odd sort of demented Scorpio kind of way, I was thrilled!
(The following italicized excerpts are from my facebook posts…)
I’m stranded in NYC for HALLOWEEN!!! Blessings from the Goddess of Life Death and Rebirth! Scorpio! Full Moon is going to KISS us tomorrow at noon…. just as this hurricane kisses the east coast!
No flights out! Bunking down with one of my favorite people in the world, Sue Ann Gleason. Gotta keep my charge on my computer going so if the power goes down I’ll be able to continue to write the tale of Halloween on the full moon in NYC 2012! Somebody loves me! In all due respect for lives and damage… I LOVE STORMS!!!!!! ♥ and New York City! and full mooooooooooooons = Scorpio Woman.
And then it hit…
Whooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaa… okay… NOW I know what a hurricane is! Sssssserioussssssss gales… knocking down cranes AND billboards! Thankfully inside this solid structure safe and sound. Hope the same for everyone else… mouse, bird, animal and human.
Sandy refuses to have Her photo taken. Can’t seem to capture the magnitude. But at least you can see the gray and the water and the incredible skyline. Honestly? how did our Ancestors SURVIVE these events?!?!?!?!
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Sad I’m not home in Los Angeles doing the Magic tonight! I usually dress like a Witch for the kiddies, have a fire, brew a cauldron of mulllllled wine, scrying the new year in the blood-red liquid magic! sighhhhhhhhhhh…. Hope my guyzzzzzzz do it in my stead!
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Okay… time to hit the streets of NYC!! just wondering if I should wear my black leather bird goddess mask? hmmmmmm… not feeling it. Think I will take my Witch, Owl & Skeleton puppets out with me instead.
Halloween friends!
Wow. Seriously. Not. Fun. Wish there was a way I could help. Only 8 blocks away from thousands of people in powerless darkness and icy cold. Something to reflect on and feeeeeeeeel this dark night of the Witches!
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NYC continues to ROCK even while sooooooo much devastation to tend to and so many still without power with homes and lives displaced. Thank YOU Julie Kim McMahon for taking me in to your home until I can get a flight back home. Loving your Cats! Of course Witches dooooooooo!
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Home again… home again…
What a JOURNEY! Who wudda thought that my arrival in New York one week ago today would have evolved into the massa hurricane Sandy… devastating lives and one of the most remarkable cities in the World. I LOVE YOU NEW YORK CITY! The full scope of HUMANITY in all of its brilliance and malaise. Sending you so much LOVE during this time of piecing yourself back together.
First day of trains running today got me to JFK airport for my flight home here to Los Angeles. Thank you Mayor Bloomberg for your steadfast genius in holding your city together during this radical event and now after such a catastrophe. May you have all you need in love and support from the rest of this nation and the world while you rebuild.
Thank you for your SUPER NOVA generosity, my LOVES who cared for me while there…Natasha Wozniak and Julie Kim McMahon… and to you Carmel D’Arienzo, Lazarus Nazario, Tracey Ceurvels, Tracy Willard Matthews… take wonderFULL care of youuuuu! and yessss… so many more.
My love and support goes out to those who are still without power caring for your families…. Leela Somaya, Lisa Byrne, Yvette Perez- Syversen… hoping you are piecing it back together Sue Ann Gleason, Jessica Kupferman, Mic Boekelmann. LOVE MY EAST COAST WOMEN!
So that is my Scorpionic Halloween Tale! Thank you for receiving it, for it has a heartbeat of its own which desires to be heard and felt, as all life stories do, particularly those of wild dangerous adventures.
This life event continues for many who are suffering in the aftermath of this catastrophic event. May we each find ways to be in relationship with it, even while we continue to get our own needs met and to experience love and joy in our own lives. All of it lives together. The good. The bad. The ugly.
And as one Afghan refugee camp taught me… embrace the full catastrophe! And Dance!
Hard Times Require Furious Dancing – Alice Walker
Speaking of the catastrophe… I want to encourage all of you to vote!
There are some epic issues we are facing in this election, particularly women. Do not be fooled into complacency or thoughts that it makes no difference. Our women Ancestors have fought long and hard to get to this level of freedom with our bodies and our equality. We do NOT want to lose this. Whoever becomes president will be appointing two Supreme Court Justices that will determine the direction of this country for many years. Serious. Stuff!
Much love and support to all of you in your lives. Please let me know how you are. Comment below. Send me an email. And… don’t forget!
Join me along with three other Wise Women of the Ways on November 7th at 5:00 p.m. PT for a celebration of Samhain! Remembering the Witches & Embody Your Sacred Powers
