“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.” ~ Neil Gaiman

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Music ~ Drums & Flutes . . . . . . . . .  ~  On my desk  ~ Watercolor & sketches . . . .

Rune Casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     Goddess Oracle Cards for 2012

The golden glow of a winter sunset, warm fuzzy slippers to keep the cold at bay and a hot cup of tea is the perfect beginning of a brand new year. ~ Words for today … Grace ~ Winter ~ Home~ Welcome…

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“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”  ~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce

“Everyday Goddessing  is about sharing magical techniques and sacred wisdom with other beautiful Goddess women. I believe that within every woman there is a goddess, a wise woman, beautiful, creative, powerful, with a deep soul, and that everything we need and are looking for is already inside  each of us.” ~ Rose Arizmendi

Once when I was living in the heart of a pomegranate, I heard a seed
saying, “Someday I shall become a tree, and the wind will sing in
my branches, and the sun will dance on my leaves, and I shall be
strong and beautiful through all the seasons.” ~ Khalil Gibran

Yesterday,  I took quite a few photos of  pomegranates as reference material for several paintings that I am currently working on. Above image is a portion of a larger painting in progress.

I love pomegranates and often use them as decoration during the holidays. Besides being  festive and delicious, they are also an important focal symbol in the mythology and folklore of many different cultures around the world, and are often referred to as “The Jewel Of Winter”. Visit here to learn more about the history, folklore and legends of the pomegranate.

Here’s Rupert tucking in for his afternoon nap, all cozy and warm.

To sit quietly and listen to him softly snoring as he sleeps for a few minutes, reminds me of how important it is to take  breaks, to rest, to give ourselves the gift of sacred space, a place where we are essentially feeding our heart, mind, spirit and soul

Tibetan Singing Bowls are one of my favorite ways to induce a relaxed and meditative state. I love the mystery and sound of the singing bowls and the way they make me feel so tranquil and peaceful when I play them.

Listen carefully to
The silence out of which
The sounds come
And into which they return.
A portal is opening up.”
 ~ E. Tolle ~

 Singing Bowl Meditation; Crown Chakra Set ~

Visit her Website for more information:   http://www.Bodhisattva.com  ~  Excerpt from her YouTube Channel ~  Shakti plays a recently completed crown chakra Master-healing set of antique high-wall (“Jambati”) type Tibetan singing bowls. This custom assembled 7-piece set was commissioned by a clinical health psychologist with a nursing background who now uses it in her integrative practice for stress management therapy.

 “Everyday Goddessing  is about sharing magical techniques and sacred wisdom with other beautiful Goddess women. I believe that within every woman there is a goddess, a wise woman, beautiful, creative, powerful, with a deep soul, and that everything we need and are looking for is already inside  each of us.” ~ Rose Arizmendi

The signs of fall are all around me, migrating birds passing overhead, the subtle shift in the afternoon light and the faint smell of dried leaves in the air.

I’ve been quiet myself, feeling the need to slow down and turn inward. Honoring my instinct to step back and take a deep breath, finding myself going from room to room in our home, taking time to relax, to look around and be present in the moment.

However, I did manage to tuck away some books for future reading and dusted off the wish bottles on the healing altar.

There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky,
which through the summer is not heard or seen,
as if it could not be, as if it had not been!  
~ Percy Shelley ~

 Yesterday, I created a Pendulum Chart for a beautiful goddess friend and I am hoping that she will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it for her. Digital collage using Painter IX and Photoshop.

 ~Intuition is a spiritual faculty and does not explain, but simply points the way. ~
Florence Scovel Shinn

 ~ A new Amethyst Pendulum Necklace ~ will be listed in my shop soon! ~

~We have five senses in which we glory and which we recognize and celebrate, senses that constitute the sensible world for us. But there are other senses – secret senses, sixth senses, if you will ~ equally vital, but unrecognized, and unlauded.~ Oliver Sacks

“Everyday Goddessing  is about sharing magical techniques and sacred wisdom with other beautiful Goddess women. I believe that within every woman there is a goddess, a wise woman, beautiful, creative, powerful, with a deep soul, and that everything we need and are looking for is already inside  each of us.” – Rose Arizmendi

I stepped out onto the patio tonight and was very pleased to see the most enchanting sight. Just coming up over the hill, was the beautiful moon. Although the moon will not be completely full until tomorrow. I stood there gazing upon her, loving the way the moonlight spilled out over the landscape bathing everything in a soft glowing light.  Hello mother moon . . .

The full moon this month is known as Fruit Moon, and even though the days are slowly growing shorter and the nights longer there is something so magical and joyful about the beginning of the harvest season. I love the heady smell of freshly plowed earth and the golden fields of  grain that are now ready for the harvest and I especially love the fresh vegetables and delicious fruits at our local Farmer’s Market.

The great wheel of change is moving forward into the autumn season, the great exhalation of the earth mother, a time of gratitude and celebration as we harvest the fruits of our labor. Celebrate and open your eyes to the magic of the season.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

~ Mary Oliver

“Everyday Goddessing  is about sharing magical techniques and sacred wisdom with other beautiful Goddess women. I believe that within every woman there is a goddess, a wise woman, beautiful, creative, powerful, with a deep soul, and that everything we need and are looking for is already inside  each of us.” – Rose Arizmendi

Later I wandered quietly back to my desk,  savoring the warm comfort of my office. My quiet little world where I can dream, write and create.

A brief interlude~ a respite from the heavy rain that had been falling all morning.

Standing in a place where land and sky meet ~ Capturing reflections , clouds winging past, moments, wind and more rain. . .

A perfect lunch for a day like this  . . .

“Soup is the song of the hearth…  and the home.” ~ Louis P. De Gouy

The ever-changing play of darkness and light ~  Dark clouds hang above our head. The storm in all it’s fierceness is still beautiful, poetic, and lyrical as winter gives way to spring.

“Last night the rain spoke to me
slowly, saying, what joy
to come falling out of the brisk cloud,
to be happy again in a new way
on the earth!” ~ Mary Oliver

“Everyday Goddessing  is about sharing magical techniques and sacred wisdom with other beautiful Goddess women. I believe that within every woman there is a goddess, a wise woman, beautiful, creative, powerful, with a deep soul, and that everything we need and are looking for is already inside  each of us.” – Rose Arizmendi