Navratri: Celebrations for the Goddess

On September 25, 2014August 18, 2015 By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Transformation21 Comments

Divine heavenly mother, I call your return into consciousness.

Illuminate my body so all that I touch, breathe, and radiate is your love.

Bring your light into my body so that beauty grows wherever I go and kindness fills the

hearts of myself and others in the warmth of your full awareness.

Amama

and so it is, and so it is

I was moved by a recent post by my blogging friend Julianne Victoria where she wrote a wonderful description of Navratri, and included a gorgeous invocation. You can visit her blog here: Navaratri – Nine Nights Celebrating the Goddess.

From Amandaseesdreams at Dreamrly., I was inspired to include a prayer I wrote from my journal back in 2009, underneath the weeping willow tree at the Little Lehigh Park in Pennsylvania.

Finally, I’m not sure who painted this image of Kuan Yin above. This is familiar artwork to me; as, I began seeing this artist in 2010. Does anyone know? Both of the images above have different signatures, although the smaller one looks like it might be the original signature. Such is the way with the new age of the internet…

The artist is appreciated even when unknown, for her works are evident everywhere.

Blessed be to you, the divine in us all

as Shiva dances with Shakti…

After the Setting Sun

On September 16, 2014August 18, 2015 By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Creative Writing, Creatrix, Transformation2 Comments

The night lulls everyone to sleep

I go to the windy deck to seek out something ancient.

Or, was I called there?

The simple act of opening the portal door onto the platform of the deck, mists my face, nothing more. It is a chilly silence with the hint of a whisper. “Come closer to the edge..”

Like the wooden frame of the ship creaking under the pressure of the water, the ship speaks, directing me to the groans of my own container, moving along through the water as a heavy being.

Groaning. Old. Ancient. Made of bones, a passage from Africa to Brazil

In the middle of the ocean… fruitless death

1.7 million slaves never made it to Brazil from Africa, and can I hear the muffled screams of the dead. I can feel their floating graves underneath the bottom of the sea –so deep- yet anchorless.

This woke me.

Not one voice, but the voices of many… at night, woke me.

They said, “remember this, and take our unborn home with you. No freedom is in death, but a soul-awakened is never alone…”

Love your wounds while nursing your spirit

On June 17, 2014August 18, 2015 By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Creative Writing, Creatrix, Transformation10 Comments

OUch! I hurt here.

Where?

Right in my…. I don’t know where…

Is that a place?

Can you fix a spot that, that I can’t SEE – but feel?

Some of you know that I am enrolled in a Traditional Chinese Medical program. I’ve only just begun! Many of us are there because we have been wounded, we have aches and pains or chronic illnesses. We’ve been touched by them in some way – some aspect of life as “gotten us,” or a loved one, and we grieved so deeply – deeply enough to realize that there’s a way to work with pain by helping to direct it, through acupuncture, massage, etc.. and, so we’ve enlisted ourselves in this awesome task of learning how to help people with what ails them. It’s ambitious and scary, and also, delightfully interesting. It’s also about holding hands – touching – and being touched.

There are some students – and I’ve spoken to quite a few – who want to learn more about the services they will be offering their patients once they graduate, but they don’t have any reason to go for a visit at our clinic.

I, on the other hand, have been able to find *so many things* to work with! I feel so blessed, so fortunate, so unequivocally involved in the process! I celebrate it – in the process, I have met so many amazing internists, and every visit, I *know* I am at home. This is it! I found my spot! 🙂 Not to mention, I get to be a participant-observer. This is one of my philosophical view-points I developed through my anthropological studies, or one aspect of anthropology that made it uniquely anthropology… and not another discipline.

Love is your wounded-ness. You need a heart to break. It’s okay. Half the time we don’t even realize how broken we are, even if we thought we were pretty banged-up. The inverse is also true, we may be a lot healthier than we ever realized 🙂 Either way, we are all in it together. And, we are all caught in combat – fighting a battle inside us, that no one knows about. Because how could they? They are not you. Words do not suffice. This is life. We live in peace, knowing that to *feel* is to *be* alive.

Sometimes we hold stories because, we love… and sometimes, that is the very essence of our pain. And, sometimes, that pain can be transformed from a story… into a healing…

More to come, perhaps, Summer Solstice Chart…maybe a poem…still on 40-day consciousness journey of fulfillment.

Want to Play? Kokology, a Game for Self-Discovery

On February 19, 2014August 18, 2015 By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Transformation10 Comments

Kokology is the study of kokoro (“mind” or “spirit” in Japanese). It is a game of self-discovery that was designed by Isamu Saito. We are about to play it!

Directions: read the exercise below and leave a comment with your own response to what follows in the story. Once I have 3 comments/responses (or until I get back to my computer)—I will post the responses/meanings to the kokology game in my comments section.

The Game Begins: Welcome to My Parlor

In the human unconscious, spiders hold a place of fear and respect that’s entirely out of proportion to their tiny size. Perhaps it’s their skill in hunting, their patience when lying in wait, or their ability to weave devious webs to trap their prey. Whatever the reason, spiders evoke a strong mixture of feelings in us all.

Imagine you are a spider, sitting at the center of a large web you have spun.

You will need a pencil and paper for this one—to record your answer (or you can describe with words what you pictured in the comments section).

1). Draw a picture of your web and the number and types of insects you have trapped in it.

2). You move to make a meal of one of your pray, but somehow it frees itself from the web and escapes. As it hurries out of reach, the lucky bug says something to you. What are its parting words?

****************************************KEY************************************Kokology’s Key to “Welcome to My Parlor: The spider is one of the great hunters of the natural world. Your impressions of life as a spider show us something about how you see your experience as a hunter in the wilds of love. 1.) The number and types of bugs you drew corresponds to your own love conquests. The web represents your strategies and techniques for luring others into your clutches, while the types of bugs you caught reflect your opinion of your former lovers. Was it a single common housefly? A lovely butterfly that only leaves you hungry afterward? Perhaps a fat, juicy caterpillar? Or maybe an unappetizing mass of mosquitoes, roaches, and worms wriggling as they await your approach? Some spiders will eat anything. 2). The parting words of the bug that got away are your memories of rejection in a failed conquest. Let’s face it, we’ve all been shot down at one time or another–this game shows the words that hit closest to home. “You’ll never catch me, you ugly old spider!” Ouch. “Better luck next time!” Well, thanks for the encouragement, anyway. “Hooray! I’m free, I’m free!” Okay, you’re free. But you don’t have to be quite so happy about it, do you?”