Rooted Tree Of Taurus Full Moon

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Astrology9 Comments

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Ka Malana 🙃c2015

“If we represent knowledge as a tree, we know that things that are divided are yet connected. We know that to observe the divisions and ignore the connections is to destroy the tree.”
– Wendell Berry

What I enjoy about this photograph is the way the patterns of light and shadow blend the tree into its environment. It’s as if the subject is the dance of light and not the tree itself. The background and the foreground of the image contrast, where in the foreground the shape of the leaves are where the light comes in. It is as if the light is projecting negative space. While in the background, the leaves are positive and dark – much like a yin-yang (Tai Qi). Each component contains the other. I enjoy the texture and the movement of this image, and how the patterns of light and dark unify the entire image. It’s as if the roots are moving toward the viewer, inviting the viewer into a meaningfully, rooted experience.

 

undaunted at dawn

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Abundant Earth, Creative Writing, Creatrix, Meditation, Transformation17 Comments

Image

infinite sunrise
that’s what you are,
an eternal idea
a fountain of radiance
burning our skylines
dazzling our eyes
with sunsets,
in colorful shows

how we revolve around your
furnace and experience
in 8 min and 20 sec,
your Fresh light

on this day and many
others, I️ am but a weak
glimmer of anxious hope
turned to facing you for
your eternal spirit,
your renewing compassion

I️ am but a pale face in the
morning without your fun
sun to shine upon
and animate this day into
a knot of flame to become
a meaningfully regular burn of
time

Ka Malana 🐑2017

For her debut book: Art for Art, by Ka Malana 

The author is contributing to a daily blog marathon and cheeringpeppers for Nano Poblano 2017. Artists unite! ✊️

pepper2017

The Day Before…

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Creative Writing, Creatrix, Transformation11 Comments

All is not silent
as i beg of the old self
“let me go”

clothing is flying
tears are raging
words are thrashing

“release
your grip on me,”
i whisper,
as i try to unpeel the fingers
my old self uses to cling to the
ledge.

one by one,
lovingly,
but surely,

“let me be free and
step into this…

new abyss,
the darkness,
the unknown,

let me jump.
Let me Do it now!”

Taking a big, deep breath… Let’s get spicy and do the thing in November!

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Abundant Earth, Artworks, Astrology, Creatrix, Friends & Authors, Leo, Meditation, Photography, Projects, Reiki, Sketches, Something altogether different, Transformation34 Comments

pepper2017

 

When you notice that I am posting even more frequently in November (hopefully). You’ll see that you, too, can join in. I will be participating in Nano Poblano, “the World’s Least Official Blog-Everyday-November Challenge.” Nothing gets me motivated like something that isn’t officially official-official, and really has the spirit of community, teamdom, and freedom. We all want to have fun. Here’s the official link. Especially if you are already a regular every day blogger, and want to reach more people, and participate more as well – go sign up!

Nothing says “potential over-commitment” like Jupiter conjunct Sun in Scorpio – so I thought it’d be a great time (or worst time) to take a deep dive. You get it, folks, I decided to go for the swim! Isn’t it exciting!? That said, considering my away-from-the-blog work/life/family balance, it should be an equally busy season off-blog. My throat already feels scratchy and my lymph nodes feel swollen, so why don’t we do it?! I’m gonna enjoy this, or at least enjoy trying! Oh, and the self-care… that’ll happen.  🙂

Blogging, for me, brings together my favorite things art, celebration, exploration, empowerment, and meditation, and growing together. I need the calm to balance the excitement. I need the bland to balance the spicy. I need the deep-discussions to balance the light-hearted whimsy. I need my own commitment to my writing/art/astro/photography space getting out there, and I need it to be okay when I don’t make it out the gate, or I just hide under the blankets.

This is my home beyond me. This is where I live, and I intend to keep decorating, or louse it up, whatever is my choice. If you stick around for my posts, I thank you all in advance for supporting me and my self-expression, as it ebbs and flows, changes and grows.

Gosh, all ya’all please join us, here!

The Planets Saturn & Jupiter

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Astrology12 Comments

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This image above is a photograph I’ve taken from an image in the book: Astrology, Magic, and Alchemy.  The painting is called The Planet Saturn. It’s a miniature from De Sphaera, 15th century. Modena, Biblioteca Estense.

In the image can be seen the dual rulership of Saturn, the waterbearer image (Aquarius) and the goat 🐐 (Capricorn). In the image, Saturn seems to be represented as a man, carrying a sickle and also a cane, as if to indicate old age.

Perhaps as depicted in the image, the power over death, and that for a long life, is in our own hands – if only we are to realize it. Yet most of us gaze outwardly with fear, understandably. Often the power seems beyond us. This begs the question for a more nuanced stance, and a depth of inquiry that rarely ceases.

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Since Jupiter has moved into the sign of Scorpio, many of us are wondering what it means – what it means for us individually.  The image above is from a painting called Jupiter. It is a detail. It is by Jacopo Zucchi; Rome, Palazzo Rucellai, vault of Galleria.

In the image above we have Jupiter’s dual rulership represented, Sagittarius on the bottom left, and Pisces on the bottom right.

Are our heart’s asking for justice? How can we be more judiciously loving with ourselves?

Is there a being whose highest authority we can appeal to, who will listen to our woes, our trials and tribulations? A being more intimate than the one we all are connected to in our hearts? What about the peace within our own hearts? 

This New Moon in Libra is juicy and new – and it has a lot of energy to contribute to our  relationships. Take a moment and be present with who you are today, and in loving, full acceptance, say: “yay!” I am so grateful to share this space with all of you! 

Greetings my loves….

Happy Diwali! 🔥💕🌸

 

Sometimes I get lonely

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Meditation, Transformation32 Comments

Sometimes I get lonely, and I just realized it’s because it’s a natural response for me to disconnect from the “pain body” of the world. During tragedy, such as the recent event in Las Vegas, it’s a natural response for me that I acquired over time, to remove my shared energy field from that of the world. It’s self-protective, and it often works, but then the walls come down and I remember: here’s where I want to be, and maybe where I often, too, am; when I am more aware of it. This is from Thich Nhat Hanh’s Peace is Every Step.

Cookie of Childhood

“When I was four years old, my mother used to bring me a cookie every time she came home from the market. I always went to the front yard and took my time eating it, sometimes half an hour or forty-five minutes for one cookie. I would take a small bite and look up at the sky. Then I would touch the dog with my feet and take another small bite. I just enjoyed being there, with the sky, the earth, the bamboo thickets, the cat, the dog, the flowers. I was able to do that because I did not have much to worry about. I did not think of the future, I did not regret the past. I was entirely in the present moment, with my cookie, the dog, the bamboo thickets, the cat, and everything.”

May we always find our way back to peacefulness and connection.

fill a cuppa

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Astrology8 Comments

dew has rested on soft
ground,
resetting the land
and freshening the air

the birds
chirp into wakefulness
as darkness lingers,
the blankets of night
slowly lift

i find a younger version
of myself this morning
in this body that has lived
longer than its wisdom
lets on.

can we exchange our thoughts
for today’s perceptions?
begin emptying our heads
immediately,

as we fill up a cuppa
?

Jiaogulan Tea Contemplations

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Abundant Earth, Something altogether different, Transformation6 Comments

spiritual-

-ity

tea
the lability    (word of the year in 1066)

of reality
of banality

of immortality.

ka malana ©2017

~ ~ ~

This morning I found a list of quotes/aphorisms that I once thought were important; as I sip my tea, I’m appreciating the fact that I have been consistent in things.

1). don’t throw out the baby with the bath water  🙂

My original journal entry had 123 quotes/aphorisms, but I am relaying the ones that I starred then. I am wondering to myself, would I elevate the same ones in importance or choose others at this time?

Next I’ll list the ones that I put a star next to, way back when. Unfortunately, I do not know who all of them are attributed to, so i welcome your help in the comments section, if you are inclined to do things like this, in this way.

-> “truth comes out of error more easily than out of confusion”

-> “neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them”

-> “necessity has been with great truth called the mother of invention. some of the noblest exertions of the human mind have been set in motion by the necessity of satisfying the wants of the body. T. Robert Malthus, 1798

-> “i may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.” Voltaire (1694-1778)

-> “you cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” Mark Twain

-> “i would rather be able to appreciate the things i cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate. Elbert Hubbard

-> “access to power must be confined to those who are not in love with it.” – Plato

-> “do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. So aim above morality. be not simply good; be good for something.” – Henry David Thoreau

-> “memory is the greatest of artists, and effaces from your mind what is unnecessary”

-> “half the work that is done in the world is to make things appear what they are not. – E.R. Beadle

-> “the course of true anything does not run smooth” – Samuel Butler

-> “most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie 

-> “never apologize for showing feeling, when you do so, you apologize for the truth.”  -Benajmin Disraeli

->  “he who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

-> “the education of the will is the object of our existence” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

-> “time will explain it all. he is a talker, and needs no questioning before he speaks” – Euripides

-> “brevis esse laboro, obsurus fio.” (When I labor to be brief, I become obscure.) Horace from Ars Poetica.

-> “one cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

-> “you don’t understand anything, unless you learn it more than one way. – Marvin Minsky

Sheri Munce – Hide and Seek

Munce-HideAndSeek-6003

-> “not everything is better for showing its face undisguised; and often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.” – Pindar

-> “we are never so happy or unhappy as we think.” -Francois duc la Rochefoucauld

-> “humor is the affectionate communication of insight” – Leo Rosten

-> “fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.” – George Santayana

-> “everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world – Arthur Schopenhauer. 

-> “the mark of a good action is that it appears inevitable in retrospect” – Robert Louis Stevenson

-> “anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.”

-> “there is nothing so easy that becomes difficult when you do it reluctantly.”

-> “if you build castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put that foundation under them.” Henry David Thoreau

**I typed all these quotes out. It’s an exercise in absorbing their wisdom**

May your day be filled with many moments that you can enjoy!

Her Open Glow

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Abundant Earth, Creative Writing, Creatrix, My Philosophical Underpinings11 Comments

When first I met her
I needed a relationship
that wouldn’t pursue me,
in the usual way.

I needed an intimacy
that moved with me,
as I moved.

~

She will not lead you
to still waters, nor even ask you
to take a drink. she doesn’t even
care if you pursue her.

She just loves.

She met me under a tree,
when I called to her, I saw
that she was the tree.

~

She doesn’t demand commitment,
nor sacrifice,
she but notices it, and gently
encourages me to
keep pacing myself.

keep finding ways to be gentle with you, she says.

She shows me how to love myself,
in this way.

I met her when,
I needed her voice to be the
gentlest, clearest, cut-through-the-bullshit,

opening

she doesn’t define a gender.

she isn’t gonna hurt your heart,
to teach you a lesson.

you weren’t born for that.

she says, “oh honey, life just is,
love as much as you can”

Eve & Morn Meditations

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Abundant Earth, Meditation, Transformation8 Comments

death and Life are bookends
they hold the fort of knowledge
and destroy it, too.

fires light in the night
for courage and honest company
let us be real,

about our joy.

even though i am sad, I will not
lie, nor hide my joy. Those tears occupy
the same space.

Ka Malana©2017

Two videos for your thoughts, and a passage on “suffering” from How Can I Help? Stories and Reflections on Service, compiled by Ram Dass & Paul Gorman. My heart and thoughts go out to friends who have recently said goodbye to their loved ones who have in some way inspired and provided courage along the way.

Pillars of successful leaders, the knowledge that there is someone by our side.

This is a really good video about “What it is like, to be awake.” My favorite line from Adyashanti is “it’s never anything like you thought it would be…” Also, at 29 min in – “we reserve our greatest acts of ‘stupidity’ for *after* we’ve glimpsed the truth…” Adyhashanti says something like this: we never know whether or not we are embracing enlightment or carrying a bagel in bag with coffee in our hand. The truth is, we just don’t know. I personally ‘like’ the idea that we are doing one in the same: coffee, bagel + ultimate reality. 🙂  What do you think? Can you see any parallels in these two videos? What about the text below?

**I had not intended to post daily, but this is what I need from me right now. I hope you can benefit from this, too!!! These sharings are like the metabolites from my own work.

Being a long-term patient gives you a unique perspective on the world, and I have to laugh, although sometimes I must say it’s a little bittersweet.

Naturally, I’m seen as helpless. They have to lift me, move me, deal with my bowels and all. I don’t look very nice or smell very nice, I suppose. What I often see coming in the room is what you might call Central Casting for “General Hospital.”

Here comes Miss Aren’t-You-Looking-Better-Today. Which is funny to me, since it’s pretty clear I’m only barely holding my own. Enter stage left we have Nurse Wince. It’s hard for her to look at me. She’s afraid for her own mother, that’s she’ll end up like me. The doctors stride in; they should play “Pomp and Circumstance” over the PA system regularly. They’re examining my case. They find my case interesting. My visitors…. they usually fall into the soap opera too. And so do I, I suppose.

On it goes. You’d be surprised at the number of people who talk to you and can’t look you in the eye, even more than we normally can’t look each other in the eye. It’s like a parade of attitudes in here.

It’s funny; I laugh. I understand, I really do. I’m not a pretty picture. Their work is hard. But sometimes I just want to cry out, “Hello! Is anybody there? Hello? Hello?”

Fine-tuning

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Abundant Earth, Acknowledgement, Chiron, Something altogether different, Transformation7 Comments

you are an instrument, she said,
self-tuning,
and self-correcting,
and self-regulating.

isn’t it neat how you get to
play differently
every day?

yes, some of this is painful,
but there’s a lot of joy, too.

there’s enough room in this
world for you, my dear.

you are allowed to exist.

don’t let anyone tell you
that you’re not an instrument,
that you are not beautifully
made of all the
sounds and all the colors,

and what you do here,

it matters.
it matters.