No matter ones creed, belief - or placement in time and space – it is
always good to take regular times to pause and recapitulate. If this is not an
ongoing process, at least the turning of the year is a good occasion to do so.
It doesn’t matter that the New Year actually begins with the entering of Aries
in the sign of the Sun or with Capricorns entering in the Sun – both the Ram
and the Goat signals something worthy of contemplation. Yet other
cultures count the solstices as markers of renewal. They are both animal signs
heralding new beginnings. Heralding the new should bring a death to the old.
Parts of the old should be transmuted, other parts taken as lessons so we can
count our blessings.
The Western New Year falls anyhow within the perimeters of the rays of
the fixed star Deneb Algedi, the tail of Capricorn. Cauda
Capricorni is one of the fifteen fixed stars and is evoked by the
scent of marjoram. If the moon is favorable it gives victory in disputes and
safety of home. Its starry sigil gives us the idea of the saltire or
St. Andrew’s cross providing a key for an enclosure that can be a home or a
coffin.
The key to coffin or home is a good imagery for the constant
contemplation, and as the year turns it is good to contemplate what doors we
seek to open and which we seek to shut. Deneb Algedi is the
true ‘wishing star’. When we at the fireworks of the New Year bring oath and
solemn promises, hopes and declarations – it is all under the auspices of this
star that binds what you seek to bind and what opens what you seek to open –
that you raise your glass and welcome the New.
It doesn’t matter your creed, belief - or place – the spirit of home and
renewal embodied in welcoming the New is something good in itself. We can say
farewell to trespassing and failures and we can welcome their lessons. We can
use these lessons to build our path onwards or we can retreat and gain the key
to the coffin. As the New blazes, the Fates give back their thread and key, and
so imprints can be made. And it is in this moment we become Fates’ master.
We become, by word and deed, the smith of our own fortune, alas, fortune
is a swinging wheel that can only be understood if we approach her with
interest. Only in this way we can gain her favor and only in this way we can
forge our soul, life and city. In this process we become murderers, as we
assault our own weaknesses or those of others, others wrongdoings or our own.
There is no proposition denominating ownership here, it is just the blind act
of the balance and the scale. This blind act gives you the opportunity of
taking what is yours and also it is about forgiving and forgetting what is
yours as well as of the others…
The saltire, the Cross of Andrews martyrdom gives cause for
pause. He asked to be martyred on this cross that stretches towards the
mid-quarters, not finding himself worthy of the pole, the axis. But it was also
about recognizing that death and its own mystery that supports life in all
directions, a pulse and a breath. Life as death makes part of living in so many
levels.
Life is a continuum of death – and death is nothing but a chain of
transmutations – all is kept, and nothing is lost as we make our path and face
our challenges. These are moments where we open the vaults of coffin and home.
So, what will you do with the key to your own Fate, will you unlock coffin or
home?
Renewal is a chance to clear the weed and bring the blessings of the
past forward. It is an opportunity to burn bridges and let go of deeds and
people that impair the path of abundance. It is a time for giving the bad and
malevolent to the coffin so the beautiful and loving can resurrect as a compass
on the path.
It is a time for us to give honor to the undying Sun and the earth we
walk, because if it was not for Her we would not be, if it was not for He, we
would not be. We need to gather together in harmony, because as earth supports
our steps in life, so does our blessed friends in this human journey. Our
friends, the quiet ones or the loud ones, our friends, being in flesh or air –
it is all about the gathering of abundance, that marks the path of prosperity
and breakthrough.
As Òyèkú Méjì says:
Òrúnmiìlà ní
bá di igbó
Mo ní ó di
bá igbó ni
Igbó ni áà ehan
Igbó ni àá bá esi
A ki ri
anìkarìn nadunadu
A ki ri
anìkarìn nadunadu
A ki ri
anìkarìn yunrè
Ifá ní a
bá di igbó, kò si n’òkn rin
In Karenga’s
translation:
Orunmila says there should be a gathering
Together like trees do to for a forest
I sat there should be a gathering together
We find monkey in groups
We find wild pigs in groups
We don’t even find “one who keeps silent”
Walking alone
Nor do we find the greedy one walking alone
Ifa says we should gather together and not walk alone
So, let us
gather together in harmony, let our wishes bring death to what have been bad
and also the gift of wisdom to take the lesson from the passing year, so we can
be crowned with blessings as we forge the path onward! And let us do it in the
spirit of Ifá or in the spirit of Lawrence Ferlinghetti – but let us
gather in harmony.
The World Is a Beautiful Place
The
world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind happiness
not always being
so very much fun
if you don't mind a touch of hell
now and then
just when everything is fine
because even in heaven
they don't sing
all the time
The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind some people dying
all the time
or maybe only starving
some of the time
which isn't half bad
if it isn't you
Oh the world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't much mind
a few dead minds
in the higher places
or a bomb or two
now and then
in your upturned faces
or such other improprieties
as our Name Brand society
is prey to
with its men of distinction
and its men of extinction
and its priests
and other patrolmen
and its various segregations
and congressional investigations
and other constipations
that our fool flesh
is heir to
Yes the world is the best place of all
for a lot of such things as
making the fun scene
and making the love scene
and making the sad scene
and singing low songs and having inspirations
and walking around
looking at everything
and smelling flowers
and goosing statues
and even thinking
and kissing people and
making babies and wearing pants
and waving hats and
dancing
and going swimming in rivers
on picnics
in the middle of the summer
and just generally
'living it up'
Yes
but then right in the middle of it
comes the smiling
mortician
to be born into
if you don't mind happiness
not always being
so very much fun
if you don't mind a touch of hell
now and then
just when everything is fine
because even in heaven
they don't sing
all the time
The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind some people dying
all the time
or maybe only starving
some of the time
which isn't half bad
if it isn't you
Oh the world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't much mind
a few dead minds
in the higher places
or a bomb or two
now and then
in your upturned faces
or such other improprieties
as our Name Brand society
is prey to
with its men of distinction
and its men of extinction
and its priests
and other patrolmen
and its various segregations
and congressional investigations
and other constipations
that our fool flesh
is heir to
Yes the world is the best place of all
for a lot of such things as
making the fun scene
and making the love scene
and making the sad scene
and singing low songs and having inspirations
and walking around
looking at everything
and smelling flowers
and goosing statues
and even thinking
and kissing people and
making babies and wearing pants
and waving hats and
dancing
and going swimming in rivers
on picnics
in the middle of the summer
and just generally
'living it up'
Yes
but then right in the middle of it
comes the smiling
mortician
