Who By Fire

On April 6th a prescribed burn by the National Forest Service here in Northern New Mexico has grown to be the largest fire in our state’s history. The travesty is that if anyone bothered to ask us who live here when is the WORST time to do a controlled burn we would have all chimed in APRIL, when the land is dry and the winds are strongest.

Alchemically we witness how the dynamics of the wind combined with very dry conditions has awakened elemental Fire. Of the four elements Fire has a strong relationship with transformative energies since it is destructive, purifying and regenerative, there is are also associations with passion. Fire acts as the primordial source of life. Traditionally plants associated with elemental fire tend to be saps and those that are warm and spicy.

The pagan holiday Beltane, celebrated here in the northern hemisphere, on the Eve of May Day honors the rebirth of life.force. The festival has a strong association to elemental fire, referring to the return of the light half of the year and the rising of lusty passions. Traditionally bonfires are built and leaped over as an act of purification.

Elemental FIRE is the home of our beating heart, where we feel the constant rhythm within, the place of our passion, warmth, and direct knowing. Fire is ruled by the SUN and has a relationship to the spirit medicine of the courageous Lion.

The Sun has been emitting quite a lot of significant X-Class solar flares lately. These powerful solar eruptions are said to be part of the upgrade of human beings and activating our pineal gland.

In an outline of the Seven Hermetic Principals within the book The Kyballion, the Principal of Correspondence "embodies the truth that there is always a Correspondence between the laws and phenomena of the various planes of Being and Life. The old Hermetic axiom ran in these words: "As above, so below; as below, so above." And the grasping of this Principle gives one the means of solving many a dark paradox, and hidden secret of Nature. There are planes beyond our knowing, but when we apply the Principle of Correspondence to them we are able to understand much that would otherwise be unknowable to us.

This Principle is of universal application and manifestation, on the various planes of the material, mental, and spiritual universe — it is an Universal Law. The ancient Hermetists considered this Principle as one of the most important mental instruments by which man was able to pry aside the obstacles which hid from view the Unknown. Its use even tore aside the Veil of Isis to the extent that a glimpse of the face of the goddess might be caught. Just as a knowledge of the Principles of Geometry enables man to measure distant suns and their movements, while seated in his observatory, so a knowledge of the Principle of Correspondence enables Man to reason intelligently from the Known to the Unknown. Studying the monad, he understands the archangel." 1

Applying this alchemical axiom to the fires here in Northern New Mexico, and the heightened solar flares from the Sun, we observe that we are in a massive phase of transformation and evolution. The question to be asking is "What do I want eliminate to transform and evolve into a new human for the new Earth?"

1. The Kybalion

Related posts: A for Axolotl

The Doctrine of Signatures

I've been infusing calendula flowers at the perfumery. Each time I work with these sweet flowers I am reminded of their star signature, the celestial imprint that they are encoded with.

Plants retain and transfer the vitality of the Earth to us, facilitating an upgrade to where it is most needed. Calendula flowers have an affinity to the sun, as we can witness by their Doctrine of Signatures, which acts as a mode of communication without words, where the plant shows us through its shape & color what it's star signature is.

In a recent review of the Green Knight fragrance, a couple internet trolls, hiding behind their fake names, attacked the concept of the Doctrine of Signatures. The trolls remarked that the Doctrine of Signatures isn't real, not even a little bit and that its a bunch of yogababble.

We each have the lenses we use to perceive the world around us. The ancients, throughout all traditions, observed plants to understand the non-linear language being communicated, it is a very right brain mode of perception, where we observe patterns and archetypes.

For individuals who have become very "land locked" within the left brain, functioning in a narrow, mechanistic paradigm, these concepts are completely out of their sphere of perception. Instead of opening themselves up to new ideas, they automatically move into their reptilian brain and attack.

As I contemplated what was occurring, it became clear that this challenge was a manifestation of the tale of The Green Knight, playing out in the comments of the review. When we bravely share ideas, concepts and our creativity in the world it can sometimes feel like we are the Green Knight offering our axe to others to cut off our head. What they don't realize is, in that act of cutting of my/our heads, they have accepted the challenge of having their heads cut off.

As above, so below / As within, so without

Thank you to Eli, one of my students in Spain, who posted this little nugget in the comments of an instagram post where I mentioned this challenge.

"In the human spirit as in the universe there is nothing above or below, everything demands with equal right a common center that manifests its secret existence through the harmonic relationship of all the parts with respect to it. All disputes of the ancients and of the moderns, up to the most recent times, are born from the separation of what she has produced unitarily in her nature. We know quite well that in singular human natures, the predominance of any faculty or capacity is habitually imposed and that a unilateral way of representing things is necessarily generated from it, since man knows the world only through himself and, therefore, naively. presumption, he believes that the world is built according to him and his wishes." 

- Goethe

The Equinox, Spring and VIRIDITAS

The Great Wheel of the Earth has birthed itself once more, we stand together at a threshold of a new astrological year. Some astrologers, like Pam Gregory, view the arrival of new Earth on the horizon, although not quite in the "visible realm" as of yet.

Whether in the Northern or Southern hemisphere, this is a time we honor a transitional point of equality between the light & dark. A beautiful symbol of the balance point in this dualistic reality here on planet Earth.

This is a portal is a time of high magic. Sit with what is emerging within for this new cycle of transformation and dream big!

Viriditas is a guiding theme used constantly in the work of abbess Hildegard von Bingen. Literally meaning "greenness," the word has been translated in various ways, such as greening, freshness, vitality, fruitfulness, life-force, or growth.

Viriditas is a metaphor for spiritual & physical health, often as a reflection of the divine word or as an aspect of the divine nature."1

With the arrival of Spring and inspired by the concept of Viriditas,  I created a discovery set containing:

• Hedera helix,
• Q
• Green Witch &
• The Green Knight

And since I am working on the new Ritual Box I have made the Green Knight fragrance available as a sample set of the solid and EdP version.

For further exploring, I have added new perfume pages on the website here so that you can explore the his/her story of more fragrances.

Aligning with this green theme, healing and dreaming big, check out this film by Tom Flanagan introducing a song cycle titled Viriditas. It was created by Irish artist and vocalist Ceara Conway for The Deepest Shade of Green, an Arts and Health program for Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture. It includes newly composed contemporary songs, traditional European healing songs and rhythms, songs inspired by conversations with staff and patients, and songs which incorporate recordings of hospital equipment, plants, and the tools of sound healers. The album was performed as a series of intimate live performances in wards and corridors, televised to patients’ bedsides from a hospital chapel, recorded as a CD for gifting to patients across the seven hospitals of Saolta University Health Care Group, and is available for download at saoltaarts.com for everyone.

1 hildegarden.com/viriditas