could be lucky

July 11, 2011
6pm PDT, 9pm EDT

as Moon waxing (to Cancer-Capricorn Full Moon late Thursday early Friday, Cultivating our Work, dedication as expansively liberating)
Uranus stationing
square Pluto — Trickster emerges from rubble, as we re-animate potencies that may have been lost in the midden heap of possibility.
Remembering one of our working models: Mythic figures are metaphoric animations (thus incarnations) of Nature’s Intelligence.
We now call upon
a little known (until now!) Goddess from Hindu mythology: Akhilandeshvari,
who brings what in Brazilian magic culture is known as Jetino – “the powerful medicine magic that comes in dangerous times.”

Our assignment this week is to welcome her from back-stage to on-stage, as part of our Trickster repertoire of allies with whom to be in cahoots, and from whom to syncretize and craft our customized Trickster Redeemer Action Figure. Let’s gather all that synchronously makes itself known to us this potent dredging time….Qualities of mythic figures, elements, colors, plants, animals, words – for all of this is our artists pallette with which we begin the collage work of conjuring our skookum ally true self.
Some things are always true – but moments when they are truer. Visualization with action comes alive now. For self and/or to contribute to out on-going Trickster Council,
phrase it as “inviting in (fill in the blank) and its Medicine Quality of…(fill in the blank.) And, if so moved, send it to me to share with the Team as part of our group elixir.

Welcoming Akhilandeshvari!

from Julie JC Peters splendid article: “Ishvari” in Sanskrit means goddess or “female power,” and the “Akhilanda” means essentially “never not broken.” In other words, The Always Broken Goddess. Sanskrit is a tricky and amazing language, and I love that the double negative here means that she is broken right down to her name.But this isn’t the kind of broken that indicates weakness and terror.
It’s the kind of broken that tears apart all the stuff that gets us stuck in toxic routines, repeating the same relationships and habits over and over, rather than diving into the scary process of trying something new and unfathomable.”

“Akhilanda derives her power from being broken: in flux, pulling herself apart, living in different, constant selves at the same time, from never becoming a whole that has limitations.”

CWC: In the ruins of the Villa Of Mysteries in Pompeii are remarkable frescoes of Dionyssian Initiation, showing the Initiate being torn apart to become whole….And we have the splendid word “dithyrhambic, “meaning wildly creatively enthused”, usually after the ordeal. Although bonus points are awarded to those of us who can feel dithyrhambic during the whole torn apart ordeal deal.

Back to Julie JC Peters: “But look, Akhilanda says, now you get to make a choice. In pieces, in a pile on the floor, with no idea how to go forward, your expectations of the future are meaningless. Your stories about the past do not apply. You are in flux, you are changing, you are flowing in a new way, and this is an incredibly powerful opportunity to become new again: to choose how you want to put yourself back together. Confusion can be an incredible teacher—how could you ever learn if you already had it all figured out?”

CWC: And how curious that the etymology of “confusion,” means “to pour together.”
So, we can overcome some of the more superstitious elements of Feng Shui, by honoring and being amused by broken things. Not bad, but messages from Akhilanda, who becomes an anti-dote counter-part to Dayu Datu – the Balinese dark sorceress, whose grumpitudinous potencies are derived from the small and large things that cause a person to lose faith in life. The positive heroine in “The Painted Alphabet” “knew that life’s food is death, and understood the usefulness of discarded things: the peels of a mound of garlic, the carcass of a hummingbird, the wastes of the stable and of expired offerings. Such things she put back into the earth with the same cheer as that with which she cut down the ripe baggage of bananas or bid permission from a tree to harvest its flowers.” Let us honor the broken and take refuge in refuse.

Back to Julie “This goddess has another interesting attribute, which is, of course, her ride: a crocodile.

Crocodiles are interesting in two ways: Firstly, Stoneberg explains that the crocodile represents our reptilian brain, which is where we feel fear. Secondly, the predatory power of a crocodile is not located in their huge jaws, but rather that they pluck their prey from the banks of the river, take it into the water, and spin it until it is disoriented. They whirl that prey like a dervish seeking God, they use the power of spin rather than brute force to feed themselves.

By riding on this spinning, predatory, fearsome creature, Akhilanda refuses to reject her fear, nor does she let it control her. She rides on it. She gets on this animal that lives inside the river, inside the flow. She takes her fear down to the river and uses its power to navigate the waves, and spins in the never not broken water. Akhilanda shows us that this is beautiful. Stoneberg writes:

Akhilanda is also sometimes described in our lineage like a spinning, multi-faceted prism. Imagine the Hope Diamond twirling in a bright, clear light. The light pouring through the beveled cuts of the diamond would create a whirling rainbow of color. The diamond is whole and complete and BECAUSE it’s fractured, it creates more diverse beauty. Its form is a spectrum of whirling color.

That means that this feeling of confusion and brokenness that every human has felt at some time or another in our lives is a source of beauty and colour and new reflections and possibilities.

So now is the time, this time of confusion and brokenness and fear and sadness, to get up on that fear, ride it down to the river, dip into the waves, and let yourself break. Become a prism.

All the places where you’ve shattered can now reflect light and color where there was none. Now is the time to become something new, to choose a new whole.

But remember Akhilanda’s lesson: even that new whole, that new, colorful, amazing groove that we create, is an illusion. It means nothing unless we can keep on breaking apart and putting ourselves together again as many times as we need to. We are already “never not broken.” We were never a consistent, limited whole. In our brokenness, we are unlimited. And that means we are amazing.”

CWC: Well, this is fun. And tonight – this week, let’s get down…no rules, no “home-work,” but guide-lines. To catalyze eloquence…look up the etymology of one word. (or more…and send to me…so we can make a fully resonant sentence-chant from all the words, that have been honored in this manner).

The Grand Intrigue of the Grand Square in the sky-earth story: every square participant is also trine to something cool…Very Akhilanda… (Saturn forms an Air Grand Trine with Mars and Pallas and Vesta. Uranus forms a Fire Grand Trine with the Moon and Mercury. Pluto trines Jupiter in Earth.)…For every ughh, there is an aaah-ha-ha.

And consider – what animal do we choose now, as our “ride.” (Crocodile, Tiger for Durga, elephant for Mirabai etc.) Invite the ride to make its surprising availability known, manifest, animated. And see ourselves riding!

All critique-contributions-blessings to our on-going shape-shifting are completely welcome in perpetuity…

As Terence McKenna said about amphibians (hello again crocodile ride) peering up out of the water wondering, “can we make the daunting transition to land,” and the answer is always – you bet!”
or as Groucho would say, “You bet your life!”

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/06/why-being-broken-in-a-pile-on-your-bedroom-floor-is-a-good-idea–julie-jc-peters/

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