Re-Storying the World: The Wind Calls My Name

 

The Wind Call My Name

Osiris teaches us how to think like a river, how to think like an ecosystem of interconnection. We need to make decisions from the standpoint of relationships, rather than the fictional idea of isolated species. As we think differently, pray differently, we might just be able to hear differently, too. Suddenly, one day, the river overflows, and the fields explode in laughter.

(Sophie Strand, Osiris: The Original Green Man)

                                                                        Cooper Hawk

The Wind calls my name today. 

 Looking up, I see a graceful arc of Wing, dancing with my Wind.

 He’s hooked me now!

 I see wings outstretched on a downdraft to the green field in front of me.

 In the cloudy light, I see Blue under wings. And think.  

Perhaps it’s a seagull. 

Then my eyes remember to look up, and I see his hawk wings circling, circling, preparing himself to descend in a quick strike. 

He falls through the wind, coming up in an inverse arc, with a little mouse in his claws. 

With an exultant cry, he wings away to the North. 

On his River of Wind. 

 

Another thing we have to remember about AIR and WIND is that 1) we need air to survive -- our breath of life.  And 2) air carries SOUNDS.  

It is the very air that speaks our name. 

Re-Storying the World: The Power of Wind

 

Re-Storying the World: The Power of Wind. 

 

Wind Gods

 

As we come out of our Covid isolation, this Spring Equinox will bring with it the Winds of Change. Hugging, getting together, traveling, going to church or concerts – all the things we’ve missed out on in this past year are going to be our top priorities. And yet, we are different than we were last year at this time.

The Winds of Change are blowing strongly now. Will we try to ‘go back’ to an old way of living, or have we begun to see life differently?

If so, we’ll need the Wind at our backs to help us set our new course.

Spring Equinox is associated with the East and with the power of Air. I began to feel the power of Air once again in the winds blowing this week here in Rhode Island. The tree tops sway and the cold air gets down my neck and makes me shiver, moving me like the trees with an invisible dance partner. The only way we can see the invisible Wind is by how it affects things like birds’ flight or trees or sails or blowing hair and seed pods. 

 

 

I also experienced the power of the Wind when I lived out West and the winds would blow off the mountain overlooking our home. I would stand in the wind and then move side to side to discover how wide a particular gust was. The wind came at me in streams, both wide and narrow. Sometimes the wind would create little twisters, twirling dust and leaves, following me as I walked.

I think I made friends with the wind when I was a child. I loved to stand out in the wind as we waited for hurricanes to arrive. There was something so invigorating about letting the wind pummel me like a great massage. Or I would imagine the winds under my arms lifting me into the air so I could fly.

Wind is the movement of Air around the planet. All life here on Earth begins and ends with Wind and Breath. The wind keeps the air cool and clean. The wind brings us the clouds that give us the rains Mother Earth needs to thrive. The wind moves the waters to keep them fresh and sweet.

If there were no winds, the planet would heat up, scum would cover rivers, lakes and oceans, fish would die, crops would fail and so people would starve.

There is a Hopi legend about their Wind God, Yaponcha. It is a story about the dangers of trying to control or stop the winds.

 

Yaponcha

 

Long again, the Hopis were troubled by strong winds. They planted seeds but the wind came and blew the seeds and soil away before the seeds could sprout.

The old men came together in their kivas and debated what to do. They finally decided to call on the Little Fellows – two of Spider Grandmother’s grandsons. So while the men prayed, the Little Fellows went to see their wise grandmother. They asked her to make them some cornmeal mush for a long journey. When they had it, they went back to the elders and gathered the offerings they had made.

They set out for the mountains, for all wind gods live on mountains in caves. Yaponcha blew through a crack in the mountains, so the Little Fellows covered the opening with the cornmeal mush. When it hardened, it sealed the Wind God’s door. Although he huffed and puffed, his wind could not get out. The Little Fellows laughed and went home.

But after awhile, the villagers became very hot. There were no breezes and no clouds. They thought they would suffocate. The heat was much worse then the winds. So they called on the Little Fellows again and told them to ask Yaponcha if they could have peace between them. They gave them prayer offerings to give to Yaponcha.

After traveling to the Wind God’s cave, the two Little Fellows decided to just make a small hole in the cornmeal so that he could breathe again. Immediately a nice cool breeze came out and a small cloud gathered in the sky.

When the Little Fellows reached the village, everyone was pleased. There was enough wind to make everyone happy but not enough to blow away the seeds.

Every March, when the winds blow, the Elders and Priests of the villages give prayer offerings to Yaponca, the Wind God, in thanks.

In so many of those wind legends, we find this human tendency to try to stop or control the wind. But once they do, the air gets hot, the water stagnates and it’s hard to breathe. In all these stories, the lesson is to learn the proper relationship to wind.

In the same way, we cannot stop life from changing. If we try to, life becomes sterile and dead. In this season of beginnings and change, do not try to stop the winds of change from blowing at your back.

The winds move and change things, and without them, life itself would die. The Winds respond to Mother Earth’s needs, not ours. Just as the winds of change come because it is TIME – our soul’s time to get moving.

Wind connects us to Life and to Spirit. In the Bible, God breathes upon the face of the waters to start the creation process. For the Hebrews, the word ruach means ‘breath & Spirit’. In many ancient belief systems, breath, soul and life are the same.

 

 

Air and its winds are as necessary to life here on Earth as is our breath. As a matter of fact, our breath is our personal wind. Just breathe in and feel the air coming into your body; then breathe out through your mouth and feel the wind of that breath. As we breathe out, we send our personal wind into the world to connect to the collective winds.

When my grandson was young, I would entertain him with the story of ‘The 3 Little Pigs’ – how the big, bad wolf would huff and puff and blow their houses down. My breaths created the wind in that story.

Most of us don’t know how to breathe right, do we? It was only through yoga and qi gong that I discovered the right way to breathe. If you’re a singer or musician, you already know. You breathe through your diaphragm. Your diaphragm draws the air into your lungs so they and your ribs expand and then as you release the diaphragm, your breath slowly or quickly moves out of your body.

Breathing brings oxygen into our bodies and cells, which we need to spark our energy. Without our ability to breathe, we die. Without the winds, the Earth dies.

Wind Gods and Goddesses

All ancient cultures saw the power of Spirit in Nature. There are wind gods and goddesses from all cultures just as there are many different types of winds.

 

Boreas, the North Wind
 

In ancient Greece, the Anemoi were the gods of the four cardinal winds--namely Boreas the North-Wind, Zephryos (Zephyrus) the West-Wind, Notos (Notus) the South-Wind, and Euros (Eurus) the East-Wind. Each of these winds was associated with a season--Boreas was the cold breath of winter, Zephyros was the god of spring breezes, Notos was the god of summer rain-storms and Euros was the god of autumn’s warm rainy weather.

 

Euros -- East Wind

 

The ancient Mesopotamians believed in a central wind god that was also the highest god in the pantheon of the Sumerians. Enlil (Ellil) was considered the god of the atmosphere and his name itself meant ‘Lord Wind’. This wind deity was extremely powerful in Sumerian mythology and all facets of wind from gentle breezes to mighty hurricanes were attributed to his force. He was the supreme deity, who granted fates and kingships. He was the deity who administered all earthly laws, that outlined social structures and duties. 

 

While there are many diverse cultures and mythologies among the indigenous peoples of North America, a story of Gaoh,the wind god from the Iroquois Confederation has remained a legend to this day. 

 

 

Gaoh was considered the master of winds that were too powerful for Earth, so he summoned 4 creatures from earth to help him rule the earthly winds. Gaoh opened a door in each cardinal direction to summon the creatures of Earth to help him contain the winds. He chained an animal from each direction to keep them in his servitude. Yaogah was a bear from the north chosen for bringing in cold wind, snow and ice. The strong winds from the west were allocated to Dajoji the panther. Oyandone the moose was given dominion over the rain and mist from the east. Finally, the fawn Neoga brought in warmth, fragrance, peace and joy from the south.

 

 

The Aztec people believed in a god of air and wind to whom they dedicated many round pyramids. Ethecatl/Quetzalcoatl was personified by a great feathered serpent and his name itself means ‘4 winds’ referring to the 4 cardinal direction in the Nahuatl language. He was believed to have helped create humanity and the maguey plant (agave), which was an invaluable resource to the people of the time and is still in use today in parts of Mexico. 

 

 

The ancient Chinese believed in a Mistress of the Winds that was responsible for containing or releasing the winds from the sky. Feng Po Po, depicted as an old woman, was also known as Madame Wind and was believed to ride on a tiger through the clouds. Madame Wind carried the winds in a bag over her shoulder that she would release when they became too heavy to bear or she was in a foul mood.

In wind shaman Renee Baribeau’s book, Winds of Spirit, she talks about the 4 cardinal winds as well as how to work with the many gods and goddesses of the Winds.

The Wind of the East is the Wind of the Mind. Like the Sun that rises in the East, this wind is the source of new beginnings. This is the Wind we’ll be working with as we leave our shelters and emerge back into a changed world.

The East Wind is often symbolized by the Eagle, the totem of our connection to Spirit. The East Wind represents different qualities of the Mind – meaning both brains and heart mind, such as mental acuity or confusion, the ability to envision the future and make plans, as well as our perception and discernment.

This is the Wind of intention, our ability to focus on what we want to accomplish.

The Wind of the South is the Wind of the Emotions. Like the Sun at noon, this warm wind evokes hope, joy and harmony in us. The South represents youth, innocence, patience, forgiveness and self-exploration. The South Wind also brings up those emotions that bring us fear and pain and sooths them.

Since South Winds are often unpredictable, they are like adolescent winds, bringing in emotional storms that quickly pass.

This is the Wind of the emotional power that helps manifest your goals.

The Wind of the West is the Wind of the Body. Like the Sun at sunset and in the autumn, this wind evokes the need to let go, to release what no longer serves you as you wait for rebirth. The West Wind signifies the harvest, the end of a cycle, destruction as well as the physical body.

This is the Wind that points out how healthy we are, as well as how we’re handling our life.

This is the Wind of manifestation. We reap what we’ve sown.

The Wind of the North is the Wind of Spirit. Like the Sun at midnight and Winter, this wind is the wind of the Imagination, our connection to Spirit. The North Wind, in connecting us to Spirit, also calls on us to look at our Shadows and embrace them. As Carl Jung said, the shadow is 99% gold.

The North is the place of service to Spirit and to our communities.

This is the Wind of spiritual purpose.

The Winds are an important spiritual energy that, like breath itself, is necessary for Life. We modern people often forget that we are all connected to each other through the breath, through the winds.

So go outside and dance with the Winds of Change as they blow through your neighborhood and send your wishes and hopes along with them, so they scatter like seeds throughout the world.

Re-Storying the World: The Sun and Spring Equinox

 

Re-Storying the World: Spring Equinox

The Sun’s Powerful Presence

“Here comes the sun do, do, do

Here comes the sun

And I say it's all right

Here comes the sun

And I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter

Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here.”

Spring Equinox is right around the corner. The sunlight grows everyday and after the March 20^th Equinox (at least here in the north) the days will continue to grow lighter and longer. While our friends in the southern hemisphere will be dropping into Autumn and Winter, we will expand into Spring and Summer.

Spring Equinox begins here in the northern hemisphere when the Sun rises above the Equator on its journey back North. In some ways, it is the birthday of the Sun. Spring Equinox is when the length of our days and nights become equal once again.

The Spring Equinox begins the astrological New Year and we say that the Sun is exalted (its most powerful) in Aries. Because it brings back Nature’s life force. 

 

 

I have a new appreciation of the Sun rising over the horizon/Equator. My older brother recently died from Covid related issues. He was born just at sunrise and if you look at his birth chart, you see the Sun just rising above his ascendant. And this image fits exactly who he was. He’d walk into a room and shine. He was warm, kind, funny and charismatic. He could charm you with a story and leave you laughing from a joke.

This is what the Sun feels like when it’s newly risen, both at sunrise and at Spring Equinox. Everything has the potential for new life. It’s light spreads joy!

Re-Storying the Sun at Spring Equinox

“The Sun is a mass of incandescent gas

A thermo-nuclear explosion.”

 

 

I can still sing that little ditty from 45 years ago when my daughter came home from kindergarten with that scientific fact! And yet it is so much more.

The Sun gives us light and warmth – the source of Life itself. Without it, Mother Earth wouldn’t have been able to create this beautiful garden planet.

You can read about the Sun, it’s history and composition at Space.com

The Sun is Earth’s star. Even at a distance of 150 million kilometers (93 million miles), its gravitational pull holds all the planets in our solar system in orbit. It radiates light and heat, or solar energy, making life possible on Earth.

Plants need sunlight to grow. Animals, including humans, need plants for food and the oxygen they produce. Without heat from the sun, Earth would freeze. There would be no winds, ocean currents, or clouds to transport water.

The Spring Sun coaxes life out of the ‘dead’ winter ground. As its light warms Mother Earth, trees and plants awaken and grow. It is the most dramatic instance of the power of the Sun to change our lives.

Every Spring we can see how the Sun is the source of Life developing here on Earth.

The Spring Equinox 2021 Chart

Spring Equinox occurs on March 20, 2021 at 1:40 am Alaska time/ 2:40 am PDT/ 7:40 EDT/ 11:40 am GMT.

 

Spring Equinox Chart 2021

This is a time of Balance, when the Light and the Dark hold equal sway.  It's a great time to re-balance yourself as well. 

This year, as the Sun enters Aries, the Moon is in Gemini, the sign of the Twins. This year, with the Moon in the sign of the Mind, it will get help from Mars in Gemini.  Mars will energize our search for information and new ways to communicate. This in turn will energize the new Aries fire with ideas and possibilities that the Aquarian planets are sending its way. It is an especially open Moon since it’s close to the North Node in Gemini. So our assignment for the New Year is to continue to search for knowledge that will help us prosper and grow, individually and collectively.

Symbolic Meaning of the Sun

 

In the Tarot, the Sun card is a big YES to life. Under this Sun card, everything becomes joyful and simple, a feeling state we lived in as children. We become children of the Sun, full of joy and Light. It’s as if we see Life again as pure and whole, blissful and full of wonder and delight.

 

 

The Sun, as it travels across the sky everyday, sees everything, and so it symbolizes knowledge and consciousness. The Sun sparks enlightenment, which is an experience that happens to us, that we awaken to. We suddenly know that life is full of Spirit and grace and that we are meant to feel fulfillment.

Psychologically, the Sun symbolizes the masculine left brain consciousness of rational thought. It symbolizes our modern ego consciousness, which is so dependent on the rational side of life. The left hemisphere is predominantly involved with analytical, logical thinking, whose method of operation is primarily linear and sequential. We associate clarity, light, day, time, action, will, focus and the masculine with solar consciousness.

It’s interesting that the god Apollo became the Sun god after Helios and his father Hyperion, the Titan Sun god. The two older gods symbolized the power of the Sun to bring light and warmth and life to the world.

 

Helios

Apollo was different from these earlier Sun gods because he was also the god of music, of healing/disease and of prophecy. As the god of Light, he brought light to many dark or unconscious aspects of life. When he killed the Python at the oracle of Delphi, he took over the guardianship of the role of prophecy in Greek life.

You can see that the ancient Greeks, just like our modern society, wanted to do away with the dark mysteries of the Feminine, of the Unconscious, of intuitive prophetic wisdom. They wanted to control the Feminine energies rather than listen to them and work with them for greater clarity.

Sometimes the Sun brings death and plague, especially at the height of summer, when its heat overwhelms us. It happens too when we use our rational thinking to negate what our heart is telling us. It take the sword of reason and cuts out our heart.

 But if we balance the light of consciousness with the mysteries of the unconscious, we discover the Wisdom of life.

Spring Equinox: The Return of Persephone

 

 Persephone Awakening

On of the myths associated with the Spring Equinox is the return of Persephone from the Underworld.

In ancient Greece, Demeter was a Mother Goddess, specifically the goddess of the harvest, grains and the fertility of the earth. She had a daughter whose name was Kore – which meant The Maiden. One day as Kore was out in the fields, gathering flowers with her friends, the god Hades, Lord of the Underworld, came up through the Earth and ravished her away. You see, he had her father Zeus’ permission to take her without her Mother’s knowledge.

Demeter was devastated by her loss. Nobody except for the goddess Hecate saw Kore taken, and when Demeter found out that Zeus had allowed Hades to abduct her daughter, she was furious. In her mourning, everything stopped growing. No births occurred. The land became a wasteland. And so the gods agreed that Kore must be returned to her mother.

But while she was in the Underworld, Kore ate the seeds of a pomegranate and discovered her name – Persephone. And since she had eaten those seeds, she had to return there part of the year.

So in the Spring, Persephone returned to her mother and all of Nature blossomed again. The Spring Maiden had returned. But in the Autumn, Persephone returned to her husband and once again became Queen of the Underworld, helping her husband welcome and gather in the dead.

 

This myth of the Mother and Daughter who bring Life to Nature describes not only the seasonal changes but also became the central focus of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a 2000 year old secret mystery cult which promised its initiates a passage to a blessed afterlife.

 It's also a psychological story about the development of the feminine. Mothers and daughters share a history, a biology and connection that is really a blossoming of a new form of being out of the old.  A new birth.  When Persephone comes back from the underworld, she is New. She has her own name. She cannot just be a replica of her mother.  She is the next incarnation of her mother -- old and new all at once.  As we all emerge out of the underworld of 2020, we are also called to be the next stage, the next incarnation of ourselves.  The same but different.  Changed by our underworld journey.

This mythic story of the soul’s eternal life is also important to us now, just as it was in ancient Greece. As we face so much death in our world with COVID and environmental deterioration, it helps us to understand that our souls are eternal, that this lifetime is not our only chance to live in the human state. That when we die, we will be reborn.

Just as the Sun is reborn every morning. Just as the Sun is birthed every Spring Equinox!

Once we truly know that death holds no fear for us, we become free to live our soul’s purpose. Which is to live a meaningful life here on Earth.

And so we can rejoice at Spring Equinox, knowing that Persephone is returning to bring life back to us after the darkness of Winter.

May we all rediscover and embrace the joy of Life this Spring.