April 8th, 2017

Happy April! School continues to give me the run-around, but I've worked a couple of spiritual events into my schedule. Last weekend, the city put on an 11 Days of Compassion program, which included a morning walk over at the Gaia House labyrinth. I had to get myself up earlier than I prefer for a Sunday, but the walk was really nice.

All the flowers were blooming, including these lovely tulips.

I was standing in the center of the labyrinth, thinking about how nice it would be if the fountain were running, and then it suddenly kicked on.

Then today, a friend from school drove with me over to a local gem and mineral show put on by the regional Earth Science club.

There were so many cool specimens, lots of which were from the area, but many others of which were from around the world. Crystals, fossils - you name it, it was probably there.

I tried to keep my purchases moderate. I got a piece of Bismuth, a Celestite cluster, a big chunk of Bloodstone, a Rhodonite pyramid, an Orthoceras fossil, and some Fluorite chunks (which were actually free from one of the vendors).

May 10th, 2016

I have my last final exam today, and then I can go home for the summer! I can't wait to be back in my own room (and I'm very excited about our vacation in June - more on that as events progress). I felt it was appropriate to wear what I think of as my Athena socks to class; they have owls on the tops, and say "WISE" on the bottoms.

Book Review: Feng Shui

Title: Feng Shui: Harmony by Design

Author: Nancy SantoPietro

©1996

It's funny - this will be the third time now that I've written up a report on this book. For my Architecture History class, we were asked to make a poster and presentation about a book, and since I was already in the midst of reading this one, I decided to do my project on it. It's actually giving me a really interesting opportunity, as for the presentation component, part of my project will include talking about ways in which I have used feng shui principles in the design of my room at home. However, I wanted to do a post about it specifically for this blog, seeing as my readership here is likely more metaphysically-inclined than my classroom peers.

The short version: this is a great book. 

The long version: Nancy SantoPietro is one of only a few women in the US trained and authorized to practice feng shui professionally. Her book is forwarded by Professor Lin Yun, the founder of the Black Sect of Tantric Buddhism, and under whom she studied. Known internationally for her work, and former Chairperson of the first feng shui studies department in the country, SantoPietro is one of the foremost western experts and practitioners.

Yun's forward begins by describing a little of his sect of Buddhism, how it intersects with feng shui, and his experiences working with SantoPietro. This transitions into SantoPietro's introduction, which summarizes some of feng shui's history and its place in the modern world.

The first chapter covers the basics: fundamental principles and theories, how to quickly and easily sketch a floor plan of a building, and how to apply the bagua chart to that drawing. She also describes how to begin analyzing the relationship between floor plan and chart.

Chapter two starts getting into intentions, and how to narrow down one's focus in what changes to make. It also summarizes general categories of the kinds of things to look out for and consider altering.

Chapter three takes the reader through the nitty-gritty of designing the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, some of the most important spaces in the home. SantoPietro explains the impact that each of these has on one's life, and where design decisions can have a significant impact on one's health, wealth, and relationships.

The fourth chapter takes the reader through other spaces (the home office, dining room, living room, etc.) and offers low-cost but high-impact solutions for the problems that can occur there. These principles are really ones which can be applied in any space to produce significant results.

Chapter five covers the role of color, and six describes specific obstacles one might be facing, and where to look in one's home for design issues that could be compounding those obstacles. It also covers transcendental cures, which are in essence rituals written in a feng shui-specific context, but which incorporate elements like mantras, meditations, sympathetic magick, and other elements which western Pagans are likely already somewhat familiar with. 

The seventh chapter deals with sacred space - what it is, why we need it, and how to go about designating a truly sacred space in the home. SantoPietro goes into detail about altars, both religious and secular, and provides lists of correspondences for crystals and essential oils. 

Finally, the eighth chapter gives real examples of situations which SantoPietro's clients have faced, how SantoPietro advised them to adjust their living spaces, and the end results. This was less of an anecdotal advertisement for her work, and more of a step-by-step example about what it actually can look like to analyze a living space and change it, and thereby also change one's life. Her example stories cover a wide variety of living situations and types of people, so chances are good that there are relatable elements one can pick up on.

I will be up-front: I do not agree 100% with every single piece of advice in SantoPietro's book. There are things as an individual and as a designer-to-be which I would do differently. However, with that being said, this is an excellent manual on feng shui; it is extremely comprehensive while still being easy to follow, and there are lots of diagrams to visually illustrate the types of changes the author refers to. In general, she does a very good job of explaining the thought behind a feng shui principle, rather than just providing rules with no context, and it is clear that she is very well-versed in her practice. 

Whether you are just getting into feng shui or are already familiar with the subject, this text is a great resource. If you have any interest in using feng shui at all, definitely consider giving this book a look.

Native Plant Giveaway

In other news, I had an exciting opportunity today to get some plants. A group on campus was giving away cuttings and seedlings of native species to help support pollinator populations, and I picked a few up!

On the left are two Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pallida) seedlings, which produce flowers that bees love. They also have a long history of medicinal uses, which can be traced back to First Nations people from this part of the country. On the right is a little prickly pear, which apparently is another native species - I had no idea we had cacti here, but apparently this is part of their range! When I go back home, the Coneflower will go in the garden. The cactus will probably go in a pot, because I'm fairly sure our winters will be too cold for it. Hopefully I can keep them alive for the last three weeks of the semester until I can transfer them out of their little plastic containers.

Also excitingly, my plant biology professor brought in some fossil specimens she and her students had collected at an old coal mine yesterday. These came from the carboniferous forests which were part of this landscape 300 million years ago, and some of them are so well-preserved as to actually still have plant tissue in them. Apparently, they had collected so many fossils that my professor let us keep some of her examples if we wanted. The large fossil in the bottom image has now been added to my collection. I really want to go rock-hunting around here sometime!

April 22nd, 2016

The school year is finally winding down, but it seems I have as much to do as ever. This month has been particularly action-packed, as we finally got into the build phase of the project we began back in February. It took us four and a half days spread over a couple of weeks, but we finished it, and it looks great. It'll be a really functional piece of work for the environmental center's programs

When we first arrived for our last build day on Tuesday, we found this dragonfly nymph exoskeleton on the trim of our deck. In the words of our professor, our project has already started breeding life. Personally, I took it as a good omen, and things continued to go well as we finished things up.

Here we are adding some finishing touches...

Our final product; we built a deck, two tables, and a net rack for a macro-invertebrate dipping station. Originally, there was also meant to be a kiosk for signage, but as we discovered, there are a lot of subterranean rocks on our site, which meant that that piece could not be built at this time. However, the center has our drafted plans and materials, so if they later on feel like relocating that component to a different area and building it, they can do so.

Our deck, from a different angle.

We saw this lovely (and large!) snake on Tuesday, plus a water snake I couldn't get a picture of.

Later that day, I found this little guy sitting on a campus sidewalk - they were only an inch or two across!

March 22nd, 2016

A happy belated Equinox to everybody! I got to spend Ostara riding the train back to my school and working on homework, neither of which I was really all that interested in doing, but oh well. I found some books on Feng Shui in my department's architecture library, so I started to read through one of them - if and when I have time to finish it, I'll be sure to let you know what I thought!

In the meantime, enjoy what we have so far of spring. It's pretty chilly here still, but a lot of the trees are starting to bloom. I'll hopefully be taking some pictures soon to share.

February 20th, 2016

I went back to Touch of Nature today to do some more analysis of our site with my group. It was a beautiful day, and a balmy 70° in spite of it being the middle of February.

After we'd taken measurements and dug some test holes, we all sat for a bit enjoying the sunlight. My friend also started building a little fairy house in the leaves, so I pitched in to finish it off.

We of course returned the area to its natural state before we left, but created a little house, garden, and fence. It was really cute!

February 14th, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day, all. Sorry I haven't posted yet this month - I've been so busy with school that I haven't been able to think straight in what little free time I've had.

In spite of all that, I have managed to keep my head mostly above water, and even went hiking last weekend. Here's some pictures of the lake and trail.

My Building Tech: Woods class will be working out here, creating a learning station for participants to dip for macro-invertebrates and learn about aquatic ecosystems. It'll be really nice to go out regularly to such a lovely natural spot.

Ferns and moss growing, even in February.

A fossil of some sort of tree, just lying in the creek bed.

We sat out on this point and just meditated in the sun for a bit. It was so quiet, with only the water lapping against the rocks.

Our tour guide also demonstrated how to make red ochre paint out of local rocks containing iron ore. The thick paste has been used for thousands of years and around the world in cave paintings, dyes, and body paint. In particular, it was used by local indigenous peoples, who also used local deposits of chert for tools. The picture is me, with red ochre smeared on my cheeks. 

October 28th, 2015

I took my pumpkin over to a local historic site tonight for my Architecture History class. We got extra credit if we carved a famous structure and brought it there for an evening open to the public to enjoy. 

That's mine on the left.

They got a fire going, and there was candy and apples for those who wanted to snack. There was even a very fluffy orange cat darting around that let me pet it, right before it climbed inside one of the volunteers' cars.

St. Basil's

Big Ben

Rose window

The front of my pumpkin (the Itsukushima Shrine torii gate)

The side of my pumpkin, with the Itsukushima kanji

Fallingwater

Sydney Opera House

There were some really fun pumpkins, and we had a couple of families bring their kids out to see them. It was nice to get to share some of the season's cheer with the community. Three more days to Samhain...

October 10th, 2015

I'm officially home for fall break! I'm off school through Tuesday, so I took the train back, and then my family met me and we had lunch in the city.

We decided we'd go walk around a new park, and the weather was perfect.

One feature which I especially got a kick out of was this:

The end of the pathway ended in a roundabout, and had slabs of stone set up to align with the sun on the solstices and equinoxes. I suppose it just seemed rather Pagan to me.

October 5th, 2015

I'm really enjoying the opportunities this Pagan girl gets in Architecture History. Today in the middle of lecture, my professor asked who all had walked a labyrinth before. I was one of the very few who raised their hands, so my prof basically said, screw the lecture, let's go walk a labyrinth.

We walked across the street to Gaia House, and went out to their labyrinth in the back. 

It was pretty crowded with thirty or forty of us all trying to walk through it at once.

My professor then went on to explain how this labyrinth is a near replica of the one at Chartes Cathedral in France, and how the stacked stone over the neighboring waterfall represents the altar.

Chartes in turn is built on the site of worship of an ancient Celtic goddess, and is recognized as a significant energy vortex by many metaphysicians.

All in all, it was an exciting day to be learning about architecture.

Natural Beauty

I've taken a couple of pictures the last few days of some beautiful things I've seen here at school, and so I thought I would share.

A sunset from Friday night.

A butterfly at Habitat for Humanity yesterday.

A goofy squirrel eating a nut this afternoon.

I've also seen our local groundhog running around a few times, but so far, I haven't been able to get a picture.

September 25th, 2015

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither are my architecture models.

I've spent so much time this week working on a model of the Temple to Athena Nike that I pretty much haven't done anything else, but as of this morning, I finished it.

My ARC History professor should be happy with it, and I think the goddess is, too. If I get it back, I'll probably put it on my altar as a place to give offerings. 

September 12th, 2015

I went on a field trip today! It was for my Architecture History class, and we went to check out a gorgeous Romanesque and Byzantine cathedral, and then we went to a cemetery.

I know it's not quite Samhain yet, but it certainly felt like October today, and it seemed appropriate to wander the grounds a bit. My professor described the architectural precedents for a lot of the mausoleums, and I tried just to honor the local spirits with a small offering when we got off the bus.

The newer area was designed according to Feng Shui principles. For instance, this fountain has a line running through it to mark the Northern direction. Theoretically, it would also align with local dragon energies. However, my professor explained that this area was actually built over an old garbage dump, and therefore has too much bad Chi to really fix with Feng Shui.

Here's a family grave marked with a Celtic cross, and which also has a statue of Grief personified.

This cemetery had a lot of obelisks, and apparently those are usually used for burying Free Masons.

We saw tons of really neat things today, but this mausoleum was possibly the most interesting to me personally. It's designed in an Egyptian style, and there's actually sphinxes on either side of the doors. The symbol in the center, with the sun disk, wings, and serpents, is actually the emblem of the goddess Isis, and is used on Her temples in Egypt. 

I was originally supposed to go on a camping trip this weekend with a local Pagan group, but it ended up being cancelled for a variety of reasons. Because of work and my field trip, I wouldn't have been able to go, anyway. However, we're supposed to be having a Mabon ritual next weekend, so I'm looking forward to that!

A Brief Stroll

It's been really hot here the last few days, but it finally mellowed out some, and I decided just to walk around a little before going back to my room after dinner.

There's a small drainage creek behind the dining hall where I did a few rituals last year, so I walked down there to visit. There were a ton of frogs! I never actually saw one because they moved so fast and were so well-camouflaged, but they were jumping all over the place, splashing the water. 

On the way back, I also happened across this - squirrel fur!

I wanted to pick up a piece for spell work or to put in my Book of Shadows, but it looked like it might have had bugs on it, and I didn't have a plastic baggie or anything to scoop it up in. If I remember, I might see if I can find some tomorrow morning.

September 1st, 2015

It's been an interesting day, and I have some news, but I'm probably going to wait to share that on here until I've got all the details hashed out. I did think that I would share a picture with you all, though.

This is where I ended up putting my dragon statue I bought Saturday, on a shelf over my desk. I've attached some warding to the statue, and put an offering of water in the glass dish. He wanted some crystals set around him, so I put a Black Onyx and two Tektites on the shelf as well.

On either side of the statue, I have two Japanese amulets for academic success; to the left is my green Maneki Neko, and to the right is a little mini shrine-shaped amulet I bought at Meiji Jinja in Tokyo.

I also have two little shells sitting there, although they're hard to see in the photo. One shell is holding water, and the other is holding salt. I don't have a Kamidana at this point in time, although I would like to acquire one. In the meantime, I am using the shells to hold offerings to the Kami.

August 28th, 2015

I think I'm going to like my Architecture History class. Parts of it are definitely going to be a challenge, but my professor is very knowledgeable, and he keeps throwing out pieces of mythological information. Take this picture, for instance:

Many of you have probably seen this design before in sculpture or molding. What you may not know (I certainly did not) is that this pattern can be called "egg and dart"; the egg component symbolizes life, and the dagger symbolizes death. The pattern hails from ancient Greece, and specifically belongs to the fertility goddess Artemis of Ephesus. This is not the goddess as the Huntress, but rather as a deity of abundance. Her temple at Ephesus is one of the seven wonders of the world.

To the right is an image of Artemis. My professor actually pulled a reproduction of this statue out of his pocket while he was lecturing. The bulbs on her chest have been interpreted as breasts, eggs, ox testicles, and probably more. The scholarly analysis is that they are gourds, which are a particular symbol of this aspect of Artemis. 

That's what I've got. I just thought you all might appreciate this little tidbit. I also did another video today, if anyone's interested in checking it out.