Preparing for Halloween

 

 

Here is how our front porch looked when decorated for Halloween Day.  
We decorated our home in Red Bluff, California, from 1998-2017.  
Notice the five spherical white spectral (ghostly) visitors coming to "trick or treat" at our front door.    

"To all the ancient ones from their houses, the Old Ones from above and below. In this time the Gods of the Earth touch our feet, bare upon the ground. Spirits of the Air whisper in our hair and chill our bodies,  and from the dark portions watch and wait the Faery Folk that they may join the circle and leave their track upon the ground. It is the time of the waning year. Winter is upon us. The corn is golden in the winnow heaps. Rains will soon wash sleep into the life-bringing Earth. We are not without fear, we are not without sorrow...Before us are all the signs of Death: the ear of corn is no more green and life is not in it. The Earth is cold and no more will grasses spring jubilant. The Sun but glances upon his sister, the earth..... It is so....Even now....But here also are the signs of life, the eternal promise given to our people. In the death of the corn there is the seed--which is both food for the season of Death and the Beacon which will signal green-growing time and life returning. In the cold of the Earth there is but sleep wherein She will awaken refreshed and renewed, her journey into the Dark Lands ended. And where the Sun journeys he gains new vigor and potency; that in the spring, his blessings shall come ever young!"
-  Two Samhain Rituals, Compost Coveners, 1980 

  

"Tonight as the barrier between the two realms grows thin,
Spirits walk amongst us, once again.
They be family friends and foes,
Pets and wildlife, fishes and crows.
But be we still mindful of the Wee Folke at play,
Elves, fey, brownies, and sidhe.
Some to trick, some to treat,
Some to purposely misguide our feet. 
Stay we on the paths we know 
As planting sacred apples we go.

This Feast I shall leave on my doorstep all night.
In my window one candle shall burn bright,
To help my loved ones find their way
As they travel this eve, and this night, until day.
Bless my offering, both Lady and Lord
Of breads and fruits, greens and gourd."
-  Akasha, Samhain Ritual  

Samhain

Halloween,

The Day of the Dead

 

October: Poems

Quotes

Lore

  

The entrance to our front driveway in Red Bluff featured a seasonal display that Karen prepared from 1998-2017. 
Karen is petting our cat, King Tut, in the early morning hours. 

We now (2020) live in Vancouver, Washington.  

Palouse Region, Southeastern Washington

We spent some time last month in the rolling hills and wheat fields of the Palouse Region of Southeastern Washington. We drove from Walla Walla on State Road 12 through Dayton, Pomeroy, to Lewiston. Then, north, up a steep grade overlooking Lewiston, on State Road 195 to Pullman, then Colfax.

She prefers and likes being the pilot driver, I am a very content passenger and occasional navigator.  She safely pilots our 2018 Ford Escape, Titanium, on a 2.5 liter engine, at 30 mpg.  We quietly rolled across the Palouse in beautiful summer warm weather and clear skies.  Brown wheat fields in four directions.  No irrigation systems visible in most cases.  

Since I was not driving that fine day, I slowly smoked a gram of potent sativa cannabis during the many hours of quiet staring out the car window and occasional map reading.  Mind tripping potent pot for road tripping trips.  I am sure that cannabis is grown in the heavily irrigated Yakima Valley, and indoors anywhere in Washington where cannabis for recreational use has been legal since 2012, and 25% of every purchase of pot is taxed.  The Palouse appears to be primarily wheat and beans, and largely not irrigated.  A primary rule is "where is the water, and how much can you use." Therefore, you could grow marihuana in the Palouse with drip irrigation methods.  

We stopped at a rest stop in the Palouse.  Stretched our legs and bodies.  Used the vault pit toilet.  We enjoyed looking at the immense fields of wheat.  I held and closely studied some wheat plants.  

Wheat food products have kept me alive for 75 years.  

"The Palouse is the most serene and pastoral of the seven wonders of Washington State. It is a region in south eastern Washington characterized by gentle rolling hills covered with wheat fields. The hills were formed over tens of thousands of years from wind blown dust and silt, called "loess", from dry regions to the south west. Seen from the summit of 3,612 foot high Steptoe Butte, they look like giant sand dunes because they were formed in much the same way. In the spring they are lush shades of green when the wheat and barley are young, and in the summer they are dry shades of brown when the crops are ready for harvest. The Palouse hills are not only a landscape unique in the world, but they are beautiful to behold, making them my favorite of the seven wonders of Washington State."

The Palouse

Moral Value of Flowers

"Who can estimate the elevating and refining influences and moral value of flowers with all their graceful forms, bewitching shades and combinations of colors and exquisitely varied perfumes? These silent influences are unconsciously felt even by those who do not appreciate them consciously and thus with better and still better fruits, nuts, grains, vegetables and flowers, will the earth be transformed, man's thought refined, and turned from the base destructive forces into nobler production. One which will lift him to high planes of action toward the happy day when the Creator of all this beautiful work is more acknowledged and loved, and where man shall offer his brother man, not bullets and bayonets, but richer grains, better fruit and fairer flowers from the bounty of this earth."
- Father George Schoener (1864 -1941)
  "The Importance and Fundamental Principles of Plant Breeding"


Flowers: Quotes, Sayings, Poems, Lore: http://www.gardendigest.com/flowers.htm

The Concept of "Hunyuan"

"Hunyuan is an ancient, central concept of Daoist philosophy and meditation practice. Hun means undifferentiated unity, the state of mind and being that occurs when one does not divide the world into concepts. In other words, hun is equivalent to inner silence. Yuan means origin or original. The importance of Yuan is attested by the fact that it is the opening word of Qian, the first chapter of the Yi Jing (The Classic of Change). "Original [Yuan], Penetrating [Heng], Auspicious [Li], Correct [Zhen]." This mantric phrase may be interpreted as four stages in the creation or evolution of an idea or phenomenon; or it may represent the four seasons.

Yuan is the root or antecedent of any action. It is the creative spark or impulse, like a seed planted in Spring which is just ready to sprout. Heng is the Summer, and represents germination and development. The character heng originally meant a sacrificial cup used to make offerings to the Gods. Most commentators explain heng as tong, penetrating or reaching to the Gods. Li means to cut grain, to harvest or reap the benefits of what was grown. It is thus the Autumn season. Zhen, which originally included the character for tripod means steady and correct. It also means divination. Zhen is the winter season, when the energies of life retreat back into the ground and people return from the fields to their homes. The spark of yang is hidden in the yin. Winter is a time for inner work rather than outer work, a time to perfect one's character and prepare for the coming year by consulting oracles.

The character yuan was originally a composite of shang the word "above" with ren, the word "person." Hence, yuan means the upper part of a person's body, the head, or, as we say in English to go ahead, to be first. Interestingly, the Chinese character Dao also contains an element that means both head and first, shou. One of my Daoist teachers, the late B. P. Chan, defined Dao as "the path to the origin." We could also interpret this as returning to the origin. When the body Returns to the Origin, it renews itself with the energy of life, the all pervading qi of the universe. It becomes like an uncarved block of wood-- the Daoist symbol of a person uncorrupted by the stresses and worries of life. As Lao Zi says, "See the unbleached silk, embrace the uncarved block; reduce selfishness, lessen desire." (When the mind Returns to the Origin, it becomes simple and pure like a newborn babe, able to perceive the world with a fresh innocence.)

Hun with yuan becomes the concept Hunyuan, the Primordial State of Being. The term is synonymous with the word Dao itself and also with Taiji (the Undifferentiated, as in Taiji Quan, a martial art and healing art that blends yin and yang, suppleness with strength). Philosophy and personal cultivation are not separate categories in Daoist thought. Thus, Hunyuan is the Primal Being (God) or Beingness that both precedes and underlies all creation. It is also the spiritual state of a person who practices Daoist meditation."

- Hunyuan Qigong: Tracing Life to Its Roots
  An excellent essay by Master Kenneth Cohen, 2007


Hun Yuan Qigong

Hun Yuan Taijiquan

Months and Seasons of the Year

Entheogenic Use of Cannabis

 

Here is an excerpt from a longer article titled "The Entheogenic Use of Cannabis," from Wikipedia, 2020.  The agricultural history of marihuana growing and its uses all around the world is succinctly covered in the article.    

"Cannabis has served as an entheogen—a chemical substance used as an entheogen—a chemical substance used in religious or spiritual contexts^[1]—in the Indian subcontinent since the Vedic period dating back to approximately 1500 BCE, but perhaps as far back as 2000 BCE. Cannabis has been used by shamanic and pagan cultures to ponder deeply religious and philosophical subjects related to their tribe or society, to achieve a form of enlightenment, to unravel unknown facts and realms of the human mind and subconscious, and also as an aphrodisiac during rituals or orgies.^[2] There are several references in Greek mythology to a powerful drug that eliminated anguish and sorrow. Herodotus wrote about early ceremonial practices by the Scythians, thought to have occurred from the 5th to 2nd century BCE. Itinerant Hindu saints have used it in the Indian subcontinent for centuries.^[3] Over the last few decades hundreds of archaeological and anthropological items of evidence have come out of Mexican, Mayan and Aztec cultures that suggest cannabis, along with magic mushrooms (psilocybin), peyote (mescaline) and other psychoactive plants were used in cultural shamanic and religious rituals.^[2] Mexican-Indian communities occasionally use cannabis in religious ceremonies by leaving bundles of it on church altars to be consumed by the attendees.^[4]" 

Here was an October 2020 Facebook Post of mine:

I favor the Federal decriminalization of marihuana. In the State of Washington, since 2012, marihuana farms are prospering, tax revenues are growing from pot sales, investors in commodities are benefitting, law enforcement can focus on more important matters, people have more access to new CBD products, tourists are attracted to our state, and some folks can just enjoy a pleasant puff now and then purchased at a local pot shop. The Federal marihuana laws are unnecessary, costly, unjust, and out of date. I don’t smoke or drink now, but others can now purchase and use marihuana in Washington without being treated as a criminal. Many Democrats, Independents, and Libertarians support the Federal descheduling of cannabis.

https://potguide.com/washington/marijuana-laws/

Columbia Plateau, State of Washington, USA

"The Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Columbia River. In one of various usages, the term "Columbia Basin" refers to more or less the same area as the Columbia Plateau."
- Wikipedia, Columbia Plateau

Also:

Great Basin Desert II

Great Basin Desert  I

Travel in the Northwest

Columbia Plateau, Washington

Columbia Plateau Photographs