our Caravan of Re-Joy-Sing pilgrimage honoring our transcendent journey into light, our taking joy in transforming shadows into gifts and our witnessing these gifts as dreams coming to us each night for the 12 nights of Christmas/the Festival of Illumination came to a close after last night’s saunter across the desert guided by a constellation and our 12th night’s sun of the watery sign of Pisces.

on the twelfth night of Christmas, my true love (Pisces) gave to me, a dream of… a pair of fish named Venus and Cupid swimming in the deep blue see of divine love energy demonstrating how to be fluid ecstasy in radical simplicity…

living simply, living freely, living in the moment, the only moment, the moment as fractal of all that is, every thing,/no thing, imbibing the living waters of the present moment, every wonder filled moment changing constantly, every moment sacred breathing into beauty, even with, especially with the whole world seemingly going up in flames, re-member that which does not burn where death has no entry, here is the present moment in the center of the earth, the stillpoint of love, joy, peace and harmony…

trusting this day of epiphany dances you more deeply into reality where you listen to our one cosmic heart singing melodically entraining us all to clearly see each moment as guru, every moment to simply be…

our Caravan of Re-Joy-Sing pilgrimage honoring our transcendent journey into light, our taking joy in transforming shadows into gifts and our witnessing these gifts as dreams coming to us each night for the 12 nights of Christmas/the Festival of Illumination continues sauntering across the desert guided by a constellation and our 11th night’s sun of the airy Aquarius sign proved to be the just right incubator for last night’s initiatory dream with the water bearer…

on the eleventh night of Christmas, my true love (Aquarius) gave to me, a dream of… my packing lightly for traveling in the company of a family of supporters and i am down to one of my favorite peaces – co-ordinating the colors i’ll wear on this flowing odyssey along the rainbow trail which reminds me of an old story about the water bearer, gifter of last night’s dream…

THE CRACKED WATER POT

A water bearer in India had two large pots, which hung on each end of a pole that he carried across his neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and one half pots of water to his master’s house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor, cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After 2 years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream.

“I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you.”

“Why?” asked the bearer. “What are you ashamed of?”

“I have been able, for these past 2 years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master’s house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don’t get full value from your efforts,” the pot said.

The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, “As we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”

Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wildflowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again the pot apologized to the bearer for its failure.

The bearer said to the pot, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side? That’s because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you’ve watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master’s table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.”

may we all embrace our shadows with radiant warmth melting the ice into sparkling water of life… and, tonight, on this twelfth and final night of our light journey across the desert in search of the divine child, may we awaken to and be warmed by our ever present inner light…

our Caravan of Re-Joy-Sing pilgrimage honoring our transcendent journey into light, our taking joy in transforming shadows into gifts and our witnessing these gifts as dreams coming to us each night for the 12 nights of Christmas/the Festival of Light continues sauntering across the desert guided by a constellation and our 10th night’s sun of the earthy Capricorn once again proved to be the just right incubator for last night’s initiatory dream with the surefooted Capricorn…

i was thinking in honor of mountain goats – which my beautiful daughter is and many friends – i would showcase last night’s dream gift with Maria dancing in the shadow of a mountain singing, “The Hills Are Alive” from The Sound of Music, one of my all time favorite movies ever since it first came out so many decades ago and one that my mountain goat loves as much as i do… Then, i re-membered i had not started off this moon as i like to with the blessing for a new beginning featuring one of my favorite mountains, Tahoma which reminds me of…

…people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity.

                                                          – John Muir –

on the tenth night of Christmas, my true love (Capricorn) gave to me, a dream of… the sound of music, hills coming alive, goats dancing, goatherds yodeling and impossible dreams transformed into i’m possible intentions… and you, what dream did the goat gift you?

our Caravan of Re-Joy-Sing pilgrimage honoring our transcendent journey into light, our taking joy in transforming shadows into gifts and our witnessing these gifts as dreams coming to us each night for the 12 nights of Christmas/the Festival of Light continues sauntering across the desert guided by a constellation and our 9th night’s sun of the fiery Sagittarius once again proved to be the just right incubator for last night’s initiatory dream with the Sagittarian Archer, Wounded Healer and Healer of Wounds, Transformer of Shadows into Light…

on the ninth night of Christmas, my true love (Sagittarius) gave to me, a dream of… riding the wind into great silence where everything/no thing is still, a numinous black serpent coiled in fetal position resting in the gap before the arrow of love penetrates and awakens the jewels to come alive, to open to being a spiraling, sparkling rainbow wave of pure delight…

thousandfold thanks to the archer of love, the laser beamer of light for turning the darkness into clear sight…

our Caravan of Re-Joy-Sing pilgrimage honoring our transcendent journey into light, our taking joy in transforming shadows into gifts and our witnessing these gifts as dreams coming to us each night for the 12 nights of Christmas/the Festival of Light continues sauntering across the desert guided by a star and our 8th night’s sun of the watery Scorpio once again proved to be the just right incubator for last night’s initiatory dream with the Scorpion Goddess, Serket’s amazing transformative medicine of turning a sting into a healing, shadow into gift…

on the eighth night of Christmas, my true love (Scorpio) gave to me, a dream of… being held in a home where a chalice was offered and it overflowed onto something precious and i felt stung by the possible ruination of something i treasured after so many days of feeling the constant barrage of waves and waves of watery light so frequent that i could scarcely catch my breath… Enter the Scorpion Goddess, She Who Causes the Throat to Breathe to anoint the field of chaos and move us into the stillpoint where we breathe in and breathe out from  a deep place of peace at the bottom of the sea…

thousandfold thanks to the communion of saints protecting us all as we traverse the challenging initiation of communion moving us to a field out beyond, to a symphonic frequency never before heard, the sound of the one bell silently ringing us home…

our festival of illumination pilgrimage with the Caravan of Re-Joy-Sing under last night’s sign, the seventh night’s sun of the airy sign of Libra brings a dream gift of an important key to life…. balance is an image that has played through my dreams for as long as i can re-member as has contemplating life as walking a tightrope along the razor’s edge… on this first day of the new year, it feels so right to sit still on the seesaw of life and begin this turn with breathing in Libra’s gift of journeying to the inner stillpoint and breathing out the gift of balance into the cosmos… Here’s a blessing to breathe in and out as you walk in balance…

Blessing for the New Year

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets in to you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green,
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

John O’Donohue