ANNOUNCEMENT: I DO NOT SUPPORT THAT GOOGLE AD!

Dear Friends and Readers
I have been out of town for two days and I see that Google has taken the opportunity to post an ad that I DO NOT SUPPORT. I removed it from this site and must now go to my other sites to see if it is there also. I am so sorry this happened. If any of you have been following me, especially on Wise Women of the West, which is more personal, you know that I accept everyone. We are All One. Where ever there is Love, it is a Holy Union and sanctified.

Please forgive me for not knowing about this sooner, but I was at the 2012 Conference in San Francisco and just had all my paradigms updated.

Whatever Floats Your Boat

I haven't been posting this week except for my Issue of the Week on my herbal blog because my 'sweetie' has been visiting from Mexico where he lives on his boat. This the fulfillment of his life's dream. He wanted me to go with him, but I couldn't hack living on a boat. So.... I've been down there twice this year and he's been up here twice.

Anyway, I wanted to write a bit about the conference I'm going to in San Francisco Halloween weekend. 2012 Conference, San Francisco - Shift Happens.

Many years ago, I was working on a PhD. in Mayan Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans. I have been interested in the Maya for at least 40 years. I taught courses on Mayan Hieroglyphs and Mayan Culture through the Extension program at Sonoma State University.

Because of my academic background, I was always skeptical of "2012" stuff. I knew it was the end of a calender period of 5125 years, but it was the end of a cycle within many many cycles and so, as such, no more significant than the end of a millennium for us. Of course, each time a millennium ends, people in modern culture have predicted an 'end of the world'.

I'm not sure why I decided to check out a book by John Major Jenkins entitled 'Maya Cosmogenesis: 2012'. I don't recall the chain of events right now. This led me to an Internet search, which led me to this conference, which I have decided to attend.

The book is incredible. He has integrated the anthropological and archaeological information with astronomy and some 'New Age' teachings. In some cases, he makes logical leaps that are not necessarily appropriate, but in the long run, his results make total sense to me.

He makes the case that the Maya knew about the precession of the equinoxes and rather than designing their calender on a historical or mythological beginning, they worked backwards from an 'end date', Dec. 21, 2012. This is when the Sun will line up with the Galactic Center of our Milky Way Galaxy and this will be visible just before sunrise at particular latitudes.

His argument is well backed up by data and it is convincing. So what? you might well say. Scientists have determined that the center of our galaxy is a 'black hole'.

Wikipedia has this to say:
"A black hole is a theoretical region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, not even electromagnetic radiation (e.g. visible light), can escape its pull after having fallen past its event horizon. The term derives from the fact that the absorption of visible light renders the hole's interior invisible, and indistinguishable from the black space around it."

The Maya saw this black hole as the womb of the Great Mother, thus the place of Creation. The Sun was the Father. Thus when the Sun and the GC came together, Creation happened. This occurs every 26,000 years.

In light of this information and the scientific data regarding black holes, we may well ask ourselves what will happen. According to Jenkins, it is not just a finite period of one day, but rather of years leading up to and following the actual alignment. We are already in that period of years. In addition, in Mayan calendrics, time cycles overlap. They don't just end and begin. It is not 2007 on Dec. 31 and 2008 on Jan. 1. Rather there is a period of time toward the end of the year that overlaps with the beginning of the next year. Time is seen as cyclic, not linear.

Could all the upheaval that is occurring in society at this time be part of the "Shift"? I think so. Many institutions have been under scrutiny and some are crumbling or changing. Many people are living in fear these days about their future. The Earth itself is undergoing rapid change due to Global Warming. Where will it all lead?

I invite your comments.

Happy Birthday Wise Women of the West!

What a great way to celebrate our one year birthday! Late in the day yesterday we decided to enter the most recent Entrecard Contest and...... and.... WE WON! Not first prize, but hey! 10,000 points. is great. Winning a prize is great. Thanks Entrecard for the acknowlegement and what a lucky break it came on our BIRTHDAY!!!

Altered Events Blog - One of my Favs

I love this blog for a number of reasons: 1.Her posts are regular and frequent;
2.She uses photos and other graphics that are interesting and load quickly;
3.Her crafts are unique and magical;
4.The blog is informative and has useful adverts, offers, and links.
5.I love the holiday countdown widgets on the bottom of the page and
6. She supports a lot of bloggers and artists by linking to them and their work.

The blog is not only personal, but also features and supports others. It is great to find yourself mentioned in one of her posts. It makes me want to create costumes and jewelry, just to be featured there. LOL It is inspiring.

Tour of Morocco - Feast for the Senses - Fez Sacred Music Festival

Next May, 2009, I'll be leading a tour of Morocco, one of my favorite places on earth. I have posted a complete description of the tour on my website.

The tour will include highlights from my trips there plus some new features. Some of the places we will go are not on the typical tourist tours.

If you want more information add a comment to this post and I will get back to you. The deadline for deposits is coming up soon and we only have a few openings left. Don't miss this one. A trip to remember.

My Top EC Droppers for September

Thanks so much to my top-droppers. I have been so busy doing other things lately I haven't reciprocated. Sorry about that. Now that the weather is changing I will probably be on-line more.

Alteredevents
Stir The Cauldron
Happy Thoughts, Happy Tot
2 Witches Blog
Designing Hilary
My gypsygoods
Communique by Ivanhoe
Greener Pastures
Thyme2dream
The Homesteading Housewife

Faubourg Treme

Sunday I went to see a film at the Sonoma Film Institute, which is located on the Sonoma State University Campus. It was called "Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans". Here's the synopsis they wrote:

"This first-person documentary by New Orleans natives Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Eric Elie brings alive the long history of Black New Orleans through an in-depth look at one historic neighborhood, the Faubourg Tremé. Elie, an award-winning New Orleans newspaperman, bought a dilapidated house in Tremé in the 1990's, and through the process of renovation became obsessed with the area's mysterious and neglected past. Progressive and racially mixed from its founding in the late 1700s, Tremé represented the largest community of free Black people in the antebellum Deep South. Elie interviews residents, artists, scholars, even a few historical reenactors to uncover Tremé's prominent place in the national struggle for civil rights. Shot largely before Hurricane Katrina and edited afterwards, the film is both celebratory and elegiac in tone." (2008, 79 min.)
It can be ordered from the website.

It was a great film. Well worth seeing. In fact, I will probably buy a copy. It truly captured the community spirit that exists throughout the area. Treme is now known as the 6th Ward.

There are many small neighborhoods within the larger suburban area. They are often named after a street or subdivision name. Within those neighborhoods, families have lived for generations. They don't leave. Where else is there to go? Part of the tragedy of Katrina is that these traditions which have lasted for sometimes more than 100 years, were disrupted in such a way that they can never be regained. In some ways they limited people, because it's hard to break away from family. These neighborhoods functioned like traditional villages. Everyone had their place. Secure, yes - Progressive, usually not. They had a culture all their own which was rich and unique.

I lived in New Orleans and nearby suburbs for 8 years from 1981-1989. It was quite an experience and one I will never forget. For part of the time, I lived across the river in Westwego, a small township at the end of the Huey Long Bridge. Though minuscule in size, it had it's own court and judge, and police department. If you lived there you had to pay for a special sticker for your car. I was surrounded by people who considered me a 'Yankee.' One of the customs was that as family members matured and married, they just moved into the house across the street or next door to their parents and so just yelled out to each other when they wanted to talk. My husband, from New England, and I had a lot of trouble with this.

There were many little parades which started from the parking lot of the Catholic Church at the end of the block and wound through the 5 or 6 square blocks of the town. They had bands and tiny floats and threw candy at you. Mardi Gras behavior happens frequently down there.

Westwego was segregated with blacks on one street and whites on another. When my husband and I rented to a black family, the neighbors called the police every day until our tenants just couldn't stand it any more and moved. One time I had a tenant (white) who didn't pay his rent. I went to the 'judge' who ordered an eviction, then came to the house in person, opened the door of the apartment and proceeded to throw the tenant's furniture out into the street. I couldn't believe it. This would never happen in California. I protested that this was not okay with me, but the judge said it was entirely within the law.

I never thought I would be able to leave New Orleans because it grabs hold of you in a way that cannot be described. I felt glad to leave when I did. But....I have always missed it for a quality that is way beyond words. It's a feeling, a sensation. With the destruction of these neighborhoods, the dispersal of all these people and whatever 'they' decide to put there in place of what was .... it is over. On the other hand, New Orleans being a very Plutonic place, has risen out of the ashes (read floodwaters) like the phoenix, many times before. It won't be the same, but it could be wonderful.