Green Way

“New Year ceremonies are designed to get rid of the past and to welcome the future. January is named after the Etruscan word janua which means door.”
- New Year’s Customs

“Janus was invoked at the commencement of most actions; even in the worship of the other gods the votary began by offering wine and incense to Janus. The first month in the year was named from him; and under the title of Matutinus he was regarded as the opener of the day. Hence he had charge of the gates of Heaven, and hence, too, all gates, Januoe, were called after him, and supposed to be under his care. Hence, perhaps, it was, that he was represented with a staff and key, and that he was named the Opener (Patulcius), and the Shutter (Clusius).”
- Mary Ann Dwight, Grecian and Roman Mythology–Janus

“Ruler of new beginnings, gates and doors, the first hour of the day, the first day of the month, and the first month of the year, the Roman god Janus gave January its name. He was pictured as two-headed (both heads bearded) and situated so that one head looked forward into the new year while the other took a retrospective view. Janus also presided over the temple of peace, where the doors were opened only during wartime. It was a place of safety, where new beginnings and new resolutions could be forged, just as the New Year is a time for new objectives and renewed commitments to long-term goals.”
- How January Got Its Name

January: Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Lore, Links, Garden Chores

“Saturnalia is the feast at which the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of the god Saturn, which took place on 17 December. Over the years, it expanded to a whole week, up to 23 December.
The Saturnalia was a large and important public festival in Rome. It involved the conventional sacrifices, a couch (lectisternium) set out in front of the temple of Saturn and the untying of the ropes that bound the statue of Saturn during the rest of the year. Besides the public rites there were a series of holidays and customs celebrated privately. The celebrations included a school holiday, the making and giving of small presents (saturnalia et sigillaricia) and a special market (sigillaria). It was a time to eat, drink, and be merry.”

- Saturnalia - Wikipedia

December: Poems, Lore, Myths

Feasting and festivities during this time of the year have survived right into 2007 in America. Actually, around here in Red Bluff, the “Holiday Season” seems to last from Thanksgiving (late November) until New Year’s Day.

Over lunch, at work, a couple of Judeo-Christians were complaining in an angry tone of voice about “secular” trends. They strongly favored “Putting Christ Back in Christmas.” They thought that America is on the wrong path of placating the atheists and secularists, and forcing the Judeo-Christian God out of our American public lives. They favored us having Nativity displays in schools and public buildings, singing Christmas songs, having prayers in schools, and practicing customs that reflect that we are ” A Christian Nation.” I’m sure that over lunch in Iran, other quiet free thinking folks have to listen to similar rants by conservative Islamics about putting Allah back into Iranian public life.

I favor the “religion” that enjoys “religious practices” like being peaceful, good eating, nice drinks, merry making, giving gifts, smiling, sweet love, kindness, pleasant work, singing, laughing, joyfulness, toasting to our ancestors, respecting the Earth, and tolerance.

If these overly assertive Judeo-Christians and Moslems can just calm down and agree to give a nickle’s worth of respect to the “religion” that millions of other peaceful folks favor, then we all could enjoy a fine Yule Tide Merry Meet.

Three Cheers for Saturnalia et Sigillaricia!

The Best of Holiday Cheer to You All, Friends Everywhere.

“Any significant long-term change requires long-term practice, whether that change has to do with playing the violin or learning to be a more open, loving person. We all know people who say that they have been permanently changed by experiences of a moment or a day or a weekend. But when you check it out you’ll generally discover that those who ended up permanently changed had spent considerable time preparing for their life-changing experience or had continued diligently practicing the new behavior afterward.”
- Michael Murphy and George Leonard

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement,
and success have no meaning.”
- Benjamin Franklin

“The cyclone derives its powers from a calm center. So does a person.”
- Norman Vincent Peale

“I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.”
- Confucius

“A will finds a way.”
- Orison Swett Marden

“If you focus on results, you will never change.
If you focus on change, you will get results.”
- Jack Dixon

“Gongfu is an ancient Chinese term describing work/devotion/effort that has been successfully applied over a substantial period of time, resulting in a degree of mastery in a specific field. Although the term is synonymous in the West with martial arts (though it is most over rendered Kung Fu), it is equally applicable to alligraphy, painting, music, or other areas of endeavor.”
- Andy James

“An element of abstention, of restraint, must enter into all finer joys.”
- Vida D. Scudder

Will Power: Quotes, Sayings, Aphorisms

“A callused palm and dirty fingernails precede a Green Thumb.
Wishes are like seeds - few ever develop into something.
Willpower is the art of replacing one habit for another.”
- Michael Garofalo, Pulling Onions

Chaos Magic, Sigilization and Success:

Assuming that:

A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4, E=5, F=6, G =7,
H=8, I=9, J=10, K=11, L=12, M=13,
N=14, O=15, P=16, Q=17, R=18, S=19,
T=20, U=21, V=22, W=23, X=24, Y=25, X=26

The Four Secrets of Success:

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

H-A-R-D-W-O-R- K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

P-E-R-S-I-S-T-A-N-C-E
16+5+18+19+9+19+20+1+14+3+5 = 129%

Many argue that these large crop circles are created by teams of human artists and pranksters, and a others argue that they have been created by visitors from other planets or supernatural beings. I am most fascinated by the shape of the design, typically a circle of some kind.

“Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more then I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.”
- Black Elk, Lakota, Black Elk Speaks

Sacred Circles: Bibliography, Links, Quote, Notes

“A flower’s fragrance declares to all the world that it is fertile,
available, and desirable, its sex organs oozing with nectar.
Its smell reminds us in vestigial ways of fertility, vigor, life-force,
all the optimism, expectancy, and passionate bloom of youth.
We inhale its ardent aroma and, no matter what our ages,
we feel young and nubile in a world aflame with desire.”
- Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses, 1990, p. 13

Ace of Cups
Thoth Tarot by Crowley and Harris, 1944