Mirror Mirror Spell Tries to Reek Havoc at the Olympics

Yes, I've been tuned to the Olympics these past two weeks.  I can only dream of competing at the level these amazing athletes have done across my TV screen.

This has been an amazing historic Olympics.  Every country competing has sent women athletes.  How cool is that? And a man with prosthetic legs made it to the semi finals in his race.... Amazing. 

Saddly, the Mirror Mirror Spell has showed up.  I’ve hyperlinked to three articles.  All I can say is: “Really?”  I thought the Olympics are about playing your game at the top level with athletes from all over the world.  The ancient Greeks used the games to honor the Gods and Goddesses.  Focusing on one's hair and body shapes and sizes to tear another down isn't about honoring the temple of another or honoring any Gods or Goddesses for that matter.  

I heard a quote yesterday - "We are all images of love only we come in different disguises and with different talents."  I think this concept is another key in breaking the Mirror Mirror Spell.  

Olympic Weightlifter Holley Mangold Says Get Over Her Fat

Deborah Dunham

Since when did the Olympics become all about being sexy versus competing, representing your country and striving for a gold medal? Like, suddenly the way a female athlete looks is an open invitation for the body-snarking, fat-shaming comments to begin. But if you ask American weightlifter, Holley Mangold (who happens to be the heaviest woman at the Games this summer), she is proud of her weight and is fighting back–and so are many other Olympic women. (Read More)

Read more: http://blisstree.com/look/olympic-weightlifter-holley-mangold-says-get-over-her-fat-738/#ixzz234JC0nKW

Fat? We are fit. Get over it, say women athletes

Brenda Goldsmith

American weightlifter Holley Mangold tips the scales at 346 pounds (157 kilograms) and she is proud of being the heaviest woman at the London Olympics.

Mangold, 22, who competed in the women's 75 kilogram-plus division, is one of growing number of women athletes speaking out at their frustration with the public scrutiny of their body size and image rather than their fitness and skills.

At the 2012 Olympics, a list of top female athletes have hit back at critics who have called them fat including British heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis, Australian swimmer Liesel Jones, and the Brazilian women's soccer team. (Read More) http://news.yahoo.com/fat-fit-over-women-athletes-193539328--spt.html

Gabby Douglas' Hair: How Did Olympic History Turn Into A Hair Debate?

Julee Wilson

As the controversy surrounding Gabby Douglas' hair drags on, we're left wondering: how did it get to this point?

It's still shocking that while Douglas was busy rewriting Olympic history and making the country proud, a string of negative Twitter comments about her "unkempt" hair stole the spotlight. Some are blaming the media for that shift in focus to Douglas' hair, while others see the story as a segue into a much broader subject: black women's hair.  (Read More) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/08/gabby-douglas-hair-debate_n_1756835.html

Pilgrimages – Stepping out

The Pilgrimage, Stephanie Dalton. this is a mixed media piece 

Pilgrim:  1. one who journeys to a foreign land: Wayfarer. 2.  One who travels to a shrine or holy place as a devotee.  Merriam-Webster Dictionary on-line.

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." ~ Martin Buber

“We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.” ~Max DePree

“Changing the way you do routine things allows a new person to grow inside you." ~ Paulo Coelho

“That’s the thing with fear though. When it overtakes your heart, your vision becomes shortsighted. You forget the grand beauty of life. The knowledge that the Universe is here to take care of you becomes a thought only for those Annoying Optimists.” ~ Thais Guimaraes

Pilgrimage

In a couple of weeks I will be traveling and hiking with a friend to celebrate her 25^th year of being cancer free.  We are journeying to the Canadian Rockies with spectacular views.  Our agreed upon mission:  taking the time to renew and nourish our spirit. 

It was fantastic to discover that we’re hiking in a sacred place to the ancient ones and native peoples.  The area has been called a living cathedral with sacred loving and healing energies.  My initial research showed this place would reinforce our pre-planned mission.  We’d be pilgrims trekking, being in relationship with this land and beings; allowing the sacred to enter within, and being opened to learn new ways of seeing. 

In her book, The Celtic Spirit, Caitlin Matthews writes about the difference in being a tourist and a pilgrim.  She states both enjoy the looking and exploring a place, but the pilgrim goes deeper in their engagement with the land.  When we arrive at a sacred site we are opened to the “ancestral guardians and spiritual presence who have awaited for our coming” (16).  She also writes that the land can restore and nourish our soul and body.  Matthews reminds us to not forget a thank-you gift to the land and its beings that includes a grateful heart (317).

I’ve continued my research and have begun thinking of what gifts I should bring to the guardians of this land I will be visiting.

  

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Pilgrim’s Blessing

By Caitlin Matthews

Though the long tracks know no glad step,

And the circle goes unblessed.

From their long homes may the old ones

Welcome travelers upon their quest

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Pilgrimage: From Paris to Compostela by Jerome Tupa

In the late 1980s, I had just read the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and discovered another book he had written:  The Pilgrimage.  It’s a creative non-fictional account about his Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage.  Coelho takes the journey to ultimately discover himself.  Before his trip, Coelho’s spiritual teacher told him he needed to change things up.  He was spiritually stuck in his comfort zone and playing it safe.  Ultimately his teacher said either go on this adventure or find another teacher.  Coelho grouchily packed his suitcase and boarded the plane.  The story is about love, joy and pain and the tremendous spiritual growth he gained.

Early on in my exploration of WOW-sites, I learned that many Celtic Christian sites were originally pagan.  Initially, the Christian church began destroying and taking down these ancient holy sites.  They soon realized that their method of violence and destruction didn’t have a positive effect on converting the Celtic people to this new religion.  The church took another tactic, take over the site and build a church on it or sprinkle the statue with holy water and call it Christian. 

If people aren’t familiar with this pilgrimage or also called “The Way,” this is one of those Christian converted Celtic sites.  The Way dates back to the ancients.  Starting in southern France, the road travels across Northern Spain following the edge of the Milky Way and also believed a major ley line.  For Christians the road ends at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, but for the ancients the road ends on shores of the Atlantic Ocean.  The Way became a popular pilgrimage during medieval times; it was a relatively cheap and safe trip to do penitence rather than traveling off to Jerusalem.    

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Soulfaring

By Susanna Reece

Blessed are those who don’t even want to begin,

preferring the sunbeam surface to the dark

uncharted oceans below.

Blessed are those who dive in anyway,

anyhow, who know how to equip themselves

with oxygen, a diving-suit, lights, a lifeline.

Blessed are those who’ve plumbed the depths

many times, the underwater cartographers

who are never complacent.

Blessed are those who risk all, plunging

to the ocean floor, living at the breathless

edge between death and adventure.

And blessed are those who return with news

of coral pink cities and creamy white

pearls beyond price.

Activity

Caitin Matthews Exercises for Pilgrims

Find out where your own nearest source of sacred water is to be found.  What are the traditions surrounding it?  Go and visit it if you can, and experience the waters for yourself.

Meditate upon your favorite place in the country and visit it in soul-flight.  Consult the spirit of the place and ask its advice and permission about your next visit.  Ask what gift (a song or a blessing, perhaps –something that will not harm the land) would be acceptable.  Do this whenever a visit is planned.