Imbolc may be the earliest start of spring, and although on many levels we have had a mild winter, we're not done yet. We just had a great run of days that went something like high of 36, low of 28...Brrrr! And of course, just what did I do the day before the sudden freeze appeared? Yeah, you guessed it... I had all my hair cut off. Like the majority of my head is about a half inch of hair. Looking ahead to the con, I'm seeing Bay Area nighttime lows that are 15-20 degrees higher than the present PNW daytime highs.... I'll take it! I spent the past week wearing sweatshirts and hats around the clock inside the house, I'll be glad to ditch that routine for a bit.
Among the 7 planets I am called the Sun.
My pointy crown symbolizes the process:
First, we become completely subtle and pure
And bind with Mercury,
Then the black raven grows.
It is buried in the grave,
Rising anew,
Adorned with lillies, and betrothed.
Then at last the Sun-Child appears,
Bedecked with purple on his throne.~ from Hermaphroditisches Sonn- und Monds-Kind, das ist: Des Sohns deren Philosophen natürlich- übernatürliche Gebährung, Zerstöhrung und Regenerirung oder vorgestellte Theorie und Practic den Stein der Weissen zu suchen und zu machen. Durch einen unbekannten Philosophum und Adeptum in 12 emblematischen Figuren und so vielen Paragraphis. Mit Applicir- und Beyfügung so vieler Canonischen Versen des berühmten Schwedischen Adepti Northons: aus einem alten manuscript gezognener praesentiret. Nun aber nach dem mystichen Verstand und innerem Weesen expliciret, nebst denen Caballistischen Zeichen Salomonis durch einen Lehr-Jünger der Natur. L.C.S.
Mayntz, bey Joh. Friederich Krebs Buchhändler. Geduckt in der Churf. Hof und Univers. Buchdruckerey bey denen Häffn. Erben, durch Elias Peter Bayer. 1752.
The strangest manifestation of Solve as of late would have to be this weekend's discovery of my favorite jeans coming out of the dryer minus a goodly portion of each inner thigh. Alas, favoritism combined with several weeks of freezing temps that brought long underwear into play seems to have resulted in the wear-through happening on the sly. Not what I wanted to have happen when I was actually thinking "I should just wear those jeans the whole con, they'd be perfect..." Fortunately a quick trip to the thrift store and $7 later I have jeans that just need some length hacked off the legs and they'll be good to go. Which means tonight I'll be spending a short time with that most magickal of products: Stitch Witchery. A little cutting, a little folding, a little pinning and a little ironing, and I'll have shortened pants. (But still be a Long Pants Man!)
Today is a traveling day. (Huzzah for the modern miracle of automated posting!) Alchemically, it corresponds to dissolution, is attuned positively and is dominated by air influences. I can work with that. I arrive in San Jose tonight, the evening before the evening before PantheaCon starts. My altar theme for myself this year is time and space. I've tried to bring decorative elements that represent those ideas more overtly for the room decor. Packing was extra spazzy this year, with entire wardrobe designs laid out and mapped to the travel days and then discarded to begin again from scratch. I had both color scheme and bigender angst. In a snow storm too. Actually, the snow part was sort of awesome. It took until I had my hair really nailed down for the clothing thing to work itself out.
Lying in bed in the morning this past weekend, watching big clumps of soft snow plop down into my light well from the overhanging tree, I was reminded of both the gentle water and fire at this time of year. A steady, smaller flame is what is appropriate. Patient mindfulness. Inner and outer observation. Any extra energy or pushing ahead really needs to be saved up for just a bit longer, for the more fertile season of full spring. Time to get some projects into the pipeline and put MayFire out on that event horizon.
(the image this week is from last week's prosperity ritual, which took place during the Super Bowl broadcast. That's the clay figurine which was broken up to release frozen patterns, entrenched habits and dried up thinking.)