Archive
MONDAY’S POEM: Inner Life
We are approaching the time of the Sun in Leo! If you are a Leo, as Rosemary and I are (same birthday: August 2) then you understand the exclamation point! If you aren’t a Leo find a Leo friend!
The Sun moves into Leo tomorrow, July 22; one characteristic of Leos is they know things like this, even if they aren’t into Astrology! (They also use a lot of exclamation points!) And, if you share the same birthday with someone close, like a spouse, then you tend to celebrate birthdays for much longer than a day!
The only point of all of this (besides announcing my birthday) is that I wrote this poem when the Sun was in Leo in 2011. Enjoy! And don’t be surprised to see more Leonine poems here over the next few weeks!
Inner Life
There is a secret to this
Inner Life:
It is reflected in the outer.
To find peace in the world
Still the heart,
Still the mind.
To find abundance in the world
Enrich the Inner,
Fill the heart
With Love.
To find wisdom in the world
Still the mind,
Fill the mind
From Source.
To find joy in the world
Reach inward
Fill the Heart-Mind
With radiance!
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A FRIDAY POEM FROM RHYTHMS AND CYCLES – “The Future is Now”
Rosemary’s Exploration, posted today on her blog (look for it here next Wednesday), is about choice, about choosing our family, our life, our Truth. It’s about rewriting our stories the way we want them to be lived and told.
I came across this poem before I read her article; they seem to go together. All time is NOW. When we live in the present every moment is a moment of our choosing. Dream into your own reality!
The Future is Now
If the future is now
Dreams are now.
This is Dream Time.
And is the past now?
Forgiveness is now.
This is the lesson.
Now is only now,
Past time, Dream Time,
All one now.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: The King and Queen
Rosemary and I attended a deep “crystal bowl and grid” meditation Saturday evening. We’ve been going to these as we can; the energy, the vibrational forces and the gathering are always uplifting. This July event seemed particularly powerful and I traveled far! I met the King of Light and the Queen of Love somewhere “out there” well beyond our own galaxy. In writing about the experience yesterday, this is what came:
The King and Queen
The King of Light and the Queen of Love
Unite to show the way Home.
The portal, this dark gateway of bliss
Opens, yawning wide, hungry.
The King in all His brilliance radiates
The white clarity of creative power.
All, the manifest, the presence
Extends from His piercing eye.
The Queen in all Her luminosity absorbs
The black softness of everlasting Love.
All, the unmanifest, the Emptiness
Beckons from Her open Heart.
Rose Astara is the Queen of His Heart.
She embraces all within Her sphere —
And All is within Her sphere —
Trembling at Her call, Her touch.
The King emerges from His trance;
The dance of creating All subsides.
He rests in Her embrace, merging
Through the Portal, arriving Home.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A FRIDAY POEM FROM RHYTHMS AND CYCLES – “Love and Freedom”
The cyclic nature of this poem is that I posted it last year around this holiday; what goes around comes around! But I read this today from my journal and it still strikes a chord. And it still seems appropriate for the 4th of July. Have a great day today! Remember, we are only as independent as we believe we are. And, as I said last year: “Love the one you’re with!”
Love and Freedom
Freedom to Love is everything.
When we love we are free.
When we are free we can love.
Choice is everything.
Love is not always a choice.
Some are not free to choose.
Freedom is a matter of mind.
Love is a matter of heart.
Others believe they control minds.
There is no control of hearts.
When we are free in our hearts
No one controls Love in our minds.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A FRIDAY POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – New Moon Goddess
The moon is new today, Friday, June 27. She is exactly conjunct the Sun at 4:10 AM Eastern in the sign of Cancer. As my readers know I pay close attention to the moon cycles. Just after the New Moon, sometime today, I will cast an I Ching Gua to “read” the energies for the coming month using this ancient Chinese method of divination. I’ll post my results here on Monday.
Meanwhile here is a reworked poem from four years ago. Yes, I was celebrating New Moons back then too!
New Moon Goddess
New Moon Goddess is dark,
Casting no shadow.
She is gone now, licking
Bloodless wounds down under,
Her return, anticipated
But never quite certain.
Will she be there, two-days’
Peering through slit curtain?
Will she wink in the west,
Then slide out of sight
Still tempted to remain down,
Under, through the night?
Or, will she return, more robust,
Ever bright, casting lengthening
Shadows across two-weeks’
Passing until, as we trust
She stands once again
Opposed to the Father,
Glowing her fullest,
Casting love in the bargain?
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: It is What it is
I am an Enneagram Type 1. This type is sometimes labeled “The Perfectionist.” Anger is often the first emotional response of a Type 1 person. In the Chinese and Taoist approach to “labeling” people they offer a “five-element” system. I am predominantly a “wood-type” person. Anger is often the first emotional response of a Wood-type person. Yes, I have been known to feel and display anger. But what’s the knowing that can be revealed by these systems that point at me with the same label?
My spiritual path coming out of this introspective approach and the tools I use for self-knowing is acceptance. As a perfectionist I need to accept the way things are. As I wood-type I need to learn to be flexible (like a tree bending with the wind). Acceptance, forgiveness, patience and letting go are the key words that I pull into me and work with toward resonance.
It is within this spirit of resonance that I wrote today’s poem:
It is What it is
Acceptance, letting go, realizing
It is what it is.
This is no easy row to hoe,
And yet it is the only path home.
Breath, inhaling deeply, noticing
What is, this natural state.
Open posture, belly breath
And relaxing on this path home.
Choice, accepting, admitting
There are options, nothing’s fixed.
Relaxed, deeply at peace
And knowing this is the path home.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A FRIDAY POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – Two Wars?
I prefer not to get involved in politics here on this blog, about the Goddess. But I went back in my archives a few years to find the following poem. It seems as relevant today as when I wrote it; in fact there seem to be more than two wars now. Do we really want to go back into Iraq? Do we know whose side we are on? I would rather be fighting the war against environmental destruction. I would rather honor than horrify the Goddess, Gaia, our Mother. But then I’m a dreamer.
And, yes, this poem does seem to fit the Friday theme of “Rhythms and Cycles.” When will it end?
Two Wars?
The Defense Industry is out of control.
Is there no stopping it?
The arms must be expended:
Sell them, arm the world;
Against?
Shoot them, kill the terrorists;
Enemies?
Humanity is out of control.
Is there no stopping us?
The Earth must be plundered:
Dig for her bones, pump her blood;
Survive?
Burn it, consume everything;
Locusts?
These wars are one war.
The genocide is suicide;
The ecocide is suicide.
We look in the mirror of our
Neighbor’s face, point, pull, shoot
Ourselves.
We look in the mirror of our
Planet’s face, drill, pump, burn
Ourselves.
The Human Race is in a race
Away from itself.
It can only lose.
When the Mother turns her face
Away from us
We can only lose.
This one war cannot be won
By us.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Fishing
I wrote this yesterday, Fathers’ Day here in the US. I was thinking about my father and his father and our times together. Good times.
Fishing
Fishing with Grandfather
Requires a little boy’s
Patience.
Driving to the stream
Seems endless, boring.
Are we there yet?
Hiking to the hole
Is hot, insects biting.
Is this fun?
Casting a plastic lure
Requires skill, practice.
How’d it tangle?
Learning to be still
Is its own reward.
Was that a nibble?
Letting go of all desire
Is the source of joy.
Reel him in boy!
Fishing for small-mouth
In Otter Creek.
As good as it gets!
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Awareness and Action
I published today’s poem here about a year ago. I publish it again as a reminder and as a setup for my post coming on Thursday: a commentary on Rosemary’s article Blocked? and an exploration of my own blocks that seem to hold me in unawareness.
The poem’s reference to Nan-in and Tenno is to a classic Zen story.
Awareness and Action
A million bits of information
Streaming from a thousand sources.
Are you aware of seven or nine?
Your unconscious mind
Absorbs it all!
Awareness is a nebulous thing:
Seven, nine, ten-thousand things
Add to consciousness moment
To moment even as we sleep.
Absorb it all?
Nan-in asks Tenno umbrella to clogs,
Left or right? Ten-thousand bits
Lost in unconsciousness. Ten more
Years of Awareness practice;
Absorb it all!
Practice in Action. It is all
Practice! For what you ask;
How will you ever know
Bliss if you don’t
Absorb it All?
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A FRIDAY POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – What Is This?
Today’s poem doesn’t exactly belong in the “Rhythms and Cycles” collection; and yet, the lessons come at us, sometimes in waves. And we have to deal with the lessons as they come. I learned this Koan through an article in Tricycle magazine several years ago and do apply it often when I catch myself in the midst of some crisis (lesson). The practice is to ask this question when something disrupts the flow of life. And when the first answer arises, ask the question again. Continue this cyclic, nested examining, analyzing and asking, spiraling in until a satisfactory answer manifests. Try it the next time you meet up with frustration!
What Is This?
A Koan in the Korean Zen tradition:
When impatience arises ask
What is this?
A question to penetrate to the essence.
When fear stares from the mirror ask
What is this?
A lesson in each waking moment.
When doubt and despair assail ask
What is this?
An offering to self and life and growth.
When wonder and joy abound ask
What is this?
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Men and The Goddess 