A Lammas Haiku

太陽ね、稲よく育つ、夏犠牲

 

Taiyou ne, ine yoku sodatsu, natsu gisei

 

The Sun, the rice grows well, summer sacrifice

The Queen of Pentacles in Full Bloom

I love the imagery of the Tarot and have been reading the cards for others for more years than I would like to remember. But I rarely read them for myself, but often in nature, art or music I get the feeling of a card, I believe at that time that card has a message for me. That happened for

me today. 

 

In an earlier post "Some Flowers like it Hot" I found some purple pentagram shaped flowers. I took a picture of three of them; they gave me a strong feeling of the Three of Pentacles. I did not know the name of the flower at the time of posting, but my good friend Amy informed me that they were 桔梗 Kikyou.  They seem to have a deep symbolic  meaning and a magical meaning here in Japan. When I have studied it more and have a deeper understanding, I will right a post about that symbolism.

 

I have a long term goal of creating a photographic working Tarot deck for myself.  I envisage using flowers for the numbered Pentacle cards. So today I went to see, photograph and be inspired by the Kikyou at my local temple.  I had a really relaxing and spiritual time at the temple and captured a lot of good images. Just as I was about to leave I noticed one lone white flower; a white Kikyou. I do not know if these are rare, but among hundreds of purple ones here, this was the only white one I saw. I do not know why, but it gave me a strong impression of the Queen of Pentacles. A little white message for me among the purple flowers. I feel blessed.

 

Blessed Be

 

 

 

 

魔法のサラダ： Magick Salad

I am not a vegetarian, but I do love fresh vegetables and always try to use them in my cooking.  Recently I have been very lucky, because my good friend Naomi often brings me fresh vegetables from her family farm. The difference in taste these have compared to shop bought vegetables is amazing. They are so full of flavor and so fresh, they are absolutely wonderful. As I said I am not a vegetarian, I love meat. But today I did not want to eat meat for lunch, so I made a salad from mizuna (Japanese leaf), Japanese cucumber, tomato and yogurt. Seasoned with a little black pepper. It was so delicious and filled me with energy and a feeling of well being. It is so easy to buy convenience food these days. But how convenient is it really, just a little effort to prepare you own food with good ingredients, healthily feeds your body, mind and spirit. This little salad was full of magick.



My style chili with lots of vegetables and a little meat.

Some Flowers like it Hot

At nine this morning it was 32 degrees centigrade (90 F) and the humidity was at 66%. A typical mid summer day in Kyoto. On such a day it is hard to go out and take photos, but it is worth the effort. Because of the heat and humidity, I headed off to one of my local temples, Chisyakuin 智積院.  There I found some beautiful summer flowers, that were enjoying the summer heat.  In their company, in the spiritually charged atmosphere of the Buddhist temple, I too could

enjoy the heat.

I am not sure what these pretty purple flowers are, but I really love their pentagram shape. These three really put me in mind of the Three of Pentacles; one of my favourite

Tarot cards.

Beautiful pink lotus symbolising rebirth and purity. The sacred flower of Buddhism.

Many people try to avoid the heat and humidity of the summer, which is understandable, it can be so tiring. But if you search out the beauty in nature, that very heat can be refreshing and spiritually uplifting.

 

Blessed be

The Heron Maiden: Japanese Folk Tale

One day a young man came across an injured heron. He felt sorry for the heron, so he took it home and gradually nursed the heron back to health. When the heron was strong enough to fly, the young man released the heron. Sometime later the young man met a beautiful young woman. They fell in love and married.  The woman was a very talented weaver and weaved beautiful cloth with exquisite designs. The young man sold the cloth, so they could live a comfortable life.  But the young woman made her new husband promise to never watch her weave. For a long time the young man kept the promise, but was always intrigued as to why he could not look. One day he could not stand it anymore and decided to look. He was shocked to see a heron working the loom. When the heron noticed him for a brief second it turned into his wife, but just as quickly turned back into a heron and

 flew away.

A Typhoon and a Small Candle

Like most Wiccans, the elements are of great importance to me.  I am an Aries, therefor fire has the strongest pull on me. But my moon sign is Libra and my rising sign is Cancer, so air and water also have a strong effect on me. Luckily I always seem to have a Capricorn friend around to keep my feet on the ground.  Although I think water is a very important part of my life now, that is why I live next to the river, fire is my element.  Thunder storms invigorate me, all of the elements seem to be playing their part. But typhoons are another thing, they always have a heavy dark feeling for me.  At present a typhoon is passing over Japan. Although it is not directly effecting where I live, I can strongly feel it's presence. The atmosphere is very heavy and foreboding. I felt strongly that fire was missing and to balance at least my flat, I lite a candle to the element of fire. This small ritual really made a difference to my day and returned balance to my mood.

 

 

Faded Tatoos but Deeper Meanings

Just before Christmas 1979 at the illegal age of sixteen I got my first tattoo and it has been with me ever since. These days, when asked I give three pieces of advice to people who are getting their first tattoo: think hard and long about what you want to adorn your skin forever; check the cleanliness of your tattooist and his/her shop, and find someone who has been wearing the tattooists work for a number of years.

Did I follower any of my own advice? Not on the first or the two other times I was tattooed. But I was very very lucky. But now I have three very old and somewhat faded friends, who are as much a part of me as the arms they decorate. I have loved them, fallen out with them and rediscovered a deeper spiritual love for them all.

Each one has a spiritual meaning for me, that I found years after having them done, it feels like they chose me. I am not going to talk about them all; their meanings are too personal.
But I will say a little about the first one. I walked into that tattoo parlour (does anyone still say tattoo parlour?) with the intention of getting myself an early Christmas present. I had never been inside one before and had no idea what I wanted. From the hundreds of designs on the walls a dagger and scroll attracted me. The scroll was blank, I could choose any thing to be written on it, I chose "John", my name.  At that time my full name was John Robert Riley, 20 years ago I legally changed it to John Rowan. At the time of getting the tattoo, I was still a year or so away from my first encounter with the tarot and a few years away from learning the tarot. The tarot itself would lead me to Wicca. But at that time this was all in the future. In the process of tattooing me, without asking me, the tattooist added three stars. It was only many years later, after using the tarot for a few years, that to my great pleasure I realised I had an ace of swords and a three of pentacles on my left forearm.

I still stand by the advice that I wrote  at the beginning of this post, but I would add one more thing, go with your intuition.