The Magic, Miracles and Joy of an Artist: November 2nd

Friday, November 2, 2018

November 2nd

Today is ALL SOULS' DAY. It is also the last day for celebration of DIA DE LOS MUERTOS (Day of the Dead). Both of these are a celebration of prayer and remembrance of friends and family members who have died. Although All Souls' Day is a Christian observance, Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican Holiday that begins on October 31st and ends on November 2nd. This Mexican tradition has slowly made its way around the world and is celebrated by many.

A Dia de los Muertos home altar.

A Dia de los Muertos community altar.

The marigold (Mexican cempasuchil) is the traditional flower used to honor the dead.

La Catrina. A common symbol of the DOTD holiday is the skull which celebrants represent in masks, called "calacas", and foods such as sugar skulls.

A Day of the Dead journal page I made in honor of brother Patrick after he had died.

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For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come!

I AM A "SEARCHER"

"I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter. To share our sadness with one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know - unless it be to share our laughter. We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we love and want to be loved. We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls; that will take us for what little we have to give. We do not want to prove ourselves to another or compete for love.

For wanderers, dreamers, and lovers, for lonely men and women who dare to ask of life everything good and beautiful. It is for those who are too gentle to live among wolves."

~ James Kavanaugh

I am THE LOVERS Tarot Card

Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse. THE LOVERS represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made. Originally, this card was just called LOVE. And that's acually more apt than "LOVERS." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that you have or will come across a person, a career, challenge, or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.