Divine Love Spent In the Midst of Two Lovers

Avete, it's been awhile...again. I have spent the past few months readying myself for graduate school. In the fall I will begin my journey to getting a Master's degree in bio-medical engineering, so I have been a busy bee. To say the universe has blessed me as of late would be an understatement. Truly, in the darkness shines the Light, although we may not always see it.

Below is my new poem inspired by a wonderful friend who was able to show me over the past few months that Divine Love shines in all areas...even the ones which sometimes try to sweep us away. Earlier today he showed me a poem that he wrote when he was fifteen which suddenly made its way back into his life again. It's theme an expression of love felt throughout the ages. To some love is a savior, to others a demon bringing pain, and still to others and obsessive thought that deters them from life's responsibilities. But the true essence of love is Divine. God is love, and it shares its love with us along the path of our Great Work should we choose to see it, even during times of distress. Here then is a poem about a true, healthy love experienced between two people, a love centered in the Divine Sacred which then feeding off of its own essence sheds its Light unto the world around. May we all seek to find true, unselfish, universal love. May we be selfless enough to not hinder it whether it may seem to stay or go, and may we seek to find its essence in all things.

Divine Love Spent In The Midst of Two Lovers

Sweetly, beautifully,

You touched me in the moonlight,

Your passing hand an eternity

On my waking flesh.

Too long have our

Souls been bound together

Yet, our existence left asunder

Waiting for the meeting of the Fates.

Exasperated,

Gentle kisses fill the air

Hungered by the loss of time.

Mental connotation has no breadth for

Length of time we must have

Known each other in lives

Past spent.

Born from the universe together

To meet and share its living wine

In you I see the spirit

To know you is Divine

Fortitude, set forth to conquer

The flames, and floods, and shadows

Of the sleepless night.

For we have had the patience of

The gods in wait,

We have forged through life

Growing old, and wise

Until the night there was reflected

Across the room

Two pairs of profound

And ubiquitous blue eyes.

Enveloped in a sweet perfume

Of timeless sway

I now touch the the quivering

Hands which lay

Themselves upon my soul.

And though the sands of time might waver,

Though our scented bodies fade

This fire burns too bright

To fade this time

When life's short journey

Makes its way.

The Binding Colors of Light - A Poem

I am dedicating this poem to all the people on the path who have extended their support and love to those in need whether it be brother or sister, student, or friend, or even an unsuspecting stranger. Our path is not the solitary path, but the path of fraternity. Thank you to everyone who has embraced the true essence of that bond.

The Binding Colors of Light

You were like a rainbow to me,

Like a bridge between the sun and the rain

A moment of promise,

Between the scintillating light within us

And the over-bearing times of pain.

Your colors wore through me

Causing a subtle shift,

And when I looked up

I was lifted out of the horror

That sometimes life plots

To fracture us with.

You invited me to see another side of life

From a perspective all your own.

I remember the way we played,

I remember the way we innocently

Took things too far

To test ourselves and see

The quality of our hearts.

I put my hands into your facets

I breathed them in

Your energy flowed through

The caverns of my heart and mind,

I attempted to return it

With the same love and hope

You offered me over time.

In the end, like all things, you faded

But in the end, like all things, you returned

More beautiful than the past

Your colors presenting themselves

More clearly than before.

Bouncing off the drops of cloudburst left behind

I could see your shining glory

Filling the space of time.

A small reminder

That hope is never torn

From the ones

Who truly share their love.

And the vision of the rainbow

Is that no matter how far apart

We can look in the sky

And be reminded of the beauty of

Frienships’ extended arms

The way they touch softly the good and bad parts

The way they offer promise to those

Who find themselves

Rent within their hearts.

Restless Seas

I've been spending a lot of time lately exploring my creative side through photography and poetry. I have always been a scientifically minded person spending my time studying astronomy, psychology, quantum mechanics, and working in hard-core neuro-surgery and bio-psychology labs, but during the time I've studied magic the other part of my brain has been functioning at a higher level seeking integration with the more dominant left-brained part of me. Its been amazing, beautiful...I love being able to see the world through an artist's eye. You really do catch glimpses of things that normally you wouldn't take the time to see or experience. So, here's another poem I wrote recently. Its about love, because right now I'm in love with so many things. The world is opening itself up to me and the boundaries of mental constructs and opinionated living are falling away. Nothing is black and white, everything is One. Btw the picture above is one that I've taken over the past few months...its one of my faves :)

Restless Seas

My heart is sreaming out the winds of existence.

Something so real has come to take over.

Why is it that everytime she feels she

Spends her life pleasing others

Convinced its what brings life?

But now a sail has come to guide the boat

Not to overcome but

To become one with her

And conquer the restless seas.

She sees the sun on the horizon

Opening up a new found dawn.

The light penetrates weaving

New universes within her.

Is that how life on earth was created?

Not by a god, but a passion...

To move.

Can an atom fight the beautiful violence of passion?

Tell me,

When you are in love

Does the universe move for you?

It does in mine

It flips, and turns, ascends and descends

Creating beauty, and trust, sentiment, and fire

Binding together that which brings

Futures and pasts into co-existence,

Creating wholes where there were once holes.

Putting perfection to rest as it accepts all

And thus rests in true perfection.

Purification of The Soul Through the Loving Gift of Gratitude

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that you were as blessed by the season as I was. Although, I have to admit, as a creature of habit I am more than happy to finally be back into my regular schedule...and I am very exited about this coming year! Did anyone notice that amazing full moon we had on the first?...a beautiful healing moon, full of nurturing energy. My hope for myself, my students, and all my readers is that we all remember everyday how blessed we are (even if the circumstances seem dire), and take that gratitude and share it with others...this is the best way to bring even more blessings into our life.

I was blessed over the holidays to learn a true lesson about gratitude (in retrospect, how appropriate!) and I have come to see that it is a real tool to happiness...one that can be used to bring positivity and healing to any situation. Over the holiday I was in beautiful, sunny California at an an amazing condo on the beach in San Diego, a city which has a million fun things to do. I was really looking forward to having a, fun filled vacation...and what happened? Someone was sick every day I was there. First it was my son, then my mother, then my husband, then my mother in law...it was really a recipe for disaster- a bad mood, and a bad trip just waiting to happen. Whereas in the past I would have let my attachment to my expectations, and my desire to have the trip be a certain way cause me to be disappointed, then irritable, then angry, then just plain worn out from 2 1/2 wks of sickness...I was determined to not let it be so. Recently I have been working very hard to not be attached to my desires, expectations, or material inclinations...and this to me was a great test for that. But, I have to admit that while this has been my goal I wasn't quite sure how to reach it. Was it through control of my thoughts, or by constant testing until it was burned out of me, or through prayer and fasting? What I found through my Christmas ordeal...was that the key was gratitude. No matter what happens, no matter what is taken away...there is still something to be grateful for. And whereas intellectually one may think that by attaching your consciousness toward another material thing would be contrary to the goal...gratitude for the blessings in your life has the alternate effect of going beyond the ego, and taking us away from attachment. I realized the fullness of this concept in the simplest of choices I made while on vacation. My son was sick? How thankful I was that I could watch over him, while to beautiful ocean was outside to soothe me. My husband was ill? How wonderful it was that it didn't happen until he got to CA so I could be with him and see him after a week of being gone. My mother was throwing up? How thankful I was for the time we did get to spend having heart to heart conversations...every time a feeling of hopelessness tried to take over I would combat it with gratitude and thanksgiving to the Divine for all the great things I did receive while there. Even if I didn't get to go surfing, and to the amusement park, and around to take more photographs (I love photography), the small, simple moments were far more meaningful. And although this may seem like a small lesson learned in a small situations...the power of gratitude showed itself to me during a far more difficult time in my life when I was no where near where I am in my consciousness today...when I was truly lost in darkness.

There was a time when I was so wrapped up in my own pain that at one point I couldn't get out of bed. My depression was so debilitating that it culminated in me dropping out of college. One day, as I lay there in bed, thinking about my life, I realized that no one was going to "save" me. No friend or family member was going to come bursting through my door and say "Get up! its time to start living your life!" It was up to me to take the first step to having a fulfilling and happy life. I thought "there are so many people who are happy, what is different for them?" and from somewhere deep inside,(which I now realize was the whisper of my Higher Self) I heard a tiny voice that told me...choice. We all have a choice. The world is the world, and we see it for what we believe it to be. There are just as many "bad" things as there are "good", there are just as many "mean" people as there are "nice"...but we see what we want. I was always flabbergasted when I was out driving, or shopping, or going to school by how rude and inconsiderate people were. But how many people had been nice that I hadn't noticed? Were people maybe extra rude because I was always in a foul mood? On and on my thoughts swirled around in my head, and I went from thinking that I was a victim of a terrible curse to realizing that I had some control over my life, and that maybe my life was a result of who I was inside. So I took that first step, allowing my feet to slide out from the covers and feel the carpet beneath my bed, and I thought "how nice it is to have carpet". Who do you know had been thankful for carpet? But that thought was a start, a new way to look at the world. It was a new way to cultivate an attitude that wasn't so full of darkness and despair; a way that kind of tickled my heart and gave me hope. After all those months it was like a refreshing drink of water given in the desert. So I started to cultivate the attitude of gratitude when I could...of course having a new attitude about life was a challenge to overcome, but now I had a tool. So I counted my blessings- food, shelter, the ability to not have to sleep in a cold street in the winter, health...in the beginning my blessings seemed few, but there was always at least one things that I could be grateful for and over time I realized how great even the smallest one seemed. And now 12 years later, I have so many blessings, family, friends, happiness, healthy, a graduate degree, a beautiful son, and this lesson has come full circle in the smallest of circumstances...an illness over Christmas vacation, and I am made fully aware of its power.

The only way to true happiness is to look outside our small selves to our Higher Self which resides within us and throughout the whole universe...to realize our intimate connection with everything and everyone. The material realm, the material consciousness of the ego strives for more, and is never satisfied always leaving us feeling empty no matter how much we gain. But, when we connect to our Higher Self, we connect to the source of all and thus can never feel empty. We accomplish this by purifying ourselves to our lower natures and exalting our Higher Self. Gratitude is the loving way to purification, for it automatically humbles us and withdraws us from the ego. It fills us with love, hope, and kindness, and causes us to want to share it with others...thus becoming a self-perpetuating gift.

May we be grateful for all that we have this year, and share our blessings with others.

Nosce Te Ipsum

Soror FSO

For information on how to receive training in the Hermetic Arts, and The Golden Dawn please contact me at werisetogether@gmail.com