The chicken and the egg
A causality dilemma
“The shell must break before the bird can fly.”
~ Alfred Lord Tennyson
During the Spring of that surrealistic lock down phase instilled by the Authority, we re-located for the 6th time since the “big” move from Los Angeles, CA to Santa Fe, NM.
Finding a decent rental in Santa Fe, NM is quite a feat, not only are the “lords of the land” quite greedy and often mentally health challenged, you also have super funky spaces being offered for outrageous fees, ridiculous contracts, mice and rat infested spaces, or some equally uncomfortable situation. And here I thought the rental market in 1980’s NYC was difficult!
The 6th move has turned out to be more stable, at least as I type these words, knocking on the wood of our mid century dining table. Since that rather tumultuous move in 2017, we are still living simply with many items remaining in boxes and the perfumery acting as my sacred space and studio. One of our friends who moved back to France from Santa Fe recently shared:
“We just got our container from Santa Fe and our storage in France too :) we could never rent a big enough place for all our stuff. It's going to feel like Christmas opening boxes. I don't remember what we have :) ”
The current lords of the land where we dwell were hippies, I remember a story they shared about living in a VW van when they were young. They, like many others in New Mexico, have incorporated many off grid features, such as a well, solar and a back up generator. More recently they have gotten chickens and created a notable fortress for them to thrive here in the wild and untamed terrain with abundant bobcats, coyotes, wind, snow, etc. We save our kitchen scraps for them which are mixed into a mush or given to them cleverly like the citrus rinds.
Each day, when I walk from the casita to the garage, passing my covered garden currently in slumber mood, the girls head over to the corner of their fortress as if to greet me, although I know the gathering and clucking is in hopes of more food.
KETU
I often look for insightful threads to help provide some comfort during discomfort. As mentioned in a previous post, recently I learned that according to Vedic astrology, I had entered a period titled Ketu. The seven year or so transit is associated with spiritual liberation, detachment, and past life connections. Ketu is a malefic planet symbolized with the body of the immortal demon Svarbhanu, who was beheaded by the god Vishnu. In Vedic astrology Ketu is a "karaka", significator of separation and renunciation, associated with the zodiac sign of Scorpio and linked to intuition, psychic abilities, and sudden spiritual experiences. During this period of the Ketu transit we are pushed to let go, live simply and journey inward.
I have very viscerally experienced this, beginning with moving from a woodland home that I owned to the high desert, with items stored while being made to go inward and losing the three members of my nuclear family (father, brother and mother).
Living tiny and differently on top of an expansive mesa a mile above sea level has provided gems, including a bounty of diverse friendships. The benefit of friends with different perspectives is that ones mind becomes more receptive. Although a physical “home” has been illusive, the perfumery, whether in Agoura Hills or Santa Fe, has been a magnet for healers, alternative thinkers and individuals with heightened psychic abilities.
It’s February of 2025, the US has a new president, divisiveness and chaos continues, humans are losing their minds. The media machine keeps crumbling, but not fast enough for them to promote a new flu, while 100,000 eggs, worth $40,000 vanish in Pennsylvania. I’m feeling extra very grateful for our hens.
The EGG
While pondering the symbolism in all this, as we here in the Northern hemisphere move toward Spring, I found this snippet written in April of 2020:
Intending our collective human mind today may ingest, incubate and hatch the symbolism of the "egg" as an archetype for liberation. The origins of the word Easter are found in the ancient Saxon Lunar Goddess known as Eostre and Norse Goddess Ostara. In both these traditions, as well as those of the Greeks and Egyptians we find the symbolic use of the egg and a theory of the Cosmic Egg as the source of all creation.
When Greg and I attended the Visionary Art workshop titled Old Masters, New Visions in Austria. The egg is referred to as the Hermetic Vase, a vessel of transformation. As we used the whole egg to create the under painting in the workshop, we experienced a deeper meaning to the symbolism of the egg as it became a conductor of light and transformation.
I feed my dreamy artist, soul-self by keeping one foot in the material physical world as we know it, while staying grounded in the realm of spirit and magic. We’ve been taught to do the opposite, to stay grounded in the present moment. Often, stepping out of the box, off a cliff, into the gap, will facilitate new visions.
And in this era where is feels like everything is being flipped upside down, and I’ve been asking more and more questions than usual, I’m choosing to flow. The other day as I drove to the perfumery, I had a choice to head in by taking the path toward the right or left, both having the same outcome. I choose to go with the green arrow, in the flow of green.
“In alchemy the egg stands for the chaos apprehended by the artifex, the prima materia containing the captive world-soul.
Out of the egg — symbolized by the round cooking vessel — will rise the eagle or phoenix, the liberated soul, which is ultimately identical with the Anthropos who was imprisoned in the embrace of Physis.”
~ Carl Jung
Since the first of the year I’ve been writing a piece on January being the first month in our calendar. It’s gotten quite deep, pulling many threads together, intending to publish it soon. In the meantime, I’ll be practing flow and encourage anyone who has read this far to do the same.