It Happened Eight Minutes Ago

It happened Eight Minutes Ago

This is a edited version of a blog that was posted on September 22, 2008.

Eight minutes ago, right here, the earth was in perfect balance:

http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/2008.shtml

So, after a moment of silence, here was the rundown of the big weekend:

Friday: Did the "mom thing," and cooked like a mad dog all day, into the night. Furiously ran around trying to find all the little odds and ends we might want for the weekend, like the Captain Bogg and Salty cds and the pirate flashlights.

http://www.boggandsalty.com/

Did not get everything cooked that I bought provisions for, so the insanity will continue today.

Saturday, up at 2:00 a.m., in order to arrive at Balboa Park when the San Diego Pagan Pride festivities started. I slept in the car while DH drove, but I had stayed up to finish organizing things and he had gone to bed hours earlier. So we both ended up with about the same amount of rest.

We arrived just as the opening ritual was starting. It was very nice, immediately recognizable as A.D.F., and well done. As usual with outdoor rituals, it was hard to hear everything over the sound of trucks and planes and non participants who don't realize how their voices were carried. It was a bit touching too to see the little indications that there were people there who knew and valued each other, like ad libbed comments that brought a chuckle from the community even though Michael and I hadn't a clue what they were referring to.

We visited the San Diego SpiralScouts booth, and the kids played games like bean bag toss and ring toss, and then we wandered around looking at the wares. There were many well-stocked booths. I was impressed with how well-organized and professional everything was.

The crowd wasn't huge, but it was still early. We heard a talk about hypnosis given by Donald Michael Kraig. I figure anytime a guy stands up and gives a free talk, the least one can do is "look" at the wares being offered, so I wound up buying his book "Modern Magick." I wasn't very far into it when I found a "blind," which means it's one of "those books," that contains deliberately misleading information to keep the casually curious from learning the "secrets." I was bummed and felt like a huge idiot for shelling out 20 bucks for the book. I guess I could rise to the challenge and try to see how many blinds I can spot, but honestly I won't even go into a full rant about this right now. For a change I'd like to find a new, straightforward magickal book that won't insult my intelligence.

We watched Wendy Rule perform, which is probably the main thing that inspired me to want to be in SD that weekend. I bought a cd, (I have about five or six of her cds now, and each one is a masterpiece IMO ). She's always very sweet, professional and polite. I have a huge amount of respect for her. http://www.wendyrule.com/ ; My youngest enjoyed her performance too. He was riveted.

We visited the San Diego Museum of Man next, http://www.museumofman.org/ ; and I was especially thrilled with the Ancient Egypt exhibit. Some of the mummies and the cases blew me away. I want to see them again. I was very excited to see that the bottom of one case was painted with a large figure that looked like either Isis or Hathor, and I wasn't 100 percent sure which, and wanted to find out more. There was a definite Isis on the lid, but the figure on the bottom looked to me like it might possibly be Hathor. I didn't see anything in the symbols and writing below the picture to indicate who it was, (I mean like "house of Horus") so I'm not sure, but it reminded me of other funerary images of Hathor. DH took photos, but for some reason they aren't on the camera. All the photos from the weekend are there but those. :(

I've never seen a real Egyptian exhibit like that one before. Of course I've seen pictures in books, documentaries, and reproductions, etc.,
but this was different. There is no comparison. One could see that human hands made these symbols, painted with brushes. It reminded me of the time I attended a baby shower, and visited the nursery that was being prepared for the child who would soon sleep there. The walls were painted with beautiful murals straight from a children's story, and you could see the brush strokes and feel the love and care that went into preparing that nursery.

I was struck by the thought that if people saved their entire lives to be buried this way - elaborately wrapped and painted with symbols. Then I considered their world view in everything they did. What did they do when a baby was born? Some Egyptologists seem to think that their beliefs were completely centered on death and that this was the totality of everything they did religiously. I can't see how that is possible, any more than a fundamentalist Christian's belief in heaven is the sum of their beliefs. Perhaps the concept of death was prominent, and of course death rites were elaborate and very expensive. But consider how much people pay for weddings these days. It seems to me that that evidence of their beliefs about death have survived because they intended these things to be preserved. That doesn't mean that they didn't also have beliefs pertaining to how they went about their daily lives. After all, they have found evidence that they cast spells. So their beliefs weren't just about death and the afterlife.

It makes me wonder how people might view us 10 or 20 thousand years from now, if only a tiny bit of the artifacts from our daily lives remain. Like stryofoam. Would they think stryofoam played a more significant role in our culture and beliefs, because that's all that's left?

There were things for the children, like some rooms where they could get a taste of how things were different then. They could dress in clothes similar to what the Egyptians wore, prepare "pretend" food, barter, play on a pretend barge, play music, and get a taste for the process of preparing a mummy.

After that we went to the campground. It wasn't on the beach, as I had previously thought. DH arranged it. We were at Dos Picos Regional Park, San Diego County. It was actually quite nice, in a grove of oak trees. They were moss-covered giants, dropping acorns the size of a child's thumb, long and tapering to a point. (DH knew I would approve.) Our campsite wasn't crowded too close to anyone else. The amenities were nice too, flush toilets, showers, electric hand driers and outlets. We fell asleep to the sound of acorns dropping, landing on the tent above us on on the ground around us. It was as though we were being blessed with a promise of prosperity.

The next morning, Sunday, we drove to North Island and let the boys play on the beach. After admonishing the boys "no swimming" due to rip currents, the youngest had to fall down accidentally on purpose, in order to fully experience the ocean. (He's a good swimmer for his age - in a swimming pool, so he knows just enough to get into trouble.)

We started to head home shortly after noon, stopping once for ice cream, (and of course the obligatory potty breaks,) eating the remains of our Mabon feast in the car. We arrived home in time for the boys to have a warm bath before bed, to wash the last of the sand away.

Next weekend, we hike at Zion. Tomorrow, the boys and I start our "Samhain book." More on that later.