More of my rosarys or malas

Continuing on from "my favourite mala", here are three more. There are different words for a string of beads that are used for chanting/reciting/praying.

But its much the same - I feel at peace and in tune from reciting a mantra and counting off the beads. Or counting breaths while meditating.

Breaths or mantras per minute, after a set number I know I've sat in meditation for however long I want. And the mind learns to be patient, then it can be still. The stillness can gather and the monkey-mind can allow samatha - calm - to grow.

The inner mala in the picture is on elastic, and can be worn on the wrist. Any time one needs to return to stillness, its there.

The larger mala is for sitting meditation. Its held in both hands.

The outer mala has 108 beads on the circuit. 108 is significant in some schools of Buddhism. Its divisible by both 4 and 3 and is kind of neat. I can wear it around my neck or on a wrist.

Two tarot spreads

The first is from a deck called Gypsy Tarot, which turned out to be a deck of playing cards. I use it for 1- and 3-card readings.

In Tarot nomenclature, the 3 cards are (left to right) 3 of pentacles, 10 of wands, and 8 of swords. This spread reads Past, Present, and Future in the same order.

The next layout uses one of my favourite decks. The artist, Fergus Hall, was commissioned to paint a Tarot deck for a James Bond movie. Roger Moore, the 70s, Paul McCartney singing 'Live and Let Die'. Shudder. Lets move on rather quickly, shall we?

But Mr Hall made a really good Tarot deck. Not heavily didactic like Rider-Waite-Smith, not overly clever or icky-cute. Not self-consciously Deep and Mysterious.

The layout is called the Celtic Cross. The card thats at an angle is usually laid over the card to the left of it.

On Whom I Attend

Cherie is the grey lady on the washing machine. She is the elder, and is waiting for me to turn the tap so she can drink. There is a water dish behind her, but Cherie likes running water so she can drink, bat at the drips, lick the water from her paws. She often drinks from vases or any vessel that has water, regardless of stability...

I called her Sharee at first, because we lived in a somewhat bogan area. Every society has its Bogans. Westies, Dubbos, -the west of the eastern areas of Australia is more rural and less urban. Bogan and Dubbo are the names of small inland towns.

Rednecks, chavs, hicks, hillbillys. So I gave Cherie a name that the bogan cats wouldn't tease her about. I changed the spelling from phonetic to the way the French spell it.

Her kitten name was 'Feral Rat Kitten', but with maturity I think 'Sheena, Jungle Queen' fits her better.

The boy on the fence is Rowan, as named by the animal shelter. The name seemed to fit him and he was used to it. He is about his early teens and likes to get out and play. I say to him, "where have you been, my blue-eyed son?", if I have to call for him and he shows up later. Its a line from Bob Dylan's song 'Hard Rain'.

So his alternate name is The Blue-eyed Son, even though his eyes are light green. And they shine orange in the dark, unlike Cherie whose eyes shine blue-green. I also call him My Beamish Boy, after Lewis Carrol's poem in 'Alice in Wonderland'. The hero of the poem slays the monster Jabberwock and gallumphs back home. He is greeted as "...my beamish boy!"

Return of the Queen, ...careful with that...

My perennial card in readings.  She is Penelope in the Mythic Tarot, associated with the Air sign of Aquarius.

The card in the position of 'finding' me.  Crossed by the Page of Swords, a messenger.

Used to be, one would try to 'find' oneself.  The Dhamma says one should create oneself.  Selves, rather,  bearing in mind anicca -impermanence- following creation.  Arising, persisting, ending of aspects of the self.

So the message of the tarot is for me to become the Queen of Swords.  To embrace her qualities and learn her ways.  Its the old story of looking everywhere for something that is already found.

I just have to realise it.  My goodness, I appear to be carrying a sword.  Furthermore I have a certain regal bearing now that I think of it.  Just as well.  I really must be... careful with that...

Tarot reading practical

The deck is Robin Wood, in the tradition of Rider-Waite-Smith.

The layout used is the Celtic cross, with an extra card as significator at top left.

The suit of Swords is predominant, with four cards.  The entire vertical axis of the cross, in fact.  Since this axis shows the present time, then the person (the querant) is busy with intellect and communication.

Of note is the heart transfixed by three swords - quite a graphic image.  Often interpreted as a loss, the card is more about resolution.  

There are two cards from the Major Arcana:  the pregnant Empress and the High Priestess; the female spirit guide.  In Greek myth they are the mother and daughter - Demeter and Persephone.

My favourite mala

My first malas used glass beads, which have a satisfying weight and texture.

This has turquoise, metal, and garnets. There are three groups of twenty beads, not counting the garnets.

The wire has extra length to allow me to slide the beads along it.

Part the Second of the Immaculate Espresso

My little joke.  To explain, there is a coffee called 'machiatto'.  Being Italian, the derivation is the same as the immaculate conception of Christ.  His Mum Mary was immaculate -unstained- and the machiatto is a shot of espresso with a little stain of froth or milk.

Here is the milk after steaming.  You can make froth by holding the steam nozzle just under the surface of the milk.  You can spray yourself and the kitchen too, and make a lot of noise, and get a painful scalding.

Mostly I have tea first thing of a morning.  It does help to be fully awake before making espresso.

Now we have our shot in the coffee-glass and the 'textured' milk ready to be added.

This is the result of our labours.  Those more skilled can make three layers of black, brown, and white.  But this is good enough for me.  I can have just the right amount of sugar and milk, between a cappucino and a short black.

Its worth the trouble to drink a really good espresso.