Hey! Lean to hear my feeble voice.
At the center of the sacred hoop
You have said that I should make the tree to bloom.

With tears running, O Great Spirit, my Grandfather,
With running eyes I must say
The tree has never bloomed

Here I stand, and the tree is withered.
Again, I recall the great vision you gave me.

It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives.
Nourish it then
That it may leaf
And bloom
And fill with singing birds!

Hear me, that the people may once again
Find the good road
And the shielding tree.

~Black Elk

---

First, you must let your heart
be broken open
in a way you have never
felt before,
cannot imagine.

You will
not know if what you are
feeling
is anguish or joy,
something predestined
or merely old wounds
flowing once more,
reminders of all that is
unfinished in your life.

Something will flood into
your chest
like air sweetened by
desert honeysuckle,
love that is too
strong.

You will stand there,
very still,
not seeing what this is.
Later, you will not remember
any of this
until the next time
when you will say,
yes, yes, I have known this before,
it has come again,
just as your eyes fold under
once more.

"Taken"
2006 Dorothy Walters

God is not unknown on account of obscurity
but on account of the abundance of brightness.
-- St. Thomas Aquinas

Ever in my life have I sought thee with my songs. It was they who led me from door to door, and with them have I felt about me, searching and touching my world.
It was my songs that taught me all the lessons I ever learnt; they showed me secret paths, they brought before my sight many a star on the horizon of my heart.
They guided me all the day long to the mysteries of the country of pleasure and pain, and, at last, to what palace gate have they brought me in the evening at the end of my journey?

~Tagore

You glide between the heart and its casing as tears glide from the eyelid.
You dwell in my inwardness, in the depths of my heart, as souls dwell in bodies.
Nothing passes from rest to motion unless you move it in hidden ways,
O new moon.

~Hallaj

FROM THE MOUNTAIN ASTROLOGER MAGAZINE

This is the second Full Moon in Scorpio-Taurus this year, heightening the contrast between what we want to cultivate and what we need to release.

With the Sun in Taurus, the first earth sign, the cosmic quiz is on matter. How are we doing in the world of form? How well are we taking care of our bodies, our resources, our planet?

Chiron, Mercury, and Neptune are all just days away from turning retrograde, amplifying their influence around this Full Moon.

On May 25, Chiron stations retrograde...the archetype of the Wounded Healer moves backward until October 25, encouraging the reclamation of our hopes and dreams.

On May 26, Mercury stations retrograde until June 19...the Messenger breaks up old mental patterning and fosters the reconfiguration of new neural pathways.

Also on May 26, Neptune stations retrograde...adding to Chiron's cosmic call for dreaming a new dream.

The Sabian symbols emphasize that this is a time of significant endings and beginnings. What are you living for? And what would you die for?

Remember that you are spirit playing in form.

"Be noble, for you are of the stars; be humble, for you are of the earth." (Slavic proverb)

"The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues of light." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda

Renunciation has both sadness and joy in it: sadness because you realize the futility of your old ways, and joy because of the greater vision that begins to unfold when you are able to let go of them. This is no ordinary joy. It is a joy that gives birth to a new and profound strength, a confidence, an abiding inspiration that comes from the realization that you are not condemned to your habits, that you can indeed emerge from them, that you can change, and grow more and more free. Sogyal Rinpoche

why fear this moment
when no thoughts come
at last I lie naked
in the arms of experience
why fear this moment
when no words come
at last I find rest
in the lap of silence
why fear this moment
when love finds itself alone
at last I am embraced
by infinity itself
why fear this moment
when judgment falls away
at last my defenses
fail to keep intimacy at bay
why fear this moment
when hope is lost
at last my foolish dreams
are surrendered to perfection


-- from the Gifts with No Giver: a love affair with truth, by Nirmala

The Dalai Lama has said: "There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; my philosophy is kindness."

At Tower Peak

Every tan rolling meadow will turn into housing
Freeways are clogged all day
Academies packed with scholars writing papers
City people lean and dark
This land most real

After a long day's walking
Packing burdens to the snow
Wake to the same old world of no names,
No things, new as ever, rock and water,
Cool dawn birdcalls, high jet contrails.
A day or two or million, breathing
A few steps back from what goes down
In the current realm...

A kind of ice age, spreading, filling valleys
Shaving soils, paving fields, you can walk in it
Live in it, drive through it then
It melts away
For whatever sprouts
After the age of
Frozen hearts...

Twenty million human people, downstream, here below.

Gary Snyder
(some lines have been omitted)