CCMcG

I'm a girl with guts and allergies
a squirrel hiding among the trees
may be nuts
at least I'm free
don't shirk my
responsibility
to me
to reality
to life's magickal mysteries
may be a dichotomy
mutable and deep
as unseen currents
beneath the surface of the sea
yet I refuse to falter
before the brink
I savor the experience of
my spirit's long
ardent
drink

My first tattoo is on my left hip as pictured above. It consists of a primitive woodblock orobouros encircling a Great Egret created from a James Audubon drawing, perched upon a laurel branch, and surrounded by two opposing Inuit-style salmon and a scallop shell. The space inside the orobouros, surrounding the other figures, is swirled with purple, green, and blue like the inner surface of an abalone shell.

Orobouros: rebirth; regeneration; the eternal circle of life; snake - my Chinese birth sign
Egret/crane/ibis: Thoth, Egyptian god of wisdom, messenger of the gods, patron deity of scribes and writing; vigilance; justice; diligence; poets & Apollo; Kali's bird
Laurel: evergreen symbol of eternity; immortality; victory and triumph; tree of Apollo, Greek god of poetry, patron of the Oracle at Delphi
Scallop Shell: mystic symbol of regeneration; hope and resurrection; spiritual renewal
Salmon: wisdom; knowledge; instinct; determination; persistence; inspiration; rejuvenation; symbolize the two fish of Pisces

I'd like to get another tattoo on my back composed of art nouveau/fantasy stylized patterns and dragonflies, much like the one reached by the link to Steve-A in my Who I'd Like To Meet section. I'd add two, mirror image, eyes of Horus on upper shoulder blades with a Blue Nile lily/lotus, Nymphaea-caerulea, and a Maat feather. I'm waiting to be able to visit Steve-A or until I find a comparable artist locally. Any suggestions?
One of the most tiresome and frustrating things in the world is being insincere or trying to communicate with someone who is insincere.
I admire honesty; intelligence paired with wisdom; being motivated, thoughtful, logical, considerate, compassionate, resilient, creative, healthy, careful, meticulous, and intense - and being able to enjoy it!
"People living deeply have no fear of death."
~ Anaïs Nin
"The most important thing I learned ... was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist."
~ Kurt Vonnegut
"Once confined to fantasy and science fiction, time travel is now simply an engineering problem."
~ MICHIO KAKU, Wired Magazine, Aug. 2003

One of my photographs from Père Lachaise Cemetery
Paris, France...
"...Jean always said you can take the body, burn the body, but the spirit... you devils! the spirit... you criminals! the spirit... you assassins! lives on in our minds."
~ Peasant Leader prior to pouring the assassinated Jean Dominique's ashes into a farming community's river in Haiti
"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."
~ Helen Keller
"Knowing love, I will allow all things to come and go. To be as supple as the wind, and take everything that comes with great courage. Life is right in any case. My heart is as open as the sky."
~ Maya in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love by Mira Nair, 1997
...My photograph of sunlit, dancing, dying tree trunks and turquoise ether at Ames Nowell State Park, Abington, Massachusetts
"Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind, spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies."
~ Robert Louis Stevenson
“Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts."
~ E.B. White
“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."
~ Albert Einstein
“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”
~ Audre Lorde
Real Climate: Climate science from climate scientists
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead
A Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Green Day cooperative Video
"It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable."
~ Molière
"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do."
~ Helen Keller
My Adobe digi Bloudewedd doodle
Beltane 2007
I am the Hanged Man Self-sacrifice, Sacrifice, Devotion, Bound.

With the Hanged man there is often a sense of fatalism, waiting for something to happen. Or a fear of loss from a situation, rather than gain.

The Hanged Man is perhaps the most fascinating card in the deck. It reflects the story of Odin who offered himself as a sacrifice in order to gain knowledge. Hanging from the world tree, wounded by a spear, given no bread or mead, he hung for nine days. On the last day, he saw on the ground runes that had fallen from the tree, understood their meaning, and, coming down, scooped them up for his own. All knowledge is to be found in these runes.

The Hanged Man, in similar fashion, is a card about suspension, not life or death. It signifies selflessness, sacrifice and prophecy. I make myself vulnerable and in doing so, gain illumination. I see the world differently, with almost mystical insights.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

I am Strength

Courage, strength, fortitude. Power not arrested in the act of judgement, but passing on to further action, sometimes obstinacy.

This is a card of courage and energy. It represents both the Lion's hot, roaring energy, and the Maiden's steadfast will. The innocent Maiden is unafraid, undaunted, and indomitable. In some cards she opens the lion's mouth, in others she shuts it. Either way, she proves that inner strength is more powerful than raw physical strength. That forces can be controlled and used to score a victory is very close to the message of the Chariot, which might be why, in some decks, it is Justice that is card 8 instead of Strength. With strength I can control not only the situation, but myself. It is a card about anger and impulse management, about creative answers, leadership and maintaining one's personal honor. It can also stand for a steadfast friend.