All posts tagged: rituals

We need holy places

In July we need plants, plants, plants, trees, bushes, healing shadows. Thank the Greek Gods, in Rhodes we are still nurtured by huge beautiful trees and shrubs. They do not only provide shade on the hottest summer days – this is their visible gift. They also provide a sense of calmness and greater/different perspectives for the human psyche. Trees create resonant spaces that can effect our consciousness. Why do you think it is a much different experience to sit under an old tree than under a parasol? It is neither an accident that traditional Greek circle dances (which are community rituals) are danced under enormous old trees – you can find them by each little church and community square (platia). Through a natural landscape and plants the world speaks to us. That’s what makes a place a holy space. It speaks to us. And because ancient Greeks heard and understood this language, they named the certain entities inhabited in nature: they were different kinds of Nymphs, the protectors of trees, waters, plants, mountains, caves, bees, …

The sacred plant of the Rain God: the Mexican marigold

Few weeks ago I received a strange dried flower bouquet from a local farmer here on Rhodes island. I consider him as a local shaman although he would never accept this title. He is the person who was teaching me the most about plants and the divine cosmic design. So he gave me these strange yellow flowers amongst dozens of others, and did not say anything about them. Back home I found its name at least: Mexican marigold or Tagetes Lucida. But I didn’t really look up for more info. Now I am reading a book about archaic images, symbols of water, moon, feminine, underworld. It describes a God of the Aztecs: Tlaloc. He was the rain deity, the ruler of the mysterious water-underworld: Tlalocan (Greeks called it Hades) where the great ancestors, the wisdomholders lived. The rain is the blessing of the otherworld, and ancestors. It is the nourishing source which maintains life on Earth. The Great Ancestors send love to Earth in the form of rain. Rain and water was the primordial element …