Supernova
darkstaronline.com Newsletter
Issue # 6 |
 Leo /  Virgo
July/August/September 2004
|
Click to enlarge
Hello
I have a couple of stories to tell you this month. One was sent to me via email, another is a little tale that grew out of Dark Star Philosophia. They are a bit long by today’s standards (and I say that tongue-in-cheek), but they are good, and I think you will enjoy them. Anna, our webmistress, told me that they are indeed quite long: she insisted that we put them at the end of the newsletter. So we will start out by showing you some of our new items (you’ll like them), and then move into some of the more abstract stuff. This issue of Supernova is an issue of words more than of pictures – Don’t worry, we will have plenty of pictures in future issues. And of course, we still have “Rockport Through the Seasons” with summer pictures of Rockport for you.
Each year I forget just how busy we get in July and August. Getting my act together enough to get this issue of Supernova out to you really was a Herculean effort. We are so late getting it out that we have combined our Leo and Virgo editions into one: July/August/September.
A Turning Point
Images to Words
Photography by Victor Gagliardi
One day last winter an elegant Italian man and his mother walked into Dark Star Philosophia. Winter is a time of long conversation, and we talked for quite a while. When he left, I had bought his book to put out on our bookshelves, and now I would like to introduce it to you. It is full of beautiful pictures and wonderful quotes, and is indeed a rich taste of life.
Victor has lived his life with much the same philosophy that my father lived his. Always my father told young artists to devote themselves to the art form that they loved, lest in compromising they lose sight of what truly inspired them. Victor’s book is all about living your passion. Like the man, it is refined and elegant. And real. That’s what I liked best about Victor. He’s so very real.
So is his book. I hope you like it as much as I do.
A Turning Point is Temporarily Out of Stock.
Quartz Point Pendant
Set in Sterling Silver, these pendants are stunning.
Each Quartz point is unique – with inclusions, they make elegant and striking jewellery.
They come to us from our friend Bill Adams of Earth Echoes Crystals.
He hand-picked the stones and created the design, then asked his associate in
Brazil to set them for him. He told us we were the first to see them,
and we bought up all he had. They are our jewellery find of the season.
Price Change on Tibetan Design Pendants
We have lowered the price on the Tibetan Design Pendants.
The average price reduction is 30%. We invite you to have another look.
Red, White & Blue Macrame
Donna’s son is in Afghanistan. He is a Black Hawk pilot. Donna, who does beautiful macrame, has made up some red, white and blue necklaces, bracelets and anklets to raise money to send care packages to her son and his companions. (Corn chips seem to be in great demand.) Click on a picture to enlarge.
These pictures were taken 4th of July weekend. Necklaces are $12.00 each; bracelets and anklets are $7.50. Donna makes macrame jewellery with lots of other designs, too – they are a very popular item in our Philosophia. Contact us at orders@darkstaronline.com to place an order, or for further information. Click on a picture to enlarge.
You might also like to have a look at the antique oar that Donna found in
an antique shop. She cleaned it up (it was quite a mess) and created a
wood-burned scene with whales and a lighthouse on the paddle:
Whale & Scenery Wood-Burning on Antique Oar.
I Wonder If It's Just Americans...
or if people all over the world take everything so personally. I’m noticing it in myself, and in a lot of people around me. Just the other day, our friend the Tibetan monk, Geshe Gendun Gyatso came for a short visit. He was wonderful, as always. He’s changed – grown and matured (I can say this because I am older than he is by a certain number of years). And yet my first reaction to this new maturity in Gendun was one of feeling rejected. He was not as overtly affectionate as he was last fall. To give myself a bit of credit, I was not hurt. Just noticing and wondering if he was upset with me in some way.
So many of us react as if we were the center of the universe. I know this is true of many, many women. I cannot speak for men. We feel responsible for all that goes on around us, for one thing, and react as if anything that goes wrong might be our fault. Even worse, when something is going right – as it obviously is with Gendun – but does not constantly reassure us that we are important and loved, we feel rejected. Wow. As a kid I knew better. Life was what it was. Things were what they were. And it was all good.
How does the expression go? Lest ye become as little children...
Once again, we offer you a link to Gendun’s website:
www.geshegendun.org. Isn’t he cute?
Don’t forget that we have Tibetan Singing Bowls available.
They are wonderful: Tibetan Singing Bowls.
And remember: Buying a Singing Bowl benefits everyone. First of all, you benefit! Playing a Singing Bowls helps you – When you play it you bring yourself into alignment. The vibration that you set up in the room around you permeates your aura and your space – which in turn benefits others. It raises your vibration, and at the same time brings you into focus. It takes concentration to play a Singing Bowl, but it is a concentration that becomes automatic. Of course, when you buy one of Gendun’s Singing Bowls you are also helping us here at Dark Star Philosophia – we make a profit, and can continue to offer our good energy and our good things to you and to others. Finally, and most significantly, when you buy a Singing Bowl you benefit Geshe Gendun’s teaching and counseling work here in the United States.
The Red Hat Connection
We sell Red Hat Pins. Cute little pins for members of The Red Hat Society, and for Wannabe members. My friend Bill Montague, of the Montague Gallery and The Concord Mousetrap, had never heard of The Red Hat Society. I told him about the poem (When I am old I shall wear purple . . . and a red hat) and how the women of the Red Hat Society get together to do fun and wonderful things, all wearing purple and Red Hats. He sent me the following link to a little handpainted mouse on his website. Click, and scroll down. Just Like Mommy! Check her out!
Of course, you might like to check out the rest of his website too. It’s full of whimsical little hand-painted collectible mice, called the Wee Forest Folk, created in Carlisle, Massachusetts. Bill’s gallery is in Concord, MA. Click on a picture to enlarge.
Rock Your World
The Stone Lady has written this month about Hematite, a stone always present in one form or another at Dark Star Philosophia. Which is very interesting, considering what Terry has to say about it!
Be sure to catch this month’s Rock Your World issue!
p.s. When Terry says Hematite shines and reflects, she’s not kidding. I had a terrible time trying to photograph the sphere, because it reflects anything and everything in the area – including the camera. I asked Terry not to pick any more shiny, reflecting stones for her column!
Jami Lin's Feng Shui Energy Forecast
Take a look at Jami’s forecast for Solar Cycle 08/04-09/04. Find out how to enhance good energies, and neutralize the harder ones, depending on the placement of your front door (or the door you use most). A note for those with their doors facing East: Use Metal to soften the “bullfight” energy. And for those with doors facing South: Use Water.
Rockport Through the Seasons
Bearskin Neck and Rockport are noted for beautiful flowers. (Myself, I concentrate on my “green garden”). The flowers flourish in the salt air. We took some pictures for you. We also have a few scenes on Tuna Wharf, a tiny little world within a world on Bearskin Neck. And shots of the new (and refurbished) shops this year. It seems no one can replace Half Moon Harry (sorely missed, indeed). For a short time this Spring, The Wiberg Gallery moved in, but already they are gone, and the shop is for rent! Rockport Through the Seasons.
Into The Void
I could not seem to get myself together to work on this issue of the newsletter. I thought it was because I have so much to do this time of year – Rockport is full of tourists, and we are indeed busy. I might have known that something else was afoot, as it often is when my ambition is lacking. (my oh my – don’t I sound stuffy? Let’s put that another way: When I can’t get it together to do my thing, something’s up!)
Just a few minutes ago, I got an email from a good friend. It must have been what I was waiting for. From time to time she sends out things she finds interesting. Interesting is a great understatement for this email, now making its way through the internet. As I sat there reading, I was grinning from ear to ear, and clap, clap, clapping. This, my friends, is what it’s all about:
Through The Light.
And Another Little Story
I also have a little story of my own to tell you. Recently, Ammachi was in the Boston area. (Perhaps as a prelude to the Democratic Convention.) If you do not know already who Ammachi is, she is a selfless woman from India who brings forth the essence of divine love. There are quite a number of such Avatars traveling the World in these days of change, and I was anxious to go see her. Ammachi is known for her healing hugs, and her sessions often go well into the early hours of the morning. I was planning to go with two Czech women I had gotten to know through Philosophia.
My arrangements to go see her, however, were not falling into place. Then, the night before the event, one of my new Czech friends visited. Through a funny twist of complex events, all of the complications straightened themselves out in a matter of 10 minutes, and 5 of us planned to head out the next day to see Ammachi. The next day, however, all those pieces that had fallen into place so quickly the night before, fell out of place just as quickly. If I were to go, new arrangements would have to be made. I was undecided. Disappointed and undecided.
Then a butterfly flew right into my face. That’s when I knew something was up. I did not know what – just something.
I had been feeling “disconnected” for a few weeks. Disconnected and very, very sad. Ammachi takes requests. I had planned to tell her that I really just wanted to be myself. (I also had a few requests for other people.)
Funny thing. A few minutes later, I stood in my house, feeling “out-of-place”, when suddenly I “got it”. All my disorientation fell away. So simple, just to be yourself. So simple. No, this time was not the time to go see the Avatar. This was a time to know that the answer is within. The butterfly had signaled a moment of transformation.
So I did not go to see Ammachi. But I think I can thank her for bringing me to my senses, if you know what I mean.
This little tale has a small addendum. 4 or 5 days later, I picked up some of Ammachi’s literature. I turned to the page with the following paragraph:
“Amma’s teachings are universal. Whenever she is asked about her religion, she replies that her religion is Love. She does not ask anyone to believe in God or to change their faith, but only to inquire into their own real nature and to believe in themselves.”
Immediately afterward I picked up “Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much”, a book of daily meditations, only to turn to the following:
“No one who has ever sat beside the sea and experienced her eternal power and gentleness can have any question that the sea knows that she is just that, the sea. Nature has such an ability to be exactly what she is, with no pretense . . . and she does not even have to stop and think about it.
When we have to stop and think who we are, we are not being who we are. When we are trying to be someone we believe we should be, we are not being who we are. When we are trying to be what someone else has told us we should be, we are not being ourselves. To be myself, I have to ‘be’.
Nature teaches great lessons in humility. In order to learn from her, I have to be in her.”
If you have read this far, you will not mind one more twist to this tale. One of the women who did go to Ammachi’s “Darshan” that day was in great need of physical healing, having recently undergone emergency surgery. She was surprised to learn that Ammachi was around – she had wanted to meet her for years. And, in fact, she did receive healing. Ammachi’s hug left her reeling. Had my Czech friends not come to invite me to come with them that day, she would have missed the opportunity completely. And I would have missed my revelation.
Now that’s magic.
Visit www.amma.org for more information about Ammachi and her 2004 Summer Tour.
Finale
Your comments on our newsletter, Supernova, are always welcome. Send them to info@darkstaronline.com.
This concludes the 6th issue of Supernova. Thanks for listening. Namaste.
~ gera
| 
