Of Stars

The new web site theme I designed is titled “Of Stars.”
For this site theme I selected the following quote:

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Silently, one by one, in the
infinite meadows of the heaven,
blossomed the lovely stars,
the forget-me-nots of the angels.

— Henry W. Longfellow
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“Of Stars” web site theme
designed by Felicia Lujan

 

Seduce the Moon

 

~The Sun and The Moon~
by Boris Vallejo
(1987)

I like to think that the moon is there
even if I am not looking at it.

~~Albert Einstein

The lunisolar date is 1.11. I could not ignore my number, the symbol, and the signs on the eve which brings the first new moon to 2013. How could I disregard the rare synchronization of the moon and sun? How could I snub a tiny moment in time when the sun is actually capable of caressing the path of the moon? It would seem to be coincidental to others, but there is an underlying connectedness. To some it may be just an astronomical glitch visible in the western horizon, but to me it is extraordinary. On this day the sun and moon will share the same longitude, still they will never actually touch. It seems that the sun will perpetually fail to seduce the moon.

After work, terrestrial bodies continued to adorn my mind. Lost in the stars, I blindly fondled several CDs while in line at Whole Foods. Still seeing stars, instinctively I picked up the CD of a musician I had never heard of. Why did I reach for a disc with the word “moon” on the cover? The disc of newbie Phillip Phillips rendered me conscious and so I read on. I decided I should buy The World from the Side of the Moon when I flipped it over to read the track list. How could I not acquire a disc which listed track 1 as “Man On the Moon” on the night of the 1st month of a new moon on the 11th? Phillips sings about watching “the world from a side of the moon,” while “looking at the sun.”

James A. Notopoulos published The Symbolism of the Sun and Light in the Republic of Plato in 1944. The paper was featured in Classical Philology (Vol. 39, No. 3) and focused on the moon and sun as symbols. These symbolic, distant orbs were studied using myths and poetry. Notopoulos said “symbolism is inherent in the very nature of thought,” and that “language itself is symbolic; when insight grasps meaning, it expresses it through the written word, which is an image of thought.” It was interesting to learn tonight that “Plato developed the emotional and intellectual association of light.” Notopoulos’s paper goes on to discuss light as a symbol of knowledge and the divine. The author also puts forth the notion that “the moon derives its light from the sun through reflection.”

Cosmology and the nature of the heavens affects how I interpret symbols, signs and synchronicity. Indeed these may be simplistic thoughts that I merely complicate. Maybe these things mean nothing at all? It is always hard to know all of the answers in the mystery of life. One thing is clear to me. The poet Hermann Hesse once said “we are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other’s opposite and complement.” Even though the sun may never seduce the moon, in someway they may connect astronomically.

Follow the Stars

Glow in the dark stars catch the blue light on the wall beside my bed.

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Dreams are like stars~ you
may not be able to touch
them, but if you follow them
they will lead you to your
destiny.
~Author Unknown
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**Writing with the Stars**

Well— tonight is the night. I am on my way to a book signing with some of the best authors I know- including a few New York Times “best!” Awesome…. I am a little nervous because following that I have entered an anonymous piece of writing into the Writing with the Stars critique series. It starts at 7:00pm and runs through 9:00pm. I had done so last year and the critics said I assumed my audience was uneducated- so frankly I was being rather sheepish about another entry. It is a bit intimidating for sure! Let’s see what happens this year?? I went with the famous phrase “write what you know,” so hopefully I will get better feedback. The critique will be done by the infamous “daddy” of Rambo- David Morrell and literary agent Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli. Maybe I’ll share what I wrote tomorrow.

Wish me luck!!!

Toxic Breath

••••••••••••••••••••••••
Breathe in orbital magic~
heavenly~ to glaze my
lungs with falling stars.
••••••••••••••••••••••••
Breathe out illusionary
innocence~ collapse my
chest but leave no scars.
••••••••••••••••••••••••
On the tips of tongues~
consume air and shadows
wrapped with infinity.
••••••••••••••••••••••••
Take control~ no mouth
to mouth~ expel a gasp
so breathlessly.
••••••••••••••••••••••••
Breathe in~ breathe out~
do as you will~ nourish
another tragedy.
••••••••••••••••••••••••
The oxygen~ not mine
to keep~ this toxic
breath is killing me.
••••••••••••••••••••••••

by Felicia Lujan
November 7, 2012

~The Nothing~

~Black Hole and the Moon~

~THE NOTHING~

<O><O><O><O><O><O><O>
~Idle words divert themselves into a vibrant void~
~the haughtiest of ears sealed shut~ eyes closed~
~like a thousand needles through a single soul~
~an empty pierce leaving flesh and stars exposed~
~hath holds sun while hiding nighttime near~
~nothingness seeps from palms to fingertips~
~always absent from broken~ melted dreams~
~accustomed to the naught gifted to my lips~
~nonexistence feeding hungry fools and ghosts~
~words still lost~ gone to float in zero gravity~
~nullity is mine to hold with a loving embrace~
~missing from the evening sky~
~I am the nothing~ so I see~
<O><O><O><O><O><O><O>

by Felicia Lujan
October 30, 2012

Into My Eyes

~EYES~ photo I took at the Def Leppard concert on September 2, 2011 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

••••••••••••••••••••
Take a trip into the great abyss~ my eyes~ a portal through which you may cross and never return.
••••••••••••••••••••
Take a trip and lose yourself for a moment~ these eyes~ a window you may open to feel the wind.
••••••••••••••••••••
Take a trip through unknown lands~ brown eyes~ an earthiness your toes have never known.
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Take a trip over rainbows, through the clouds~ blinking eyes~ refocus and flinch, they welcome REM.
••••••••••••••••••••
Take a trip~ iris and pupil engrossed~ dilated eyes~ absorb the light and night and stars.
••••••••••••••••••••
Take a trip~ unplanned, schedule free~ my eyes~ a portal through which you may cross and never return.
••••••••••••••••••••

by Felicia Lujan
September 10, 2012

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Skin and Stars

*****~SKIN AND STARS~*****
Digital composite by Felicia Lujan
Composite includes five images~ one image of a woman, one
image of space, one image of stars, and two images of hair.

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Your memory~it is forever
tacked to perplexing luminosity.
A bright string of stars signed
on soft tissue~left by gravity.
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Even the complex constellations
have nothing on this skin.
Thermonuclear fusion~creating
places astronomers haven’t been.
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Release incalculable energy~
feel it filter down my spine.
Traverse inside and then radiate
becoming lost in time.
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Supernovas amaze~injure my
mind while they leave a mark.
Observe this spectrum if you
can~it will brighten up the dark.
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Binary~gravitationally bound
~comprised of not one but two.
Orbit around me~leave a tinge~
this skin was made for you.
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

by Felicia Lujan
September 3, 2012

Winking at the Blue Moon

Today the amazing Perianne posted more lovely words on her site titled Astrology Mon Ami. Perianne wrote a piece titled Pisces Full Moon: Continuous Incarnation, which was tagged with Chiron in Pisces, Pisces Full Moon, Uranus square Pluto, and Virgo Sun. I loved this piece about tonight’s rare Blue Moon, and I connected with it. Her piece was posted extremely close to my birthday (Virgo Sun). When I get home from work, I watch CBS Evening News. I did not realize that the first man on the moon, astronaut Neil Armstrong was memorialized nationwide today? Maybe tonight’s rare Blue Moon is coincidentally linked to his memory, and then again maybe not? It will not happen again until 2015. This evening I tracked down the article on the CBS Evening News web site where I found more on the public tribute in Ohio for the first man on the moon. Those is attendance were asked to “wink at the moon” in honor of his memory. Of course you know I did just that. I shot a little over 20 seconds of video to document the Blue Moon over Santa Fe, New Mexico. On this peaceful evening I gazed up into the night sky through clouds and trees. The moon was magically bright and receptive to the crickets singing a song of departure from this great planet.
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Trippin’ on Transformers

We are ready to embark on the
new Transformers ride in Cali

Daryn is trippin’ as we get ready to experience the new Transformers ride at Universal Studios in California (USA) for the first time. The ride is new and is sure to be sick-sick-sick with tha sickness! I am so excited because we all love Transformers. Though- you all know it is good guys versus bad guys in a quest for the All Spark! Optimus vs Megatron—- nice! D may be trippin’ for a good reason! Haha

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The Hemingway Archivist: Connection and Disconnection

***Gellhorn and Hemingway***
Digital composite by Felicia Lujan.
Includes one historic photo and
a map of the constellations- symbolic
of connection and disconnection.

I absolutely adore anything thought provoking. On July 1, 2012, I had a great comment submitted by “spoonbeams.” This woman is a former archivist who had come across my post Whiskey Dreams: Inside the Mind of Hemingway (May 10, 2012). I have included our comment string into this post because it is worth a read. Whiskey Dreams was my post about Ernest Hemingway and his vast archive called The Hemingway Papers. In that post, I talk about: reading further into signs than I should; digital initiatives with the Hemingway Papers involving over 6,000 personal letters; the mind of Ernest; his death being a tragic loss to the literary world; his escape and submission to a dark fate; and the fact that I could be madly in love with a dead guy. I had a few interesting comments on the post. There was one from “Rhonda” on May 10. Rhonda called Hemingway a “tortured, artistic soul.” Then on May 22, “robert87004” mentions James Mitchener, a friend of Hemingway who “paints a somewhat different picture” of the man while they were in Iberia. According to robert87004, Mitchener’s writings divulge Hemingway as a man “trying to live up to his self-image.” But I guess that’s what we are all attempting to do right? Below is the great comment string between “spoonbeams” and I. I am so amazed that out of millions of pages of digital information, she found me and that she found that particular post. The following thread is all about connection and disconnection. Do I read too much into things? Or does everything happen for a reason? You decide… I know I connected with a wonderful woman about this. It was fascinating to learn from her that Martha Gellhorn insisted that all of her correspondence with Hemingway be deaccessioned (or removed) from his collection. I had to say something to her about that today. At the end of her last comment, spoonbeams gave me a “thumbs up” on my latest poem titled Canvas of an Artist. It was a poem about forced disconnection.
Following is our string…

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spoonbeams Says: July 1, 2012 at 6:41 AM

Hi — My mouse passed over your square on someone’s blog and “archivist” popped up and I had to look further. I organized the EH papers at the JFK library back when. It seems like so long ago, but it still is a highlight in my life. Seems like you enjoy archiving as much as I. Yes, it’s quite possible he wrote that many letters — maybe more.

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flujan Says: July 2, 2012 at 11:17 PM

Wow!! You get a gold star for being the first person attracted by the word “archivist!” What is your name? Haha! You actually processed the Hemingway Papers? How cool is that? And in the JFK Library??? Wow!!! I can’t believe it?!! If I didn’t believe in signs- I would think it strange we have crossed paths. JFK and Hemingway— two signs of mine that are now fading— two historical figures I have connected to and now unfortunately I seem forced to disconnect from them. I would have loved to process those papers. I can’t believe you have found me?? It was meant to be. I work in New Mexico (a state repository). I am the Archives Bureau Chief, and have been with the agency for well over a decade. I do adore being an archivist and I am obsessed with history and the arts. It was my calling. You were a lucky woman to get to work in such a great library and on such a great collection. What are your thoughts on Hemingway? Was he insensitive? You- if anyone would have an up close and personal perspective on a great writer through his correspondence. Did he really love Martha G?

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spoonbeams Says: July 3, 2012 at 5:08 PM

Yes, processing Hemingway was a blastt — and working at the JFK Library was special. It’s been a long time tho since I’ve been immersed. I left the library in ’83 and moved on to other things. I do think he was very sensitive and easily offended, but I wonder if he ever truly thought about the sensitivities of others. And yes, I do believe he really loved Martha and all his wives and perhaps a few other women, but not necessarily faithfully or for long. I’m so surprised that there is a movie now about Martha and EH. I was on leave of absence from the library when she came and removed all her letters to him from the collection because she did not want to be connected with him in any way. I heard it was quite dramatic. I know lots of others like us who really love being archivists and getting deep into a topic. He was certainly an exciting topic! Thumbs up on today’s Canvas of an Artist.

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flujan Says: July 4, 2012 at 12:02 AM

Oh…. I can only imagine! That sounds so very interesting. Technically, you are still practicing a form of immersion through the art of conversing. That is really sad to hear about Hemingway, though I knew that would likely be your response. I’ll bet I could talk to you for hours?! If you are ever in New Mexico, look me up and we can have coffee. Your last comment has me thinking of exploring what it means to be a soul mate. I do wonder? If we change and grow as people, it may explain Hemingway’s continual search for his perfect match. Maybe there is more than one? Maybe a soul mate depends on what someone connects to or does not connect to at a particular time in their life? I think too much obviously! It’s just sometimes things are so very hard to understand? Why would such a great man kill himself? I was amazed to learn what you told me about Martha requesting a deaccession of her letters from the Hemingway Papers. I also find it interesting that you specifically say that “she did not want to be connected with him in any way.” Poor Martha- she was obviously just upset with him and so she made the dramatic scene. The sad part about that is no matter how hard she tried to erase all the physical and paper connections to him, there was still the one connection that she likely took to her grave in 1998— it was the one in her mind. Thank you for your preservation work on letters which will expose the real man behind the public persona. Without a doubt his personal letters shed light on his love affairs, and some very intricate souls. Also thank you for provoking my thoughts. I love that!

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Other Hemingway Links:

Humanity and Wars: The New HBO Film
Hemingway & Gellhorn by Felicia Lujan (June 7, 2012)

Analysis of and Symbols in Hemingway
and Gellhorn by Felicia Lujan (June 10, 2012)

“Ring of Fire” as Seen from Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Solar Eclipse on May 20, 2012 from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
**Photograph by Felicia Lujan

It was amazing to see so many taken by the sky this evening. It seemed that everywhere I looked, droves of people stood staring in awe as the eclipse started to steal vision from those who cared to catch a glimpse. By 7:35pm the eclipse could be seen as an actual ring of fire. My son thought there was a “hole in the sun.” You could see people holding hands, and pinhole punched papers to the sun. There were cameras, videos and tripods galore in Santa Fe. What a great sight. There is truly nothing as spectacular as the wonders of the natural world. It always makes me feel so small. Seeing two great celestial bodies collide in unison makes me realize that Earth is really just a small place in this vast universe. These intricacies which surround me make me feel lucky to be alive, lucky to have eyes, lucky to witness something awesome. I took a photograph, or two, or three or maybe twenty, still none of them could do justice to that which I captured with my naked eyes. I also found some video footage posted by someone in Albuquerque. A blinding eclipse— it burned my eyes, touched my soul, and melted my heart. If you didn’t see it, you should have.

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Segment from the article
Will You See Today’s Annular Solar Eclipse?
by Ian O’Neill

“Just in case you haven’t heard, an annular eclipse will dazzle the Pacific Ocean on Sunday (Monday in Asia); beginning at dawn for China and Japan, ending at sunset for western U.S. states — marching from the Oregon and Northern California coast to Nevada, Utah, **New Mexico**, Arizona and Texas. For U.S. eclipse watchers, the path of “annularity” — or the annular eclipse “ring of fire” — will be seen from locations such as Medford, Oregon; Chico, California; Reno, Nevada; St. George, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Lubbock, Texas, according to Spaceweather.com. The whole event will begin in the U.S. from 5:30 p.m. PST and last for around 2 hours. Sadly for eastern U.S. states, the eclipse will occur after sunset, hence the focus on the West Coast.”

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Albuquerque, New Mexico

Published on May 20, 2012 by BabyFreshTV
“Annular Solar Eclipse USA “RING OF FIRE” in totality on May 20th, 2012, in Albuquerque NM United States exclusive eclipse footage featuring the Sun at its totality stage. The video of the Sun. This footage is fast forwarded for your viewing.”

Gargoyle Moon

<<<>>>

Suspend me moon~~
from your inviting rays.

Take me moon~~
so we can welcome days.

Envelope me moon~~
with a gargoyle drift.

Care for me moon~~
and deliver your gift.

Need me moon~~
Need my deepness new.

Cover me moon~~
as only you can do.

Share with me moon~~
knowledge beyond the sun.

Learn with me moon~~
remember the undone.

by Felicia Lujan_5.5.2012

<<<>>>

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Lunar Bliss

Selene…Goddess of the Moon Appearing to Endymion

…………………………..
Earthshine, a brightness
spectacular and keen.
Impact so deep with a lunar
bliss that is rarely seen.
…………………………..
Astronaut taste my gravity,
remaining heavy in your hand.
Open a portal to a blissful
mist in uncharted land.
…………………………..
Illumination of the soul,
licking frosting off the night.
Co-orbital, still opposites
in a never ending fight.
…………………………..
Ascend and regress my
little star, allow lunar
rocks to be kept. Brightness
built of sky and dreams,
watching as you slept.
…………………………..
Meteorites iced and heavenly,
they are molten with desire.
The dark side of the moon is
dark, still there is a fire.
…………………………..
Magnetic fields, my sun kissed
thoughts, waiting to be heard.
A tidal force is driven hard by
kinetic energy and words.
…………………………..
Solar winds, caress your
mind leaving illusions of
the moon. Reflect my spirit,
witness eclipse, and you will
surely swoon.
…………………………..

by Felicia Lujan_4.20.2012

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The Greek Titan of Intelligence

Koios and Phoebe in the Heavens_ Digital Composite by Felicia Lujan_ Includes 1 contemporary and 1 historic image (with a shadow and screen effect).

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“Again, Phoibe came to the desired embrace of Koios.”

(Greek Epic- 4th B.C.)

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Intelligence, wisdom, and knowledge- these are some of the characteristics which can be attributed to Koios (also spelled Coeus). Koios was the son of Father Sky (Ouranos) and Mother Earth (Gaia). As one of the 12 Titans, (the Titan of Intelligence and an elder god) his power was derived from knowledge. He was also a “keeper” of wisdom. The name Koios is representative of one with a curious mind, and/or one posing inquires and questions. As the Titan of Intelligence, it is likely that this titan referred frequently to the written word as well as oral histories while gathering knowledge.

KOIOS (or Coeus)

This titan was also the God of the Axis of Heaven. This is that axis on which the Greek constellations revolved. Some scholars believe that Koios was likely tied to heavenly oracles, and at times it is said that he “scaled the heavens.” Koios also came to be known as Polos, and was tied to the Northern heavenly axis. It is said that the ancient ones noted that this point was “marked by the star alpha Dra in the constellation Draco.” In one Greek Myth, the brothers of Koios were personified as exaggerated pillars. The pillars were intended to hold apart Heaven and Earth.

Hemisphaerium Boreale (Greek Constellations)

Koios was married to the Moon (Phoebe), and she was a Goddess with a prophetic mind (see this post http://myvoyagethroughtime.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/enchantment-and-the-moon-a-look-at-the-greek-goddess-phoebe/). Scholars believe that this duo represented the central source of knowledge and wisdom. Both Phoebe and Koios embodied the heavens. The eventual separation of this couple was tragic. Koios was also a rebel who once ruled the Earth with other elder gods prior to being conquered by the Olympians. Eventually, he was banished to the Underworld for his role in battles with Zeus and the Olympians. I have to wonder if they had books in the Underworld?

Sources:

San Diego State University- College of Education- http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/bdodge/scaffold/gg/titan.html#Coeus

Behind the Name: The Etymology and History of First Names- http://www.behindthename.com/name/koios

The Theoi Project : Greek Mythology was created and is edited by Aaron J. Atsma, Auckland, New Zealand- http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanKoios.html