Patagonia

In late November of 2012,
I had the distinct pleasure of traveling

 to Chilean Patagonia
 in the Magellan Straights. 

Punta Arenas

 I flew into Punta Arenas in southern Chile and met up with a British friend who works as a scientist and had been on a scientific cruise off the coast and came ashore in PA.

 We traveled first to the lovely city of Puerto Natales, gateway to Patagonia; 

the Magallanes and Antartica Chilena Region in the southernmost part of Chile. 

Dr Gavin Tilstone

Then we took a bus
for 3 more hours
 to Torres de Paine, a national parque.

From there we traveled first by boat, then trekked in another 3.5 hours and finally reached Refugio Grey on Lago Grey,

view from Refugio window

The Patagonian forest was unexpectedly enchanted and elven.

 There was a massive wildfire a year ago

 so much of what we hiked by was burned 

and just now a year later starting to resprout.

 It made what remained untouched even more precious. 

There were clearly faeries living under the hills here.

 Glacier Grey was amazing.

 Ive never seen one in person before, and being able to spend
 2 days leisurely relating to it, 

napping near it,

 gazing upon it, breathing in its vapours

was divine.

 We slept in the Refugio but vowed next time 

to bring sleeping bags and a tent so as to be able to camp out in the meadow

 at the base of the mountains.

 The mountains!
The Cordillera del Paine lies in a transition area
between the Magellanic sub polar forests and the Patagonian Steppes.
The ever changing light throughout the day

 inspired me to keep a close eye on them.

I saw some wildflowers that took my breath away. 

Codonorchis lessonii

Calceolaria uniflora

Olsynium biflorum

It was all very magical and nourishing in a really sublime way. 

The colours of the glacier fed lakes defy description.

Then it was time to leave that precious place 

and so we returned, 

slowly winding our way out 

 of the labyrinth.  

On our way in it had been really windy, too windy to ride up top. But on out way out the conditions were perfect. We got some of our best views of the entire trip riding across the lake.

Our way out of the parque was also very majestic.

Puerto Natales was technically heading for the peak of their summer,

 but it looked like a newly born springtime in British Colombia.

Peonies everywhere!

Then I spent one last day in Punta Arenas 

before leaving that charming nautical city
 and heading north,

 to Ecuador!

South American powerlines

Flying out of Southern Chile was very beautiful.

Aries

Aries is ruled by the planet Mars 
which is the booster rocket to all plans, 
endeavors, and relationships, 
and without Mars' help everything goes 
very slowly,
 if at all. 
Since January 23 of this year, 
Mars has been in retrograde motion, appearing to move backwards through the heavens.
 This has put cement boots on most forward motion.
 

When Mars is in its retrograde cycle, we are forced to re-assess our current projects, our approach to getting what we want, and our desire nature. Rather than directly asserting our desires, we tend towards introspection. While Mars in direct motion is direct, straightforward, assertive, and aggressive,  

 
with Mars in retrograde motion, Mars energy is essentially turned inward, intensified, personalized, and perhaps pressurized.

When anger is internalized, there can be some rather negative byproducts, such as tension, resentment, depression and apathy.

The goal of a Mars retrograde period is not to simply sit on our impulses or to squelch our enthusiasm. Rather, it's to better understand our impulses, our survival instincts, our anger, our sexuality, our inner courage, and the ways we go about getting what we want from life. The cosmos are asking us to look before we leap rather than throw ourselves into action, just for the time being.
 We might require more rest than usual. It's time for regrouping, and this is important on both physical and emotional levels.


Mars's Moon  Phobos

The good news now is that we are almost done with this transit that began officially in January but its effects were felt back as far as November. On April 13 it goes direct! 

The pulling back energy of the bow and arrow now suddenly shifts direction and the arrow is released! As of the 14th it is time to harness the newly freed up energy and make things happen. Enjoy the ride, we earned it.

 


Happy Aries Birthdays to Wendy, Sol, Robin, Jason, Dad and Finn!

St. Patty's Day aka Reclaim the Snakes Day

 

  St. Patrick chasing the snakes out of Ireland is actually a thinly veiled tale of the new Christianity taking hold and chasing out the Goddess/Pagan culture that the people of Ireland had celebrated since time immemorial. The Goddess has always been represented by snakes (among other things). 

 

And anyone who knows the Irish culture now will tell you that if you scratch the skin of any Irishman you will soon enough find a Pagan.  

 There's room enough for all in the Pantheon.

 

In honor of the feisty Irish spirit...

 Beetlecam visits the lions! 

(click above for link)

Ireland  
 

St Patrick
 
Shamrockninja

Happy Birthday Shiela and Sam! 



Happy St Patty's Day


(and)
Viva la Snakes!


What the World Needs Now...(click here)

Yoga, Solar Flares and Staple Art

BKS Iyengar in 1977

 

He is 59 years old here!!

(click above to watch the perfection of his practice)

 

Because yoga was never, ever, about always feeling good, happy rainbows and unicorns, but about facing our demons so that we might finally, finally let them go and in doing so, 

have compassion for others.
And that my friend, is Yoga.
C Garrett 

 

The path to yoga is like the sharp edge of a razor, narrow and difficult to tread, and there are few who find it. The yogi knows that the paths of ruin or salvation lie within himself.

B.K.S. Iyengar

  Jónína Óskarsdóttir sends this picture from Faskrudsfjordur, Iceland

"No words can describe the experience of the Northern Lights show tonight," says Óskarsdóttir. "This is just a 1 second exposure!"

(Thanks Solar Flare!)

Renaissance Staple Murals by Baptiste Debombourg

By EDW Lynch on March 8, 2012

Paris-based artist Baptiste Debombourg creates elaborate Renaissance-style murals entirely out of staples. Debombourg’s most recent mural, “III,” is made up of 450,000 staples.

(repost from Laughingsquid.com)

Just us Chickens...

There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been: a people busy and powerful, knowledgeable, ambivalent, important, fearful, and self-aware; a people who scheme, promote, deceive, and conquer; who pray for their loved ones, and long to flee misery and skip death. It is a weakening and discoloring idea, that rustic people knew God personally once upon a time—or even knew selflessness or courage or literature—but that it is too late for us. In fact, the absolute is available to everyone in every age. There never was a more holy age than ours, and never a less.
 Annie Dillard

Oh boy, this is really next level

 

Temporal Distortion 

(Click above)

You know those days when you just feel... well.... mundane? Like whatever, its just another day having to figure out to what to eat, and making and spending money.... what exactly are we doing here anyway??

 Then this is a remedy for you on those days, or any days that you would like to feel connected to the exquisite beauty to which we belong. Make it full screen.by Randy Halverstan