All posts by Barbara Ocskai

Spiral Dance

Life is one great big learning curve.  A spiral dance.

“Energy moves in cycles, circles, spirals, vortexes, whirls, pulsations, waves, and rhythms—rarely if ever in simple straight lines.” ~ Starhawk

I caught myself in fear. Unraveling the tangled thread of it I found judgment, which showed me clearly that even in the kindness of giving a gift fear can have ugly hooks.

It’s the odd thing that sticks in ones psyche that prevents peace in the heart and creates fear and story in the mind.  Tis the case with me anyway.  Medicine work is always my teacher. It seems the New Ones coming in at this time are Sages or Wisdom Keepers, knowing so much more than me – again bringing me a lesson as I prepared to stitch baby moccasin, inviting me to examine and understand myself more fully, to be more self-aware and to see plainly another layer in the spiraling learning curve of my life.

An aside, my Guides have been talking with me. They are saying, It is the time of Peace KeepingIt’s time now to hold the vision of the Green Grass Walk in bare feet. The Green Grass Walk is a time of Peace Keeping. Even as I write that I feel it as a Circle.  I am, we are I believe on a Peace Keeping mission.  To be at peace in our hearts, to spiritually awaken to the presence of peace, rekindling our rhythm and relationship to our Earth Mother, to attune to a higher vibration. Peace movements are happening all around the globe. I am gratefully holding this vision, the visceral sensation of bare feet walking on green grass.

Peace. Peace. Peace my Sisters and Brothers. Peace.

Mitakuye Oyasin  ~  All My Relations

Blessing For The Senses

Blessing For The Senses 

May your body be blessed.
 May you realize
 that your body is a
 faithful and beautiful
 friend of your soul.
 And may you be
 peaceful and joyful
 and recognize that your senses
 are sacred thresholds.
 May you realize
 that holiness
 is mindful, gazing,
 feeling, hearing, and touching.
 May your senses
 gather you and bring you home.
 May your senses
 always enable you
 to celebrate the
 universe and the
 mystery and possibilities
 in your presence here.
 May the Eros of the
 Earth bless you.
 
  Excerpt from Anam Cara by John O’Donohue

Image: The Art of the Human Body Sciforums

Dirty Feet and Little Feet

It’s amazing how dirty feet can be after a sweat lodge.  I find it amusing that I cannot stand dirty fingernails but dirty feet during and after any ceremony are totally tolerable.  Amazing.

Such a boon!  An infant joined the communities lodge yesterday.  A sweet purely perfect 6 week old came in the door between first and second rounds.  He was passed from hand to hand around the circle, each of us offering our blessing to him.  All of us taking delight in the enormous gift of his presence.  His tiny toes were altogether clean.

I was guided to make baby moccasin on Christmas day.  What? OK, sure, I love to sew for tiny feet.  Surprisingly, what came up was not love.  I got a  little agitated and anxious about people having babies today, these times too awful.  Who’d want to bring a child in now?  Conscious or unconscious parents, my thoughts rambled on…. what must they be thinking?  Such judgment and fear welled up in me.

Ah… Medicine work is such a revealer and healer.

I noticed that my fear churned when I laid the pattern down.  This fear has lived in me for a while.  The judgment and questioning came as I cut the pieces from the hide – symbolic to me of how separate I was feeling from the Whole.  While praying and sewing the little pieces of red Deer hide back together, creating “Winter Girl” moccasin, I was reminded that we are all here by agreement.  These New Ones are coming in by choice.  And they have their reasons for coming in at this time.  They know what they are getting into.  This allayed my fears tremendously. I was then and am now, humbled and awed.   I bow to the unknown wisdom of the Soul’s path and the Mystery.  I stitched such gratitude and love now.  These little shoes – the lesson I received that Their enlightenment is my, our, gift and we need them now.  There is no escaping the Whole – I needed to be reminded.  I remember.

Mother and babe crawled out of the lodge, the door came down, we went on with our prayers.  Just now, I wondered about the fire tenders, did they too have their time with the baby?  Surely they must have.  I hope so.  Afterwards, still in our circle, I watched Mom. She was captivated, watching him asleep in the crook of her loving arm.  Looking at them with my heart-eyes and not the fear-mind, it was clear that the lesson I’d received that day allowed me to fully be present for the gift of their presence.

Joyfully (my usual way), I had sewed moccasin for this one too a few months before he was born.  Mom thinks he’ll be wearing them by the time we go into ceremony to dance the Night Turtle Dance this summer.  My heart was so full.  My feet needed a pumice stone.  🙂

Winter Baby MoccasinHappily and lovingly (truly) sewing baby moccasin.  They are filled with prayers of gratitude and joyful wonder at the remarkable mystery of it all.

 

Mitakuye Oyasin

All My Relations

Shoe-a-holics Anonymous

 “She’s goin’ shoppin’, shoppin’ for shoes…”  ~   Mark Knopfler

I am loathed to say that I used to joke, Imelda Marcos had nothing on me.  It feels a bit shameful now to think I related, even in a joking way, with someone such as Imelda –  so many shoes and such grotesque greed at the expense of the people of the Philippians.  My own abundance of shoes isn’t a fraction of her amassed collection, perhaps 7500 pairs.

Such a turn of events.  It is a dazzling personal reflection to follow the course of events that brought me from being what I considered ridiculous and gross in my consumption of all things shoes, along with my observations on greed, materialism, consumerism, and lust, to where I am today.  Crafting footwear that is both sacred and everyday wear.  Holding space and teaching the crafting of these shoes is a great joy.  The moccasin crafting workshops are two-day affairs which allows for sweet sharing and a more intimate experience in a marvelous container where we honor ourselves – our souls and the soles we’re creating.

February 27 & 28 Moccasin Crafting Workshop

March 5 & 12 at the Bodhi Center on Bainbridge Island Workshop

March 26 & 27 Sandal Crafting Workshop

While I admit to being a bit uncomfortable about being “in” this video, I’m excited to share this it publicly.  A dear friend and very smart videographer, Amy St. Onge ~ Voice & Vision, created this video.  It’s worked out so well that I now have anopportunity to craft a commissioned pair of moccasin for a client in the UK!!  I’m thrilled and so grateful to be custom crafting for people who choose to be in right relationship with shoes.

I have to tell you that your moccasins are more than something to wear on my feet. I LOVE wearing them, as they hug my feet, giving a sense of security, tenderness and love. I slow down my steps when wearing them…mindfulness? reverence for a feeling I don’t fully understand? I’ve already had the feeling that I NEED to put them on.  ~  Marge

I’ve still got boxes with beautiful shoes in the closet.   I don’t begrudge anyone their collections – shoes, teapots, cats, whatever.  I do hope for balance though, that excess for one no longer leads to lack for another.  The shoes in my closet are for special occasions and nights out, and boots for winter time.  And, it’s moccasin that I wear daily, rain or shine, while pushing a vacuum cleaner or attending a Sun Dance.

Madame’s taste is truly exquisite… I wonder if Imelda’s tastes are fine enough to appreciate Buffalo moccasin?

Mitakuye Oyasin  ~  All My Relations

 

https://vimeo.com/home/myvideos

Hector and Golem

“…Hector the Collector
Loved these things with all his soul–
Loved them more then shining diamonds,
Loved them more then glistenin’ gold….” 

I’ve been watching the changing landscape of winter – both the night sky and what can be seen of earth from where I stand.  The lake is full to overflowing.  Only the Oak trees are dressed with leaves now, the rusty-brown color of their death.  Waterfowl are on the move, some landing for a bit of respite, others with somewhere else to go.  Geese left their unwanted feathers in the yard this morning.  Songbirds are plenty.  And the Moon, differing with each day/night – she’s not particular when she’s seen – she just goes on shining, pulling the tides as they rise.  There is snow in the mountains this winter, quite a lot – I’m hopeful for a slow melt – life-giving water.  Uranus has moved direct, Mercury has gone retrograde again.  I feel so small.  Humbled.

Life is precious.

I’m not a Tolkien fan.  In his writings though, he created Golem and I have always found the fervor with which Golem seeks and cherishes his “precious” to be oddly heart warming.   And I’ll admit to feeling a little like Golem before medicine work came into my life.  My precious was how I felt about the random feathers or bit of bone, and stones and driftwood that I had amassed.  Precious, all of them.

Ever since medicine work revealed itself to me, it is clear why I am Hector the Collector.   And since then too, much of the natural bits, gifts from Maka, have long since been incorporated into some sacred object that has gone home with someone else.  These things were never meant for me.  I was only the custodian.  They were not my precious.  Mind you, I still have a collection of miscellaneous and random bits.  I am no longer attached.  They are not mine either.  Mine is an illusion.

What’s precious though is an infinitely long list.  Life is filled with what is precious – every second, every breath, the New Ones, our Elders, those who are on the front lines for Peace and caretaking Mother Earth, those who are making certain the children are fed and animals are cared for, family, friends, communities and Circles, the medicine work and the Seekers, et al, and on and on.

In this changing landscape of winter, as the sun drops beneath the clouds and a gentle rain falls, light is cast is across the water.  A duck quacks.  Life is precious.  Life is good and so very precious.

Mitakuye Oyasin  ~  All My Relations

 

Save the Date ~ LOVE Offering

Save the Date!  February 16, noon until 6pm.

Mark your calendars and join in to raise abundance for the Cocoon House, because every child deserves a home.

I know this is Valentine’s Day and what a perfect day for a ♥LOVE♥ offering!  Savor a leisurely morning in self-love.  Arrive at noon. Create a LOVE stitched rattle offering.  Complete early enough for more of the same self-love, shared-love kind of evening.

Let me explain myself… Whilst listening in prayer many months ago, they said make rattles with the homeless.  Hah? What? Excuse me?  A little clarification here please, because a rattle isn’t what I would think a homeless person might need.  This is me, arguing with Spirit, trying to make sense of it in my head.  Of course I cannot.  Each time I applied my mind, no obvious answers arose.  Never forgetting yet sort of putting it out of my head time passed.  After a while it comes up again.  No clear way forward. Then again.  And yet again.  Finally (I’m slow sometimes), I realized I’m in my head. Get out of my head for a solution and into my heart.

More than 34% of the total homeless population is under the age of 24. Cocoon House is a non-profit that conducts outreach to, and provides short and long -term housing for homeless and at-risk young people, including their children. Parents of teens can also find support for themselves and their families at Cocoon House so that young people do not become homeless.

The more I settled into my heart about this project, the more possibilities have come up as potential ways of following through on this request to serve.  And the challenges remain.  I am fully ready.  I have extended an offering to make rattles with homeless and been politely declined, “…our population isn’t interested…”.  I have been forward, offered as in-depth an explanation as possible.  Yet, every time, my request, regardless of how imaginative I’ve been in delivering the idea of crafting rattles with the homeless at drop-in and extended stay shelters, the offering has been rejected.

Undaunted, the idea of a gathering, of inviting people to come together to make a Love Offering flew out of my heart.

What I am suggesting and asking is that we come together in a Circle of loving support to sew rattles.  I am offering to hold space and host, teach the crafting as needed, I will offer all the materials. I’ll offer my prayers.  I am asking that you make an offering of your time, your hearts in crafting, your prayers and any monetary amount you can make.  All of the abundance collected, 100%,  will be gifted to the Cocoon House.  I encouraged you to feel free to take the rattle home with you, gift it to another or gift it to the Cocoon House.

In all my thinking about this, it is quite clear why a homeless person could benefit enormously for the medicine of a rattle, in a multitude of ways.  One step at a time though. I am hoping there will be so many of us coming together in Love and Compassion that we raise the vibration to help put an end homelessness.  All are welcome.

Thank you for your consideration.  Thank you for joining in community, to be in Love and make an offering with me, with Spirit, with the medicine of healing.  Please invite your family and friends.

Pilamaya! Pilamaya! Pilamaya!

Mitakuye Oyasin  ~  All My Relations

 

Winter 2015 Offerings

Open ~ Medicine Gift Crafting:  Create whatever you wish! How can I support you?  Announce your intention to attend, thank you.                 ♥ Offering ♥ Gratitude

  • December 12
  • December 13

Wing Medicine:  Craft a feather fan to cleanse and clear in your personal life and for professional practices.

Primary flight feathers of the Wild Turkey
Primary flight feathers of the Wild Turkey

Drum Birthing:  Send up a call, let the beat of your drum harmonize with the heartbeat of our Mother Earth.

The Hazelnut Circle Drum Birthing Day
The Hazelnut Circle Drum Birthing Day

Rattle Crafting: Move the energies, call your guides, meditate  and journey with these powerful tools.

Turtle Shell Rattles
Turtle Shell Rattles

L♥VE Offering  ~  Fund Raiser for Cocoon House

  • February 14 ~ Please Save the Date!  Details TBA soon.

Soles for the Soul:  Moccasin are for everyday wear, for ceremonies, moccasin for life!

Butter soft moose hide moccasin
Butter soft moose hide moccasin

Medicine Bags:  Personal, protective and private – honor the medicine that comes forward for you in a good way for the new year.

Talking Sticks:  Are you one who has been called to form a talking circle?   Many have in these times and it is good.  The talking stick is a respectful way to share and listen to what is on one another’s hearts.

Zsa Zsa's birthday Talking Stick workshop
Zsa Zsa’s birthday Talking Stick workshop

Leather Crafts:  Come sew, stitch your best intentions into the leather, create what you have a need for.  There will be cake.

Leather Pouches
Leather Pouches

Children’s Circle:  In a sacred way, each circle date is a unique exploration into the natural world.

  • December 19
  • January 9
  • February 13
  • March 13
Jill and Evander crafting medicine shields
Jill and Evander crafting medicine shields

Feeding the Fire Ceremony:  Celebrate the feminine by feeding the fire with Grandmother Moon.

  • January 22
  • March 25
Full Moon Feeding the Fire Ceremony
Full Moon Feeding the Fire Ceremony

Looking forward to spending time together working in a sacred way.  With gratitude.

Mitakuye Oyasin  ~  All My Relations