Usas, Writing and Working
Yesterday, I sat at my computer. I'd gone to bed at gods-know-what hour after suffering through a major headache on Saturday, and woken up with suddenly nearly an enitre day to do two things:
The second thing was sit down and move my book another step toward publication.
As I was writing a passage for the book, working on the "meat" of the book, which is chapter 6, "Deepening Your Practice," I found myself writing about sunrise rituals. I remembered the first time I had seen the sun rise, back when I was almost 19 years old, and thought about the effect it had on me.
Then I thought about my most recent actions regarding the sunrise, I realized that I had experienced the expanding days with a particular joy: Soon, I would be able to hold sunrise and sunset rituals again. Just today, it seems, the dawn comes at a time when I can rise before her, prepare the sacrifices, do my ritual, and still make it to work on time. I have truly missed this, and tomorrow morning I will re-start my dawn/sunset rituals.
I found myself, entirely to my surprise, suddenly writing about Usas, dancing on the rim of the world. She is the last of all dawns that came before her, and the first of all dawns that will come after her. She is that beautiful maiden whose bosom, rising from the waters of her bath, drenches the sky in the hues of morning. She opens the gates of heaven, the ways for Surya, the sun. She is greeted by those who make generous sacrifices and ignored by those who do not. It is almost as if the sacrifice can afford you a glimpse of her beauty, and it will forever affect you.
It strikes me as odd, that Usas and Ratri, so tied to perfect order, should call so strongly to me. Usas holds my heart, but there is a love for Ratri, too, and her prayers come at sunset. My facination with Usas might come from my stint as Surya at Walking With Fire in 2005, but it's hard to say. I suspect that it has more to do with the fact that I have done these dawn rituals, that I've seen Usas first hand, and every morning I fell in love with her again.
I agree with MacDonell, that there truly is no other figure in literature nor myth who is as charming or described with more deep love and emotion as Usas. I smile when I see the dawn, that knowing smile a lover gives to his beloved. I know how the poets felt when they saw her, and I know what they thought when they thought of her. I don't feel as if I can speak and do justice to her, and the things I write are never as beautiful as she.
Praised through my prayer are you who should be lauded. You have increased our wealth, Usas who loves us.
Goddesses, may we win, by your good favour, wealth to be told by hundreds and thousands.
- Practice my ASL
- Work on my book
The second thing was sit down and move my book another step toward publication.
As I was writing a passage for the book, working on the "meat" of the book, which is chapter 6, "Deepening Your Practice," I found myself writing about sunrise rituals. I remembered the first time I had seen the sun rise, back when I was almost 19 years old, and thought about the effect it had on me.
Then I thought about my most recent actions regarding the sunrise, I realized that I had experienced the expanding days with a particular joy: Soon, I would be able to hold sunrise and sunset rituals again. Just today, it seems, the dawn comes at a time when I can rise before her, prepare the sacrifices, do my ritual, and still make it to work on time. I have truly missed this, and tomorrow morning I will re-start my dawn/sunset rituals.
I found myself, entirely to my surprise, suddenly writing about Usas, dancing on the rim of the world. She is the last of all dawns that came before her, and the first of all dawns that will come after her. She is that beautiful maiden whose bosom, rising from the waters of her bath, drenches the sky in the hues of morning. She opens the gates of heaven, the ways for Surya, the sun. She is greeted by those who make generous sacrifices and ignored by those who do not. It is almost as if the sacrifice can afford you a glimpse of her beauty, and it will forever affect you.
It strikes me as odd, that Usas and Ratri, so tied to perfect order, should call so strongly to me. Usas holds my heart, but there is a love for Ratri, too, and her prayers come at sunset. My facination with Usas might come from my stint as Surya at Walking With Fire in 2005, but it's hard to say. I suspect that it has more to do with the fact that I have done these dawn rituals, that I've seen Usas first hand, and every morning I fell in love with her again.
I agree with MacDonell, that there truly is no other figure in literature nor myth who is as charming or described with more deep love and emotion as Usas. I smile when I see the dawn, that knowing smile a lover gives to his beloved. I know how the poets felt when they saw her, and I know what they thought when they thought of her. I don't feel as if I can speak and do justice to her, and the things I write are never as beautiful as she.
Praised through my prayer are you who should be lauded. You have increased our wealth, Usas who loves us.
Goddesses, may we win, by your good favour, wealth to be told by hundreds and thousands.