Photo quote de jour


A silky smudge of ashes remains on my forehead as I write this. Growing up as a Lutheran, I went to church twice a year and never experienced Ash Wednesday or Lent. For most of my adult life I've derived my spiritual sustenance from Pagan or Wiccan practices and deep love of nature. I'm all about compassion and tolerance, peace and love but I balk at dogma. My interest in churches is solely about architecture or maybe history so it shocked me to feel at home at a church on Ash Wednesday no less. After a birthday lunch for a dear friend of mine, we planned a visit to her ancestor's grave located nearby in a churchyard of an utterly charming stone church. The rector invited us in and generously offered a tour of the spectacular stain-glass windows. Before you could say Mardi Gras, I  asked about Ash Wednesday and it felt right to receive his blessing of "Remember, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return" and so an Episcopalian, a Jew and and Pagan walked out with ashy crosses on our Goddess foreheads. It felt good being there. It felt good to open my mind to new doors. Call it the holy spirit, good vibes or whatever, but all three us are returning for Sunday service.

Some Christians may disagree with me about the origins of Ash Wednesday but the practice of smearing ashes on our forehead had its origins from Roman paganism, which in turn borrowed it from the Vedic practice in  India over 10,000 years ago. Ashes were called the seed of the fire god Agni, with power to forgive sins and symbolize of the purifying blood of Shiva. Ashes being the residue of fire, which in mythology claims to purify, regenerate and to bring new life.

During Rome's New Year Feast of Atonement in March, people wore sackcloth and bathed in ashes to atone for their sins. As the dying god of March, Mars took his worshipers sins with him into death at the end of winter. The carnival fell on dies martis, the Day of Mars. In English, this was Tuesday, because Mars was identified with the Saxon god Tiw. In French the carnival day was  called Mardi Gras or"Fat Tuesday," the day of merrymaking before Ash Wednesday.

I won't be fasting or giving up chocolate for Lent but I will be spending more time reflecting and meditating on widening rings of being like using the above quote by Rumi, a 12th C.Sufi (Muslim) mystic poet. Thank-you to Reverend Horace Choate and Dani for being kind and unwitting photographic subjects.