Theresa Crater

April Fool’s Day reminds me of switching the sugar and salt in their two bowls and giggling while my mother put salt in her coffee. It also makes me think of the Fool in Tarot.

The Fool is the first card in the Major Arcana with the number 0. But he’s also the last card, number 22. The Fool walks blightly out from the Absolute, the unified consciousness, as the first manifestation on the Tree of Life. He carries with him in his wallet all the knowledge he might need on his journey of creation, but that knowledge is in his wallet, not outside. This suggests that by stepping away from that all-knowing source, he’s already “forgotten” that he knows everything.

The Fool walks off a cliff, which to me shows the audacity of making that separation. He does this with a smile on his face. He’s accompanied by a little white dog. He carries a white rose.

The Fool always tells me to lighten up. Creation, life, the journey of manifestation, is not to be taken so seriously. After all, this separation is an illusion. It’s an experiment. We have all that we need to know in that wallet we carry. In the symbol of the White Rose. And we have the company of the always faithful White Dog.

Have a great April Fool’s Day.

This time of year is always special to me, because of childhood memories of beeswax candles and Moravian Advent stars, carols and choir rehearsals, putting up the tree, Moravian ginger spice cookies.

Then there’s Solstice, the darkest night, the longest, when the sun is rekindled in the womb of the Dark Mother. Always the deepest darkness regenerates us, even though we fight to avoid it. But once we surrender, we too are renewed.

At Solstice, the sun stops sinking low in the sky and pauses. For three days it stays still. Then on Christmas Day, it begins to climb higher again.

Solstice and Christmas bring many things, but the thing I prize the most is the stillness. In stillness and silence, all can be found.

I’m honored to have a story included in the anthology Ride the Moon from the new Canadian science fiction/fantasy press Tyche Books, Ltd. Just look at this list of great writers.

My story is “White Moon,” based on the story of the Mayan Goddess Ixchel. Ixchel is a moon goddess, the consort of the sun god, mother of the four jaguar priests. And it’s the name of the mystery crystal skull that was revealed at the 11.11.11 conference in L.A where my own consort, Stephen Mehler, was a guest speaker. The story includes Mayan mythology, magic, crystal skulls and sound healing.

In her myth cycle, Ixchel marries Itzamna, the sun, but grows tired of his hot temper. When she leaves him, she goes to her island, Cozumel, where she lives among women as a midwife and healer. I took this theme of the ebb and flow of relationships, and the ebb and flow of human consciousness.

A special note:  if you find that you resemble a character in this story, remember not to read too much into it. This is not really you, but a character in a story written for fun.

Today is Mabon, the Fall Equinox. The day and night are equal. The sun rises due east and sets due west. This is the harvest of fruits. Lammas (August 1st) began the harvest season with harvesting grains. In Greece it was the time of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a major initiation. It’s also my granddaughter’s birthday, and she’s bringing us a new life next year!

I remember watching my grandmother and her daughters can during August and September. She had a wood stove, so this was quite an undertaking. Someone stoked the fire, another cleaned the jars, another put the jars in the big pot to sertilize them. Then others were cutting up vegetables or fruits, putting them in the pot to cook just a bit. Then there was getting it in the jars, a touchy business. My favorite was waiting for the tops to seal with a wonderful pop. I was very young then, always underfoot until Grandmother decided to put me to work keeping the fire in the stove burning. It was hot in that kitchen, before air conditioning.

It’s harvest time. Time to enjoy the fruits of your garden, trees, writing, work and life.

Mystery writer Steve Berry puts a section at the end of his books that talks about what’s real and what’s made up. Yes, mystery and fantasy  writers do research and use it in their novels. What we do with that research is sometimes made-up, but it’s the mix of the real and the imagined that makes for a compelling read.

In Beneath the Hallowed Hill, Megan attends an Emergence Ceremony at the age of thirteen to discover her place in Atlantean society. She travels with her parents to the Temple of the Oracle where she consults with a circle of crystal skulls.

Crystal skulls do exist. Crystal skull researcher Nick Nocerino classified three types of crystal skulls:  contemporary (less than 100 years old), old (more than 100 years old), and ancient (more than 1,000 years old). There are thousands of contemporary crystal skulls carved in Latin America and China predominantly.

But why? After all, the skull and cross bones is used to label poison. We think of them as representing evil. Mexican and Latin cultures use these skulls on the Day of the Dead and to meditate on death, but the Maya see these skulls as images of enlightenment.

Why enlightenment? Next time you’re in a crowd of people, look around at all the faces. Notice how different everyone is. Yes, we have two eyes, one nose and mouth, etc. (for the most part), but we all have particular features and are each different from the other. But imagine the bone beneath the face. Imagine the skull. They all look alike.

The skull represents this underlying sameness. It represents Divine Consciousness, that I Am presence that we all are at our very foundation.

Are there really ancient crystal skulls? We’ll talk about that in another post.

Max, the Texas skull. Picture taken by Stephen Mehler.