Mundane, Miraculous & Prayerful Mysteries
Miscellaneous musings with listicles, magical connections, and sharing of gifts
🔊 “Tayo ay magmahalan, ating sundin ang gintong aral, at magbuhat ngayon kahit hindi pasko ay magbigayan.”1
Good tidings and Happy Winter Solstice!
May you find peace in the promise of the solstice night,
That each day forward is blessed with more light.
That the cycle of nature, unbroken and true,
Brings faith to your soul and well-being to you.
Rejoice in the darkness, in the silence find rest.
In Old English, weorthscipe was used for worthiness or acknowledgement of worth, now more commonly treated with skepticism when it comes to acts of worship/worth-ship. I still value the evolving traditions of the Agapé - the breaking of bread as practical act of sharing a meal together and giving thanks. Cheers, for the festivus, to allow the honouring of divine threads. May we have ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts to feel touched and moved.
Child's Clay HHG by A.G.G | https://www.instagram.com/alexgavinartist
Broken open and scattered on the table
The Royal Horticultural Society (UK’s leading gardening charity) claims that Britons eat more Brussels sprouts than any other nation in Europe. My oriental childhood didn’t include this green vegetable, but I have come to enjoy eating them as part of embracing Brit-ish customs. I’m particularly delighted that these miniature cabbages grow on stalks, and there’s something wonderfully symbolic about it that appeals to me, with regards to circumstances of being ‘bunched together’ with kin and kind.
The occasions when one might have many of their favourite people at the table, are both frequent and few, depending on contexts. I’ve been hosting Sanctuary Suppers with folks since launching this newsletter. Though it’s quite an undertaking to have all those whom I approach as friends, to be at the same sitting, I place some of their names here in the list below.
Here’s giving due thanks and praise for the lovely inspiring people I’ve come to know, who con-tributed to making me better at playing human.
READING, WRITING, ARITHMETIC🔴
- US/Canada: Join a book club that is an antidote to technological anxieties, Understanding Media Part II (Jan 2025)
- Ask Andrew about the limited and vintage pack of playing cards from 1969, Distant Early Warning
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- There’s much to ponder about Diets & Deities in particular. Gratitude too for his donation of hard-bound Dark Mountain chronicles to my library.
🔴 Hashi Mohamed
- From Somali refugee to barrister, broadcaster and author of People Like Us and A Home Of One’s Own.
🔴 + The Resonant Interval
- A co-host of , writes about Chalking The White Horse and why it is annually re-chalked and restored by enthusiastic volunteers (like myself).
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- choose a range of books here
- UK/EU: book yourself a writing course, Notes of Memory (Jan 2025)
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- Marcus John Henry Brown provides corporate artistry products: A Wicked Pack of Cards, The Speakery Presentation Canvas, and an event in the Bavarian Alps called Speakery Summit.
- I also recommend downloading the free 90-Waypoint Walking Map if you are into flaneuring and the psychogeographical
MYSTICAL & MUSICAL WANDERINGS🔴
- choose albums and songs from his bandcamp here
- his new book has been published, Messianic Commons: Images of the Messiah after Modernity
🔴 Hazel Evans + The Sovereign Journey
- Because Divination really is an art, and the original futures foresight skill, so get your hands on the Soul Prophecy Oracle Card Deck
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- Everyone should know at least one campfire song, and Hey Moon deserves to be memorised and sung. I’ve been fortunate enough to learn this a capella with Joel under moonlight past midnight hours.
🔴 Semra Haksever
- All things benevolently Wicked & Witchy? Look no further, from Mama Moon Candles, Spell Books to Oracle Cards - remember to Honour The Flame.
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- What are your plans for the next Leap Year? How about Circling The Square Mile? If you truly believe in Enchantment, join the resistance, by planting bronze mushrooms to create the world’s largest faery ring, maybe even eat a rose.
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- There’s much to Unsee about The Future, and I’m grateful for being allowed to be my full weird self with this music maker and creative fellow for many episodes of Hopeychattybits.
ARTEFACTS & OTHER CURIOS🔴 Smithery + Card Toolkits
- Prepare your friends for the 2025 resolutions and upgrade their stationery stash for playful idea wranglers
- Schedule one Friday a month, for an hour, to join Cardstock - a meetup I co-host for those who use ‘card decks’ in their creative and professional endeavours
Sanctuaries of Silent Nights, Sighs of Sorrow
and Sing-alongs
Being born in the Philippines secured hearty memories of Christmas, thanks to the country’s bountiful religious festivities and community-seeped rituals. Beyond nativity plays, there’s the crafting of bamboo or capiz star lanterns (parols), and of course, typical karaoke - which by the way, was originally invented not by the Japanese, but a Roberto Rosario. One could say Filipinos are musical by cultural default, and I remain fond of singing with choirs, kirtans, and ‘glee clubs’ like Some Voices. Falalalala, la la la la. I wonder how many household doors will receive knocks from genuine carol-ling troupes?
Tip #1 for dealing with whatever emotions will be unboxed in the days to come: If you can’t sing, try anyway, hum, listen to songs, play some tunes. Allow for music to be medicinal.
One can choose to be an agent of compassion, peace, and joy, however piece-meal it might be. Conscious breathwork and movement is within our ‘circle of control’ too. And if all else fails, there is much holiness in tears.
Remember, that whatever you feel, you are not the first, and nor will you be the last.
Tip #2 is to learn a new game, or revisit an old one.
Silence is still golden, rest is sacred where we can get it, and meditation is really a game-changer. Quiet can convert into equanimity, and in absence of laughter or vocal chatter, there’s opportunity to write some love letters or diary entries. Reading books of course, are portals to other worlds. But really, attempt to fiddle with dice, or shuffle some cards. Of course I *do* recommend backgammon; it’s better than chess.
I won’t malign going online as one of the things people will inevitably do, but to add to that, what curious object might reveal a secret or interesting new fact?
Tip #3 is to treat whatever abode you’re in as some form of ‘escape room’ - less about wanting to be elsewhere, and more about going on some scavenger hunt.
Old photographs are always worth the memory lanes, but you might discover some serendipitous keepsake or relic hidden in drawers and shelves, seeking to recite a backstory.
"We may have to seek some solitude, but let's not isolate from the marvellous." - Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the wild in the time of the spyglass
Blast from the past: homework
One of the challenges when I studied Understanding Media from 2022-2023, was to ‘write a poem or song, to a piece of technology dear to your heart’. Here’s my offering from that archive of assignments:Precious baby moments
and important sacraments
that my mother put together,
Memories since childhood, collected
in biscuit tins, shoe boxes, albums bound in leather.
You had to be there,
for all the parties and poses
as significant family member,
hired professional documenters, or steadily assisted
by the tripod and a timer.
Rituals are marked by film, flash, focus lens,
Mementos of what took place in presence,
which we return to again in past and future tense.
What’s identity without the headshot
snapped in some hand-held frame?
It appears
We desire to exist
beyond just alphabetical name.
I learned to speak cheese, before discovering
how much I’d relish its slices of
laugher, banter and chatter,
Rehearsed types of smiles, shied away sometimes,
finding angles that flatter.
Special courses taught and taken, preaching dark room techniques,
Revealing the secrets of so much
work behind mere viewpoints and clicks.
Louis Daguerre’s magic box that dared portray
beings in light,
continued designs of arrangements,
replicas of delights by sight.
Gadgets we branded Leica, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, etcetera
Whatever prized capture that
sought all visible ephemera.
Action! Attention! An ongoing escalation
of imaginative generation!
Data info-graphs of photos taken by equipment
exposing The Self’s cultural veneration.
A thousand words, at least! required
to paint but one aspect of your value,
Let’s face it, you’re quite a best home appliance way before sliced bread, and I love you.
On mobile screens that talk and call,
mirror, pocket reflector off the wall,
Are you the fairest time trap of all?
You might seem a profane chiaroscuro, a solipsistic sink of story holes,
but dearest camera, oh looking glass through which we scope our souls.
Thank you for preserving
treasure troves of infinite meaning,
Letting us emerge
such varieties of countless becoming.
Mostly, you and I
aid in experience of heartfelt bliss,
When we see the beloved,
who we’ll miss.
“Kodak-an mo naman ako!” beckons a request in Tagalog Filipino,
“Take my picture, please” is the bequest, myriad shapes we cherish and deeply care for so.
Hi, I’m Rina - I enjoy being of service as a games sommelier and kundalini yoga instructor should you wish to implement any wellbeing projects for others, and/or for yourself! I should be available on Boxing Day (26th December) for any reader/s who would like some online conversations or oracle consultations.
I’m open to receiving new artwork submissions of pomegranate orbs!
Finally, for those looking for some words of enchantment of the ordinary, I suggest John Bunyan’s Poetry: Divine Emblems - Temporal Things Spritualised
We manage candles when they take the fire;
God men, when he with grace doth them inspire.
And biggest candles give the better light,
As grace on biggest sinners shines most bright.
The candle shines to make another see,
A saint unto his neighbour light should be.
- Meditations Upon a Candle
Tayo ay magmahalan / Let us love one another
Ating sundin ang gintong aral / Let us follow the golden rule-lesson
At magbuhat ngayon kahit hindi pasko ay magbigayan / Carrying on from now, let’s give generously even if it’s not Christmas