Queen of the Road!

I made it home! I was on the road just about eleven hours (including a long lunch break and a 30 minute nap in the mid-afternoon). I'm close to exhausted and still feel like I'm moving at 70 mph.

It was an incredible trip: 450 miles to oakmouse's house, having a deer cross directly toward me across a main arterial early Friday morning, walking around the town buying gifts for Wolfling and becoming addicted to beads (wait until you see my first project!), then a drive to and up a mountain with walking around, and then a 450 mile trip home.

In addition to the good folks I met with Oakmouse, I had the pleasure of dining with sannion and erl_queen on the outbound trip and Hob on the way home.

The point of the trip, the initiation, went very well. I'm still processing what is and is not appropriate to share about that, and under what filters. More later, as energy, time and discretion permit.

Because of Mom's bone scan tomorrow and the wait until Thursday for the results, Wolfling is staying with my sister until Thursday night. I miss her a lot, but she's having a good time. I'll be able to enjoy the time alone in my own space this evening, including the use of the jacuzzi tub to relieve my tense muscles, but I really, really could use some kid hugs and snuggles right now.

Priestess Necklace

My teacher makes prayer beads, and I have been so impressed and moved by her work that I overcame my own fear of handiwork (I have a lousy track record!) and asked if we could do some beading together while I visited. She was happy to agree, and I even stopped into a local store and bought some beads before I went down. (I was going to write Oooh! Shiny! but my beads were more rocky and crackly.)

Saturday after we'd both had some time to decompress after the initiation ritual, we decided to walk into town so I could buy a souvenier for my kid and we could visit 'her' bead store. I found even more lovely beads -- and even more importantly, a silver medallion that just said "Ereshkigal" to me.

You see: I'm not aware of any ancient visual representations of Ereshkigal. I've created a devotional collage (posted here several months ago) from images that speak to me of Her, but I can't go online and order a replica statue. This medallion (behind the cut below) is suggestive of Kali, but I don't actually connect the figure to any specific goddess. She is clearly -- to me -- a Dark Goddess, and definitely resonates with the "terrible" aspect of Ereshkigal. (She does have a "lovely" aspect too.)

I brought the medallion and a few dozen more beads back to my teacher's house, and was given the use of a beading tray, some tigertail, some crimp beads, and generous assistance. What I ended up with was an extremely satisfying priestess necklace which commemorates my initiation.

I'm not the best photographer, and the full beauty of the beads seem to require better lighting than I have. I'll see if I can get something better later. But I'm eager to share now. One set is on a gold cloth background and brings out the rich color of the beads; the others are in daylight and give better clarity.

( Photos behind the cut )

*sigh

I'm really not looking forward to going back to work on Tuesday.
I'd much rather remain in sacred/journey time.
But the rent must be paid. . .

My consolation is that when I do go back, I will be wearing this: the necklace I made to commemorate my initiation.

( Photos below the cut )