doorways

Fire-Breathing Dragons – Day 1016

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Kind of looks like a Teenage Ninja Turtle – Photo: L. Weikel

Fire-Breathing Dragons

There was a lot of cloud action going on today during my walk, from portals to Beings to fire-breathing dragons. When I first started out, I saw a distinctively rectangular shaped ‘hole’ in a massive cloud bank immediately in front of me. I stopped to photograph it because it sort of defied the look of most cloud portals (doorways into other realms). While portals are definitely not limited to simply round holes in the sky, it could be argued that classic portals are often either round holes or rectangles that resemble doorways.

Thus, the sideways rectangle that initially caught my attention felt odd. It was, one could argue, a doorway on its side. But it looked and felt different. Unique. Perhaps it was the clearly defined right angles that, for whatever reason, felt distinctive and a bit out of place.

So I decided to take a photograph of this oblong hole in the clouds. Once I did, though, I couldn’t unsee the huge face of a Cloud Being that revealed itself to me. How could I have missed the mirth-filled face smiling down upon me?

Dragon Rising! – Photo: L. Weikel

An Hour Later

Nearly an hour later, I encountered more clouds that refused to be ignored.

Hardest to ignore was a dragon with upward extended bat-like wings that caught my eye. It was clear this dragon was scorching the air with its fiery breath as it rose to gain a better vantage point over the countryside.

But when I zoomed in to take a closer photo of the head of this fire-breathing dragon, I noticed that it, too (like the giant cloud being, above), appeared to be…happy.

Laughter and smiles from the two most prominent cloud beings appearing in the sky today. With all the ominous and threatening, billowing and dangerous storm clouds and thunderheads that have been frequenting us lately, I have to admit these harbingers of happiness were an unexpected and most welcome surprise, especially given my cranky attitude at the outset of my journey.

Their smiles were contagious, both then and now. I’m grateful for the laughter I see in both.

Close-up of (laughing) fire-breathing dragon – Photo: L.Weikel

(T-95)

Portals – Day 995

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Two of Wands – Rider, Waite, Smith deck – Photo: L. Weikel

Portals

A friend asked me the other day about the concept of portals and the number 11. After I mentioned the connection between the two in a recent post, she wondered whether the connection between 11s and portals is consistent between astrology, numerology, and shamanic work (where traveling between realms is an essential aspect of the tradition).

As an artist, she could easily see how the number 11 resembles the two sides of a doorway. But her question plumbed far deeper than the superficial observation.

In my experience, two pillars, but possibly two of almost anything depending upon context, often evoke the energetic desire of the observer to go through or between them. There’s an etheric barrier implied, an energetic tension between the two columns, that beckons to be pierced.

Maybe it’s the tendency for us humans to be fixated on duality that fosters this sense. We tend to see duality all over the place: in/out, up/down, male/female, black/white. So of course if there’s a threshold in front of us, there’s the tendency for us to think in terms of here/there.

Where?

A doorway intuitively leads us from here to there. So it’s a significator; it announces to us that we are leaving where we’ve been and entering new or different territory.

I can’t remember where or from whom I first learned that 11s are portals. I think it was probably more of a symbolic association than anything else. But as soon as I began my metaphysical studies almost 40 years ago, I realized how prevalent is the consideration of 11s as something special.

Tarot

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, it took me a long time to feel comfortable exploring the tarot. But once I realized its value as an amazing means of accessing psychological and spiritual insight, the symbolism – when I gave myself permission to free associate – seemed to just fall into place intuitively. Although when I reread that sentence, I wonder if it was the development of my confidence in my ability to intuit symbols that finally helped me appreciate the value of the tarot.

Hmm. A thought for another time.

All I can say at this moment in time is that pondering this question has made me pull out a bunch of 11s in just one tarot deck. I want to use them as examples of how they lead from one state of reality, understanding, awareness, or experience to another.

But it’s taking me down a rabbit hole and I realize I don’t have nearly enough time to explore this and have some fun with it.

11s

Suffice it to say for the moment that I have a special relationship to 11s. Not only do I have 11s showing up for myself numerologically, but of course Karl died on 11/11/11. I’ve always felt he couldn’t resist all the portals that showed up in front of him – so he went through and didn’t return.

For now, I’m just going to comment on how the Two of Wands, pictured above, shows a person on the brink of moving out into a whole new world. He just needs to go through the doorway formed by the Wands on either side of him. It’s his choice. The world is in his hands.

And there’s a lot more for us to explore.

(T-116)

Portals – Day 731

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11:11 Medallion – Photo: L. Weikel

Portals

Today, of course, was the 11th day of November. 11/11. A day of portals, doorways, openings in time and space.

A day doesn’t go by that I don’t contemplate – if every so briefly – how our eldest son, Karl, facing the myriad array of portals on that fateful evening of 11/11/11 at 11:11 p.m., decided on an unconscious level that all those doorways to utterly new experiences beckoning to him were simply too enticing.

Timing and circumstances.

A New Perspective

I’ve always been aware that Karl died on Veterans Day. He didn’t serve in any of the armed forces, so I never sensed any particular connection between his death and the celebration of this national holiday.

This year, however, my attention was drawn to the fact that Veterans’ Day used to be called Armistice Day. Somewhere deep in my memory banks I’m sure I knew this; surely I learned it in a high school history class. But the holiday was changed to Veterans Day in 1954 – five years before I was born – and in the ‘70s, it seems like there was a lot more focus on either the here and now or the future, and much less on the past. In the ‘70s, World War I seemed a distant memory, eclipsed by the fact that World War II proved it was not, in fact, the ‘War to End All Wars,’ and both the Korean War and Vietnam shunted WWI even further down the memory hole.

Perhaps because of the pandemic we’re experiencing and the coordination between Armistice Day and the Spanish Flu of 1918, Armistice Day has been catching my attention more this year. Even when our Covid-19 was just taking root here and around the world, in the first three months of 2020, I remember reading about the dangers of a ‘second wave.’

Second Wave

Of course, back in March many in our country were (and still are) in denial that a pandemic is raging through our country. The thought that a ‘second wave,’ exponentially greater than the first could hit us in the fall of 2020 and winter of 2021, was pretty well ignored. But I remember reading stories at the time about Armistice Day – November 11th, 1918 – and how people gathered in great throngs throughout the country, mostly without masks, to celebrate the cessation of fighting. Shortly after this great celebration, the pandemic spread like wildfire, killing more than had died in the war itself.

It was actually only this very morning that I realized that Armistice Day was established because the agreement to cease fire between the warring nations in WWI was formalized at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In fact, one article I read this morning even suggested that it was at the 11th minute of the 11th hour.

I didn’t realize the significance of all of those 11s in the establishment of Armistice Day.

One definition given for the word armistice is: An agreement for the cessation of active hostilities between two or more belligerents. (www.brittanica.com)

This calls to mind the significance of all the 11s. The confluence of all these portals created an opportunity for the world to work together, to walk through a doorway to new ways of working together and creating a better world.

And yet…those portals also opened up the citizens of the world to the spread of a deadly contagion. Why? A big reason was a reluctance to wear masks, as if the call to do so was some sort of oppression.

Natural portal – Photo: L. Weikel

More Reflection

So much of what I’m writing right now is just pouring out of my fingertips and demanding greater reflection.

There is something to the concept of thresholds being created (or at least represented) by the number 11 and the opportunities or perils, depending upon one’s perspective, that await discovery ‘on the other side.’

Perhaps I should have started writing this particular post a bit earlier this evening. Maybe I’ll engage in further contemplation in the days to come. All I know is, I feel like there’s something bigger right now for us to be looking at and perhaps learning from history.

Are we capable of moving through the portals available to us, calling a ceasefire to the insanity we’ve endured for the past four years (or more), and choosing to embrace a new vision of a future of cooperation?

(T-380)