Solstice: The Darkest Night

Darkest Night

That moment of blindness,

Just before

We turn into radiance.

It is the point of transition;

From fear into hope,

And Despair into faith.

And when helplessness evolves into courage,

Inaction into resolve…

We heal from old wounds,

And become whole again…

We light the candles on the Tree of Life

As we turn from the darkest night;

To help illuminate the world.

T.Truesdale copyright 2006

The Eternal Mother: Celebrate all our sacred children past, present,future...

“The Madonna”

by Toni Truesdale

The beautiful dark Madonna comes down to us

from the our beginnings.

She has many names: Ana, Tiamat, Isis, Cybele,

Demeter, Sheba, Mary Magdalene,

Mary, mother of Christ,

Maya,  mother of Buddha,

Fatima’ daughter of Mohammed,

Nana Bakula, Spider Woman, First Woman,

Parvati, Oxum, Corn Maiden, Eurzuli,

Oya, Morrigan, Ishtar,Tara, Gaia, Saule, Amaterasu,

Coatlicue, Nerthus...

She is of the earth and the sky;

She is our mother and our mother’s mother, and so on

to the very first spark of life,

She is always,The Great Mother.

She is us. We are she.

Copyright 1976

Toni Truesdale.com

Calling all Healers to join together to save our Planet Earth

“Healing Light”

by Toni Truesdale

The archaic texts of the ancients

Allude to the talents of women:

Prophecy and healing.

The Oracles of the past were

Connected to groves, grottos and caves

Sacred to the feminine since creation.

They spoke in the language of poetry,

laughter and song;

For generations after generation

Back to the beginning...

They reach out to us now.

These talents were always to be shared in communities

Never for personal gain.

Today we are called now to use these inherited gifts

To help heal the Earth;

From one Wise Woman to another, across cultures.

Truesdale copyright 2010

ToniTruesdale.com

This Thanksgiving thank the Indigenous Farmers

“Basket of Life”

by Toni Truesdale

The indigenous people of the Americas developed

Crops for their nutritional value, taste and durability; taking hundreds of Years of botanical experiments.

Developed were at least five hundred kinds of corn.

Varieties also of beans, squash. potatoes, chili and melons were cultivated.

Gardens, often under the harshest of circumstances, produced the foods That would eventually feed the world.

Stone was used as mulch, water directed and hoarded.

As the desert was hoed into waffle gardens, mists were used as irrigation

In the heights of Peruvian mountains; where hundreds of types of produce

Were developed in the experimental terraced gardens.

Ancient seeds of beans long thought extinct have

Been found in caches in the arid canyons of Cedar Mesa, and regrown.

The diversity of our food returns to importance;

At the cusp of the disappearance of many varieties of fruits and vegetables.

So important were the life-giving crops that many

Traditional Indigenous stories refer to them;

Sacred women who are the Three Sisters;

Corn, Bean and Squash of the Northeast;

Corn Maiden/Mother of the Southwest.

As in the Creation tale from Sky City, Acoma, a divine sister holds

A Basket of Life reminding us to preserve,

The rich diversity of our food for future generations.

copyright T. Truesdale 2010

ToniTruesdale.com

Clans of Time

“The Clans of Time”

by Toni Truesdale

The Mothers, Grandmothers, Great Grandmothers, Sisters,

Aunts and Cousins of the Four Races

Bring life not only to the generations,

but gifts of the spirit as well.

They nurture and guide, teach, and love.

Through these women, life continues…

The offerings of the female are without measure.

So, to them, and all the generations before and the ones to come,

we give thanks....

T.Truesdale  copyright 1980

Reclaiming the Mythology of Female Power

“Reclaiming the Sphinx”

by Toni Truesdale

Through the shadow of changing perspectives,

The Sphinx makes her reappearance.

Across centuries, from the ancient mideast,

Transforming mythology back into

Her original identity.

Guardian of the Great Tree of Life

Female, kind, wise, protective, regal...

The sphinx has lived quietly in our genetic memory.

The demon monster that

Haunts the Oedipus of Sophocles,

Was just a mirror of

His own fear, fate and lustful destiny,

That set him on his careless path,

And left a legacy of misogyny;

Freud tried to explain the complexity

Of the male transferring blame

Instead of accepting responsibility.

Copyright 1988 T. Truesdale

Time to Create: Muses

Muses I

 Toni Truesdale

For most western artists “The Muses”

Were never relegated to mythology stories;

But have stayed alive to inspire culture.

The word “Museum” is derived from from this Greek Triad.

The sacred three women are not culturally exclusive,

For not only were the Triple Goddesses dominant

In the ancient world for many years,

But also, they were worshiped  all over Europe in many manifestations:

The Fates, Norns, Moirai, Laimus, Skuld, Nona, Zorya, Wyrd,

The European Mothers, Matres, Graces, Crone, Maiden, and Child;

The Furies,  Morrigan, Morgana and Morguese...

Are just some of the identities

Of the very powerful “three women”.

Truesdale Copyright 2004

The Seasons of Water

Seasons of Water

Fine rain springs into new growth,

Virga evaporates into the summer haze.

Monsoons torrent sudden and clean;

The fast freeze of hail in the high desert.

The sudden clap of thunder in the languid night,

As the curtain of rain lulls us asleep.

The blankets of snow melt

Into moist Mother Earth

To refresh the seasons.

The smell of water coming from the sky

Is like love, in all its cycles.

Copyright T.Truesdale 2014

Tonitruesdale.com

Eulogy

For the Children

Our nation reels with Mother’s tears

For American Black boys and men over the years;

The brutal remains of the innocent we bear

To their stark and premature graves

.

The young in their virility stripped of humanity,

We must ask who then are we?

If we do not demand accountability;

Of all those deeds that made our Mothers cry,

Just why did this democracy allow them to die?

Copyright 2018 T. Truesdale

The Mystery of the Ocean: All our Relations

The surety of the tides

Swelling of the sea,

Rhythms on the sands

Mesmerizing me...

The cosmos of the moment

Repeating endlessly

The cycles of the Moon

The Earth breathes in eternity...

Toni Truesdale.com

copyright 2010

The Children of Wars, Pawns and Victims of Genocide

“Geronimo’s Daughter”

By Toni Truesdale

To speak of an advanced society,

What would one say?

Would one talk about superiority

Over vulnerability?

Or the human heart’s capacity

For a compassionate society?

What then is the true name of Manifest Destiny;

That murders indigenous children, physically

Or steals and binds them psychologically?

And, how does one justify war?

In the name of territory,

religion, assets,

Or financially?

What kind of values would that be;

In a spiritual society?

or, does one want to simply protect progeny;

To allow them to inherit property;

In an established hierarchy?

If one leaves behind

Shards of children,

Is that called a legacy?

T.Truesdale copyright 2010

Sanctuary: Our Home, Our World, Our Mother

Sanctuary

Darkness breaks into the light of day

In the relentless round of the seasons

Cycle the distance of the sun

Cradled into the womb of the sky system

To which we belong,

That swirls back into infinity…

We barely permeate continuous creation

With our small human conscious mind

From this planet, Earth.

Home to the tangled connections

That comprise this web of life, here;

So many delicate species within,

 Our myriad complexity

Born from our Mother, this world.

Spawn of the haphazard universe;

Accident of light and matter;

Our Sacred Sanctuary.

Copyright T.Truesdale 2018

ToniTruesdale.com

The Mothers

For all the Mothers who have raised children without Fathers

For all the Mothers who have been separated from their children

For all those that understand the bond between Mother and their child: 

Little Blessings

Little blessings

Every daybreak;

For spirits to watch over us

As we go about a busy day.

For our children to be well,

Healthy and thrive;

And our loved ones, sometimes

Far away, to be protected

And angels to smile upon us..

Let us use our small prayers

To show respect and understanding

That we are part of the universal family

That dwells in thanksgiving

On this beautiful World,

Together

Every time we say our;

Little blessings...

copyright 2010

Falling into Stars

Falling into Stars

We are all here in this dreaming moment,

Looking into a boundless night;

That may compel a vertigo

To return into the womb of cosmic creation.

Evolving from the infinite stars

Fragments of motion

Collide with matter to

Spin fragments into motion,

Fused further by random ubiquitous forces;

Continually transforming millennia

Into tentacles of related beings that emerge

Into the ever-evolving universe.

Copyright T. Truesdale 2018

Tonitruesdale.com

                            

Good Friends: Great Mother

“Good Friends”

by Toni Truesdale

The Great Mother;

Her relationship to

Animals, birds, and plant life

Has been depicted on walls,

Caves, alcoves, and sacred spaces

In constant commemoration;

By all ancient cultures.

We hold in commonality,

Our love of our Earth, our Home,

Our Mother.

T.Truesdale copyright

May Day, May Day

May Day, May Day.

Turning Point: Action Required:

Poisonous chemicals color rivers and streams; Ground waters run toxic,

Ocean dead zones expand

As sea creatures struggle with our plastic waste .

Our lands are being stripped and broken;

In pursuit of fossil fuels that belch out greenhouse gasses.

Expanding housing and gleaning, Stripping the forests, farms






Destroying age-old civilizations.

The impoverished perish with spreading disease, desertification






and from rising vector lines;

The swelling of waters swamp fragile sea coats.

Chemicals, petroleum and nuclear accidents endanger entire ecosystems,

Extinctions accelerate.

Yet we continue to prevail destruction upon the sacred earth.

Land, sea, waters, air once pristine not long ago. Are wastelands expanding daily

To suffocate all life on Earth. Warned by the Indigenous peoples of the world.

We wonder now with the knowledge of the perceptions foretold.

But who among us will stand?





There is only one world,

Every culture on earth has a sacred name for her. Where humans migrated,

A word expressed love, sustenance, thanks To the great, common Mother.

May we remember them now.

It is our only sanctuary, Earth

Toni Truesdale 2017

Art: Santuary copyright 2018

Letter to our Planet

The rolling back of environmental regulations and protections just have opened the door for dire risks. The health and safety of our children, families and communities are now so greatly endangered.

How is it that the Congress has turned their backs on the American people? We all need clean water to drink, clean air to breathe, and unpolluted food. Our sustainable future is in jeopardy. We only have one world, but we need some “common sense” laws to contain the greed and profits of the few that will so obviously sacrifice the well being of the future.

We cannot claim ignorance of the impact of modern human imprint on the ocean, waters, air. The evidence is so apparent regardless of the gaslighting being done by the wealthy donors influencing our elected officials.

I am counting on you to help protect the people that elected you from these serious rollbacks of protections. Pruitt is the fox in the hen house, determined to give up any guidelines that provided some safety from corporate greed that appear to have so little regard for health impact on all Americans but especially the vulnerable children and elderly.

Those that do not wish to see the impact of climate change on our rising sea, severity of storms, impact on our natural world and changing agricultural season only see the impact of their donations on their political goals from right wing superpacs instead.

You need to act now to prevent further damage to the environment that sustains us all.

We cannot ignore the science, the evidence and the search for solutions.

This is bipartisan and can no longer keep putting a sustainable future off to the next congressional session.

Act now, to take out Pruitt from the EPA.

Image Red Rain by Truesdale is copyrighted

Severing those Ties That Bind, the connections that dwarf and inhibit growth. Keeping those that sustain and nurture.

                                       The Divine Goddesses, The Eternal Spinster: Ties That Bind

Connecting each to each...

The clever spider Goddess of the Ainu,

Entwines her fabric into the threads of life.

The Moirae: Atropas, Clotho and Lachesis

Spin, measure and cut each destiny.

The Arabic Fate sisters, too:

Marat, Allat and Al'uzza

Bind us to all that has been.

Nordic Frigga ravels and unravels human existence.

Ana of the most ancient Mideast created the world,

Interlacing the woof and warp of the universe;

As is the duty of the Spider Woman of the Dine.

Binding and unwinding Penelope rewove each day:

 Arachne leaves her tears on the everlasting web...

Moon spirits thread the Dayak,

Nais, Sumatran, Objiwa, Cherokee, Chinese and Egyptian stories

From continent to the islands;

Across the Earth.

Teutonic Holda and Bertha sew

The Textiles of Life;

Separating, severing and repairing...

Artemis, Athene, Aphrodite, all

Telling the tales of the wisdom of women

Endlessly;

From land to sky,

Creator to child,

Leaves to the wind...

The Legacies of  the eternal Spinsters.

copyright T. Truesdale 1998