Fun Fact

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There is a saying, up north, which goes something like this:

"Young women should not go out in the northern lights. They could get pregnant".

A couple of friends were up in the Yukon a few years ago and experienced this first-hand.

See, that far north, the Aurora Borialis aren't just sheets of flame shimmering green in the sky. The magnetic field actually affects your body.
In a very plesant, but somewhat inconvenient way. :-)

Apparently one turned to the other and said "Where are our men when we need them?"

I will have to use this fun fact in a story some time. :-)


In other news: I went to Paul's convocation last night. Saw Cossima there. That was cool and unexpected. :-)
Along with his BNHC, and his advanced herbalist and aromatherist certificates, he also got: The Natural Health Sciences education award, and the Research award. (Go him!) And he was valedictorian.
Wah. :-D
Everyone took time to tell me that I had a really great guy which, of course, I knew already. :-)
I danced a lot. (Sometimes I was the only one dancing. Silly non-dancing people...) And it was fun. :-)


And now, because I've been wanting to write it down and, hey, Full Moon's on monday (I think).


Maia is, as we all know, queen of wisdom and waters and of the darkened sky. However, there a time, when She was young, and the Earth was young, and only Time was old, that she was not so wise. Clever, certainly, but not yet quick enough to realize that clever isn't always impressive.
She was, however, smart enough to recognize that she wanted to get smarter. So, she spoke to Makaa, the Changing One, who knew the secrets of Time and guarded the gate of Life and Death, saying:
"Oh, wise one, you teach me what you know?"
And Makaa who, knowing the ways of fate, knew this would happen, said: "I will teach you, on one condition: That you find your way into my realm on your own, with no help form any other."
Maia accepted the terms of the offer, knowing what they meant.
You see, no-one, not even a god, can enter Makaa's Halls without first letting go her body and dying.
But. Maia knew that there were two roads to Makaa's Halls. The road of stone, under the northern mountains, and the road of water, deep under the earth. And Maia held sway over the waters.
For there is a saying: "All rivers lead to the Deeps". Maia knew that some river, or creek or stream, flowing underground, would lead to the river of Time that flowed through Makaa's realm. And so she searched. For many nights she searched, her face shining fully on the Earth, giving light in the darkness, until one night she found it.
A narrow, white-water river that rushed down into a deep cavern, and did not rise above the ground again. And so she followed this river, deep into the dark of the Earth, down and down it rushed, until at last it joined with the wide, swift waters of Time which carried her to the green, green fields of Makaa's realm. With feet of flesh and blood and bone did Maia tread the green, green turf, as she walked to Makaa's Hall, enfleshed and living.

Now, Makaa often appears as a grandmother, albeit the sort of grandmother who, upon discovering your hand in the cookie-jar will smile at you with a gleam in her eye and say "Did I mention I had some leaves that needed raking?", and that was the form that Maia was expecting when She knocked on the great door of the Hall.
But that was not who was waiting for Her, when the door swung open and She walked inside.
No. Waiting for Her, instead, was the skeletal woman, Her breasts hanging to Her belly, Her teeth filed sharp and deadly as knives. Shreds of blackened skin hung in a skirt from Her waist. In her hand she held a razor-sharp blade carved from a shoulder bone, and she was furious.
"You dare to thwart my laws??" She demanded. "Then you will pay the price!" And with that, She lept upon Maia, cleaving Her into seven pieces, and slicing the meat from Her bones.
The meat and the bones she put into a great stone cauldron in the middle of the room, but the skull she kept.
She went to the river of Time and dipped the skull in, collecting water and, returning to Her cauldron, she mixed the waters of Time with Maia's flesh and blood and bones. She breathed on the smouldering coals under the cauldron, and they lept to life, heating the stew of Maia's body.
When it was steaming, Makaa dipped the skull into the brew, taking out a cup of broth, and took a sip.
Using a long fork, She pulled the bones out of the cauldron, aranging them on the floor. She took another sip, and fished out the cooked flesh, placing it back on the bones.
She took a third sip, and held it in her mouth. She placed Maia's skull back inside Her head, and spit the broth into Maia's mouth.

Maia opened Her eyes, seeing with new sight.
"Now you have come to me properly," said Makaa. "Now I will teach you."
And so she taught Maia the first secret of Time, which is "All Things Change". Maia had been cooked in the waters of Time and she would bear the changes of those waters.
Makaa sent Maia back to the sky, saying "I will call you down again, and I will teach you the second Secret."
So Maia went back to the sky, with a face that is ever-changing, and taught humans to measure time by the changing light of Her face. But every so often, once in a month, She will go down to Deeps again, to learn from Makaa. She does this still today, and we do not see Her face until She returns.


There you have it. :-)
I'm going to go in search of a cheap copy of New Waterford Girl (and possibly get some groceries).

- Nam'ara,
- Amazon. :-)