My Broken Ganesha & Bad Luck

Ganesha: Lord of Success
From Subhamoy Das,Your Guide to Hinduism.

Ganesha — the elephant-deity riding a mouse — has become one of the commonest mnemonics for anything associated with Hinduism. This not only suggests the importance of Ganesha, but also shows how popular and pervasive this deity is in the minds of the masses.

The Lord of Success. The son of Shiva and Parvati, Ganesha has an elephantine countenance with a curved trunk and big ears, and a huge pot-bellied body of a human being. He is the Lord of success and destroyer of evils and obstacles. He is also worshipped as the god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth. In fact, Ganesha is one of the five prime Hindu deities (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Durga being the other four) whose idolatry is glorified as the panchayatana puja.

Significance of the Ganesha Form. Ganesha's head symbolizes the Atman or the soul, which is the ultimate supreme reality of human existence, and his human body signifies Maya or the earthly existence of human beings. The elephant head denotes wisdom and its trunk represents Om, the sound symbol of cosmic reality. In his upper right hand Ganesha holds a goad, which helps him propel mankind forward on the eternal path and remove obstacles from the way. The noose in Ganesha's left hand is a gentle implement to capture all difficulties.

The broken tusk that Ganesha holds like a pen in his lower right hand is a symbol of sacrifice, which he broke for writing the Mahabharata. The rosary in his other hand suggests that the pursuit of knowledge should be continuous. The laddoo (sweet) he holds in his trunk indicates that one must discover the sweetness of the Atman. His fan-like ears convey that he is all ears to our petition. The snake that runs round his waist represents energy in all forms. And he is humble enough to ride the lowest of creatures, a mouse.

How Ganesha Got His Head. The story of the birth of this zoomorphic deity, as depicted in the Shiva Purana, goes like this: Once goddess Parvati, while bathing, created a boy out of the dirt of her body and assigned him the task of guarding the entrance to her bathroom. When Shiva, her husband returned, he was surprised to find a stranger denying him access, and struck off the boy's head in rage. Parvati broke down in utter grief and to soothe her, Shiva sent out his squad (gana) to fetch the head of any sleeping being who was facing the north. The company found a sleeping elephant and brought back its severed head, which was then attached to the body of the boy. Shiva restored its life and made him the leader (pati) of his troops. Hence his name 'Ganapati'. Shiva also bestowed a boon that people would worship him and invoke his name before undertaking any venture.

However, there's another less popular story of his origin, found in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana: Shiva asked Parvati to observe the punyaka vrata for a year to appease Vishnu in order to have a son. When a son was born to her, all the gods and goddesses assembled to rejoice on its birth. Lord Shani, the son of Surya (Sun-God), was also present but he refused to look at the infant. Perturbed at this behaviour, Parvati asked him the reason, and Shani replied that his looking at baby would harm the newborn. However, on Parvati's insistence when Shani eyed the baby, the child's head was severed instantly. All the gods started to bemoan, whereupon Vishnu hurried to the bank of river Pushpabhadra and brought back the head of a young elephant, and joined it to the baby's body, thus reviving it.

Ganesha, the Destroyer of Pride. Ganesha is also the destroyer of vanity, selfishness and pride. He is the personification of material universe in all its various magnificent manifestations. "All Hindus worship Ganesha regardless of their sectarian belief," says D N Singh in A Study of Hinduism. "He is both the beginning of the religion and the meeting ground for all Hindus."

Ganesh Chaturthi. The devotees of Ganesha are known as 'Ganapatyas', and the festival to celebrate and glorify him is called Ganesh Chaturthi.

A broken statue of Ganesha can give it's owner bad luck. Just this week, I read an article in the Philadelphia Metro newspaper that my wife, Sunnie, showed me about a woman who went missing in Chicago after trying to prevent bad luck from occurring due to a broken Ganesha by following advice from a Hindu religious leader. I really do hope & pray that the police find her alive. Here is an excerpt of the story. "A statue of Ganesha, the Hindu Deity of good fortune and wisdom, was mailed to the family by relatives but arrived broken, her husband said. A religious leader told them it should be wrapped in a red cloth and placed in a lake or a river to prevent bad luck, he said."

My Broken Ganesha & Bad Luck. By now you are wondering where am I going with this story? Ok, let me take you back a few years. It is October, 2005, Me, Sunnie, Bobby, & Aidan took a trip up to Jenkintown to goto a New Age store called Aphrodites Dove which now has since gone out of business. This by the way was when I first decided to become a Wiccan and we went there to get Craft supplies for my Altar. While looking around the store, Sunnie spied the above Ganesha oil burner, and because she really liked it, I bought it for her. We took it home and because our house was in the midst of a remodel, we kept it in the box it came in safely in our bedroom, or so we thought.

About a couple of months later, I was vacuuming the carpet in our room and inadvertantly ran over the small box that contained Ganesha and broke him into a couple of pieces. Three of the hands were broken along with a part of his knee. I didn't realize it until a few minutes later when I opened the box and saw it broken. I tried to gorilla glue it and it didn't hold too well. I believe that this was close to Christmas that year and come February, 7th, 2006, I got hurt at work and herniated 3 new discs. Now I had 6 herniations and was once again out on Workers Comp.

Over the course of just about 2 years now, the bad luck started to pile on that either effected me or a member of my family:

• I got fired from my job as Maintenance Supervisor in September of 2006 for being out hurt for 6 months.
• I had 5 more herniations occur just this past year due to the other 6 effecting my back & neck.
• My knees are now going bad as well starting with my left knee in December of 2006 and my right knee within the last few months.
• My transmission in my truck is going bad & has no Reverse. A new tranny will cost $1800.
• I lost $400 a month due to a fast one my old Comp Lawyer pulled on me by when he filed a petition to keep the Insurance Company from kicking me off of Comp, he claims that this counts as funds recovered so according to the paper I signed, he is entitled to it.
• My laptop died just this past August.
• My father-in-law passed away in this past August as well.
• My wife, Sunnie, injured her wrist at work a few months ago & it is getting worse.
• My son Bobby fractured his wrist a few weeks ago.
• The original contractor I hired to build the addition to my house, had a hole dug for the basement & then took off with the $12,000 that I gave him as payment to start the work & which a lawyer I hired to sue him, found out that he flew the coup & can't be found.
• The 1st Coven I belonged to booted me out just this past March due to immature BS.
• And finally, some very personal things are happening (or should I say not happening, if you know what I mean ) to a 40 year old male.

I might of missed a few minor things, but you get the picture of what is happening. So anyhow, it is now Friday, December 28, 2007, and I took a step in the right direction to end the bad luck. I followed the advice that the religious leader gave that Chicago woman & her family, wrap Ganesha is a red cloth and place him in a river!

Before I went to Physical Therapy (PT) yesterday, I placed the broken Ganesha on my Altar in the morning as I was doing my morning prayers, lit the candle that came with it, cleansed him with incense, & prayed that he will have a safe journey down the river. I extinguished the candle and carefully wrapped him in a red cloth and bound him in a green cord that I had. I then again moved the wrapped Ganesha through the smoke from my Altar's incense & again prayed that the bad luck will be no more and carried him to the car. I went to PT and received a great massage and then drove to the river to place Ganesha in the Delaware River. I went to where the ball fields are at Pennypack Park on the River behind the Prisons at Rhawn Street & State Road, parked my car, walked to the furthest point on the manmade fishing reef, said a prayer wishing Ganesha a safe journey, and placed him in the river. He didn't sink at all. He kind of just floated there for a bit, rolled over, caught a current, and then slowly floated away. I stood there for about 5 minutes and watched him just floating there, then finally I walked back to my car and then with each step, I just felt the burden of bad luck get lifted off of me.

I talked to Sunnie later that day and she felt as if the cloud of bad luck has left her as well. We talked about how strange it would be that if on Saturday the 29th of December, the $20 lottery ticket we bought as part of the Million Dollar PA Lottery Raffle would be one of the 5 lucky winners of a million bucks (I would be happy with one of the $100,000 prizes too!). But the way our luck has been, I feel that divine intervention would have to occur to break the streak of bad luck that has happened and hopefully, that placing a broken Ganesha wrapped in a red cloth in the Delaware River was the right course of action to end our Bad Luck!

Happy Holidays & have a Great New Year!

b.0.b

Yule 2007

Well, we did it! We had our 1st Yule ritual as a Coven! Ten people gathered in my home to celebrate Yule. We were missing one of our Covenmates, Papisa, who was down & out with laryngitis. A speedy recovery is sent her way & she was lovingly missed last night!

One by one the guests arrived. Diana was the first to arrive, followed by Annan, Phelan, Clifford, Berkana, & my sister, K. Morgana, myself, & my 2 toddlers were already here. My sister K, the 1st one outside my immediate family, that is besides my wife Morgana & Kids, to learn that I was Wiccan, was at her 1st Pagan Ritual ever. She is a devout Catholic and finally came to see what I do after several other times of turning down invites to other past Rituals. I learned earlier that night from my wife that she did quite a bit of research on Wicca during the last week before she came tonight on our Religion & especially Bridgt, the Celtic Goddess, because she wanted to make a Bridgt corn dollie to give for our Pollyana.

Anyhow, sorry for the side story, we started Ritual about 8:45 PM. My HPS, Berkana, suffered her own bout of laryngitis earlier in the week asked me to read most of her parts of the Ritual due to still recovering of which I had no problem, but as the Ritual progressed, she did read some of her parts due to the Energy that was present helping her along. I did a short reading before everyone entered the Circle of what Yule, the Winter Solstice was and since children were here, I did not brandish my Athame as part of the challange to enter the circle, only a chorus of, "In Perfect Love and In Perfect Trust" was needed by everyone to enter & away we went.

The Circle was cast simultaneously as it was sealed and everyone within it cleansed to begin the Ritual. After the Quarters & Spirit were called & the Dieties joyfully welcomed, we sang, "Deck the Halls" to raise energy. As the song was ending, the candles that adorned the Altar were extinguished to symbolize the dark half of the year ending & after a few moments, the yellow candle symbolizing the Sun was lit and everyone took their tea light candles & lit them from the Sun candle as we were all chanting, "The Wheel is turning, the light is returning". The tea lights burned for a few minutes before they were extinguished & the candles on the Altar relit. Everyone was given their individual tea light to take home with them, except Diana because I forgot to give her the one she used & will give it to her the next time we meet.

We proceeded next to the Cakes & Ale part of the Ritual. The Cakes tonight were Christmas Tree butter cookies & the Ale was homemade Wassil. Since it is "Cold & Flu Season", we took the Wassil from the main Chalice & used a mini ladel to divy it out to everyone in mini dixie cups so that no germs were spread (thanks Berkana for the Idea!), and everyone, including my 2 1/2 year old who wanted more Wassil in the animal cup (LOL), loved it . After everyone was done, we passed the Chalice around 1st for the leftover Ale, & 2nd for the left over Cakes and placed their libations in the Chalice for an offering to the God & Goddess after Ritual. A reading was done by myself of the epic battle between the Oak King & Holly King at Yule to give everyone a chance to properly ground.

We closed the Ritual by thanking the Dieties, releasing the Quarters & Spirit, and finally releasing the Circle. I took our Libations outside to return them to Earth & looked up to the cloudy sky to thank the Dieties & the Goddess who was in her Mother stage as the Full Moon when all of the sudden out from hiding behind the clouds, the Goddess in her beautiful, silvery Full Moon stage appeared! I took a moment to thank her personally before I returned into the house to partake in the Yuletide Feast that was assembled by everyone bringing their pot luck contribution.

After we finished eating, we retired to the living room to start the Pollyana gift exchange because my sister had to get going home due to my brother-in-law was getting up to goto work. By concensus, I played Santa and gave the gifts out to everyone. It must be me developing my psychic ability that the gift I gave K was the one she was eyeing up all night. I knew what was it that present because it was from my wife. It was a Chakras starter set & I chose that to give her because she has been trying to get pregnant for the longest time & maybe, just maybe the problem is that her Chakras are out of alignment & this will help. The kids even had their own gifts to open as well. I sent home a little present with Diana as well for her 19 month old daughter, Sophia, as well. The Pollyana that I gave Berkana was a homemade set of wooden tiled Runes that I did woodburn myself. I didn't have time to stain them and she left them for me to finish for her. I chose to give her the Runes because as a group, I hope for us to study them as a form of divination. I also had a special present for her, I recently purchased a book on family Rituals online from ebay and along with the purchase I received a choice of wooden tiled Rune necklaces & I asked the seller if it could be blank & she sent me 2. I burned the Rune Berkano "B" on it for her since that is her symbol as well as my symbol on mine for us to wear at Ritual. BerKana loved the Runes & the necklace! Everyone else loved their gifts & had a really great time as well.

I was anxious and nervous prior to the Ritual because we had representatives from 3 Covens (counting ours) and my sister here last night, but was relaxed after everyone arrived. Having 3 Covens together for an open Ritual like this really helps promote Unity within our Pagan Community. It is awesome that people from different sects of Paganism can get together to honor & worship the Divine with an open mind and hopefully next year our Coven will be bigger and more Covens will be in attendance and that this will be the start of a huge step in creating a more unified Pagan Community in the future! Maybe if the weather is dryer next year we will be able to do this outside, but only time will tell!

As an added footnote, I still haven't come out of the "Broom" Closet to my parents, and I would of loved for them to be here on this special night. I am slowly dropping hints their way that I am a Pagan. I wear my Pentacle necklace outside my shirt as well as leaving my Pentacle pinkey ring (that is how my sister found out that I was Wiccan) visible and not turned around when I am with them. It's just hard for me to break it to them because they are such die hard Catholics. Some woman I know says that I am "Spiritually Confused" & I feel that this is what she is talking about because I am not totally open about my faith to my parents, but she doesn't know them very well. I also bring up to my parents time to time different things about Paganism in conversations. With my sister finally coming to observe, but not partake fully in a Ritual, I do now have someone to goto bat for me in my corner when the time comes to tell my parents that this is a Religion not that different from theirs in that we worship the divine just like them. One day they will know, but until then, it's on a need to know basis, and they don't need to know as of yet.

The Wheel is turning, the light is returning! Happy Yule & a Blessed Winter Solstice to All!

Yuletide Blessings,

Cædmon
High Priest
Coven of the 13 Moons
Philadelphia, PA

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Coven_of_the_13_Moons


http://groups.myspace.com/CovenOfThe13Moons


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NE_Philly_Fellowship_of_Witches_and_Pagans


http://myspace.com/trebor_rendrag_8


http://treborusofpennypack.blogspot.com/

"Houses are Built of Bricks & Stone,
But Homes are built of Love Alone."

-Author Unknown

Caitlyn Ties the Knot!

Congratulations to My daughter Caitlyn & my new son-in-law Matt for getting married on Friday, December 7th, 2007, A date that will truely live in Infamy in my heart forever! To celebrate her big day, I penned a little diddy for her, and without further ado, here it is:

Caitlyn (Best wishes on her Wedding Day, 12-7-07)

You are my little girl.
You took a step towards womanhood when you blessed me with my
grand-daughter, Chloe, only weeks after your 18th Birthday.
Now you took a giant leap into womanhood when you got married today.
May the God & Goddess Bless You & Watch Over You on your new journey.

Much Love & Blessings,

Daddy

In this day & age with children having children & men not wanting to have anything to do with their children or the girl who had the baby & women/girls using abortions for the wrong reasons as a form of birth control, the 2 young adults did the right thing & worked out their problems, had the baby, and got married. With the divorce rate now a days reaching almost 60% and their young age working against them, these 2 fine young adults added a plus in the statistic books by going against the odds and getting married.

I hope & pray that the God & Goddess will keep them together in the good times & the bad, for richer or for poorer, in sickness & in health, till death do they part when they are waaayyyy past their prime. Good Luck as you two start your new life together!

Three Cheers for the new Mr. & Mrs. Connors.....
Hip Hip Horray! Hip Hip Horray! Hip Hip Horray!

Peace, Blessings, & Much Love,

Caedmon

NE Philly Fellowship of Witches & Pagans

Along with a friend of mine, Diana Grayfox, we started a new Yahoo discussion List that can be found among the Yahoo Groups listings. We started this new list to make it not attached to a specific Coven. Quite a few people have said to me about another NE Philly list the following:

"Why do you post here, this is our Coven's site & nobody cares what you have to say!"

"I don't post on that site anymore because it's too clickish!"

Well, problem solved, the new list is for all Pagans, Witches, Neo-Pagans, and Pagan friendly folks. Going forward, We hope that this will create more Unity within the Pagan Community and offer a site where people can post questions without feeling embarrassed that a question might be stupid because there are no stupid questions and also people can feel relaxed that nobody will ever jump on any postings totally trashing someone elses opinion. Feel free to check the NE Philly Fellowship of Witches & Pagans out today at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NE_Philly_Fellowship_of_Witches_and_Pagans

Yuletide Blessings,

Caedmon

Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

The other day, my cousin Rita sent me along with a few of her friends, this oldie, but goodie of an email about an eight year old girl in 1897 who wanted to know if Santa was real. Here it is:

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York 's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis P.Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial.

DEAR EDITOR:

I am 8 years old.Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O'HANLON

115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET

VIRGINIA ,

Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia , whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes,Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus… There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight.The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. . . Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unusable in the world.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia , nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Just as a footnote, I am 40 years old & Yes, I still do believe in Santa Claus. It might not be in the physical body of a man who travels the world giving presents to all the good little girls & boys, but it is the Spirit of the Season in which we both give & receive gifts, decorate our houses both inside & out in beautiful lights & decorations, and we exhibit good will to all of mankind. A lot of people complain that the season is too commercialized & lost it's meaning. To that I say maybe it has become a little too comercialized by retail standards, but by my standards, I still enjoy celebrating the Spirit of the season with my family & friends just the way Santa Claus does!

Yuletide Blessings,

b.0.b