Ethereal Shipmate

Ethereal Shipmate
by Pandora Peoples

The lion has captured the heart
Of this bleeding gazelle,
The child like a full moon,
When my eyes are closed,
Fills my lungs like fragrant island flowers
On a starry night,
Like cupid he weaves love webs
Around his smiling parents.


My husband is like a room of leather-bound books,
A morning in the sand,
Waves lapping at the shore,
The flames in a fireplace,
Inviting me to two-step and tango,
He's the soulmeat on my ship
And the shipmate on my soul,
The drink on my lips.


He is my exfoliating scrub,
My TMJ-jawlock-emergency-rub,
My kindly mythic beast,
My spacemate co-navigating the waters
Of the galactic heart.



Attachment Parenting 101


Screen all media with trepidation and non-attachment, ignore false flags, turn a blind eye to encoded messages as there are enough unintentional ones to keep you busy filtering, accept a multitude of opinions and some degree of scapegoatism from the left, the liberals, the progressives, the libertarians, the creatives. Pretend the anti-intellectuals live in a bubble and can do you no harm. Remember the anti-feminists are making cries for help. Unfortunately, true love does not conquer, it acquiesces, it heals, it caves, it saves, it coalesces, it makes compromises, but it can make miracles happen.

As the wheel turns and another year is on the proverbial horizon, I am tingly and tickled pink, that my little nuclear family and I love to snuggle under the blankets together and read poetry into the night, grateful for my beloved husband born in the astrological month of the lion who has captured the heart of this bleeding gazelle.

People not only give up too easily on relationships in this culture, but often they are afraid to fall as deeply in love as they can be. If people hold back on discovering one another's deepest selves, or speaking up about their needs or what makes them satiated, or when couples fail to discover new aspects of themselves, or if they lose their individuality or are afraid to give their partners space, the bonding doesn't keep up with the soul's need for new levels of awareness. I think that must be 'the secret' of spunky couples who have been married 50 plus years.

Artists in Their Studios Create Perfect Christmas Gifts

(In case you missed this month's issue of "Dinghy: The Little Magazine", which most of us did.)

“Artists in Their Studios Create the Perfect Christmas Gifts:”
By Pandora Peoples

CINDY SAUERS is a multifaceted artist and owner of Saturday Farm and Island Cottage, vacation rentals in Cape Cod and St. John’s. Like a crystal or a precious stone, Sauers has a light, healing energy that touches your spirit. Her wit and whimsy is conveyed in her work, from her paintings to her murals. Hidden fairies are part of the motif of Island Cottage, whereas The Baa Boys, two adorable sheep are the animal hosts of Saturday Farm, “I think families pick Saturday Farm as a place that will calm them and make them feel balance again.”

Sauers’ love of art began at an early age, “I started with drawing. Lying in bed as a kid, I would dream about changing the color of my room.” She gravitated towards muses early on, “Once I started reading, I began reading autobiographies of artists. I would look for them in the library.” She contemplates, “I bet there are a lot of people out there that could be artists if they are just encouraged.” Art is so much a part of her life that she sees it as a natural form of expression all people can access. “I look at an artist as someone who is creative with all aspects of life. It could be creating a day, an environment, or using your creativity to work your way out of a problem, or turning a negative experience into a positive experience.”

Sauers is always fresh, working in many mediums as her inspiration takes hold. “I might feel like creating a painting, a drawing, a mosaic, block prints or creating a sculpture, or changing the landscape of the garden.” She likes to create every day, “I’ve learned that I can promote my creativity with music or routine…If I play a certain kind of music and have a certain cup of tea, I’ll be creative ten nights in a row…So, I set the stage and then it happens.”

You can find Cindy Sauers’ paintings in “The Presents of Angels” a holiday art show and performance series running at the Hyannis Harbor Arts Center at the Guyer Barn, Dec. 1-Jan. 5, as well as her artful gifts at their Christmas Gift Boutique. You can discover more about Sauers at her blog, http://itsa-world.blogspot.com.

KIMBERLY MEDEIROS creates cereal bowls that will have you singing to your oatmeal every morning. Her brilliant functional art embodies her love for life. Each stoneware piece is unique and draws you in with its beauty and character. After spending time with her and her clay cups, platters, and wine goblets, it is plain to see that her colorful designs, drawings, and patterns, are reflective of her joyful spirit. Her works are as contagious as her smile, each draws you in with a story.

Medeiros is inspired by everything from the paintings of Gustav Klimt to the imagery she discovered in India back in 2006, when took a trip with The Emancipation Network, an organization that provides trafficked girls with education, rehabilitation and job training. A percentage of the sales from her series, “Pots with a Purpose” goes to the organization. “My concept was people as vessels, vessels as vehicles, pots with a purpose.” As a teacher, Medeiros is enthusiastic that her pottery series can illuminate social justice issues.

Medeiros describes what it was like growing up in a family of ceramicists and painters, “My mother is big into color, I grew up part time in Florida. We always had a colorful life. [She was always] singing opera in the kitchen, with classical music in the other room, while the kids were on the floor doing crafts.” She goes on to say, “We were always encouraged to pursue it, instead of veging out in front of the TV…If kids are given the tools they will use them.” Of her artistic drive she explains, “I am happiest when I am at my wheel blaring my music and singing loudly.”

One of Medeiros’ favorite commissioned works was for best-selling author Dan Brown, because she got to “dive into his books, pull out his imagery, and personalize it”. The work is now in his foyer. She waxes poetic about the holidays, “I love the sense of community, people coming together and celebrating with family and friends. It’s about peace, joy and love.” And gorgeous pottery! You can find her work at the Christmas Gift Boutique at the Guyer Barn 250 South Street, Hyannis, MA, Dec. 1-Jan. 5, or online at the barnpottery.com

At a defining moment in high school, one of SHANNON MCDONALD’s teachers put her on a course of artistic study, indicating to her parents that she had a gift for pottery and design. After studying visual art at University, MacDonald got a job surrounded by beautiful fine art, but she “had to put on white gloves to touch it”. At that point, she realized that she wanted to create functional art she could explore with her hands. “I was always drawn to jewelry. I remember getting one of those mini looms.” She still has the pieces she made in those fateful early years. “I just love to accessorize. I love big statement necklaces. I didn’t see anything that fit my aesthetic. So, that’s when I started making the jewelry I love to wear.”

MacDonald describes her creative process as part of her daily life. She regularly dreams up new creations by sketching her ideas. Putting them to paper, helps her ideas seem tangible. “The act of putting it down and cementing it is really important to me,” she explains. To other artists she recommends keeping a collection of sketchbooks, “you see your process through the books. It’s wonderful to look at. It can re-inspire you to try something else, now that you’re further along in your work.”

Of the holiday season MacDonald enthuses, “I really enjoy the time with family…I make gifts for people that really match them. I really enjoy giving them.” She praises her mother for her talent at shopping for unique gifts that match the recipients. “It makes me happy that she truly thought of me when she bought it.” Giving hand-made gifts are a way people can give a “piece to remember through the years”. One commissioned collage made her customer, “So inspired that it made her cry, knowing that someone put so much thought into a piece made her happy.” She beams, “[I] really incorporated her into it.” The piece now hangs in the master bedroom.

Her jewelry line Ellie Joy, is named after her grandmother, who inspired her to be an artist. “She said, ‘Be brave, do what you want to do.’ She offers lovely unique painted wood jewelry she aptly calls “yoga jewelry” as well as glittery pieces that are perfect for the holidays. ” You can find MacDonald’s work at elliejoystore.etsy.com, Jewelry Inspirations in Dennis, and at the Christmas Gift Boutique at the Guyer Barn at 250 South Street, Hyannis, MA.

### Pandora Peoples, is a writer, herbalist and psychic medium in Dennis, MA. She is a contributing writer to Spiritual Pregnancy (Llewellyn 2013). She is a wife, mother and nutritional counselor. Her show Cape Codified runs on local community TV Channel 17. You can contact her at info@pandorapeoples.com

Music from the Galactic Center

My beloved husband got me a turntable that digitally records the albums. Eureka! I can pull out our dusty boxes of vinyls. Sergio Mendes Brazil 66 will be in heavy rotation once again. I can listen to Charles Brown and Whipped Cream and Other Delights.

Neurotic Mother-in-Law for the Holidays

An Evening of Monologues for the Holidays was lovely. A particularly tight and energetic performance by Nadia Schuessler and funny, well-crafted monologues by Gregory Hischak, Diane Kyle and Lee Roscoe.

I wrote my monologue today in a flurry between finishing editing Cape Codified with Special Guest Polka Dan's Beetbox Band [airing Christmas day] and buying desserts for the show. I based my monologue on content from a scene in a screenplay my husband and I wrote which is loosely based on my mother-in-law. It's a holiday tale called, "Getting Mom Off Drugs". She's dead now, so I'M definitely gonna hear about it. One of the perks of being a medium, you have plenty of time to smooth things over with the deceased relatives.

After 14 years of talking through the night into daybreak, you'd think two fire signs would burn out, but my husband and I are still so enamored with each other after all these years. Kudos to my charming, debonair, suave, kind-hearted, deep, slightly roguish and raunchy, pheromonally intoxicating, handsome husband. I adore him, his guardian angels, his cooking, his touch, his parenting. AND, he makes me laugh every day all of the time. Blessed Be! Who the hell needs a birthday party with all that?

Psss...Charlotte, you done real good. Despite your steak-knife-wielding dinners, irate screeching, and time spent in the car in the garage with the motor running, you really managed to raise a consistent, loving, positive, forthcoming, emotionally-stable, vulnerable, tender and heartfelt gem. God bless you Mrs. R. Those first 60 months of infancy really paid off...and we completely agree, 5 is a great age to stop counting your child's age in months.

Interview Today on Radio Station WOMR-FM

At 12:45pm today listen to my interview with host Joe Gouveia on Poets' Corner...streaming live at http://worm.org !

Drink Your Benadryl Down, Honey.

How refreshing it is to slow down, to be a hundred percent right with your child's need for guidance. We make children grow up so fast. They are checking their email, fetching the weather report online, and Skyping Santa!, when really they need our undivided...supervision. Children need structure and demonstrable love, or they feel lost and seem chaotic, fighting, power-struggling. In fact they are just trying to vie for mommy and daddy's attention when they are preoccupied with work. Turn off the computer, make some art with your child. Listen to what he's truly communicating to you. He will be so thrilled that you are genuinely listening, patiently and intently, making full eye contact, holding his gaze, that he will be tickled pink. He will waltz around the house, like there is fairness and justice in the world once again. And he will be the funnest playmate, conversationalist, and dance partner you could ever have!

A little reprogramming goes a long way. Direction, instruction and consistency are the corner stones of good parenting, as well as emotional accessibility. Which means you've got to play with your children. It's good for us too. The adult world is so disenchanting, so full of malaise, ennui, the banal, the mundane, Les Fleurs Du Mal, and fodder for this guy's depressive states of consciousness...

The Cape Cod Poetry Review

The Cape Cod Cod Poetry Review publication party is happening tomorrow night (Saturday). At 6pm Kathleen Healy will be there singing Christmas tunes for our holiday art show. At 7pm, host John Bonanni will emcee the evening of poetry. Copies of the literary journal will be for sale for only $10, down from the $12 price you would pay at local bookstores.

Thankfully, I am better! There will be appetizers, mulled cider, a potluck and the entertainment for a lovely evening!

The show was mentioned in the Barnstable Patriot. Angela Bilsky who did a load of work for the show wasn't mentioned, so kudos to her and all the volunteers who made this show such a success!! http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31493&Itemid=34

Head in the Clouds, Feet on the Ground

I'm STILL not convinced that I have chickenpox. The world is so vastly complex. How many viruses on the planet? And I'm just supposed to accept I have some run-of-the-mill children's virus, like people with shingles are swarming the libraries and aisles of Stop and Shop. Now, I know we have our share of elderly, but how likely is it that some shingles-ravaged geriatric coughed in my face and some little viral bug leaped into my mouth, or my hair and then wrestled my immune system to the point of exhaustion?

On the other hand, how many dangerous chemicals are there in the world that could be the culprit behind a plague-like outbreak of hives...(that pus and scab over)? Probably hundreds, if not thousands of near-lethal combinations of chemicals make their way into pre-packaged foods and puffy pastries all across the world every day. And how many outbreaks caused by chemical-laced foods are "suspicious for chickenpox"? (Stamp.) Next!

Just because I got trapped in a weir, doesn't make me a fish. Maybe I'm a oyster or a crustacean. I'm getting a test which will be definitive. Unless of course it comes back positive, in which case I'm apt to contest it.

I was prescribed an antihistamine for the rash, but it's an anti-anxiety medication. An anti-axiety pill for chicken pox??? For real! While it feels like a mental vacation, I seem virtually incapable of being upset, but my head is floating around in the clouds. It's fun to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. It seems a lot of medication has this effect on people, while there are thousands of herbs that give people a very grounded feeling while helping manage anxiety, or blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, or many other ailments for that matter without blurry vision, dizziness, or the feeling of floating in space. I love my feet in the mossy earth, burrowing beetles, red worms, termites and all. *** Update...okay, I had chickenpox after all. What a doozy!

Drawing Fuchsia Lines for Poinsettia

by Pandora Peoples

Stuffing straw in a basement
Has her waxing poetic about scarecrows,
There's no time or place
For little lacy shoes
But mama bear's gnarling her teeth again,
There's no waterworks now,
It's nearing December,
The sky is black as the Kalua
In papa bear's glass tumbler,
It's nearing December
The air is dry like a mathematician's
Ghost, drawing parables in the sky
For the Norse Gods.

Mama's God is turning into a fat uterine lining,
There are crystals coalescing in odd places,
Golden dreams of lighthouses
And walking on gelatinous water,
Laughter and the pit-pat of invisible feet
Don't go unnoticed in the kitchen,
Suddenly there are elaborate meals,
Opened cookbooks strewn across the counters.

There are names to write
On stockings that aren't there,
Chocolate and shopping aren't destinations
On a voyage that has a direct path under stars,
The ship is full sail
And the course is set,
Through the eons of starlit miraculous unknowns,
Delicious meals and storybooks
Punctuate the hours
Gliding forward
Rising and falling,
On the breath of the vast Ocean.

The Deer Hawk Sweat Lodge

We held a traditional sweat lodge ceremony last night. Donna Wood Eaton was the facilitator. As soon as I made an offering to Donna in request of the ceremony, it felt like an engine was turning a wheel closer to the special day. The spirit guides and ancestors* of those who would attend were helping us in the dream worlds to prepare for the event. The swan-diving winged beings of white light and the indigo ancestors were dancing for whole week before the ceremony began.

The Stone People are the grandparents. Each asks to be involved in the ceremony. Each woman is asked to listen to the stones, and waits in line to deliver the grandparent to the fire. My stones each identified themselves this way, "Heart", "Mica", "Alabaster", and then the last one that talked really loudly to me in a deep man's voice. "I wanna come. You have to take me. I belong in there." The face of this grandfather rock was a large orange-red rectangle. He seemed to be smiling.

The hooting owl, the soaring hawks, and the gentle deer brought us messages to guide the ceremony. I was honored to lay the skull of the buffalo on the spirit trail with our intentions. How alive the bones of the buffalo were! Quart rocks were also placed. The crystal energy was very strong.

The 'placentas' of the womb-like cave glowed red, sparkling like stars. A crack in the cosmic egg burst. Out of the galactic center, the copal smoke rose inside the circle and carried my spirit up into the trees of the Colombian Andes.

As part of part of my rebirth, I began wearing Invisilign again. After the lodge, my teeth have magically shifted, and are looking much straighter already.

And I am looking forward to my training as a deejay/radio host! I wonder if Winter will herald opportunities to be a sub for the various programs. My spirit is so eager to learn these new skills.

Broadcasting from the Middle of the Atlantic and Eating Words

Venturing to P-Town for a conversation with the delightful Ms. Dr. of Talking Back, Paula Sperry, was a delightful experience. A peek into the land of the disembodied voices, was a bit dream-like, which is compounded by the fact that being in amid the stacks of wondrous brightly-lit CDS feels like a salty-aired summerland high above the ocean waves. This lighthouse dream cave of the imagination sent me into an out-of-body experience. Yes, I met my version of heaven, with a water cooler and everything.

It was an experience to relish like polka-flavored keeshka, to savor like pierogi from the Old Country, to slurp like a bowl of red borscht. Yes, I need a beer.

In the Abstract

Watch the promo for my new TV show, Cape Codified! on Channel 99 on Cape Cod!

Behind the Band TV

Returning to one's roots is pretty invigorating. This week, when I close my eyes everything turns into a beautiful abstract painting, well with the right ambiance. Co-curating this art show with Sarah Holl which features talented artists and great works has got me thinking about a return to painting. My dad was an artist model, and I spent time around excellent oil painters as a child, and enjoyed going to art shows quite early on. I recall the smell of paint fumes, passionate artists with bushy furrowed eyebrows and pensive Aristotle eyes, and laughter. My mom and her friends would take me to museums: The J. Paul Getty Villa, the Norton Simon, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

At age ten I was studying sonnets and spending hours in museums staring at works of Matisse, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Waterhouse, Alma Tadema, Diego Rivera, Reuter, Rembrandt, Rodin, Jean-Baptiste Pater, Molenaer, Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet, Luca Giordano, Rubens. I would bring a pad of paper and take notes from a cushioned bench, or standing a foot away from the work, examining its texture. I tried to remember every detail with my eyes, capturing its essence with my heart. Later, I made poetic attempts to capture the essence of a Matisse odalisque in words.

My mom had a cherry wood bookshelf that belonged to her grandparents. It had glass doors that lifted like the doors of a Ferrari. It was a special bookshelf because it had fallen out of a pickup truck my parents borrowed on their first move together. They didn't have rope to tie the thing down. I guess they were pretty eager to get where they were going. It was the kind of story they would tell together, finishing each others sentences. The kind you ask them to tell over and over because you want to see if a new detail will emerge, that you can savor. And you like the way they rub each others backs or grab each others hands as they recount their old tale in fits of laughter. In actuality, their story may have only been ten years old, but it seems like another life, because it was a time before you existed, and because their eyes don't always twinkle and they don't always giggle in the middle of the day.

My dad had put the bookcase back together after it had hit the pavement on a busy boulevard, but the hinges were tricky. I always admired my mother for her fragile strength and the way she magically put everything back together in one piece, including me. And she still does every now and then. I was so proud of the way she slid those glass doors open and closed. Out. Up. In. There. And she'd smile and hold my gaze, knowing that I too could learn to do it seamlessly. But I just wanted to watch her graceful hands. I was so proud of the way she took such great care with everything she touched. I loved to hear her stories over and over again. I was in awe of her reverent touch as she relished her treasured bookcase and its contents.

Inside, were her art books, Kay Nielson, Maxfield Parish, Salvador Dali, Boticelli...She was particularly fond of her Georgia O'Keefe books, with large pages of cow skulls and Jimsonweed flowers. I loved to ask her questions, entreating her, "Why do you like these skulls?" She would wax poetic about her art books, caressing the spines and torn jackets on their covers tenderly, like they were the works of her dear friends or ancestors. She would get teary eyed, as if she was 'winding grooves in her Joni Mitchell album' to quote an old teacher pen-pal of mine Greg Kahn. She would often play music and weep. And I would say, "don't be sad". "This song makes me happy." Why does happiness look so sad, I thought. Now, I know, or don't know, but I am the one crying on the floor in tadasana, with my hands tucked between my knees.

This was one of those songs... ***

My show with Linda Sandhu on Profile went great! It will stream on http://mysaccestv.com by Friday night!

Goddess Aeval

Celtic Fairy Goddess Aeval with painter Cindy Sauers by Pandora Peoples

Herbals for Autumn from Pandora's Garden

With the weather cooling down, we tend to crave warm drinks. New batches of Athena PMS Pain Relief, Aphrodite's Aphrodisiac, Lilith Female Health, Gaia's Pain Relief, Saraswati Mood Lifter, Nikta Sleep Aid, Pele Detox and Rhianon Goddess Tea are ready for purchase. Drink Earth Mother love in a cup of sweet tasty roots.

With delicious root brews including roasted dandelion, sarsaparilla, licorice, don quai and bupleurum, you can only feel ten times stronger. Before there was black tea, there was every other kind of tea you can imagine.

Traverse the snow-capped mountains in China at breakfast!

Black and green tea have cast long lasting shadows, obscuring view of the many delicious plants and formulations with medicinal properties that belong to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Traditional Ayurvedic Medicine, and other long standing herbal healing systems.

Revel in the sun-kissed jungles of India at lunch!

Too many people pass on herbal tea because they do not like chamomile and peppermint, unaware of the thousands of herbs used in the treatment of conditions ranging from back aches to cancer, found in every culture across the planet. Even European settlers in America had extensive herb gardens and knowledge of their properties and uses. Hey, what the heck happened?

Have a little rainforest in your cup, today!

If you want health, energy, vitality and a brighter outlook, look no further than Pandora's Garden. If you want formulations from a psychic medium who has had great success helping people to restore health, and whose teas have developed over a decade, then try them today. Products start at $10 and $15.

All organic teas come in organic cotton teabags, with organic cotton muslin bags, or with bamboo strainers, in biodegradable paper bags!! Incredible! Write info@pandorapeoples.com to place your order.



ATHENA PMS PAIN RELIEF- Balances hormones - reduces bloating, breast tenderness...

APHRODITE's APHRODISIAC - Improves sex drive for men and women- with organic damaiana, muira puama, saw palmetto, ashwagandha...

GAIA'S PAIN RELIEF - stiff joints, back pain, nerve pain, and sore muscles...

LILITH FEMALE HEALTH- Balances hormones, tones reproductive organs...

NIKTA SLEEP AID - Helps you get in REM faster - Get restful sleep, early in the night.

PELE DETOX - helps cleanse blood, kidneys, and liver of impurities, increases elimination...with organic reishi, burdock, milk thistle...

RHIANON GODDESS TEA- Immune Boosting, Super Antioxidant Effect - with organic red rooibos, holy basil, shavegrass

SARASWATI MOOD LIFTER- Deeply Relaxing and Lifting- with organic St. John's wort, kava, gotu kola...

Destination: Colorado Rockies

The Call of the Mountains
by Pandora Peoples

I have heard tell
That elk on your porch in the morning
Is a fertility omen,
And that mountains are capable
Of enlisting the service of wombs,
To carry the progeny of elemental beings
Who are keepers of ancient knowledge,
And stewards of the sacred lands.

I have this urge to hike up skirt
And walk due west,
Through bogs and swamps,
Until the soles of my feet have teeth
Like alligators which bare no grief,
Until weak-wading through the backyards
Of my Appalachian kinfolk ceases
And they push me
With throaty whispers for my soul to keep.

The fire in my belly burns fierce,
Shadows play with my fear like Today’s Special,
Wolf in my jaw
Pounces on some unhealthy attitude,
Drains it of blood.
With alarm I awake to my self
A Mastodon in my ribs,
Fish dares me to take an unbridled breathe.
The musky nectar of the black morning
Intoxicates every cell of my sojourning body.

I will walk the Trail of Tears
And sleep in the fields of forgotten nightmares,
Where the rubble of homesteaders grows thick with weeds.
I will listen to the ghosts of passenger trains,
Confront the battles of medicine men
Taking up arms,
And in the flickering fire of my camp before day break,
With one eye open on tomorrow,
I will touch the hands of yesterday's heroes,
Whose voices chug like engines,
Whose stories pierce like whistles,
Who punctuate my dreams with their chants,
And I will awake with the taste of tobacco in my mouth
With the sweet smell of burnt sweet grass lingering
In the chilling first light.


Up through wooded hills,
Down into moist valleys,
Shin-deep in ponderosa pine needles,
I will wash in trickling streams
Munching on rose hips,
Shavegrass and the new shoots of tender ferns,
Falcons and eagles will check in on me
From time to time
And crows will steer me away from falling rocks


I will breathe in the desert sage,
And I will light a token fire in the sand,
An offering to the bright constellations
Pulsating with life from light years away.
The fullness of my being
Will shed into the cool, smooth earth,
Fertilizing a blooming cactus nearby
With my uterine silver lining.


I will march through cornfields,
Lounge under cottonwoods,
Meander over willows leaning into lakes,
Grope through groves of Maples at midnight,
And when I reach where the Pinyon Pine
Meets the alpine tundra,
I will climb that tree
Like a koala bear,
And perching in the top branches,
I will sing
To the eerie mating calls of the elk

Lifting the Veil

Surely Mother Nature is playing with us, for it was a sunny 65 degrees mid-October in New England! Autumn is a time for transformation, balance, and visits from the family, especially the dead ones. The Japanese Obon Festival, south American El Dia De Los Muertos, Chinese Chung Yeung Festival, Celtic Samhain, Korean Chuseok, Haitian Gede, and Hindu Pitru Paksha, each celebrates the ancestors in the Autumn months, believing that they walk among us.

There's nothing more irritating for a deceased family member than not to be remembered at this time. So, if any of your loved ones were prone to making you feel guilty about missing birthdays and holidays, now is the time to pick up a candle and put it in the window to welcome them in.

Sharing your gratitude, memories, and a stiff drink will bring them great joy. But, maybe in the reverse order, if talking to ghosts isn't something you normally do socially. Remember they are thirsty. It's been a lotta clean living in the afterlife. They may not be physically able to consume it, but they don't know that, and I hope you're not the one to break it to them.

Extra Credit:
* Ask for a dream communication from your beloved departed
* Say a prayer or blessing for friends over photos
* Go to a body of water at night & thank your deceased muses
* Make your mantel or coffee table into a multi-use altar
* Offer your muses a poem or song
* Join a local celebration (there is power in numbers)

My Upcoming Events:

* Mind-Body-Soul Connections lecture Healthy Living Magazine Expo Upper Tech Regional Bourne, MA Saturday October 2oth 2pm

* Witches Cotillion readings & vending Elks Lodge Hudson, MA Saturday October 20th 7pm

*Paranormal Encounters 2 New Church Yarmouth Port, MA Saturday October 27th 3pm

*Sound Healing Journey with Carl Freeman
Dennis, MA
Monday October 29th 8:30pm


* All Souls Day
First Parish Brewster Cemetery
Thursday November 1st 6pm

Channeling the Inner Warrior

Ladies, you may be channeling your Inner Warrior without knowing it, 'cuz your battle cries and bone-gnawing power struggles are followed by the consumption of a large bag of cheese curls or tears shed over leather-bound family photo albums. A sudden upwelling of anger may be indicative of the need to create necessary change, not of being emotionally volatile, just as a sudden wave of sadness may indicate loss and grief you need to fully process, not hysteria, bad humors or what today they call a chemical imbalance.

What I call, Menstrual Awareness Detox or M.A.D, is the hyper-sensitivity currently labeled P.M.S.. Emotional purging of the nervous system, clears out tension and emotions built up over the month, just as sloughing clears out the uterine lining that has built up. We can thank evolution for our cyclical nature. Moodiness is next to Godliness. With the righteous indignation of PMS Phenomenon and the power and determination of birthing women, is it any wonder that in ancient Greece, Athens was named for Pallas Athena? Goddess Victoria's visage graced the primary currency.

Ever felt independent, needy, horny, and anxious all at the very same couple of minutes? Yes? Now that you realize that you are Emotional-Multitasking, do you reign in your emotions and restore balance or ride out the waves? Tuvan throat singers of Siberia sing four tunes at one time, and although it is not always pretty, it is a spiritual experience.

During PMS, you may evoke your inner Warrior goddess. You may enjoy the sound of snapping pencils as much as chirping birds. However, during your moontime, you may have vivid dreams and visions, creative bursts of inspiration and have lightening bolt revelations. The hyper-awareness is worth the descent into ordinary madness, in which you may channel the Jukebox of Cosmic Consciousness.

Place Warrior Goddesses on the office mini-fridge or your inside your gym locker. Celtic Maeve, Roman Minerva, Norse Freyja, and Babylonian Ishtar who were called upon to maintain peace, defend boundaries and win battles. Those pictures might help you win the favor of a managerial Vulture Goddess or inspire an attorney-at-law Blood Rites Goddess to come to your aid when you need help.

October Soup and Fried Oils Tangent

Soup is the best food for cold months. It provides liquid in months we tend to drink less water. Our digestion slows down when the the skies are cloudy, our houses are damp, the ground is wet and there is a chill in the air. At this time, we digest cooked foods more effectively. Soups tend to pack more herbs and vegetables into our diet. Common spices such as parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, cumin, turmeric, ginger, oregano, marjoram, dill, cinnamon, basil, have amazing and potent healing properties, which if consumed liberally improves overall health and prevent illness. So, if you are wondering what to put in your soup this fall, just think..."Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme".

A chart for your refrigerator is a handy reference. We tend to ignore colds, and respond more seriously to influenza. But the truth is, an untreated cold today, paves the way for later illness. We never fully recuperate from untreated illness, because our body has lost Vital Force, that we are not assisting to regenerate. Sleeping sufficient hours. Eating healthy foods. Treating Colds, Allergies, and Flus with herbs. These are tools that prevent illness, and underlying imbalance in the twelve systems of the body. [This website is for entertainment purposes only. None of the information contained within this post or blog is intended to diagnose, prevent or cure illness. Always talk to your physician before taking any herbal treatment or using any alternative approach.]

Enjoy the following chart:

PARSLEY - DIURETIC, EDEMA, PREVENTS KIDNEY & GALL STONES,
CAYENNE - PAIN RELIEF, ANTI-INFLAMMATORY, SORE THROAT, SPASMS,
CILANTRO - CHELATION THERAPY, REDUCES HEAVY METAL TOXICITY,
CORIANDER - INDIGESTION, GAS,
SAGE - ANTI-AGING, PAIN RELIEF, ANTI-TUMOR,
ROSEMARY - ANTI-TUMOR, RADIATION SICKNESS, BRUISES, PAIN RELIEF,
THYME - ANTISEPTIC, FEVER, COLDS & FLU, INFECTION,
CUMIN - INDIGESTION, GAS, COLIC,
TURMERIC - COLDS & FLUS, ANTI-TUMER, BURNS FAT,
OREGANO - ANTI-AGING, COLDS,
MARJORAM - ANTI-AGING, COLDS,
DILL - SALT SUBSTITUTE, INCREASES BREAST MILK,
CINNAMON - HELPS DIABETES, INCREASES CIRCULATION, INDIGESTION,
BASIL - DIAPHORETIC, FEVER, ACNE, IMPROVES SKIN QUALITY,
CAROB - COLIC, MALE FERTILITY, BRAIN CANCER PREVENTATIVE,
GINGER - INDIGESTION, IMPROVES CIRCULATION, FEVER, ACNE,
FENUGREEK - MALE LIBIDO, BREAST MILK, PURGES TOXINS, FEVER,
FENNEL- INDIGESTION, INCREASES BREAST MILK,
CLOVE- RELIEVES TOOTHACHE, CALMS STOMACH, GAS,
CARAWAY- GAS & INDIGESTION

Oily fried foods aren't great for your blood, kidneys or skin. Fried foods can be a contributing factor in acne, blocked glands, inflammation, and kidney infection. Not oils are created equal either. Avocado, raw nuts, flax seeds, evening primrose oil, coconut oil and olive oil are far superior to soybean (GMO) oil, palm (kernel) oil, and vegetable oil.

All cooked oils can cause imbalance in the body. Olive oil becomes unhealthful to the body after five minutes of cooking. It looses it's antioxidant effect after this time. To increase the life of olive oil, add garlic or onions for another fifteen minutes of cooking time without giving your oil a deleterious effect. The best oil is a raw oil, and therefor, by adding oil at the end of the cooking, you improve the health value of the meal.
(In fact, if you are a meat eater, the bacon, lamb, ground beef, and whole chicken legs you cook have plenty of fat to provide oil for your cooking. Add a couple tablespoons of water to provide a little moisture, and cover your pan with a lid to prevent the evaporation of the oil.)

Autumn's Bounty

Acorn, butternut, and spaghetti squash line the farm stands in our neighborhood. Yellow spade-shaped leaves seem to be the first to dash across the roads like little airplanes. Clumps of brown oak dot the trees. Night falls in the evening again. The blueberries and tart beach plums have been harvested. The apples in people's yards fall from the tree with wormholes, and you wonder why they do not harvest them. The cranberry bogs are turning red. The bike paths are empty.

This morning Raven and I harvested the last wild grapes in our yard. This was not the simplest of tasks. We have no ladder or fruit picker. What city slickers! A pub chair, a long rope and some sticks did the trick. These are the sweetest grapes of the season. (Speaking of being a city girl, I seem to be the only mom who wears black dropping my kid off at school, but I'm just really not feeling the call of the jeans. Historically, this area has seen a lot of black mourning gowns, so I am all for the change.)

Berries like lychees hang low on branches in front of the library and down along main street. People assume they are inedible. But why would people keep them around so long if they aren't edible? They form huge clumps of mushy red and bright orange fruit on the personalized bricks and fill the holes of workman's soles in one step. They also taste delicious.

Here's my pumpkin pie recipe for fall.


Pandora’s Pumpkin Pie
October 26, 2010

Filling:
15 oz. canned organic pumpkin puree
14 oz. organic tofu
2 organic eggs
1/2 maple syrup
3 tablespoons whole milk/ricemilk/coconut milk
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon clove

Put pumpkin puree, ricemilk and tofu in a blender. In a bowl whip eggs, vanilla, cornstarch, maple syrup, and spices together. Add blended mixture to wet ingredients and whip together before placing into pre-cooked crust.

Crust (option number 1):
½ cup rice flour
½ cup potato flour
½ tsp. cinnamon powder
Small pinch of clove
Small pinch of nutmeg
1 egg beaten
4 tbsp. rice milk
2 tbsp. oil
2 tbsp. cold water
4 tbsp. maple syrup
½ tsp. vanilla extract

Crust (option number 2):
1 1/2 c. rice flour
1/2 c. organic whole milk/organic rice milk/coconut milk
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons oil
1 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of clove
pinch of nutmeg


In a bowl, add dry ingredients. Make a hole in the center. Add egg and beat. Next, add all wet ingredients. Mix well. Make a ball out of the dough. Place in the center of a greased tin. Press, until evenly distributed. Preheat at 350 and cook for 5-7 minutes, before adding pumpkin filling.

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes. Cool on kitchen counter top. Refrigerate until completely firm in the center. Let stand ten minutes at room temperature before serving.

"As The Wheel Turns"
Once I placed the Fall Equinox 'sticker', my five year old son knew the Spring Equinox was on the other side of the wheel. He also knew where the Solstices fall in relation to the equinoxes. I am so impressed!

Spirit World

In a region where people historically have feared death, reckoning, and believed that consciousness ends with leaving the physical body, there are plenty of haunted houses to prove that death doesn't mean the end of personality essence. We are living on the energetic foundations of nearly four hundred years of American culture and walking in the footprints of the Native Americans who inhabited these lands for hundreds of years prior to that.

Photo by Pandora Peoples with Annalee Peoples

Ghosts seem to have a wide range of emotions. I come to this conclusion based on my personal experiences, those of my clients and friends, and what I have gleaned from the local legends. Content, angry, waiting for an apology, wanting to be heard, feeling lost, feeling playful, or lustful, from tricksters to spirit helpers they reflect the whole spectrum of human experience. Some are faint energy fragments and some can make conscious choices. Their presence is a variable here we can't ignore, and can affect our lives in positive, negative or neutral ways.

Perhaps if we had a deep respect for death, and saw it in terms of a transition into a new phase of life/existence, it would amplify our ability to find serenity when we cross over. If our culture gave reverence to the elderly years in general, it might bestow more feelings of purpose and accomplishment in the later years of our life. Perhaps our wise elders would die knowing they had passed the torch and that their mission in life was accomplished, and that their legacy would be carried on.

The New Age philosophy that everything happens for a reason and that there is a divine and positive benefit to every tragic event, is appealing but not easy to relate to in the face of tragedy. In the work I do, I have seen many young people who have crossed over who have found purpose and meaning to there lives on the other side. It was part of their soul's evolution to experience death when they did. It also taught their friends and families valuable lessons. At times, it expands the relationship between family members and validates the unseen world. There are often more limitations in the physical world, than in the invisible one.

Happy Equinox

Yes, it is the harvest time in the wheel of the year, when my family gets a little giddy. The spiderwebs hang like silver crystaline thread in the morning dew, the mist is heavy over the lake, and rambles over the surface like a drunk old man leaving an empty tavern at day break. The mice are back in the attic, and scraping away in walls, and what was a poison in summer is a nice midnight snack in the fall. Shadows creep in the darkness, and snapping turtles find their way to your lawn looking for sun. Time to rejoice in the gradual thinning of the veil.

Lit pumpkins deck the hallway, fluttering with garish smiles. There's rapping on the ceiling, grandma's reading bedtime stories while ghosts disguised are creaking. Staircases thump at two, and later still at three, while the screen door moans in the moonlight, a raspy voice etches a sorrowful tale in your wine-weakened head. Growls in your ear of an enigmatic "He", punctuate a dinner with your grinning family. No howling dogs you will find here, they are mute like cats and deer. Watching the gate as it slams shut, with quiet inquisitive fear. Something escapes from a mirror, like clockwork every year, and it rides through the streets before retiring to your mug of flat old beer. Queer is the mellow morning, as it revels and relaxes in hues, like the twilight sleep of angels, illuminated like Sunday pews.

"Widow" by Pandora Peoples with Annalee Peoples

Southern roots go deep...I made bacon, corn muffins, black bean soup, eggs, and fresh hash brown potatoes this morning. Ah, loving the cool weather.

Enjoy The Growlers!

Finding Hormonal Balance Naturally: combating the effects of pollution

Hormones are complex. In Natalie Angier's in depth book on female health entitled, Woman: An Intimate Geography, she states that women naturally have over three hundred types of estrogen. That's a lot of femininity! Studies are finding that many species of animals are exhibiting characteristics of both sexes*, due in part to exposure to herbicides, flame retardants, and chemicals found in cosmetics.

SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM FOR A HORMONE BALANCING RECIPE

Hormone imbalance is par for the course in a world that has introduced on average 500 new man-made chemicals to the human body since the 1950s. (How many of these are from direct injection via vaccines?) These effect the systems of the body, suppressing our immune function, creating toxicity in the body, disrupting our hormones and metabolism via our endocrine system and lead to low-grade inflammation (which is a foundation for serious illness). The presence of endocrine disruptors in medications which are processed and released at waste water disposal plants into rivers and oceans may be responsible for some fish displaying intersex features**. There is some concern that in populations where hermaphrodite amphibians and fish are being studied, chronic illness in local human populations are significantly higher and on the rise.

Cancer and diabetes are being linked with exposure to heavy metals. "Medical science has discovered how sensitive the insulin receptor sites are to chemical poisoning. Metals such as cadmium, mercury, arsenic, lead, fluoride, 51 and possibly aluminum may play a role in the actual destruction of beta cells through stimulating an auto-immune reaction to them after they have bonded to these cells in the pancreas." (There is a Cure for Diabetes by Gabriel Cousens) And what of the growth hormones given to animals. You may say, well you eat hormone-free, antibiotic-free meat, but really, do you do this all of the time? What about restaurants, parties, events, frozen and pre-packaged foods?

In 2000, Norwegian polar bears were 20 percent more likely to exhibit characteristics of both sexes than Alaskan polar bears, do to an increase in PCBs by industrial centers***. Plankton that the bears eat are contaminated with the chemicals. All Arctic bears in general are displaying signs of depressed immune systems.

A study in 2004, profiled by Harper's Magazine January 28, 2004, found that dolphins, whales, and seals are turning into hermaphrodites because of pollution. According to the U.s. Geological Survey and the EPA, the sludge water leaving sewage treatment plants after processing is a significant source of pharmaceuticals. In ten facilities they have discovered 28-50 compounds in sludge including "antimicrobial disinfectants (triclosan), antibiotics (sulfamethoxazole), musk fragrances (tonalide), antihistamines (diphenhydramine), and antiepileptic drugs (carbamazepine)."****

In light of what we know about hormonal imbalance being reflected in the species with whom we shared habitats and in light of the fact that these polluted rivers effect our water supplies and the agriculture we consume, it is probably best to do what we can to maintain balance through supplements. I've been quite smitten with Rosemary Gladstar's Women's Root Tea, to which I add cooked rehmannia rhizome. I have found it to be mood lifting, and I can feel how happy my reproductive organs are when I drink it.


Rosemary Gladstar's Women's Root Tea

Ingredients:
3 parts sassafras bark
2 parts dandelion root
1 part licorice
1 part pau d'arco
1 part vitex berry
1 part wild yam root
1 part ginger root
1/2 part cinnamon (I use 1 tsp. helps with circulation and digestion)
1/4 orange peel (I use 1/2 helps immune system)
1/4 don quai (I use 1/2 helps tonify uterus and reproductive organs)
2 parts cooked rehmannia rhizome (my addition...full of iron, delicious blood tonic) Optional: pinch of stevia


Break up pieces of rehmannia. Mix ingredients well with a wooden spoon. I use two tablespoons of the mixture to a medium sized pot. Bring to a boil. Simmer 20 minutes covered. This makes the perfect amount for my traditional Chinese tea pot.

Sources: * http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/science/08frog.html?_r=0

**http://georgetownvoice.com/2006/09/07/hermaphrodite-fish-provoke-concern-about-pollution/

***http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=3221&title=Pollutants+blamed+for+huge+increase+in+hermaphrodite+polar+bears

****http://list.web.net/archives/sludgewatch-l/2006-September/001791.html

Goddess Cerridwen

Cerridwen is the Welsh goddess of transformation, rebirth, inspiration, and poetry. Below, my mother Anna, astrologer, artist, gardener and Reiki practitioner, becomes Cerridwen. At sixty she's never dyed her hair, had any surgeries of any kind, and she has only love and good will in her heart. She has the purest heart of any witchy woman in the land.

Translating Multiple Verbal & Nonverbal Languages Simultaneously

Pandora's Garden will be accepting credit cards as soon as she finds a gateway and shopping cart that are compatible that she likes...

Love all the readings I have been doing, it makes my life quite dream-like. I feel like I walk to work barefoot in the rain, mud and snow, always trying to catch a train on the uphill side of the morning, as dawn puts on its emergency brakes, trying not to run me over.

The metaphysical work that I do is like swimming through green mermaid waters, inside a pitch black cave scattered with electric eels, boating upstream into a fiery crater, and out through the flooded servants' door of a large Southern Greek Revival into a backyard with row upon row of drooping ripe crops in the scorching heat, suddenly sliding into a still swamp with dead fish, getting tugged by a sobbing grandmother playing gypsy music with a phonograph into the ear of a def cat, drenched with muddy microbiology I climb up through the Amazonian fig trees into the tops of the green canopy with the buzzing, humming and howling of insects and birds which transports me to from midnight moment to midnight moment, from gleaming tomb to dank castle, from high noon moments in a cliff dwellers' temple....all from a cozy blanket with black waters sparkling in the starlight below me.

Thanks to all of the eager underemployed invisible helpers, for making these journeys into the realms of psyche purposeful and cathartic. Photo: "Lovelorn" by Pandora Peoples with model Abbie Stafford copyright 2012

Cape Cod Chronicle Interview

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"Cape Cod Goddess Festival Celebrates Sacred Feminine

by Jennifer Sexton

HARWICH---The Goddess is alive and magic is afoot at the first annual Cape Cod Goddess Festival, Saturday, Sept. 1 at noon until Sunday, Sept 2 at 7 p.m. at the Harwich Junior Theater Arts Center, 265 Sisson Rd.


The festival will feature performances, art, gifts, classes, kids’ activities, metaphysical vendors and more, celebrating feminine energy and the sacred space where feminine and masculine energy create synergy. The idea for the festival began when creator and organizer Pandora Peoples, a clairvoyant medium and herbalist who specializes mind-body- soul health, was approached by a literary agent.

“She saw my website, she read a bit about me and what I do,” Peoples explains. “She saw that I do workshops on women connecting with the sacred feminine and female empowerment and that sort of thing, and she said, ‘I want you to write a book on the Goddess.’ Which is awesome, because that is something that has been brewing within me for a long time.”

The next step in the puzzle was a conversation with musician, singer, writer and healer Alicia Mathewson, who will perform in the festival.

“She said, ‘It sounds to me that what you really want to do is a festival,’” Peoples recalls. “I was saying I want there to be musicians, and it would be great to have some dancers in the gallery, and that is how the event came together. And the more we got into it, people wondered, are men going to be involved? How are they going to be involved? It expanded to be about celebrating women in their many facets by also celebrating the wisdom and beauty of men and women coming together and the masculine-feminine synergy.”

Peoples describes the Goddess as a metaphor for women’s multiple facets and the many roles women play in today’s modern world. To Peoples, the goddesses of mythology and folklore from the ancient traditions of every global culture reflect the many aspects of today’s modern woman, from Celtic Brigid’s focus on hearth, home and nurturing to Athena’s focus on business, justice and keeping order. She has expanded these ideas in her photo series The Living Goddess, in which her female subjects embody the images of goddesses from traditions around the world.

“We can see the reflections of our many facets in these poetic stories,” Peoples says. “Women play so many roles today, as caretakers, career professionals, mothers, entrepreneurs, artists, teachers, listeners, counselors, friends, sisters, daughters, romantic partners, and we do it with grace, compassion, and love. The Cape Cod Goddess Festival celebrates women, summer’s end, and the magic created between men and women, and in a broader sense between the masculine and the feminine.”

Musicians at the event will include Boss Queens (R& B, hip hop, poetic female empowerment), Kim Mitchell (jazz vocalist), Yana Sorokina (blues and classical piano), Kathleen Healy (singer/songwriter), Alicia Mathewson (singer/songwriter), Daniel Ouellette and the Shobijin (crazy awesome rock), Sarah Burrill (acoustic rock ‘n’ roll), Molly Parmenter (singer/song writer), Nicolas Rideout (Ambient Trance genius) Joanna Meager and Danielle Ryder (acoustic guitar), Sarah Marchio (bag pipes), Hana Kahn (singer songwriter),Ashley Paige (singer songwriter) and Diana di Gioia (singer songwriter). Performances will be featured by Khadija’s Middle Eastern Dance Troupe Isis, Flamenco dance with Zoe, Raquel the Little One, Anahita Dance (belly dance solo), folk dance, Cape Cod African Dance and Drumming and Trevor the Juggler. Classes will be offered in yoga, movement therapy, herbal medicine, voice work, flamenco dancing, karate and more. An art show will showcase the works of Peoples, Richard Williams, Shannon McDonald, Ned Sonntag, Peggy Masce and Rebecca Burrill. Retail Therapy will offer jewelry, aromatherapy, green clothing, while other vendors will offer astrology, doula information and reiki. Kids’ activities will include dance, song, and fairy houses. All this plus fire spinning, theatrical readings, voice work, henna tattoos, healers and massage therapy adds up to an event with something for everyone, from Aphrodite to Zytniamatka (Germanic goddess of agriculture).

“This is a celebration of our community too, and local artists and families,” says Peoples. “Everyone can come and have a good time. Come on an empty stomach, eat some yummy food from Dancing Spoons and bask in the last real weekend of the summer.”

The first annual Cape Cod Goddess Festival takes place Saturday, Sept. 1 at noon until Sunday, Sept 2 at 7 p.m. at the Harwich Junior Theater Arts Center. Admission is $10 or $3 for children aged 5 to 12. For more information, call Pandora’s Garden at 310-591-6996, e-mail info@capecodgoddessfestival.com or visit capecodgoddessfestival.com.