Growing Light

© Adriana Sjan Bijman 2011

While I wake up

early morning after The Green Thursday

I touch the breathtaking light growing into the new day

into my heart

and wonder

how long I can keep it to stay

and if I can let go while it moves again, away

from my stay at Son Rullan, at the west coast of la Isla de Mallorca, April 2011 © Adriana Sjan Bijman 

Burn the Clavie!

“BURN THE CLAVIE!“

“BURN THE CLAVIE!“

old barrel wood and oil and tar

blackness

on fire !

shouting primal chanting men

and we answering

our screams HOYA

“FIRE !”

flames

hissing spitting gripping tearing

“BURN THE CLAVIE!”

swept by the crowd pushed carried

away by the flames

the red fire that

called the pagan woman in me

yelling hissing spitting

a fire being

more tar more oil more

red and orange

then black clouds filling

our skies our earth

We burn the clavie!

Coal smears in our hair

Our bodies still filled

with fire

As we see the ghost leave

And the sky lifts

And later we go home to our clan

with a half burned barrel wood

which will bring us luck

for a full year

Happy new year!

Each year the New Year old pagan fire ritual is held at Burghead in the north-east  of Scotland: The Clavie. 

Walking on Water

The Delta is immense.  Early mornings the gentle sound of the water called me and I took some long walks, starting along the river Esperita. I walked and walked, turning left, right, along the water, into the forest. The delta is immense. I got lost amongst the many wooden piers at the waterfront. I got drunk between the fragrance of unknown colourful flowers, ripe falling juicy oranges and enchanting high bamboos. I walked and walked.

Was I maybe following the footsteps on this path of the native Guarany Indians who lived here; long long before the Spanish explorers came to this area to settle, take, and kill the Indians. Or were they attacked by the Yaguareté, the american jaguar or ‘tigre’, that lived in the delta and was hunted by the indian for their skin and fat; but which also hunted them? The ‘tigre’ is not extinct yet….

And then, as I walked my way between the lands, crossing stream after stream via the dangerously swaying bridging woods, I only could surrender, to become part of everything around me. 

And then … then I was walking on water. 

The Tigre Delta at the river Paraná near Buenos Aires in Argentina has been declared ‘Biosphere natural reserve’ by Unesco. A photo-installation about the walks has been exhibited in The Blue Angel, Universal Hall at Findhorn from 12 February until 12 March 2011

Light written

The Light written on the walls

Her presence coming into

This morning 

Joy of Life

This immense cactus just grows from a pot in a very small terrace in front of a house pressed against a window. Its huge  beautiful white flowers celebrating life  –as it looks to me!  I found it in  the town Tilcara, province of Jujuy in the Andes Mountains in the north of Argentina.

November 2010

Life and Death

Autumn, Scorpio-time, Samhain and Halloween, when the veil between the world is thin…. In all cultures, from Mayan, Celtic to catholic these times have been celebrated and honoured. 

I am aware of the ongoing cycle of live and saw it confirmed by these plants growing from a large mausoleum tomb in Buenos Aires at Recoleta, at which cemetery also Evita Perron lies buried; her spirit still alive for lots of Peronistas.  Look at a cemetery to see how people and how a culture deals with death.
October 2010

Light Once

In the streets of La Boca in Buenos Aires I saw this play of colour, light and shadows. There is a story why all the houses are so colourful. When the first Italian immigrants came to Buenos Aires, they started to work in the harbour and shipyards of the river ‘La Plata’ in the capital. They settled in ‘La Boca” (The Mouth), where they builded wooden houses. To paint their houses, they were allowed to take home the leftovers of paint used in the shipyard. This created a very colourful, now famous quarter of town.

On the left you see these funny electricity boxes, which all houses show on the front wall. Is it important for your neighbours or visitors to see how much electricity you have been using (this could become a great environmental control issue) or is it just easy for the electricity company to read your meter?  No idea. I liked being in between the light and shadow of the trees.

Aug 2010