the SACRED MASCULINE POWERS

I understand the intent, but the image of feminine masculinity as Divinity, even as a boy, stood out in stark contrast to deep divine, and the magnificent energy of my father, and the men of his time and ilk. Feminine masculinity's very existence in sermons, and images couldn't serve me in any capacity as a boy or a man surrounded by men living as men. Broken energies transferred to a Divinity is incapable of making, initiating, or sustaining manhood which is so fundamental to the structures of Life, Death and Resurrection. - Gregory E. Woods [8/13/12]

HEATHER HEADLEY

Black singer Heather Headley on roof top !!!!

Question: How are you going about approaching the character and approaching the songs to make them your own?
Headley: I've been saying this: I can't be Whitney. I am not capable of being Whitney Houston. I had to stop listening to the records because they're intimidating. She really did have one of the best voices that we have ever been privileged to hear. And, I'm very happy that this is not a biopic, so it's not about her life. But in the same vain, it's like trying to come in after Barbra Streisand. You're trying to do Funny Girlafter Barbra Streisand did it. You're trying to do Hello, Dolly! after Carol Channing — it's a tough thing. So, for me, I think the big thing has been to find my own Rachel. Of course, giving the honor and the kudos to Whitney's version, but just finding my own Rachel, within my body, within my voice because it is an original show — but yet it's not. I think there are a lot of people, especially now, who are walking in going, "Oh, you have to be Whitney," but I can't. I'm incapable of such. You know what I mean? So the deal is now to find — kind of treat her — as though it was Aida or just learning a new part. What is she to me? What do I feel? And, the nice thing about it is that…it's been adapted. And, so with [writers] Lawrence Kasdan and Alex Dinelaris, they changed it. There are new emotions, new relationships popping up, new everything, so I do have to find a whole new path down that road, but they are some very high designer shoes to fill!

Question: How would you describe the Rachel that you're playing?
Headley: She is a huge pop star, but has her own demons and has kind of been brought up in the spotlight and has her insecurities — has her fears. There's the fear of, "I have to succeed, but can I? Can I not?" … You have these insecurities on the inside that sometimes make you act out in not the best of ways. And, on top of that, she's a broken girl, which is the best story. It's about broken people, and these two broken people can find each other in each other's arms…

	Headley and Lloyd Owen
	photo by Matt Crockett

I remember being a broken girl and my husband coming in and kind of picking up all those pieces and putting them together. When you find the right person, you can just be. You can be you. You can pull that mask down and say, "I don't have to be tough today. I don't have to be cold today, and I don't have to be this…" So that's my thing about finding her. I'm not trying to base her on anybody's life or anything like that and be like, "Oh, she's based on this pop star or that." It's just knowing what people go through…CONTINUE

Mystery of Going Into

Quotes and Fantasy

"the Mystery of Going Into is part of the frequent journeys we make as Elders, to be Elders..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

BLACK WOLF

Super DAD Super MOM

PARENTING: 

All the years I thought of Spider Man, Batman, and Superman, and pondered, as a kid, about their characters and the story lines in each comic book we read parentage didn't figure in. From this perspective I guess it mirrored many people's home life, but we were in the house with our parents, and everything was shielded and protected by Daddy's covering, and Mommy's powers. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories  10.21.12

No Hope For the Human Race

THE JOKER

The JOKER

Funny, but conceptually I can see how the embodiment of evil can sustain the beauty of life. My wife said it clearly once. She observes human nature in a simple way that overwhelms the pretense of paid philosophers. She believes people who are profoundly evil come into the world to do one thing. They come in to kill, and balance the good within others! ~ Gregory E. Woods 1.21.12

No Hope For the Human Race

SOFT MUSIC

Ashana

Day 6 of our Global Sadhana! For those of you joining us ... I have a question. How are you faring with this mantra? I'm asking because I know it is really a mouthful!

For the first two weeks, until it became second nature to me, there wer

e moments when I thought I was chanting with marbles in my cheeks and that my brain had turned into scrambled eggs. My husband and I would be 10 minutes into it and we would laugh so hard at what was coming out of our mouths we had to stop and start all over again. I realized that chanting the mantra was actually forming new neural pathways in my brain. I found this thought very comforting and it motivated me to keep going. As the new pathways established themselves, it grew easier with each passing day. In a very short time, the words were rolling off of my tongue like liquid light and I was able to turn my focus deeper and deeper within.

It’s not about doing it perfectly or getting it “right”. The process IS the experience … and it is constantly unfolding.

For those of you who just love listening to the recording, I hope you are loving it and allowing the sounds to take you deep within.

Either way, it's all good!
♥♥♥ Ashana

October 16, 2012

http://www.ashanamusic.com/ 

INVISIBLE WOMEN

Photography/ArtDirection/Styling: Mikaela Lyrea
Makeup and Hair: Seana Breh Gorlick
Model: Hannah Doerksen

All Rights Reserved Mikaela Lyrea Photography
©MikaelaLyrea

The invisible woman. I have a friend who is well known for her story, and well compensated when she tells it. Her story is long and gruesome, but it is fundamental to the reasons why she developed a program to help working women leave prostitution. It is an 18 month long process. At the court's discretion in lieu of jail time 'johns' are sent to my friend for a day of unlearning. The first time I heard my friend speak about her life as a prostitute, and drug addict I had to discover why the men caught cruising for prostitutes were only given a day in her program.

She said that was as long as the men could endure. "Why?" Because she made them look into the faces and the eyes of the women. It devastated them. These men were incapable of seeing these women, and the peep into a whore's eyes shattered them! She said very very few were ever arrested again. - Gregory E. Woods 8.22.12

model Hannah Doeksen. makeup Seana Breh Glorick. photography by Mikaela Lyrea.
 All Rights Reserved Mikaela Lyrea Photography ©MikaelaLyrea

... you put me deep in her introspection. With all I know, and think I know I know not her thoughts or what it feels like to be a woman in this world. - Gregory