Sunday, October 25, 2015

A Breath of Sea Air

Saturday was a beautiful day. In the morning my husband and I stopped at our favorite local botanica for a few things. As usual, while there I ended up finding a number of extra goodies as well! The principal goal of our trip was for me to secure a few stones. I immediately located some precious finds: red coral, raw selenite, raw black tourmaline, desert rose, and snowflake obsidian.
While I was selecting my stones, Jorge was busy discussing important matters with Paula, the clerk and jeweler. As I approached the counter I realized that they were talking about azabaches - generally speaking, charms against the evil eye. "Good call," I thought, since I was supposed to get one months back and hadn't yet. In fact, we were planning to get one for each member of our family. Azabache is another word for jet (also called "black amber"), an ancient stone formed from the remains of decomposed wood, which has a high carbon content. It has been used through the ages and across many cultures to bring wisdom, protection, and healing. It is often combined with red coral, also widely used for protection. In Cuba, most babies don't leave the hospital without an azabache charm attached to their clothing. I myself used to own a silver and red coral bracelet, a gift from my mother from Italy for the purposes of deflecting unwanted attention.

We didn't see any in stock that were quite what we were looking for, so Paula went into the back room and returned with her beads and jewelry tools. In the end, we were able to make a custom order which she completed right in front of our eyes, which was a special treat. Our azabache beads were hand carved from California, and we chose naturally shaped red coral for the accent:
Custom-made azabache pendant
I gathered up a couple boxes of incense and a candle, and we were on our way. It was a really nice way to start the day.

We'd planned to take the kids out to the sea in the afternoon, so after lunch we gathered up chairs, a blanket, and some snacks, and we drove our new Fiat out to a beautiful, quiet, sparsely populated beach. We watched the pelicans fly overhead, and the little ones played in the surf for a while. We munched on cheese crackers and salted nori, and I pulled a few cards:
Wildwood Tarot and Earthbound Oracle at the sea
We drove back home under the setting sun, and settled in for the evening with good food, and some Antiques Roadshow. It's the little things. ;-)

6 comments:

  1. What a wonderful day this must have been. I love you new crystals and the azabache beads. Great to be able to see how they were crafted
    The red coral will be a powerful self confidence booster (much needed during our challenge) I have bought a snowflake obsidian too last month to soften up the edges of my experiences during shadow work a bit :)

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    1. Yes! It was a much needed day of leisure and enjoyment:-) Yeah, I think the stones are perfect for all this work we have been doing this month! Too bad we don't all live closer... We could have a little post-Shadow Work tea party ;-)

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  2. That sounds absolutely wonderful! How gorgeous to see your pendants custom made. And the beach trip sounds immensely healing and enjoyable:D

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    1. Yes, it was a really cool experience! I always feel ambivalent about driving out to the sea (it takes about an hour) but once there I am always glad I went :-)

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    2. Aren't we funny like that? I remember that as a kid, too, not wanting to do something because if felt like too much of an effort, but always loving it once I was up and doing :D

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    3. Yes, and it's those memories (of how enjoyable something actually is) that I try to use as impetus for the next time ;) Ha..

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