fixing the omen: introducing persephone’s almanac

By Andrea Most

As the seasons turn, I have made it a habit to consult the I Ching – an ancient Taoist divination system -- for guidance on how to meet the changes of the year. I was ushered into the mysteries of this practice as part of my training in the 19 Ways, a path that Sharon opened for me and that we now share.

This past summer, I received Hexagram 60 Articulating the Crossings: “Carefully consider the various parts of your life in order to articulate a more effective structure. Create a whole in which each thing has a place. Attend to the months of the year, the signs of the zodiac, seasonal feasts and rituals that articulate sacred time. Turn your life into a dance of the great symbols, a deep rhythm in which each thing has its place.”

For as long as I can remember, I have loved almanacs, seasonal calendars, compendiums of wisdom, mystical and practical and joyous ways of marking the revolutions of the earth. It was this fascination with “a deep rhythm in which each thing has its place” that led me to Persephone and that led our group to decide to create an almanac. A year ago, we tossed around ideas, attempted to impose structures, lost our way. So we put it aside.

I asked an elder, the wise woman who taught me about the I Ching, how to embody the I Ching’s response. She suggested I spend the summer “fixing the omen,” giving Articulating the Crossings real material form in my life. Maybe make some sort of calendar, she suggested, in the shape of a labyrinth? I was amazed. I had not told her about my work with the Persephone Project. She did not know we were struggling with the form for the almanac. Neither did she know that we had written labyrinth poetry with Alessandra Naccarato, built a labyrinth at Bela Farm, walked the labyrinth with Persephone. Synchronicity is the way of Spirit, she reminded me.

And so I began to sketch and, with Rochelle’s help, I fixed the omen. Moons appeared. And gates. The abundance of the earth, the birthdays of my family, the months of the Hebrew calendar, the great festivals, and the mundane tasks that define a year on the land in Southern Ontario, all found their place. This labyrinthine calendar has become a source of great comfort to me. When I feel ungrounded, I trace my finger along its pathways and remember – now things are hard, but in another turn of the wheel, there will be sweet pears, or ruby red strawberries, or cold bracing snow. I hope it may serve as comfort to others as well in these chaotic times.

More often than not a seed planted and forgotten in one season appears unexpectedly in another. I received Hexagram 60 at the same time that – many miles away -- Sharon began “Night in this World”, a seasonally-based series of blog posts. As we ushered Persephone into the Underworld this autumn, Sasha showed us photos marking her own moment of descent. Unplanned, unstructured, guided by Persephone and the rhythms of the earth, the seeds of our almanac are beginning to sprout.

One more thing: my labyrinth is still unfinished. It needs to be anchored in all that gives it life. The earth and the passage of time. I Ching responses often involve “changing lines.” The changes that are underway transform the hexagram and another one emerges; this second hexagram is the larger “field” which helps to ground the response. In the hexagram I received, the first line, which corresponds to the deepest aspects of the inner world, was in flux. The change pointed to the Ghost River, the place of the past and the ancestors. I am still looking for a way to give them the place they deserve in this dance of the great symbols. Until then, I invite you to walk this first iteration with me.

I offer this labyrinth in honor of my wonderful teacher Sharon Simone.