Years ago, a friend (thank you Shaz) gifted me a 6 cm long Scarab (Scarabaeus sacer) made of green-speckled black onyx. The object, as it sat on a windowsill among other tokens, curiously nudged my imagination the other day.
I intuitively put the Scarab in a glass bowl with water and placed it outside under the sun.
from livescience.com
Dung beetles (Kafka’s Mistkäfer) fascinate me. They gather dung into orbs many times their own weight and drag them to a dug-out hollow as provision, but also as brood chambers into which the female deposits an egg. Once hatched, the larva feeds on the dung surrounding it. Here is a brilliant and cool TED Talk by Marcus Byrne about the amazing dance of the dung beetle: http://www.ted.com/talks/marcus_byrne_the_dance_of_the_dung_beetle
No wonder the ancient Egyptians made Khepri into a solar deity that rolls the sun each evening across the horizon, carries it through the other world, and returns with the star’s glory next day. Ra – the rising sun – was often depicted as a beetle-headed man.
The onyx of my Scarab is Leo’s astrological gem stone, associated with grounding energy and a firm heart, another motive to charge the Scarab’s regenerative meaning for me. As the sun warmed the water in the glass bowl, tiny, oscillating air bubbles formed, which made the scarab seem alive and breathing.
Of course, none of this means anything whatsoever, apart from my wishful investment, a fancyful projection I won’t scrutinize and happily indulge in.
Turns out the environment agrees. In my garden, a highway for cats of all breeds and hues, sleek, bushy, black, white, grey, marmalade and surreally marked, one ginger tom seems in need of healing. On his daily round he has become totally addicted to drinking water from the bowl, greedily, in long slurps.
And today my blackbird friends re-appeared to partake of the holy beatle’s sun charged water. You may allow yourself a humoured smile, though what else is there but to cheer at the powerful symbol invested with the meaning of regeneration in the small universe of my garden?
Course of Mirrors 
Wonderful magical thoughts – a while ago I was suffering from a mild stomach problem. I had a lovely blue lace agate and when I was in discomfort I rolled it in my hands and I am convinced that it eased the symptoms and helped me heal. Oddly I found it only yesterday and took it to let it warm in the sun. I hope the Ginger Tom is soon better
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Thanks, glad your symptom has improved. It’s worth considering that what we hold in mind and heart creates a pulse, a vibration affecting our body.
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Wish I could see your Scarab “breathing”….. 🙂
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Sylvia, put a little stone in a glass bowl under the sun, representing whatever has meaning for you, and watch … 🙂
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I’m a great believer in crystals as a life form we don’t yet understand. I sleep with them under the pillow and use them for meditation; I regard them as friends.
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It’s my guess you have a collection of beautiful crystals. They hold information we can’t fathom. It makes good sense and can only benefit us to honour them with friendship.
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A fairly vast collection, in all honesty, collected since I was about 10 or so. Plus boxes of rocks of all sorts that people have brought me back from extraordinary places; I scry with them. Jane Alexander told me today she’s got me a rock from the Mongolian desert; was chuffed to bits with that news.
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You got your agents, lucky you, even in Mongolia. Wondered how Jane was doing.
I can’t help picking up stones and pebbles wherever I go. Serpentine from the Lizzard, Azurite/ Melachite from Morocco, tiny smooth washed pebbles. A special stone features in ‘Course of Mirrors,’ and is used for scrying in the sequel.
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It’s synchronous that Jane picked one up for me as one WIP (Tabula Rasa) is entering a sequence set in a desert. Since I have never been to a desert, I must ask someone who has.
I am a great finder of fossils too; any beach walk usually results in at least one, if not more, and a few Hag Stones as well.
By the way, I am *so* looking forward to Course of Mirrors coming out…
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Two poems on my poetry page were inspired by a desert canyon around Eilat. Hag stones – I have one … somewhere.
CoM – it’s been difficult all this waiting for my 1st novel to be launched. I stick with my small publisher a little longer. Editing the sequel now.
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Marcus Byrne at my old University! Nice to revisit to learn something new.
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Immense pleasure generated through simple stories.
Your story of the Scarab, immediately reminded me of a song created by one of my favourite artists – Melanie.
Alexander Beetle tells the story of a beetle lovingly kept as a pet until one day a slightly myopic Granny mistakes it for a match and releases it. Alexander returns with it’s beetle tail between it’s beetle legs after enjoying freedom.
Delight,delight,delight.
Thanks Ashen. B
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Oh thanks B. This reminds me 🙂 as children we collected Maikäfer (Melolontha) another Scarabaeus, in matchboxes. And there are the humorous pranks of Max and Moritz by Wilhelm Busch. I think I’ll scan some of the images from a very tattered booklet I have for a future post.
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The small universe of your garden sounds heavenly to me. I would say it means a lot actually, all of this — it served as inspiration for shedding interesting thoughts, put together in words that form a most formidable picture in my mind’s eye. Goes to show — it’s the small things in life that can offer the best story, in the right hands, of course. 🙂 Thank you for sharing the small universe of your garden in such poetic words.
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I’m pleased that my little idiosyncrasies can inspire. Thank you Silvia
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The small universe of your garden–what a mind-blowing concept. And it’s so true too, isn’t it? We live in this great cosmos of unfathomable space, yet we can usually only absorb and retain the smallest handful worth in measurement.
A lovely post!
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Thanks, Shelley.
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What a post. Love that scarab, and the way you gathered your thoughts around it – and you were wrong. Everything about this has meaning – but I’m sure you know that, really… 🙂
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🙂 Thank you for finding this post, Cath ☼
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