Aye! Muy Caliente!

Well, as I’m sure you already know, the oracle has predicted. Yes, people, the little beastie named Punxsutawney Phil was rudely awakened from a sound sleep yesterday, yanked from his burrow on Gobblers Knob to forecast six more weeks of winter by the ominous sign of his shadow. Really, who is brave (or dumb enough) to stick their hand into a dark hole and roust a hibernating critter?

In other words, Happy Ground Hog’s Day.

Speaking of nature, did you all get a look-see at this week’s “Wolf Moon?” It was advertised as the brightest and largest lunar view of the year. Named, I reckon, for the canis lupus howling at it. If regular full moons have such pull with the ocean, making people loonier than normal, I wonder how influential this celestial tide will be upon personkind.

The timing of this satellite spectacle segues beautifully into a letter I just received from a woman nicknamed Snow White. Gee, I just realized I have all these people in my life with curious monikers such as Groom, Kimmmm, BeeBugg, Chakra Girl, God’s Minion, Zolo King, GoatMama, and of course me as Cinderella.

Snow White inquired about the jewelry classes we’re taking and asked if we have “a lot of fire” in our charts? What an interesting question, a curious thread worth pulling. Here’s the longer of the short answers. I have very little knowledge or experience of astrology. What I learned, I learned as a child. The first birth chart I heard reference to was the famous one those three Wise Men computed that led them by starlight to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

The second was that greasy pick-up line from the late 60’s or early 70’s, “What’s your sign?” Although I was a mere babe in arms, my favorite answer is still, “the dollar sign.”

In order to answer Snow White, I did a little investigating and sure enough, she called it. Groom and I both have a balance of fire and air in our natal charts. No elements of water or earth - just fire and air.

Too much and the conflagration dies out. Not enough and the blaze consumes. As Groom and I recently marked 21 years as a couple, apparently we have the appropriate amount of oxidizing and combustible materials in our energy fields to keep the home fires burning.

This trail of thought opened up something for me to consider in a different light. Cinderella is the archetype, the blueprint of my life. I had always looked at my birthplace and life-path in terms of the Cinderella story, but until Snow White asked, I hadn’t thought about them in terms of the fire story.

For starters, take the name itself. The fairy tale princess, Cinderella, is really Ella of the Cinders because much of her work revolved around the hearth. And you’ll remember that Cinderella Lucinda is also a blood relative from the 1800’s as well as the name of our whimsical line of jewelry.

Secondly, I was born in the Land of Ash. Most of you know it as Ashland, but the meaning is clear.

At the time of my birth, our house was located in Phoenix. The phoenix, also known as a “fire bird,” is a symbol of the sun and is legendary for rising from its ashes.

My first name, a diminutive of both Cinderella and Lucinda (Cindy) means “goddess of the moon,” which is a reflector for the sun and is how we got started on this celestial topic in the first place (the wolf moon). My middle name, Rae, means “a beam of light.”

Okay, now I’m just cracking myself up as I follow the crumbs. A root of the word incendiary (containing a substance that burns with an intense heat) originates from the French incindere – to kindle, or incendie – fire. Say “in Cindy.” Hmmm, Incendie, in Cindy. Fire is in Cindy. As an Aquarian, I’ve never quite understood why this air sign is symbolized as a water-bearer. However, with all this talk of les incendies, perhaps it’s wise to have an urn of H2O in the ready.

Groom’s name is Donald and with his golden mane and red, fiery beard, it is no surprise that he is a Leo of Celtic descent. Considering today’s theme, I’m finding it quite fitting to discover that Leo is the sun sign. Donald, a clan name in Scotland, means “great chief” or if you go with the sound Dawn, it means the first appearance of light. Dawn is the beginning of a new day, something that begins to appear, develop, come forth. Perfect for a burgeoning photographer!

In the Chinese zodiac, I was born a dragon, a fire-breathing creature. One of the first descriptions of a dragon person when I googled it was “Dragon people are balls of fire! They are full of vitality and love life.”

For those of you who have ever broken bread with us, you know this to be true. We eat food of epic heatness. Some try to woo with chocolate, but those in the know come bearing gifts chock full of capsicum. People try to outdo themselves in discovering spices and sauces, powders and peppers with units rating high on the Scolville Scale.

Mmmmm, pyrotechnic peppers such as jalapenos, hildagos, orange habaneros, thai, caribbean reds, devil’s tongue, or white ghosts. Sounds almost druggy.

Confession: Eating fire is a little bit (okay a lot) addictive. When those rascally chemicals from the peppers crash land on the taste buds, the experts claim “the body is tricked into believing that it is in pain and releases the pain-relieving endorphins.” Oh, let me tell you, my body is not tricked into believing it is in pain, in that moment, it is in pain. But what a delicious pain. Those endorphins come rushing in and gotta love the ride!

This brings to mind the seed of associating heat with the kitchen. A pleasant early childhood memory involves my mother playing Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire on her reel-to-reel tape player. The machine sat directly on top of the stove, “It burns, burns, burns…” sounding like her theme song. Mother was a musician, not a cook. The fact that music came from her oven and not food, well, that’s my mom.

In last week’s entry, there was a caricature of Groom and myself. It showed cartoony red circles drawn on my cheeks. Alas, I really do have bright, red, flame-colored cheeks. Some people are kind and call them “rosy,” but a rose by any other name is still as red. I’ve been distraught at times by their Rudolphian quality, but after considering Snow White’s fire question, it makes much more sense now.

For Christmas, we received two CD’s. One titled Rio del Fuego – River of Fire by joe scott and hannah alkire http://www.acousticeidolon.com/ and the other, On Fire, http://www.michelcamilo.com/. Coincidental?

If Simon Cowell, the smug (as in contentedly confident in one’s own superiority) American Idol judge, were to read this week’s entry, he might say in his distinctive British voice, “I find this to be quite self-indulgent.” And he’d be right. It is totally self-indulgent. But it’s also self-discovery. Perhaps for you, too.

What does your name mean? What sounds or vibrations does it carry? Where were you born, do any of these reveal clues to your path? For us, they were hidden in plain sight.

All this time, Groom and I have been surrounded by an effulgence of fire symbology (yeah, I don’t care if I used that incorrectly, language is rubber and I can bend it like Beckham), and we didn’t even know it. Drawn to metal and the desire to work/play with it, we’re discovering our own fire for the first time. We’re handling kilns and torches and soldering irons, heating metal and glass to their melting points. It’s fun and suddenly, all the fire we have makes a lick of sense.

Short answer Snow White? Yes, Groom and I have a lot of fire in our charts.

Update: Some jewelry tools have trickled in, so we can take a magic marker and scratch off some of those items from The List. Things like a soldering iron, a fire-retardant surface, a soldering tripod with screen, a charcoal firing brick and a crucible. A phone call from Zolo King says a crock pot, a vice and a ball peen hammer are on the way. We purchased two die cutters on eBay, a dapping set from Harbor Freight and have a rain check for a flex shaft.

If you’re still reading and your eyes have not glazed over, thanks for playing in my self-indulgent sandbox.