Kingdom of Crystal, Part 1

Thursday and Friday we spent in The Kingdom of Crystal, a region of Sweden famous for the glassworks - blown, etched, molded and recycled! Once over 300 glassblowers had factories here; now there are 16. This was easily the highlight of my trip.

First we stopped for coffee in Växjö, wandering the cobblestone streets and noting the architecture, very traditional, baskets of flowers just bursting with color everywhere, hanging from porches, filling containers, spilling the smell of roses into the streets. The Swedish people take their ice cream very seriously, and everywhere were little stalls selling Glace.

Next we visited Lessebo, where we watched them make hand-made paper from rags and linen, using a huge zinc press to dry the individual sheets. Established in 1693, today an exclusive product mainly used for finer documents, we got to see how they made watermarks and what happened to an unfortunate spider that fell into a vat of soaking paper mush.

 This is a tower of glass, filled with bowls, vases, sculptures, and these incredible glass heads, in a range of colors that kept shifting as you walked around the perimeter. It was such a massive piece of art, really impressive, and somehow you just wanted to reach in and see if you could shift one of the pieces, like a giant game of jenga.

We went on the visit Kosta Boda, Orrefors, Mäleräs, Pukeburg, which has an outstanding school of design, and ended in Kalmar. We stopped for lunch for a little bakery outside of Mats Jonasson glassworks for shrimp sandwhiches and the ubiquitous coffee seemingly served everwhere. 

Photos by Siv, 2010

More Adventures in Sweden

View Larger Map

Wednesday morning we woke up around 7am, had breakfast, and were picked up in a Volvo limo to go out to the factory. There we ran into our new friends, Jan and Merv, along with 22 other new car owners, all a part of their Overseas Deliver Program.

After signing papers and test driving my Mom's new Volvo C30 - a tiny car, in a beautiful blue-grey, with no trunk space to speak of - we got lunch and a tour of the factory. It was fascinating - huge robots were picking up the components, sparks from the welding a flying, with a preciceness and speed that almost spooky. We literally saw from start to finish, beginning with the rolls of steel and the steel presses, and it was clear from the tour guides voice just how much pride she had in her company.

In the afternoon we drove down to Kungsbacka, after getting lost driving back into Göteborg. This became our theme over the next few days: something between the 9 hour difference, jetlag, the sun not seeming to be in the right place in the sky, and the distinct lack of signage along the roads led us in many a circle. Indeed, out motto became "We came, We saw, We turned around."

 We went to the market and picked up some dinner supplies, before settling into our hotel room. Around 2 am a huge fight broke outside the hotel, with a dozen or so youths fully in a fist fight, breaking bottles and plant containers in the process. Three police cars finally showed up, arresting the lot. So much for a quiet night....

Map by Google; Photos by Siv 2010

Dreams are Whispers

Adventures in Sweden: Land of the Midnight Sun

I've just returned from spending 11 days touring the southern parts of Sweden, the Spruce-Moose biome. My Mom bought a Volvo through their Overseas Deliver Program, where they pay your airfare if you pick up the car and ship it yourself. Included in the deal was a free night at the Risson Blu hotel in Göteborg, lunch and a tour of the factory. Whatta bargain!

We left from Monterey on a Monday morning, our first plane delayed by fog. We got to hang out at the SAS lounge in San Francisco, where we met Merv and Jan, also new Volvo owners on their way to pick up their new car. Merv, recently retired, had been a pharmacist for 50 years. When I told him I was a Certified Hypnotherapist and working on my PhD in Holistic Healing, he said, "Oh, that's good, because you know, medications are what make people sick!"

We flew in to Chicago, then to Copenhagen, finally ending in Göteborg close to 24 hours later. I was exhausted. As my brother says, flying is like a 24 hour prison sentence. After checking in to our hotel, we went to the train station to exchange money. I was surprised that the Swedes are still using kronor, as I'd assumed they'd switched to Euros. 

The Swedes are very ecological minded, evidenced by needing to insert the hotel key in a slot to turn anything electronic on, ensuring that the lights would be turned out upon exiting. The toilets had a half flush and full flush; and every hotel had instructions on how to reuse your towel in order to save on laundry. There was a disappointing amount of litter in the streets, and not all the towns had public trash cans. we made a point of picking up 7 pieces of trash everyday. Another interesting I thought was that in one market the shopping carts were chained together, and you had to insert 5 kronor to detach one, which was returned once you put the cart back.

We found a random restaurant where I had a ceasar salad, a little overpowered by anchovies, and a nice dry white wine from Italy. We went back to our room prepared to get some rest, but so began my week of not sleeping. It was really hot (apparently the hottest summer in some ten years) and while we'd pulled the curtains, it was so light I kept waking up. Pretty much the sun would set around 11pm and sunrise was at 4:30am, but it didn't really get dark, there was always a greenish cast to the sky. The more North we traveled, the shorter the nights became.

It was an interesting start to our adventures through Sweden...

All photos by Siv; Flag sketch by Kayla: Midnight Sun Image from Google

Fabulous

The Nature of Your Song

Brotherhood of Light Egyptian Tarot

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.  -Oscar Wilde 

US Games Systems has just released a color deck of The Brotherhood of Light Egyptian Tarot Cards. These cards are simply rich - from the mythology, symbols, astrology, Hebrew characters, numerology and the teachings of the Kabbalah - each one is a feast to feed one's mind and soul. A companion deck to The Sacred Tarot by C.C. Zain, the original 1936 black and white images were first designed by Gloria Beresford, then redesigned in 2009 by Vicki Brewer as full-color Egyptian tarot cards. 

I recently received the deck with it's little instruction booklet, and just the key on the front makes me giddy. The circle of the key is divided into the four suits with the numbers 1 through 9 corresponding to planetary positions within constellations. For example, 3 of Swords (or Trey of swords, I love the old-fashioned aspects of this deck) shows Mercury, Capricorn and Virgo. The post of the key contain the major arcana, while the teeth contain the court cards. Interesting, as in all my Santa Cruz tarot classes, students tend to get stuck when studying the court cards, which in some way once understood, allow for the tumble and click in unlocking the wisdom of the tarot.

Rather than going through the suits, the section on the minor arcana goes through the numbers, associating each with a particular planet, giving the divinatory significance of each card as well as its' inner interpretation. Following the Hermetic tradition, the cards an integral part of an internally consistent exposition of occult sciences. Astrology, alchemy and magic are continuously expressed through color, symbol and glyph. Each card is actually a cartouche, containing a message for the seeker. While I am well versed in Greek and Roman mythology, these cards had me seeking way back in my mind, as I remember adoring Egyptian culture as a kid. I'm lucky to have had the opportunity to travel in Tunisia and Northern Africa, but Egypt is still on my list of places to visit this lifetime.

"What the tarot can be made to reveal is limited only by the capacity for understanding of the person using it " (from the booklet). I have been really enjoying playing with this new deck as it synthesized my own interests in both tarot and astrology. Having the planets and signs expressed on each card gives me instant access to more information that I can share with my client. 

It's been 23 years now that I have been courting the cards. Receiving The Brotherhood of Light Egyptian Tarot Cards cards reminds me that the Tarot itself is a lifetime romance...