Remaking the Gate

Came across this pic on Threads yesterday. It’s a gate leading to St Michael’s church in the town of Abergele. It’s on the north coast of Wales, a hair over 50 miles south of Liverpool and 12 miles north of Llandudno, a lovely little beach town that I’ve actually spent a few days and nights wandering around.

This gate though – I firmly believe we need one of these at the entrance to our patch of Valhalla. Granted, it’d need to be scaled down a bit as we don’t occupy anywhere near as much land as St Michael’s (understatement alert).

Also, we'll need to make a coupla changes for our gate: 

1)   We're gonna lose that cross. Maybe we'll replace it with a representation of the Milky Way galaxy. Too amorphous you say? We need a more definitive symbol of sacrifice made for the primary benefit of humanity but in an easy to interpret form? Well, it’s our house but, from an overall design standpoint, I see your point. How’s ‘bout we replace the cross with a nice, strong, majestic oak tree?

Why an oak tree? Traditionally oaks symbolize strength, stability, and endurance. There’s the whole cycle of life – ya know, birth, eating a cookie, death, rebirth, and all that shit. Plus, because we’re mindful of our Celtic ancestry here and we're druid-inclusive, we want to give a solid nod to the Celtic “good god” Dagda. Dagda was keen on oaks. We are too.

2)   I’m assuming that the angel dude hanging out below the cross is Saint Michael. You know, he’s the really important Archangel – leader of the heavenly hosts, warrior against evil, and a protector of god's people (whoever they are – I suppose it depends on who you ask). Given the state of the world right now, Mike’s either a total slacker or just majorly burnt out. Maybe that chainsaw wielding con, Leon, and his plague of teenage terrorists got to old Saint Mike and pink slipped his army of Galahads? 

Who knows.

No matter the case, on Valhalla’s gate Saint Michael will be replaced with Lozen, a great Chiricahua Apache warrior woman. 

When she reached the age of her womanhood ceremony, she was courted by many men but let it be known that she would never marry. Instead, she undertook and succeeded at the hardship of a dikohe or a warrior in training. Afterward, the Council accepted her, and she became a warrior.

She also studied medicine and became a renowned medicine woman with extensive knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants and minerals. By the time she was 20-years-old, she had also become an expert at stealing horses, which earned her the name of Lozen, which means “dextrous horse thief.” (source) 

Lozen was serious awesomeness.

Tremendous amounts of talent are being lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt.
~ Shirley Chisholm

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.
~ Maya Angelou

I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life—and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.
~ Georgia O’Keeffe

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
~ Katharine Hepburn