WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers

Most of you know that each day of the week is connected to a planet, which is in turn connected to a god or goddess. Each of these relates to a color, a metal, a crystal, a personality. It doesn’t matter whether or not you believe these soul qualities are or are not ‘real.’ What matters is that color can help you weave a pattern of balance and simplicity into your busy life.

How?

For one thing – by keeping it simple. Simplicity is the essence of calm, harmony, serenity. Having to choose between a number of things is stressful. Becoming aware of color can simplify our lives enormously. This is true even in something as basic as deciding what to wear: If it’s Friday – a day symbolized by the serene green of Aphrodite, the goddess of love – reach for a mint green sweatshirt; no agonizing. If it’s Saturday, wear dark blue jeans. At the mind-numbing market, if you can’t decide between blueberries or strawberries, let the color of the day be your guide. Accessories are easily decided on as well: reach for those moonstones or pearls on Monday, or the grey and purple silk tie. Not only is this relaxing, but it makes mundane tasks much more fun. When my children were young I’d often avoid arguments by pointing out that they had to eat their green broccoli because it was Friday. Or that the red t-shirt was just right since it was Tuesday.

Another way color can help us is by tempering our temperaments. Each color has a different vibration, and each one impacts us differently. Burger King has known this for years (all that pink and orange actually does make us eat faster). Blue draws us inward to a place a quiet. Yellow does lift our spirits! By becoming conscious of all the different colors in our limited spectrum, we balance our natures. Otherwise we might be particularly drawn to reds, and then lose the blue-ness of our interior being. Or we might be fond of green, but forget to absorb the soul of purple. Balancing our melancholic tendencies by wearing yellow, or soothing our anxiety with a peaceful green, makes sense.

Originally, the Ancient Greeks named the days week after the sun, the moon and the five known planets. The planets were named after the gods Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Cronus. The Romans substituted their equivalent gods for the Greek gods: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn.  Eventually the Teutonic peoples substituted the Latin names for the gods with their own: Tiu, Woden, Thor, Freya. Saturn remained the same.

Here’s an abbreviated outline of the soul qualities of each day:

Monday – Selenes/Luna later Artemis/Diana: lavender or dark blue. The day of the moon is internal, emotional, reflective, a great day for quiet and meditation.

Tuesday – Ares/Mars/Tiu: red. The warrior god helps us in our search for Self, standing up to others, fighting for the good, working hard…he symbolizes action and energy. In Norse mythology Tiu was the god of war and sky.

Wednesday – Hermes/Mercury/Woden is the messenger god. His color is yellow. This is a great day to handle communications and accomplishing tasks that require mental acuity.  Hermes (or Mercury) is known as the god of commerce, communication, invention, and travel. In Norse mythology, Woden is known as the headstrong leader of the wild hunt.

Thursday – Zeus/Jupiter/Thor. Orange. Kingly. Expansive. Friendly. Opportunity, luck, good fortune. A good day to look at the big picture or start a new project under the generous auspices of Zeus, the Greek king of the gods. Thor is the god of thunder and Roman Jupiter created thunder and lightning.

Friday – Aphrodite/Venus/Freya. Green. The goddess of love and beauty appreciates the attention you pay to beautifying your environment and yourself, as well as socializing with those you love.

Saturday – Cronus/Saturn. Dark blue or black. Saturn helps with the details: making sure everything is on track in the material world. He’s there to help you over the long haul. He’s also known as the god of agriculture and time.

Sunday – Helios/Apollo/Day of the Sun. White. Apollo is the storyteller, the musician, the poet, the god of light. This is a good day to be creative.

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Fun Writing Practice

Each day this week make a conscious effort to be aware of the day’s color. Today is Thursday: note the orange instances in your life. A coffee cup, a tangerine, a bookmark, a shopping bag… where do you see something orange?

Write down everything you find that is the color of the day and describe the items using the soul quality of that color. Orange is outgoing, it’s a balancer between the heart (red) and the head (yellow), it’s expansive, it radiates. It’s a friendly color. So when you’re describing your orange coffee cup, describe it in a friendly, outgoing way. There are so many variations – millions and millions of shades and moods and tones to every color. Burnt orange is not the same as blood orange or pale salmon. Be as specific as you can when you observe the color.

Noticing color enhances your writing because, as with all description, everything you write needs to be relevant. So if your heroine is wearing a blue dress, it needs to express her dreamy, quiet, or triste qualities. If the house is painted yellow, it represents cheerfulness. (Unless you want to be interesting and show how the yellow paint is peeling, or how the mustard-dark quality of the yellow depicts the lack of cheer – you can get complicated and unusual here.)

The most important thing is to enjoy becoming more conscious about the gorgeous colors in our world. Heightening our awareness of the days of the week, and the gods and goddesses who rule them, and the placement of the planets in the sky, takes us out of ourselves. It’s like watching a rose unfurl, or the leaves on the maple tree beginning to turn. Observing the world around us is crucial to balancing all those stories and ideas that happen inside us most of the time.

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Daily Happinesses

• The plop of a hickory nut
• New socks
• A meaningful dream
• Meeting a leprechaun
• Cowbells
• Holding hands
• Watching a meteor shower with a friend

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WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers

When I was around seven years old, I remember visiting my grandmother, Ethel Cook Eliot, at her home in western Massachusetts. One night she sat on the edge of my bed and told me about some rain goblins she’d seen. She described them to me as about eight inches high, skinny, wrinkled, brown-skinned, and rather leaping in spirit. Her description was so detailed and vivid that I knew without a doubt she actually had seen these creatures.

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WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers

Simplicity is one of the finest things in life – right up there with love, ‘doing nothing,’ and walking in the woods. The empty plot of earth that doesn’t have anything planted yet is one of the most magical things in the world. So is the moment before the music starts. Or the sweetness of a haiku. An empty shelf. The beach at dawn. Your child’s face. A blank notebook.

In the I-Ching, the hexagram called Wei-Chi means Before Completion. It’s the hexagram of extraordinary optimism – opening the way to the future. Everything is on the verge of great abundance, but the transition from chaos to order is not yet completed. The change is prepared for, but there is still responsibility – it’s time to set things in order. It’s the stillness before the celebration. The anticipation before the great meeting. With this hopeful outlook, the I-Ching “Book of Changes” comes to a close, exemplifying that with every end comes a beginning. It’s springtime.

This is a great time to eliminate things you don’t need any more. Old sweaters, a pile of books you keep for sentimental reasons, a routine that’s become a bore, a knickknack, old letters, old habits, prejudices, thoughts. Throw them away – or give them away if they’re worthwhile – and leave room for something new to come your way. Empty your closets of things you haven’t used in a year – and allow space in your life. Don’t fill the drawer – leave it empty. Clear a shelf – and don’t put anything on it. Clear an hour – and don’t make plans. Choose not to buy, or plant, or prettify. Don’t purchase that new hat. If you clear away old leaves and leave a plot of earth, you might be amazed what emerges. If you clear your life of things that are no longer vital, you’ll feel a thrill equal or more intense to the one you’d feel if you’d bought a new dining set.

Be clear about what matters. Simplify your life, your home, your routine, your relationships. Keep the vital ones, empty the rest. Be clear, be empty. And watch what happens.

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Fun Writing Practice – Clear the Clutter

When in doubt – throw it out. As you look at individual words in your story or essay, ask yourself whether or not it’s vital for it to be there. You might be surprised how much more powerful and convincing your writing can become by eliminating clutter. By paring your piece to its essence, you are allowing the words to speak for themselves. They don’t need you, the author, to give them a crutch or that extra drink.

Right now, I’m in the process of revising a novel that’s 103,000 words. The task I’ve set myself is to bring it down to 999,999 words. I am not deleting any scenes or characters – just words, clichés, extra verbiage: words, words, words.

Here’s an example:

“She moaned again, burying her face in her hands. We waited for something—no one knew what—to happen next. Harry was taking a long time getting the glass of water.”

Do you see which word is purposeless and annoying? Yes, you got it! “Next.” What the heck is it doing there? Ugh! Completely unnecessary! See what I mean?

You don’t want words to get in the way of your writing – you want them to be the writing.

I’m reminded of my yoga teacher’s instruction: to let your breathing breathe itself.

Let your writing write itself.

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Daily Happinesses

• French onion soup on a cold day

• meditation

• Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges River

• laughing in the kitchen while you wash dishes together

• changing the furniture around

• writing a poem

• an affectionate cat

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News Update:

For those of you who haven’t heard: my novel, Heaven Falls, is now available for purchase in either e-book, softcover, or hardcover. Purchase it through Telemachus Press or Amazon.