Who? The Angel of Death?

Who?!

Santa Muerte:
Our Lady of Holy Death

They say that timing is everything and that time flies and I'm starting to see what they mean.

My new "living" room clock

I've been reading Tracey Rollin's book, 'Santa Muerte: The History, Rituals, and Magic of Our Lady of the Holy Death' and Tracey writes about syncretism, which is the combining of different beliefs, while blending practices of various schools of thought.

Santa Muerte: Our Lady of the Holy Death?
Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths.
Syncretism also occurs commonly in expressions of arts and culture, (known as eclecticism) as well as politics (syncretic politics).

Mictecacihuatl 

Tracey writes about Santa Muerte being a continuation of the Aztec goddess of death Mictecacihuatl or Mictlancihuatl (Nahuatl for "Lady of the Dead") clad according to Spanish iconography, but also writes about Santa Muerte being a synchretized form of the European Angel of Death, Azrael.

Azrael

Tracey writes that both are skeletal robed figures carrying a scythe with which to carry out their eternal duties.
Azrael often also features symbols such as hourglasses to signify how much time a person has remaining and scales to measure their sins.

Another common symbol, Tracey writes, is that of an owl, a creature whose unique wings allow it to fly nearly silently and who can also see in perfect darkness.

This makes owls frequently associated with the underworld, often as messengers or harbingers of fate.
The wings of the angel of death are sometimes thought to be owl's wings, indicating his silent and swift speed.

Santa Muerte also commonly features such symbolic elements as owls and hourglasses, and sometimes even sports a lovely set of wings.

Now here is where it gets interesting, because Tracey also writes about Our Lady of Guadalupe being another synchretized Aztec goddess of the dead.

Friday the 13th of October, 2017?!

Now here's a pink synch, because on Friday the 27th of October, 2017, two weeks after P!NK had released her new 'Beautiful Trauma' album I headed up to Mt. Tamborine to take a look at their botanical gardens, but I stopped in at a little village at the bottom of the mountain first to grab a bite to eat and take a look around, as I had read in some newspapers that it was pink month in the town, where the town is done out in pink in support of raising awareness and money for breast cancer.

P!NK tribute show Friday the 27th of October, 2017

And on the subject of 'Beautiful Trauma' and P!NK , I hope P!NK didn't have red balloons at her birthday party on September 8th, because that was the day 'IT' hit the cinema screens, too.

My pink burger from Funky Dory ...
after finally finding Dory

That pink coleslaw really got
under my skin though;-)

I couldn't help thinking that Tilda Swinton would love this town for some reason;-)

Tilda Swinton and "Twin Pigs"?

Well, if Tilda didn't like this town, then I'm sure that P!NK would.

I even picked up some owl badges that were on the counter of the information centre in town that is pictured above.

Eyes Wide Shut?!

I nearly didn't see them funnily enough.

I asked the lady at the counter what it was with all of the owl imagery in the town, and she told me that Canungra is also called the "Valley of the Owls".

I started to think that all wasn't what it seemed all of a sudden;-)

BOWLS?!
I hope it's not pronounced like that?-)

So, not only was this a "Twin Peaky" owl type town, but later tonight (October 27th) the town was going to have a P!NK Doppelganger put on a show.

Too bad I'm not a fan of P!NK's music as I might have been tempted to check out the show, but since I didn't give a hoot, it was off to Mt. Tamborine to explore the gardens up there.

And guess what?

There were owls everywhere, but I couldn't spot any real ones on my walk around the gardens up on the mountain.

Twin Owls?!

Owls carved by Matt Bird?!

I'll write another post about my walk through the gardens in the future, as I have a lot of good photos and even some of some unusual birds that I came across ... but not owls.

And not only did I end up buying a cuckoo clock when I was up on the mountain, but I ended walking out with the owl clock you see at the beginning of this post.

Another weird thing here though was in the October 8th, 2017 newspaper I read about P!NK and her nightmare motorcycle ride down the coast of Queensland with her husband, when she rode into a cloud of insects and started gagging on them and had to stop, while her husband kept riding on oblivious to the fact P!NK had stopped, was that the next morning after my small road-trip (October 28th) I listened to the latest 'Mysterious Universe' pod-cast which had just come out that morning, and they brought up a story about a lady who drove through a mysterious pink bubble that was floating on the road.
18.17 – MU Podcast
But this is truly tragically bizarre and something I didn't plan on adding to this post, in fact if I hadn't been Googling around for more information on P!NK's Queensland road-trip I never would have seen this story below.

"The Light It Up Pink movement started circulating on social media after news of the Pink children’s death broke on May 29.
Social media users were asked to apply a pink filter to their Facebook profiles, which then spurred family friend L-Jay Walters to take action by organising the Entertainment Extravaganza – Pink Family Charity Concert for June 18."

I don't know how I never heard about this tragic accident until today.

Logan Village is about halfway between where I live and Canungra and I had to drive through there on my journey last Friday.

I really had no idea how I was going to end this post, until this story punched me in the gut.

Every tick of the clock is precious, and you never know when the clock will stop for you or your loved ones, and that story is one very sad reminder, I think.