In the deepest, darkest winter they begin to arrive, the stuff of dreams. I could feel the longing rising in me as I poured over them--the seed catalogs. Could spring have been far behind when Burpee was promising me tomato plants guarenteed to bear heavily with fruits of extraordinary flavor?

In that bleak time I dreamed of gardens impossibly rich. When spring finally does arrive, the reality of the hard work involved in turning the soil, planting the seeds, removing the weeds dampens my ardor a bit, but one magical, dreamlike element remains. Hard work, nibbling animals, bad weather and the general neglect because I've gotten too busy doing other things won't prevent the real miracle of spring from happening. In spite of it all, a seemingly lifeless seed will become a green and living thing.

Sing, Muse, and we will dance for Terpsichore, Herself the Muse of the Dance. Beloved and honored She was during the Classical Age of Greece when the art reached its apogee in that land. Over two hundred different dances were performed in the theaters, temples and gymnasiums and to greater or lesser degrees, they were all danced in honor of the Gods.

The oldest known dances came from Crete. These were circular dances around a tree, altar or sacred icon and later, around a singer or musician. Cretan sculptures show dancers surrounding a lyre player, as well as sacred couple dances and close, swaying dances performed by a female chorus. The word "chorus" means both a dance and a song. The chorus was nearly always performed on a country threshing floor called the halos. Gradually the lyre accompaniment expanded to include flutes, instruments resembling modern mandolins, clarinets, and guitars, and drums, although drumming probably preceded these other instruments by thousands of years. From ancient Crete also comes the Hymn of the Kouretes (see The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries by Z. Budapest for a translation). The hymn calls for the Kouros or young lord, to "leap for full jars and fleecy flocks," so welcoming both the spring and the harvest.

Hypatia, known to many historians as the "Divine Pagan", was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 370 CE. She was the daughter of Theon, a Greek philosopher and geometrician, but we have no record of who her mother was. She was raised in an unusual manner for a Greek girl of her time. Her father schooled her in philosophy and mathematics. When she had learned all she could from him, Hypatia began to seek out the other scholars of Alexandria. Wearing a man's cloak, she would travel alone through the city to attend lectures and classes.