REMINDER from Mano:
As Barbara gets older we, her council, wanted to remind her of the fun she had sharing these Great White Rabbit stories as she traveled. We like reminding her of the youthful, playful part of her nature. Being 99 can feel old.
REMARKS from Barbara:
Well that is a fun awareness about my council’s concern I will feel old. Each time I walk by my altar and greet the new addition to my home I say “Hello Mother, welcome to my home”…and she smiles.
REMEMBERING Mary Jane:
I bet Mary Jane would love connecting with the GREAT WHITE RABBIT each month.
Oh Great White Rabbit Grant Me My Wish
Blog #161
I just purchased a large statue of a white rabbit serving a cupcake with a cherry on top. I planned to put it in my garden, but she had other plans. She has ended up on the altar in the center of my home, then I remembered the stories I had gathered over the years about the Great White Rabbit.
When Peter, my 70 year-old son, was in High School he told me his girlfriend’s family called on The Great White Rabbit, the first day of every month. The guiding instructions are:
On the first day of the month
Before you speak (out loud)
and before you get out of bed
You say,
“Oh Great White Rabbit,
Oh Great White Rabbit,
Grant me my wish.”
And she will.
This story delighted my imagination and I told it at my next prayer group. Maria scolded me intensely saying she grew up in Panama with a Chinese father and Panamanian mother and her family said this prayer every month. “Don’t make fun of that prayer. It is a powerful incantation, my family said it the first day of every month.”
The next time I shared this story, one woman said she was very sad when she went to boarding school and the night nurse told her she would feel better if she would say, “Rabbit.”
I asked a Japanese man if he had any tradition about the White Rabbit. He was excited to say he looks at the moon when it is full on the first of the month to see if the shadow in the moon looks like a rabbit.
In India I asked my Hostess about the Rabbit tradition, she said no she did not know of anything. But she came to tell me later, well ah yes, we have the tradition too. We look at the moon on the first of the month for good luck that month.
When I asked my friend from Wales about The Great White Rabbit he sort of giggled and said, “We have a rather crude tradition. We can go up to a fellow and say, ‘It’s the first of the month and I am going to give you a punch.’ If he says, ‘Rabbit,’ before my fist touches him, he can hit me back.”
My last time being in Switzerland, it was Full moon in the Swiss Alps on the first of the month. I lay in bed, excited that I remembered the Great White Rabbit. The full moon was illuminating the snow-covered Alps. I was excited to be in this special beautiful setting and gave a lot of thought what I wanted to ask of The Great White Rabbit. I made my decision, got out of bed to stand on the deck to be near the beautiful moonlit snowy mountain. “Before you get out of bed, and before you…” Wow! what a shock, there I was in pajamas, robe and slippers…I was out of bed. I was supposed to call on The Great White Rabbit, “Before you get out of bed and before you speak”…Yikes! I just blew it all with all of my fancy plans. Today as I tell you these stories, I saw in my imagination rabbit prints appeared running over the snow-covered Swiss Alps laughing at me, or perhaps with me, as I went back to bed without saying my prayer.
If you know of a Great White Rabbit tradition, please share it with me.