¡Welcome to Casa Argentita!

Some of you may remember my hailing from Metepéc (Edo de MX) last year. After a trial-run of 6 months or so, the altitude (almost 10,000 feet) turned out to be more than this body could handle. An exploration into Michoacán was launched in 2023, rounding down to Morelia, the capital city. Now it is my pleasure to welcome you from the Casita Argentita.

"Argentita" is a preliminary ore for the noble metal silver. In Western alchemy and in various tantric traditions, argentita's cousin mercury sulfate or cinnabar is considered the fusion of the Sun (mercury/Hg) and Moon (sulfur/S). Although poisonous to normal human bodies, an advanced yogini may harness mercury-sulfate on the way to self-mastery (fn1).

And wouldn't ya know... argentita is also a sulfite, an amalgam of silver and sulfur; you might think of it alchemically as Moon+Moon. How would that work? Well, there are 14 moons, aren't there? So Ag could be considered the Full Moon or Purna; and S the New Moon or Tirsthi.  And all of those moons are visible from within
the Casita. The atrium has a plexiglass ceiling oriented on an east/west axis. The back garden is on the East side of the Casita, so when standing in the Skyroom, the Moon first appears on the eastern edge of the ceiling, trekking toward the front door to the West.

When I first stepped into the house (on Epiphany, no less) the winter cloud-light felt downy and slow; nevertheless, I knew it was The Place. There would be two more journeys before I could move in, but the owners graciously agreed to save it for me (. . .well, for us).

At this writing I have held the Casita Argentita a little more than a month. We are still palpating one another, still acclimatizing. Having been the family home to four brothers, the Casita resounds with what the sages call 'white bodhicitta' - energies creative, active, courageous, protective.

The physical expression of those qualities is in the balance, solidity and flow of the little house itself. However, since the time of its construction/remodeling Morelia has grown, and the Casita now receives traffic noise and pollution from three directions.

I am working on reducing those, and indeed, once the temporada de sequias (dry season - from October to May) expires, it should be quite a bit easier to rein in. Meanwhile I've acquired a couple of air purifiers that are knocking out the VOCs [volatile organic compounds] as I work on creating an acoustic barrier for the entrance of the house. I've also started transplanting two massive pots of air-cleaning Sansevieria (snake plant) -- which I discovered hidden in the back garden. Those will live in the Skyroom, sweeping and filtering the atmosphere.

I leased this place with the idea that it would be suitable for a) writing, b) closed retreat, and c) peer-counseling (fn2). Now that I have fulfilled April's obligations, the writing has picked up. Argentita's closed-retreat function has yet to be fully-tested, but so far, atmospheric challenges (see above) have delayed it.

The third purpose, Peer-counseling here in the Casita Argentita has been tabled until I finish the writing under my hand. Next Spring, I swan. . . 

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NOTES:

1. See David Gordon White, "The Alchemical Body" 1996.

2. "Peer-counseling" is my preferred term for 'teaching.' One can only 'teach' what the student already knows. Anything more than that slops over into 'guru-tech' and we all know how that ends.