SeaHeart

So, I went to the woods to write poetry today. I walked along the wooden path through the swamp, and I found a narrow, crooked space to sit down at the roots of a tree and spin my story out onto the page. The sun shone down and warmed me, and an occasional robin came to keep me company, and it was beautiful, and it was spring.

I'm walking back to my car, over the bridges and along the wooden path, when I hear a terrible sound--a sort of "smack" sound, like flesh against something solid. I could see the road, could see an SUV had hit one of the Canadian Geese who love these swamps so much. The goose floundered, hobbling across the rest of the pavement, dragging a broken wing behind him.

He stood on the gravel for a very long moment, wing useless and splayed on the scree, one leg crippled and out at a sharp, splintered angle. He stood, and he made up his mind about something, and--very slowly--he limped down the hill toward the water.

I watched him, heart in my throat. He kept tripping, kept falling on his wing, but he didn't make a sound. And, when he got to the water, he folded his wings with much care upon his back, and curtsied into the liquid that reflected the heavens.

He swam, neck arched and bent, silent through the water, refusing to accept the fact that I assumed he was broken.

It was one of the most real and beautiful things I had ever seen.

I say this prayer to the Goddess every morning, and felt compelled to share it today. You probably know it as a poem, not a prayer--but every line of it is the most unimaginably sacred thing to me, and I've always used it as adoration. It contains truth, deep gratitude and boundless love and joy to Divinity, however you see Her.

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginably You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

~ e.e. cummings


image by bellyfish511

I could not be more happy, or feel more ecstatic. Tonight is the Second Annual Spiral Dance and Yule Celebration in Buffalo. Last year's event was one of the most fulfilling, beautiful and dynamic group magical workings I have ever had the deep pleasure to participate in. I can not *wait* for this evening, and--when dancing to the most primal of rhythms, calling back the light and partaking in the deep joy of the spiral dance, I'll be holding you in my heart. :) <3

Tomorrow, Jenn and I are having our Solstice celebration. I can not wait~

There is so much joy, so much love...I'm too excited for words. I hope your day is bright and beautiful--I hope you feel the love~ The world is spinning ever closer to the light. <3


by dragonflypath

God is in the ozone layer; holier and holier,
God is in the atom bomb (or at least the atom bomber's mom),
God is in Chechnya, Sobrenica, Slovenica, Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovia, Montana,
Oklahoma...
God is incredulous at all the stuff we do to us,
God is inspired by those who fly and those who try,
God is insatiable so sing and dance way past full.
God is in you and me, someday God will help us see that
God is in love with love so live and love and that's enough.
God is inside of you and all you don't and all you do,
God is in your greatest doubt, the jury's out, the doctor's out, but
God is in, God is in, God is in your darkest sin, and out and in, and out and in, and God is
In .... Goddess in .... God is Zen .... Got us in .... God is in.

~ from "God is In" by Billy Jonas

I have made the first of two posts of Goddess icons at ohsweetwitchery--these are of various images of the Divine Mother. They were made as a thank You to Her, and a public offering of gratitude~ :) <3



( For behold, I have been with you from the beginning... )

One little compliment can make you feel amazing.

So give me a compliment, anything in the entire world, even that my shoelaces are pretty. If you like, put this in your journal, too--and once you get some comments, put that entry in a memory or tag and when you are feeling down, just go to that entry and this will remind you that you are fabulous and loved. Comments are screened~

Don't forget to post this in your own LJ so I can compliment you, too! :)

~*~

As a side note--I just wanted to publicly rejoice and mention some gratitude. Last night, I was starting to get sick, and I prayed with all my heart, took a bunch of vitamins, used some essential oils and trusted I would get better (I don't have any sick days left, and the next two weeks are filled with constant obligations). I was like: "Goddess, please, please, please--I can do all of this, but I can't if I'm sick. I need some more strength and courage and wellness, oh Mother, please..." And I had the most restful sleep I've had in months and am--this morning--totally well. I am so endlessly grateful--it's a tiny, perfect miracle. <3

I am the firebird! I am his daughter!
I am the firebird's child!
I am the firebird! I am his daughter!
And like the flame, I am wild wild wild wild WILD!
I am the firebird, the boldest song you've ever heard!

To see a maiden dance around a fire is not so strange
but fire dances round the limbs of this uncommon maid!
Be brave enough to burn and you'll be brave enough to fly!
Join your sister Solace as she lights the morning sky!

I am the firebird! I am his daughter!
I am the firebird's child!
I am the firebird! I am his daughter!
And like the flame, I am wild wild wild wild WILD!
I am the firebird, the boldest song you've ever heard!

Sister will you follow me?
Sister will you dance with me?
Sister sorrow walk with me!
Sister sorrow dance with me!
Like a flame you must be wild!

~*~

Imagine this:

You've just taken part in one of the most amazing rituals you've ever experienced. You're at Diana's Grove, surrounded by exquisite community, men and women who shine with a vibrancy that can only be summed up as divine. You've gone through a weekend filled with growth and magic. Music begins, and you rise because you must. You rise to dance.

It is night. A full moon nestles in a bed of silver cloud overhead. A drum pounds all around you, creaking floorboards beneath your bare feet, the night smells sweet and green and there is grace everywhere. Women surround you, women in swirling skirts and jeans and t-shirts and velvets, and they're laughing and twirling and moving their bodies in a perfect embodiment of the Goddess. You're moving with them, slapping your feet against the boards, arching your back under the myriad of stars that crown you, overhead. The song shifts and change, and you hear cries of the purest joy. "Firebird's Child" begins to pump through the speakers, and suddenly, you hadn't even noticed, but the women are dancing in a circle, and you're calling to them, and they're calling to you. You are their sister, you are the firebird's daughter, and you must be wild, wild, wild. And you are. Oh, you are.

Something moves through you. Joy, euphoria, Goddess. It's all the same thing, isn't it? She moves through your limbs, and the fingers against the sky are yours, but not your own, and your legs move, and oh gods, you're a serpent, aren't you--the way you move your body, the way you bend and curve, and it's not you, but it is you, and it's the most you you've ever been. The candles burn, the flames flickering as the breeze moves among the women, circling them, drawing you closer. Your heart thunders along with the beat, and as you bend, heart up, arched like Diana's bow, suddenly, the skies open.

Rain, rain, cries of delight and joy, and everyone keeps dancing, but more and more and more, and it's a rising crescendo of euphoria and witchery and beauty and oh gods, it's building like the most exquisite circle casting you've ever taken part in, and it is, and the power, the power of woman, of beauty, of love, crashes around you and shoots into the sky, a reverse falling star--rising, this time, into the heavens.

The song ends, and everyone erupts. Cheers, applause, a deafening echo that you add to, by crying out from your belly, clapping your hands against your thighs, twisting and turning as another song takes place, surrounded by sisters, dancing in beauty, Goddess incarnate.

All acts of love and pleasure are Her rituals. And oh, you know this. So well.

Every time at Diana's Grove is life changing, an evolution of soul and spirit. I am a completely different person from when I went there, and the time before that...and before that. It is community, it is love and a place of safety and solace created by the Goddess Herself, it seems. The rituals, the community creations, the evolutions, the skins shed, the tempering fire, the illustrious inspiration of air, the crashing crescendo of water, the solidity of earth...I can't articulate it. The rush of the creek, the movement of the serpent, the embraces, the shift of tree overhead, and the echo of breath in my breast and the sparkle of every eye that held divinity...which was every one. Oh Goddess. Oh Beloved. Oh Brilliance. I returned from my time there Monday night, utterly spent, but glowing.

And tomorrow, we leave for Salem.

My heart is overrun, a pool of starlight, a spout of fire.

I am the firebird.

I am his daughter.

I am the firebird's child, and I am wild, wild, wild, wild, wild!

Today is my birthday--I turn twenty-six.

Here are a few truths about me:

- I know the most amazing, incredible, kind, compassionate, passionate, exceedingly beautiful and magical people that this world possesses. When the Goddess made me, She whispered into my ear: "oh, baby, what a family you'll have..."

- I know great magic. Inside and out, I can see the web of the world, how it's put together, and the splendor in all things. Even in my darkest hours, there are stars. When the Goddess made me, She whispered: "you have everything you need, and someday you'll believe that."

- I'm a good writer, and I believe in myself, and in that. Every year on my birthday I've made a post about hope and writing, and how they're intertwined for me. I decided not to do that this year. I know what I am, and who I am, and it's Storyteller. When the Goddess made me, She said: "Tell the stories you know, and the ones you don't. This gift I have given you, use it wisely."

- I can speak the language of animals, of nature, of the clouds and sea. I am as much a part of the earth as any stone, and that connection is a constant. When the Goddess made me, She said: "you are part of everything, and you will know this, always."

- I have found my soul mate, my twin flame, my anam cara, my everything, and I have the complete blessing to share my life with her. When the Goddess made me, She said: "oh, my darling, you will find her, you will love her, and it will be so beautiful..."

And twenty-six years ago, I opened my eyes to this splendid, wonder-filled and full planet, and I smiled for the very first time, and I thought: thank You, thank You, thank You.

Goddess, I love You, I sing Your song, I sing through You and of You. Thank You for this blessed existence, this life, this everlasting love. Thank You, thank You, thank You.


photo by santacrewsgirl

Every night, I hoop at twilight. The first stars are faintly shining in the sky, the sun is gone, but the splash of color on the horizon will last for about forty-five minutes, giving me enough light to dance.

The fireflies come out, one by one, and shift and move around me, dancing, too. It's hard to describe, that connection, that feel of earth beneath bare feet as I twirl things into being. I imagine the Goddess, shaping the world with a spiral, and I swing my hips to a sound only I and the fireflies can hear--a song made by the stars, the crickets, the waning moon overhead, the trees as they shift, pressing soft leaf tongues against the wind--the robins, as they put their babies to bed, singing lullabies in feathered language.

My heart beats fast, when I spin the hoop. The larger, heavier ones require more effort, and your skin has to stay connected to them longer to keep them in the air, suspended. You don't fight the gravity, you realize that you're a part of it, and if you romance it a little, it won't fight you, either...

It's such Witchcraft, these magic hours. I belly dance, when my hips begin to ache from too much spinning, moving myself like a serpent-made-human. I undulate, hold out my arms to the fireflies, spin and weave and whir, a piece of living clockwork in the greater Universe.

I lay down, spent, last night, body cupped by soft grasses, gentle dews, as I stared up at the stars and traced the pictures I know by heart. There is the great bear, her head held high, while she smiles indulgently down upon the world, holding us all in her great ursine embrace. I felt such magic all around me, felt so connected that I could not have spoken, even if I wanted to. I was mute, silent to the pervasive beauty and awe in the line of every living thing.

I held up my hoop to the stars, my body cradled by the earth, my hoop suspended in the heavens. I thought about what it is, as a Witch, to cast the circle, to invite the elements to witness your great rite, to draw down the Goddess from a sickle moon into your heart. I thought about magic, I thought about how it exists within me, within all things, and in that moment, I pressed my hand against my heart, overwhelmed by the greatness of the universe, and my own smallness. And how, despite my tiny spirit in comparison to a star--I am still cradled, I am still loved. I am still held.

And I set the hoop down around my feet, as I stood. And I raised my arms up to the heavens, cradling them in my arms, as I imagine the Goddess does.

I was too filled with gratitude to tell Her the two words my entire being sang. So I write them here:

Thank You.