branches up, roots down

“ I found out yesterday that Jerry Falwell had died and I felt this sense of ebullience. I hate to admit it, but I felt excited. I know it’s not very spiritual, but it kind of made my day.” This is what another therapist, a close friend and colleague of mine, said to me today. He is by no means alone in his sentiments, many are feeling the same way, myself included. Jerry Falwell has been the voice of hate and vitriol for the religious right for many years . I am the epitome of everything he despised. I am queer, feminist, left wing, and a witch. My colleague is a tranny , a gentle gender outlaw that Reverend Falwell would have abhorred. To him, we were both to blame for what happened on September 11 th , 2001. He would be happy, excited, and somewhat ebullient to hear of people like ourselves dying, preferably in ways where we suffered greatly. He certainly believed if we didn ’t suffer in this life, we’d be damned unhappy in the next. It makes sense that so many of us a...

It's wild! It's gay! A blot in ev'ry way. The birds and bees with all of their vast Amorous past Gaze at the human race aghast, The lusty month of May. More lyrics from the musical “Camelot” When you live in San Francisco , you have to be ready for the weather to change drastically on a dime. Yesterday was warm and bright, but today was windy and bone-chillingly cold. I’ve been going along in my May reverie, enjoying the tra la ness of the month, the lustiness of the roses blossoming on my deck, trusting the sunny feeling that’s been steadily growing, but today I find myself caught without the layers needed to warm me up with the chill that is in the air. My mother is in the hospital with a fever that won’t come down. The place where her breast once was is infected and full of fluid. I talked to her at length yesterday, wishing her a happy Mother’s Day, and telling her what we were up to here in the city. Talking t...

Tra la! It's May! The lusty month of May! That lovely month when ev'ryone goes Blissfully astray. Tra la! It's here! That shocking time of year When tons of wicked little thoughts Merrily appear! It's May! It's May! That gorgeous holiday When ev'ry maiden prays that her lad Will be a cad! It's mad! It's gay! A libelous display! Those dreary vows that ev'ryone takes, Ev'ryone breaks. Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes The lusty month of May! From the musical Camelot – “The Lusty Month of May ” May is lusty, there is no doubt about it. There’s a movement afoot to consider it “ National Masturbation Month ”, but I think that's thinking too small. It’s Sex Month, at least in this hemisphere. I guess for my Southern Hemisphere blog sister Aquila , Sex Month is in November. But here, it’s indisputably May. This year, perhaps due to the initiation ritual I did on Beltane, the lustiness of this month is making itself apparent to me wit...

It's Beltane, and I am in the West Village in New York City. The air is thrumming with life and everywhere there are tulips, hyacinths, and blooming dogwoods. Soon I will be priestessing a ritual for a friend who has for many years tended the dead and the dying. She was chaplain on the burn unit in the hospital closest to ground zero on that day that still reverberates throughout this city. She had one initiation years back into the Craft that focused on death and rebirth but was long on death, short on rebirth. For too long she's had one hand thru the veil, helping others pass. It has taken a toll. Today, the focus is on life, on that green fuse that runs thru the flower, that runs thru everything. Today, I've asked her to put her hand on the pole and feel the power as the ribbons wind, that vibration of the joy of connection, the current in the colorful tangle and pattern of life. Here in New York City, the earth is alive. Death is a current that can be felt, and ever...