Queen of Hearts

As solstice approaches, the light seems to intensify life. I'm being tested on keeping my hearts in alignment....something I recently wrote about for the British Reclaiming Newsletter. Many in that community identify as Reclaiming Feri, and work intensely with my concept of the three hearts. It hasn't stopped conflict from occurring, and sadly a recent conflict was a factor in Avalon camp being canceled for this year. It has, however, assisted in many in that community behaving with integrity and coming from a place of compassion, even while speaking hard truths. A level of nastiness that sometimes occurs in pagan community has not been allowed to gather strength. I believe Avalon will come back stronger for it. Below is an re-edited version of the article on the three hearts....

Thirteen years ago Coven Triskets, of which I was a member, met several times with Victor and Cora Anderson, the founders of the Feri tradition. We were all Reclaiming witches working towards what we came to know as a Feri initiation. Reclaiming is a tradition spun of many threads, a strong one of which is Feri. Many concepts core to Feri are also core to Reclaiming, like the iron and pearl pentacles and the concept of us having three separate yet interdependent souls. It was after our meetings with Victor and Cora that Reclaiming witches began to work with the concept of the Black Heart of Innocence. The Black Heart is the soul in its natural state, unfettered by the restrictions of society. It is the child in the story "The Emperor's New Clothes" who speaks the truth. The Black Heart is primal, sexual, and innocent.

All of us were teaching Witchcamps at the time, and our excitement about the Black Heart soon infused the wider Reclaiming community. It was a time many of us were coming into our own power, and the Black Heart was a potent symbol of speaking truth and speaking up. Looking back, I cringe at the many mistakes that were made. Frankly, I and my covenmates were damn obnoxious. Even so, or perhaps true to a certain Reclaiming style, our arrogance had a glamour. The Black Heart caught on, and now many consider it core to the Reclaiming tradition.

A year or so ago I began working with the concept of the Green Heart of Connection and the Pink Heart of Compassion. Some Feri practitioners say that that the Black Heart is the state of being we speak from when the points of the Iron and Pearl pentacles are in balance. I have rarely seen this in action, but instead have seen the Black Heart operating as the heart of the fetch, of the primal younger self. For many people, reclaiming the beat of this heart is difficult, and requires diligent work. It means letting go of what other people think and feel, and speaking truth with a wide-open heart. It is one of the strengths of Feri, but I have also come to view it as one of its weaknesses.

To speak from only one soul, one part of our psychic structure, is to be off balance. Feri has been said to be an amoral tradition. This has never been appealing to me, and never been my experience of my souls being in alignment. The Black Heart is amoral, just as the fetch is. Neither are concerned with structures of morality or ethics, but beat to the drumbeat of individual and independent primal desire. As I have worked in the past couple of years to integrate the traditions of Reclaiming and Feri, the beat of the Black Heart called out to be met by other beats.

Reclaiming is a tradition that in theory has a clear moral compass, as expressed in the Principles of Unity. As a witch who is a blend of both Reclaiming and Feri, I felt a need for more than the beat of the primal Black Heart. For more than a year now, I have been working with the Black Heart of Innocence belonging to the Fetch, The Green Heart of Connection belonging to Talking Self, and the Pink Heart of Compassion which resides in the Divine Self.

How did this come about? One day, in the midst of an on-line debate on a Feri initiates list about power, I saw and felt these hearts clearly. Imagining them beat as one has become a core piece of my personal practice. The debate was about something Victor had supposedly said, about those with great power having a black aura similar to the untrained eye as auras of psychopaths and sociopaths. This was repulsive to me, and an example of why a Black Heart not balanced by the beat of connection and compassion can lead to a misunderstanding and even a perversion of spiritual power. There is power in working solely from the Black Heart, but not beauty. I could not, and still can not fathom why anyone would strive to appear to the untrained eye as a dangerous psychopath or sociopath. This strikes me as a glamorization of amoral power, or power for its own sake. Those who really walk a spiritual path are not amoral. Far from it. Those who walk the path of spirit have their souls in alignment, and each soul has a heart that dazzles. With all hearts beating in rhythm, the aura shimmers with the golden light of all spiritually attuned beings. There may be Feri practitioners with black auras, but my strong advice is to give these practitioners a wide berth. Somewhere in arguing my point, the hearts showed themselves to me.

The Green Heart of Connection is the heart of talking self, of the part of us who makes connections, uses words, and wants to communicate. This heart beats with concern for what effect its words and deeds will have on the world, and community. It beats with a deep understanding that everything we do has a consequence and that for every action there is a reaction. This heart is aware of being just one of many who live on this earth, and seeks to co-exist and co-operate with others. This heart understands and is concerned with context, with looking at how one thing relates to another. Unlike the Black Heart, it understands timing and diplomacy. This heart holds itself accountable for its actions.

The Pink Heart of Compassion is the heart of the divine self, the part of us who is tapped into our God/dess self, who is organized around what is for the good of all, and not concerned with self interest. This self and heart has the wide vision of the Goddess, beyond time itself. Love emanates from this heart and is the center of this soul.

Part of aligning my three souls is imagining and envisioning these three hearts, seeing them clearly in my minds eye, and feeling the beat of my own heart and feeling it as all three of these beating as one. When I am in conflict with others, or have something difficult to say, I try and do this with all hearts beating as one. I ask myself if what I am saying is true, necessary, and kind. The Black Heart beats out truth. Listening to the Green Heart, I imagine the effect of my words and ask myself if these words are needed. Is this a time I need to speak up? If it is, I breathe into my Pink Heart, and strive for each word to be kind, and stemming from love.

To be Reclaiming Feri is to embrace all our selves/souls, and to strive for these souls/selves to work in alignment. Over the years, I've had some hard and difficult things to say, things my Black Heart demanded to be said. In the past, I’ve been someone who has named the elephant in the room, and I’ve paid a mighty price for it. I still do so, and still occasionally pay a price, but I have learned to temper my fierce black heart with the beat of the green and pink. My Green Heart has made me accountable and responsible for the effect of my words and my Pink Heart has made me ground my words in love. Over and over again, I ask if what I am about to do or say is true, necessary and kind. I check in and see if one of the hearts has a louder beat. In my striving to be kind, am I not telling the truth? Am I feeling something needs to be said, and am rushing to do so before it has circulated a few times through the beat of the Pink Heart? Am I saying something that is true, but completely out of context? Am I willing to be accountable for my words? Asking these questions, and waiting for the hearts to beat as one, I’ve gotten better at knowing when to keep silent, and feel less and less regret for when I do speak up.

To work in any community, in any group of human beings, is challenging. To work in a group of witches is even more so, as we are tuning into not only what is said, but the energies behind it. My belief is that a community that beats solely to the rhythm of the Black Heart is not one that will be tolerable for long. Truth, like power, needs to be mitigated by compassion, and by our understanding that we all are connected and interdependent with the earth, and with each other. The concept of the three hearts grounds the power of truth in compassion and connection, allowing beauty to shine through.