the quickening

There's been a great response to my invite to the poetry slam in cyberspace in honor of Brigid, the Celtic goddess of poetry, smith craft, and healing. This coming weekend I will be spending some hours following threads on the web to poems and blogs old and new to me. Reya started this "tradition" three years ago. Now, I can't imagine Imbolc/Candlemas/Brigid without it.

As January ends, and Brigid approaches, I've been looking for signs of the quickening of spring. At first glance, winter is still in full force, but right around Brigid, the foreshadowing of spring
can appear, if you pay attention. That's one of the things this sabbat is about!

This tuning into the changes of the seasons is just one of the gifts of my nature-based spiritual practice that I hold dear. In finding the first buds of green among the stark branches of winter's trees, I find and experience the Divine. The mystery of this and the timing never ceases to amaze. Jason at the Wild Hunt blog brought my attention to an interview with the pagan author Waverly Fitzgerald who has written a book about the benefits of "slow time", which is nature's time.

One of the first things I did as a young witch was to make a moon calendar in order to help me tune into the rhythm of moon and tide. Now, I closely watch the plants and trees as we wheel around the year, honoring too the quality of light which is particular to each season. As a a therapist, I do my best to pass this on to clients. Experiencing natural time is healing. I know because I've experienced this. The old adage "time heals all wounds" was not talking about clock time. It's the time of seasons, moons, and green that is the cure.


It's rainy and gray here in San Francisco, but this morning the plum tree outside my bedroom window sang out the cry of a future spring. One precocious bud has appeared amid the naked branches. Looking closely, the tree has bits of green sprouting everywhere. It won't be long until it's dressed in frothing blossoms. Here in California, we don't need a groundhog or a shadow.
The trees say it all. And it's poetry.

You are invited to the third annual Brigid in Cyperspace Poetry Reading

Well, Anne Hill asked if we were going to do this again, and I say YES! Feel free to copy the following to your blog and spread the word. Let poetry bless the blogosphere once again!

WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading

WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2008

WHERE: Your blog

WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day

HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd.

RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this post. Last year when the call went out there was more poetry in cyberspace than I could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun.

Feel free to pass this invitation on to any and all bloggers.

Thank you, Reya, for beginning what is now an annual event.

Back in the Saddle

I didn't post once during the sign of Capricorn. I tried to, I really did. I'm thinking that what was needed was downtime, that this period from Solstice until close to Brigid is seed time for me, time to go inward and mull and muse. I've done a lot of that. Now the sun has shifted into my sign, into Aquarius, and by all astrological reports, this will be a good year for me. Suddenly I feel able to commit my words to cyberspace paper.

So, a review of some of what happened during Capricorn and the germinating seeds of future blogs;

The day after solstice, my housemate left to D.C. for a year. She works with Moveon.org and she went to work on the election. Last heard from, she was having a cocktail with Lloyd from the show Entourage at the Sundance Film Festival. But hey, before she left, there was a party at her flat that included the director Stuart Townsend and Charlize Theron. She has been replaced by my friend Patrick who founded SmartMeme and his partner of many talents, who is the daughter of a famous author currently the subject of a movie in the works. What a life! Being a Witch and an activist has put me in contact with glamour in all sorts of unexpected ways. Blog in germination: Glamour – the allure and the illusion. Also, shifts in house, shifts in self.

I’ve been both preparing to teach in England at a Reclaiming Witchcamp, AvalonSpring, I’m also been working on creating a retreat called “The Fool’s Journey” with a group of other priestesses who are alienated by or grown out of Bay Area Reclaiming. Posts in germination: commitment to a spiritual path versus a spiritual tradition, and reaching spiritual maturity while keeping beginner’s mind.

My son will turn 16 at the end of this month, An Aquarian like me, he seemed to have a big developmental leap during Capricorn. He also had his birthday party early, which despite a written contract, did, like most teenage parties, get out of control. Vomiting, a flooded bathroom, a broken window, and a stolen iTouch put an end to it before midnight. He showed great maturity in taking the lead and throwing everyone out except the close friends who helped clean up.

He threw the party the week after a classmate’s dad was shot at half-time at her basketball game, right in front of the school. The dad was an ex-gang member who ran a organization to help kids stay out of gangs, an organization my son’s father was on the board of. I figured my son wanting a big party was his way of creating a ritual for his friends to deal with the shock of the violence. That runs in the family, as I truly believe parties are some of the finest magic that humans can conjure up. Our solstice party was in fact quite fabulous. Germinating post: Aren’t we humans just a big teenage party out of control on the planet?

A lot more happened, and a lot more posts are germinating. Check back, I intend to post more regularly during the sign of Aquarius!