My pledge to Brigid is already showing signs of working on me. Decades back, when we were creating what has become the Reclaiming Tradition, we started making pledges in front of a big tub of water (Brigid’s well) which held a cauldron of fire (Brigid’s flame).
This was done in a public ritual where one by one people would pledge with the community bearing witness. Over the years, I’ve made pledges that have shifted my life, and witnessed plenty that I knew would bring change. I haven’t been to a public ritual in several years, but this year I followed the call and found myself back in front of the well and the flame.
My pledge this year was and is to embrace gratitude as an organizing principle and to treasure my son, my partner, and my beloved friends. My birthday was on Saturday and the whole day my pledge kept resonating. I am so blessed! My partner and I started the day with a trip to the farmer's market. If there ever was an urban pagan place of worship, it's got to be the farmer's market. The Goddess appeared in the the baby lettuce and the chantrelle mushrooms on Saturday. That afternoon I had a massage and then in the evening friends came over. I’d asked that everyone bring a poem to share, and poetry was scattered throughout hours of feasting and feting.
My friend Naomi’s father had been dying of cancer and he crossed over before sunset. She got her ticket to fly out to
There was much that still worked for me at the public ritual, but one thing I am completely done with. For too many years there’s been a narrative in Reclaiming that “these are dark times” and the magic at hand is turning the tide and bringing us back to better times. Several priestesses at the ritual used the term "these are dark times". Are they? Really? Like Dickens said about his time, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. I question the magical effectiveness of continuing to invoke and name these times as only dark. Seems like it would be good for Reclaiming as a whole to review and reflect on the past thirty years and work on changing some of our old narrative.
When was it really a better time? Most times are both, light and dark, good and bad, full of horror and full of joy. I hate that my country is waging wars and yes, global capitalism continues to be a damn menace. And…..there are changes to be honored everywhere.
10 comments:
I really enjoyed your poetry slam. It was a great idea and I have been reading much more poetry since.
It is amazing that we have Clinton and Obama in the position they are in ! I am thrilled by that--
One of the things we noticed at the Midwestern Witch Camp this year was that many of us, separately, have been called to Freyja, just as many of us, in years past, were called to Brigid.
And many of us were also noticing a growing dedication to joy, love, gratitude, in our selves and our communities.
So we figured that indeed, the light had arrived.
Or, more probably, that the light had ALWAYS been here, and we were of a mind to notice it.
My pledge this year is to paying attention.
Yikes.
These Neo-Pagan narratives are tricky. Once, not all that long ago, they were new and pointed us towards a different consciousness. But we repeated them year after year. The narratives got older, but stayed unchanging.
Craft is about changing. The world, Ourselves. These narratives.
I think that the narratives ought to change in synch with how our consciousness changes. When we keep saying that the times are dark, we are, in that odd magical way, making them dark.
'When was it really a better time? Most times are both, light and dark, good and bad, full of horror and full of joy.'
Wise words! Happy Birthday to you.
Happy birthday Deborah.
Love,
Terri in Joburg
"embrace gratitude as an organizing principle and to treasure my son"
Yes gratitude is a big and great guiding principle... One i wish i'd been able to practice more when my son was young (hes now 13).
I was remembering yesterday how tiny he was, how small and silky soft - i was wishing i'd had MORE gratitude for his delicate beauty and for that tiny fleeting moment.
It hurts to know that i was so busy surviving that i never truly opened to that moment.
So yes, heres to gratitude and your lovely post.
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday Deborah! I too am still enjoying the poetry web, Thank you again. It gave me a wonderful warm feeling of wellbeing that made me feel optimistic. The world cannot be all bad if there are people to make a web of poetry. Poetry has continued to imbue my days and dreams since Imbolc.
I too am tired of the pessimism and fear that I have encountered in similar circles but want to say that I also feel extreemly uncomfortable when witches equate dark with bad. This seems to amplify the pessimism that sees these times as dark. It is also accepting and continuing the racism that is endemic in our language and christianity. As a witch I know that both darkness and lightness can hold both goodness and badness. Light and fire can kill and dark earth incubates seeds and new life.
Thank you for your optimism and and gratitude
Just found your blog - you said your birthday "was on Saturday" - could it have been Saturday the 9th of February? Because that was MY birthday! I found you on my birthday....... (and as I read back through, dare I say, we have some things in common!)
Love the title of this entry, esp. that last clause ;-)
There's more gratitude in my life (and Fortuna practice) this past year... another thing that is returning.
My theology or gnosis depends on light and dark always being present. That's in ourselves as much as in the world. Some "shadow" work is very superficial, and some social justice stances very demanding... I think sometimes hypocrisy causes recoil in proportion to self-righteousness. We cannot criticze these problems and act to change them magically in the modes we have often taken unless we are willing to more fully divest. We cannot pretend that we apportion our taxes, for example ("Mine support education, not war"), or that magic, street protest, and living a good life are enough.
The times are perceived as dark, I believe, because they demand that self-righteousness be turned to righteousness and unnecessary toys discarded.
The big lie is not that times are dark, but that we can have it all and do not have to sacrifice. On that, Witchcraft too often mirrors the dark excesses of the prevailing culture. And can learn from Hinduism and Christianity.
I think Barack or Hillary will be a symbolic coup that will have positive (and disruptive) psychological implications, but they're both very privileged advocates of the privileged and their candidacies seem to be distractions from class issues, which I perceive as the root of race and gender discrimination. I think that Obama's presidency would take us beyond race and allow us to begin to talk about class, and I think in the long run this would be more valuable than the Clinton breakthroughs.
Funny, I had never thought of gratitude as an "organizing" principle--yet, when I read it, it really hit home. Yes, gratitude does really put everything into perspective and illuminate our paths. It helps us see things as they truly are and not as they might have been and in this way helps us make positive steps forward again and again.
Thank you so much for your insight.
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