branches up, roots down

“There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible" Atticus Finch It lives close by. For the few, it’s kept at bay for a lifetime. For most of us, there is at least one close encounter and many near misses. For all of us, from birth to death, it lurks within our peripheral vision, with its ubiquitous threat. Violence. I grew up in household where it seemed to explode out of nowhere, rocking the house and shaking me to the core. This was during the decade where it also came through the television in relentless waves. At seven I witnessed my President’s killer shot dead in real time in black and white. My generation grew up with that hopeless little screen pulsing it to us directly, uncensored and unfiltered. As an adult, my body has felt its impact only when I’ve faced it down. Taking action against it often has meant putting myself in its way and wake. I’ve been shoved, hit, choked, and gassed as a result ...

The slogan for this year’s Olympics is “One World, One Dream”. A perfect slogan, a perfect spell for us to invoke. The Olympics seize our imagination in that they are a direct tie to the old gods. The Olympics are also a coming together of humans in our divine bodies...taking those bodies - from all the countries of the globe - to their limits, and celebrating what we humans are capable of. Hercules is said to have been the founder of the games, and one of the stated purposes of the games is to promote global unity and “sound minds in sound bodies”. They have historically also held a foreshadowing of things to come and/or mirror what is happening on our planet. Think of the 1968 games or the games that were held in Germany before the holocaust. Think of Munich . The Olympics serve to bring the world’s attention together and into focus. There’s a kind of magic in the choice of the city that will be the focus of that attention at what time. At the Olympics, the whole world...

I love it when magic works!!! And it always does. I especially love it when the fates/elements dance along with me in the way I requested on the multi-versal dance card…only just a tad more delightfully. Yes. That happened last weekend. From Friday night to Sunday afternoon I was with a group of my friends in Sonoma planning the restorative retreat – A Fool’s Journey – that we are creating for right after fall equinox. My wish was that the planning session contain within it what we intend the restorative to be; both deeply satisfying and restorative. Check!!!! Mission Accomplished! Somehow we managed to question and theologically pull apart everything we usually do in ritual and at witchcamps, put it back together in ways that suited all of us, open to inspiration and watch it come, take that inspiration and plan several rituals , structure the retreat and when things would be offered, swim, read, go on walks, cook, and feast. And somehow, doing all of this was profound...