Reblog!
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Category: misc
Belonging in Community
To belong in a community is to be at once an individual and a part of a group bigger than oneself. It is to be in a position of strength and vulnerability, comfort and danger. As one writer puts it, “Community requires of us a giving up….If we have nothing to give up, we cannot take in.”
I agree with the above statement completely.
It is from the service description blurb for this Sunday at the UU of the South Hills.
Ritual is not therapy – initial thoughts
Reblog:
BOOM! Yes! And watch this blog for more on this topic from guest bloggers.
I think I have a blog post in me about ritual not being therapy…
Maybe that’s all that needs to be said. Ritual isn’t therapy, nor should it be therapy. Therapy is valuable….ritual is valuable…and it needs to be stated that therapy and ritual approach self change in very different ways.
If we try to turn ritual into therapy, we lose the edge that is often present in dynamic, groundbreaking group religious experiences.
There’s a reason we assure ritual participants that they will be safe, but not necessarily comfortable. There’s a reason why it is clearly stated at events that ritual is not a substitute for therapy.
I’m sure I have more thoughts on this, but for now, it will suffice.
30 Days of Loki: Day 9, Part Two
Reblog: YES! Love for Loki *because* of Baldur, not in spite of! (Hel and Baldur sittin’ in a tree, K I S S ….)
“She put on a lot of weight”
From the ReBlog: “The next time I hear a less than flattering comment about myself, I will not let it take root in me.”
YES!
I ran into someone I hadn’t seen in a couple of years on the fourth of July. It was hot and humid here. My sweaty hair was stuck to my face. My brave little boy was in my big yellow double running stroller, the strap tied a bit too tightly around my arm digging in. My oldest son was running behind me with my husband. I was surrounded by an amazing group of people out there representing the church we attend, showing love for our community by passing out a few thousand popsicles in the parade. My face was flushed red from the heat and the exertion of running to keep up while pushing a nearly 100 pound load and simultaneously handing out popsicles with one hand while the other steered the stroller. I handed this person a popsicle, smiled, and offered a short, but enthusiastic, “Hey there!” As I…
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Our Bodies Will Not Be Machines: My Resistance Will Be Bloody
REBLOG: “In each of these moments what isn’t mentioned is that these moments aren’t mentioned. Women are supposed to be quiet about something that our bodies do every single month for thirty or forty years. Don’t make a big deal of your experience. Don’t gross anyone out. This is shameful and people will mock you. Or they willfully ignore it.
Don’t smell of flesh and blood. Don’t leak or leave a bloody stain. Stuff your cunt up. Eat ungodly amounts of pain-killers. Alter your hormones with birth control pills, regardless of the sex you may or may not be having. Don’t let cramps get you down; girl, let’s see that smile! Don’t rest; taking a day off work just proves women are weak and unreliable.”
I am thirteen and bleeding all over the floor of Renee’s bathroom. It is the middle of the night. I thought I had to pee, but it’s just that my period has started. I can’t predict these unpredictable occurrences. My stomach hurts. I feel queasy. But my flow is so heavy it’s running down my leg and making a mess on the floor. I mop up what I can. I swallow my pride and wake my friend to wake her mother. We need assistance. Thankfully, in an act of female teenage solidarity, no one ever hears of this story. Until now.
I am fifteen, crawling on my hands and knees through the halls of my high school. I have cramps so severe I cannot walk. I am pale and my English teacher is concerned that I might be passing out at my desk. Thankfully, most everyone is in class, so…
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Reclaiming Pittsburgh – an open group of the religious witchcraft tradition
An open group in Pittsburgh area practicing in the Reclaiming and Feri traditions of witchcraft.
From the http://www.reclaiming.org website:
“Our vision is rooted in the religion and magic of the Goddess, the Immanent Life Force. We see our work as teaching and making magic; the art of empowering ourselves and each other. In our classes, workshops, and public rituals, we train our voices, bodies, energy, intuition, and minds. We use the skills we learn to deepen our strength, both as individuals and as community, to voice our concerns about the world in which we live, and bring to birth a vision of a new culture.”
Elements of Magic Workshop
By Art, we deepen our vision, focus our will, and empower ourselves to act in the world. In this class we begin the practice of Magic, Witchcraft, and goddess/god/mysterious ones spirituality by working with the Elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. Techniques include: visualization, sensing and projecting energy, chanting, trance, creating magical space, spellcraft, and structuring rituals. Group experience follows feminist consensus process. This class is the first of the core Reclaiming classes.
PREREQUISITE: Read the first six chapters of The Spiral Dance by Starhawk
WHERE: Pittsburgh area, PA
WHEN: Saturday June 13 and Sunday June 14
COST: $150-$90, sliding scale.
The Great God Pan in the Bone Yard of Trees
REBLOG – I swoon with Great Love at this post.
We arrived at our second favorite beach on the Olympic coast on Thursday afternoon around four o’clock. It was a glorious day, sunny and clear and not too warm…as a few cooling evening clouds began to wisp in just in time to make the sunset a glory. We started to walk to the pathway down to the beach, and then realized we had only four hours till sunset. Clearly not enough time to enjoy Kalaloch Beach adequately and still get to Ruby Beach before sunset. Also, the tide was clearly in, and I feared I could not get to my favorite seastack at Ruby if it was surrounded with incoming waves. The tide would not be out till late in the night. We turned on our heels and went back to the Lodge to inquire about vacancies in the cabins. We got one at half the normal price! We went…
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Whoo Hoo Witchcamp!
REBLOG – this is pretty much how I feel, too. I’ve been to Spiralheart three times and going again this year. I love this camp model.
It’s getting to be that time of year again, the time when I’m super pumped to go to SpiralHeartWitchcamp.
My first SpiralHeart camp was last year – I had been to one other Reclaiming witchcamp ages ago, and had done a lot of larger group rituals at Diana’s Grove, but I had never been to a “camper led camp” before, and had no idea what to expect. I wondered if it would be like the witchcamp I had been to before, a camp that used a traditional Reclaiming teaching team model. In 95% of the ways it could have been different, it was the same – just as moving, just as magical, just as full of love and trust and challenge. For that other 5%, it was different – more like my experiences at Diana’s Grove.
I love that SpiralHeart supports everyone being involved, testing their skills, trying on new roles…
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Sonnet on the Final Hour
Reblog!
Vinicius de Moraes Saravá,
Gedichte und Lieder,
Serie Piper, 1989
It will be like this, dear friend — one day
we’ll be watching the sunset
when we suddenly feel on our faces
a light kiss of cold air.
You’ll look at me silently
and I’ll do the same, remembering….
then dazzled with poetry, we’ll pass through
the door open before us, to the darkness.
Crossing the border of the Secret
I will softly say, “Don’t be afraid”
And you will say, “Be strong”.
And like two ancient lovers
mournfully entwined in the night
together we’ll enter the gardens of death.
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LEAN IN TO JOY with BONEWEAVER 