Aug 4th – I was grateful for Zoom’ing with a beloved and brainstorming to solve all the problems everywhere! Hahahaha
Aug 5th – For loving straight talk, and trust that what we’ve built into our friendship will withstand the hard things and be stronger for it.
Aug 6th – For the spirit of hope that the athletes bring to the Olympic games. Gods those young people’s souls shine through all parts of them.
I’m grateful to have a son willing to take huge risks, having courage in spite of fear, and making the necessary changes to have the life he desires. Much love to you, OlderBoy.
Though this is cryptic, I’m grateful to have received items to rebuild an object well-loved and full of magic that is a piece of one of my communities. *bbbzzzzz*
Ground rules: The gratitude project is one post per day about something for which you are truly grateful and it runs from Lammas to Mabon. It can be a big or little gratitude, but no repeats – you can be grateful for your spouse/kids/job/friends, but the reason for the gratitude needs to be different for each entry. This project was started by ![[personal profile]](https://i2.wp.com/s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
estaratshirai . I have been doing it since 2004.
Today I am grateful for modern medicine and the intervention of it in each of my family members lives, as otherwise we’d all be dead already.
We are less than a week to Medusa camp. We are less than a week to:
being in community
entering mystery
personally and communally working the arc of the story
circling within the standing stones
working our Priestess Arts
engaging in mythic reality – on purpose
dipping our toes or whole bodies in the warm creek
night showers under the stars
delicious food
rapturous magic
lively conversation
beautiful music
feisty mischief in the faerie cairn
All of these things will be ours to enjoy. All of these things will enfold and hold our Work. Our Work including:
holding an unflinching gaze on ourselves
holding an unflinching gaze on our community
holding willing unflinching ears for other voices
risking seeing injustice
risking seeing ourselves
risking seeing others
opening our eyes to clearly see oppression
opening our mind to clearly confront our privilege
opening our spirit to shift how we are in the world
engaging Athena
engaging Medusa
engaging Perseus
riding Pegasus
The magic of camp occurs through us. The container we build on the first night is the support, a foundation and two-by-fours. As the week progresses we weave our Work. The energies become the plaster and drywall. Our music and dancing paints the container, laughter becomes curtains and floor pillows. It is a grand experiment, this thing that we do. It is Will, and Wonder, and Collective Desire that we Love into being with all of our Selves.
Camp. I can’t wait!
It can be easy for me to fall into a rut with what Work I expect from which God. This is based on past experiences, trance with them, and their standard associations. I put Them in a box. They like boxes as much as we do, which is not at all, as boxes tend to suffocate, no matter how delightful.
Yemaya has Her box in my head. It’s a lovely one with salted waters flowing through the bottom, brilliant beige sands on the left, and plush greens on the right. Stars whirl and flash hot across the top and the walls are bright colours with art made of discarded seashells. The soundscape is a hearty mix of ocean waves, lapping brooks, birdsong, and music that carries the rhythm of my blood pulsing to my heart. The smellscape is sweet tangy flowers, brine, and the sensuous odour of Love. All of creation she holds in her hands, her heart, her womb. Her feet leave seeds of renewal with every step of the dance. I love her box. She does, too, but, it is still a box.
Yemaya wants to come to Medusa camp in July. I’ve had other Goddesses and Gods surprise me with which events they wish to attend with me, eschewing their boxes. I guess at Who wants to travel for a gathering and then They tell me yes or no, while Others jump in demanding to be taken. Hel wants to come to Medusa camp this year. Of course She does! No surprise! Death is a big piece of this story. And …. so is life. Hel is always reminding me of her left side, the living flesh side. It’s amusing, because I know, I know, and yet She whispers in my ear, “Life feeds on death the same as death feeds on life.”
I should have suspected something big was coming with Yemaya when she insisted a few months ago that her shrine be moved to a more prominent place and she wanted more attention. Both have occurred.
I have a long time online friend who has started looming ask if I wanted a rainbow cloth/altar scarf for my Work concerning the Orlando massacre in a gay club on June 11th during Latinx night. My energies and spellwork are for the Beloved Dead and for healing and justice for the LGBTQA++ going forward. My friend asked what Powers and Gods with their associated energies did I want to pull in. Yemaya lithely jumped to Her delicious feet, stopped her dance of the heavens, turned full face to me, and said with somber eyes plus a firm tone, “ME”. (Others desired to lend power to this project, but Yemaya was first.)
My friend weaves magic into her work with the loom. To be quite honest, she weaves magic into everything. For her newest Art of looming she has a lovely process of calling and weaving which you can read about here. My cloth is near done. As my friend was weaving Yemaya stepped in, speaking Her expectations of me for this Work. These messages have been passed on to me. She is coming to camp, and to other events in the future, for this Work, for this Magic. Beautiful as it is, a box is constricting, and the Gods will not be limited. Nor should They be. They expect us not to limit ourselves, either. Ashé.
(originally posted on this day three years ago, it was a good reminder today)
I am reminded again of how easily I can hold two seemingly conflicting ideas inside of me and be at peace with that. This is not true for everyone. Some people need everything to line up logically and make sense or they must discard what doesn’t. It is how they order their world. Their sense of personal safety and security depends on it. Logical structure, schedules, and outlines hold the edges of their life and such things make them happy.
My sense of How Things Work depends on the idea that not everything is logical, nor should it be. Everything does not fit together in a Tab A/Slot B way. First draft outlines, dynamic schedules and loose structure hold the soft edges of my life and make me happy. Hard lines constrict me, do not make sense within my world view, and cause me to feel suffocated. It is an interesting endeavor when these two views meet in conversation. I always walk away from those encounters with reinforced certainty of: my POV is as it should be, everyone gets to be exactly who they are, and I am easily okay with that.
Oh, Julian*, you were so right.
*Julian of Norwich – “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.”
Reblog: Lovely!
First I set the loom in place, the center of my working. At the right distance for the piece, I erect the World Tree, my pillar, my pitan. Between it and the Well that is my chair, I will draw the web of powers I need to snare the object of my will. I drop the thread into the Well and make the first draw, tying the end onto the horizon of origin provided by the loom. The music has already started playing, songs that call the worlds and the spirits I need.
Over the horizon I draw the thread through the heddle, the first day of creation. I coax the loop to the Tree and hang it there, marking the length. Coming back to the Well, I draw again and pass under the horizon, the first night. Through the heddle and to the Tree, testing for firm tension. Over…
View original post 396 more words
For Orlando: If You Want To Help – http://wp.me/p3W8Qt-u8
LEAN IN TO JOY with BONEWEAVER 