Dandelion

As part of the giant wave which is transporting me back into all community, all the time, I'm going to Dandelion, an event I missed last year. But this year I'm going, as 3Rivers Reclaiming representative. I'm chuffed.

So I emailed my covener Rosie, who'd also said she was going, and I said, hey, ya wanna do a workshop? Got any ideas? And she said, hey, yeah, how about a deep trance workshop? And I said, cool, that sounds great.

And that's how you organize, if you're me.

So THAT'S how far things have gone in just a few weeks. I was sitting in my little ritual room on the night of the Winter Solstice, spinning straw into gold. And now I've got a little community, and a lot of email, and I'm going to an event called Dandelion.

Dandelion got invented after I'd gone solitary for a while, so that would be the reason I understand not the name. The name sounds fluffy. But I know that surely fluff is not involved.

If there is any damn fluff, though, I'm going to start singing "It's a Small World." It's a useful song that way.

Things We Know

I've been watching a young group move its way through decisions, and it's brought back to me my early years in Reclaiming.

The first major issue my young coven came up against was: Are we obligated to work with anybody who wants to work with us?

From where I stand now, the answer to this is so obvious ("no," for those of you who feel a bit confused by the question), that I'm grateful that I once did not, truly, no kidding, know the answer, cause that makes me much more useful to cohorts who are addressing the issue now.

Part of my confusion was due to my deep conviction that everything that came my way was part of a big ol' plan that would ultimately act towards my spiritual good, if I only just trusted it.

Well, yes, I guess, but I gather that even if that's true, sometimes people are sent my way not so that I can learn to work with them no matter how gawdawful they are, but so that I can learn to say, "get out of my living room."

It's good to know how to say things like that, and mean them, in case they become necessary.

I remember our first problem came in the form of a young woman who'd been through the whole series of Reclaiming classes with us, and wanted to be in our newly formed circle, and showed up at one of our (non-public) rituals, drunk, with a couple of guys she'd picked up on the beach, and dragged over so they could see "how real witches work."

I'm sorry to say we actually allowed them, and she herself, into the circle, and had the ritual. We were young, I will say that.

But we talked it through later, and added that incident to a host of others, and decided we did not want to work with her. It was horrible, telling her that, and she cried, and we did it anyway.

And it was then that we started moving towards being a coven, and not just a circle. We wanted to work strong, and we wanted to work deep, and though we understood that people go through changes, and energy shifts, we didn't want to work with deadwood.

We were serious.

So it made me very happy when the group I've become acquainted with drew some boundaries like that. I take it that they're serious.

Excellent.

There Was That Dark Moon Back There

Now that we've all recovered, more or less, from the VAST amount of poetry that Reya called in (beware the power of the knitting bloggers; that's all I have to say), I can return to the dark moon report I mentioned earlier.

I'll turn 52 in May. And I'm convinced that it's crucial that I uncover as much of my hidden reality as I can, NOW -- something's coming (maybe no more than the Saturn return due in a few years; maybe something else), and I need to have all my resources available.

Hence all this dark moon hoohah.

Last time, I had LOTS of information about exactly how much damage I'd done to myself in a relationship long ago. Good. I can use that.

And now the full moon's coming.

This is the pattern these days: dark moon, discover stuff. Full moon, celebrate. On, off. On, off. On, off.

And in between, I try to focus on the body. Exercise. Good food. Sleep. Get work done.

On, off. On, off. On, off.

Straw into gold; straw as gold.

On, off.

That's all. It's fairly simple.

Silent Poetry Reading

In accordance with Reya's call for poetry for Brigid -- we're to read this all silently, though I might be noisy just for the hell of it -- we will now have poetry.

First, a chant to call Brigid as Goddess of Poetry, which I wrote in the long ago when I was still in San Francisco and which never, never got picked up on. It's just too damn hard to sing, alas, so it never went into the Reclaiming repertoire. But I still sing it, cause I like it:

Song shifter, story changer,
Shape, take our song.
Dream through the pulse.
Sing through the bone.

***************************
And second, an actual poem:



Hecate

She keeps her clothes on at the gate:
she's that sort of girl.
Double-torched, though, two-fisted
light, walking the dark.
All that furniture looming
around, cornered, broken:
good to have a couple of lights.
More would be better, but
she's got two hands, and
they're full. The moon's not, though --
dark as toads -- and now she's
gone.

Gone. You're too slow.
Hurry, following past the
lovers, the rosaries, that lost
baby; the light flits off
the walls, the room darkens.
You're groping through the rubbish alone.

Always so. She'll open the door,
she'll lead you in, but she's
not there for the cleanup.
She's down at the corner,
eating all the honey cakes.
You're stuck with the boxes,
waiting for the van.

---Anne Brannen
September 05

Poetry Call

Tomorrow's the day for Reya's Silent Poetry Reading:

WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading
WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2006
WHERE: Your blog
WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Bridgid, aka Groundhog Day
HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2. I don't imagine zillions of bloggers will partake of this online celebration of midwinter, but I am curious to see who is called to join this project, and especially curious to read the poetry that gets published.
RSVP: If you plan to publish, will you either leave your blog address as a comment on this post, or send me an email? I'd like to collect the poems.

If you do participate, her email is reyasdottir AT verizon DOT net -- perform the usual magic with the AT and the DOT and there you are.

See you tomorrow, poetry in hand!