The Wild Hunt has a stunning articleabout a Wiccan woman’s recent traumatic experience with the new body scanners and the accompanying opt-out procedures. It’s pretty clear that the ‘opt out’ is deliberately invasive and humiliating so as to convince others to go through with the x-ray scanner instead. Hey, what’s a little radiation? Any problems from it are in the future, not now.
My friend Diana Rajchel has an essay posted on Witchvox about Divorce as Initiation. It’s very very very good and I encourage you to read it and pass the news that it is out there.
Please note that although the date of her survey is listed as being open only until October 31, it is actually open until the end of 2010.
Center: Temperance
Crossing: Knight of cups
Base: The Fool
Passing: Ace of Swords
Crown: Ten of Swords
Coming: Strength
Myself: six of Wands
Surroundings: Three of pentacles
Hopes & Fears: Queen of Wands
Final: The Hanged Man
*LITANY OF THE DEAD 2010*
*created by Dagonet Dewr – October 29, 2010*
*As always, feel free to disseminate freely; I ask only that distribution be
complete. I also have noticed this year there is no central source for
recording the dead in the Pagan and Heathen communities. I am considering a project to address this; if interested, send email to dagonet.dewr@gmail.com.
And as always, any omissions are pure oversight and my responsibility.
Please send any notable oversights to the same address, and I will add them
before this is posted permanently on the Web.*
As a follow up to this post, I’m doing much better (thank you for asking. :-).
Y’all may or may not know that I am the primary leader of a coven that has been in existence (in one form or another) since 2000. Back when I found out I had cancer I (of course) reached out to everyone in the group and was very forthright about the fact that I was really going to not be doing much leading. The group said, in effect, we’ll keep it going.
Or so I thought.
I’ve been ruminating about this post since Azahar first brought the topic up in mid February. I’ve been holding off writing it becuase I really didn’t want to freak y’all out. (Isn’t that nice of me?)
The Queen of Denial is not me. Oh, I’ll joke about it occasionally, but really, I’m incredible perceptive and accurate in my assessments of myself and the world around me.
The Queen of Denial is this woman: Dr. Desiree Pardi (the link takes you to the original story on the New York Times website). In a story full of horror and woe what comes through the most is the irony. A doctor specializing in palliative care puts herself — and her family — through a year of increasingly horrible procedures and pain because she refuses to admit that her cancer is not curable.
This is the horror of breast cancer, and it is not my story. It is, however, a story about the pain that denial causes and the ripple effect it has on those around the denier.
This is me being judgmental, I know. But instead of spending $1000s on ever-more-complicated treatments, she could have been doing everything she ever wanted to do, spending time in beautiful locations with her husband, and giving her loved ones, friends, and colleagues a chance to say goodbye. Instead of saying “I’m a survivor” she could have said “I did great work and helped many people, time to move to the next level.”
Fear of death is a massively powerful force. It takes a great deal of courage to face the unknown and slip into it gracefully. Dr. Pardi’s story is the story of many people. Her story is not my story, not least because I’m not dying yet.
It is also not my story because I am not afraid of dying . . I’m mostly interested in avoiding any pain around the process of dying itself. Oh, and I’d like to know when I’m going to die so I can get it all accomplished before I move on.
In therapy the other day I found myself talking about teaching other people how to meditate. Please note that I will cheerfully admit that I am still learning to meditate, and I’ve been doing it for 30+ years. But I know how to teach others, because the first rule is:
show up
That’s it. If you show up you are 100% of the way further than you were yesterday when you didn’t show up.
It’s a tough one, I know. There are all of the things that keep you from it, that distract you, that make it impossible . . . I know.
Over the years I’ve told people to go to the bathroom to meditate (its the only place they are left alone for a few mins); I’ve encouraged them to set boundaries (It’s ok to be left alone for 15 mins every day); and I’ve introduced them to the Law of 3Bs (if there is no blood, or bone, and everyone is breathing — don’t bother me).
But all of that is just window dressing for the most important step: Show Up.
. . .
Oh, you want to know what the 2nd rule is? Shut up.
🙂
Last night my coven gathered together to celebrate the passing of the seasons with our Imbolc ritual.
Traditionally, this is a Feast of Brigid, the saint/goddess or poetry, smithcraft and healing. Or it is a Feast of candles with fire, initiation and purification being common themes.
We celebrate it a little differently. In our lore, the Sun King is born at Yule and is a Youth, the embodiment of hope and new beginnings at Imbolc. The Lady is recovering from her birthing and is very much in the background at this celebration. We honor Her wish for solitude and rest and Lugh is our main focus.
We light the balefire, and He invokes all of the promise of Spring and Summer with the burning of a sprig of evergreen. Then He takes into the fire all of our hopes and dreams for the new year, to manifest in the coming months.
I love Working with my coven. There is such a good spirit about coming together with them and honoring the underlying cycle of the world.
All yesterday I was seeing the signs of new life around me. The plum trees across the street from where I work are blooming, as are the pink flowered shrubs in front of my building. In my own garden, the Buddleia and roses are are sprouting at the tips of their branches. The Lilac tree (newly planted last year and a non-starter, I thought) has buds on its tips. On the side of the house, the purple tulips, planted in a tub by the previous owner are growing luxuriously.
Sometimes when I walk, the scent of some newly-opened ground flowers will reach me. We have heather planted all around and some kind of low-lying shrubbery that has rows of heart-shaped tiny flowers all laying atop one another. I suspect that’s the source of the scent, but haven’t confirmed it.
Next stop: Ostara (Spring!)
There are many reasons a man may have his children taken from him. It may be something he did directly, it may be something he failed to do to protect them.