Joys and Sorrows and Blessings...

So, there have been many changes in my life in the past 6 months or so, and for the sake of continuity, I thought to mention them. 

On Sunday September 11^th, I received my 3^rd degree initiation from my Tradition.  The Ritual was challenging and profound and I am still working through the magick of it and I will be for a while to come.

On Sunday September 25^th, the Weavers of the Moonfire, my Coven, hived to give birth to a new Coven.  My High Priestess and best friend, and half of our number, were released and dedicated the new Coven, and I became the High Priestess of my Beloved Moonfire. It was a beautiful day and bittersweet for all of us.

On the day after my birthday, Saturday October 1^st, Pwca and I moved into a new home with two wonderful people and their sweet kitten, Luna.  And then Pwca’s health began to fail. 

On Sunday December 4th, I graduated from Gryphon’s Grove School of Shamanism and celebrated the achievement with friends with whom I have been blessed to Journey for the past two years.  Some amazingly gifted witches and healers whom I would not have known otherwise.

On Monday morning, December 19^th my beloved familiar and my companion for over 6 years crossed over.  It was a very difficult loss and I still miss him. 

On Saturday January 14^th, I found my sweet Gwion at the local shelter and, brought him home to Caer Ddraig.  He has settled in and is a joy and a comfort to me every day.

Life is full of changes, full of both Joy and Sorrow, and the future is never exactly the way we think it will be.  I give thanks for the life I have, for home and companion, for housemates and Coven, for friends and family and lovers and allies and teachers. 

I am blessed and I give thanks.  Blessed Be.

Opening...again

Since the loss of my brother in July, I have been struggling against an old obstacle.  I have worked relentlessly the past ten years to open myself to feeling…everything. I began with being open, engaged, and connected in ritual space, then with connecting to inspiration, and intuition, and imagination, love and grief and sorrow and joy, desire, passion and pleasure, anger, purpose and power…everything that makes me a living, breathing, loving person. 

Being closed off to my Self, my mind, soul, heart, body, and shadow, is like being asleep, or half-alive.  It feels like sleepwalking through the world, and it has robbed me of my energy, my motivation and my joy.   It has also robbed me of my compassion, empathy and connection to others.

The loss of my brother was the first but, there have been a series of losses, none of which I have felt fully.  And while I have not lost my connection to my Gods, I have not returned to the head-blindness and deafness, for which I give thanks, this disconnection from feeling is an obstacle that has become intolerable.  I will not live that way again. 

I visited the Sweat Lodge this past weekend and there I became acutely aware of the current state of my magick.  I gave thanks for the blessings I have been given. I offered up the distractions and worries (and a portion of my grief) that interfere with my being fully aware and connected to myself, and I asked for the return of opening that I may again fully engage with all of myself and with those that I love and with my purpose in the world.

This past week, in conversations with two of my coven-mates I had become unexpectedly “emotional”, even becoming disproportionately angry about something relatively trivial.  At first, I did not recognize why I was feeling so strongly, and then it occurred to me that my prayers within the Lodge had been heard and were being answered.  I give thanks for the return of opening, and I will continue this work. 

One of the ways that I intend to do this is by engaging in new experiences and striving to be fully present with them. 

This has reminded me that the lessons of this life are always repeating, we become more adept at the work each time we return to a lesson, we learn new ways, and practice and practice and practice, and through practice we become wiser and perhaps more graceful.

So, I am opening…again.  May my Gods bless me in my work.

Personal Ritual...

I love Ritual.  It appeals to both the orderly parts of me and to the parts of me that love magick, that need inspiration in order to live and be happy.

I have participated in some truly great rituals, I have written and facilitated some very good rituals, and I am a student of rituals and how they work.

My daily practice involves many small rituals. 

Rituals of Air…and breathing.

Rituals of Water…and cleansing.

Rituals of Earth…eating and grounding, and touching the Earth.

Rituals of Fire…lighting candles and insence.

Rituals of Spirit…listening to the winds and the trees, to water and to stones, to the Sun and the Moon and the Stars, and writing and creating.

Rituals of Gratitude...making offerings and prayers, singing. 

Rituals of Healing...and listening to self.

Rituals of Love and Life…cuddling with Pwca, and touching with Lovers, and sharing community with Beloveds.

Rituals give my life order and structure…and magick and inspiration.

Life is ritual…

On the power and necessity of Water...

My body needs water.

I need to drink water to keep my body clean inside, to keep it healthy and strong, to keep it clear of toxins and stagnation.  I need to have clean water flowing through me to be well.

I need water flowing over my body.  I need it to flow over my hands and my feet to clear off the detritus that clings after walking about in the world.  I need it to clear my subtle bodies of the stuff of life that does not nurture.

I need it flowing through my heart, mind and soul, and from my heart, mind and soul.  I need it to flow like the river, so that the pressure does not become too great and burst the container, so that it does not stagnate and become toxic.

Water is the universal solvent.  It cleans away detritus and toxins and stagnation.  Flowing, it has strength and force that can accomplish great movement and change.  It carves and wears and shapes and moves all that it comes in contact with.  It is the most fluid and mutable and yet tangible element of all.

I am mist and rain and torrent and snowfall…and I am the river and the lake…and a wave in the universal Ocean.

Water is Life.

Knowledge, Wisdom and Gnosis; the faces of Truth

Knowledge is the first face of Truth.  It is information, facts, academic and utilitarian.  It is a beginning, but only the beginning. 

Wisdom is the second face of Truth.  It is Knowledge applied to life.  It is theoretical but useful.  It is necessary if one is to actually benefit from Knowledge.

Gnosis is the third face of Truth. It is Wisdom experienced.  Having applied Knowledge to life, and having experienced the Truth of that Wisdom, we achieve the understanding of Gnosis, Truth through Experience.

Acquire Knowledge, for it is valuable.  Learn Wisdom for it too is valuable.  But to achieve Gnosis is to understand the Mystery of Truth. This is the purpose of Life.  

Cernunnos; into the woods

My Coven’s Patron is the Horned God Cernunnos, Lord of the Wild, both the wild within the Natural World and within the Human Soul.

The following is a Journey I wrote a couple of years ago as a way to introduce others to my Beloved Wild God.  I hope you enjoy the experience.  Good Journey.

You are standing in a clearing on a hill, surrounded by woods.

Before you stands a stone tower, the surface half-covered with moss.

There are ancient symbols carved into the stones and as you try to decipher them you notice a rough wooden door, dark with age.

You pull on the latch and slowly, the door opens enough to allow you to enter.

Inside it is quiet. Air warm as a summer night drifts down from windows high above. The floor is smooth and worn.  There is a stair to your left spiraling upward and to your right leading down.

You turn to your left and begin to ascend the stair.  The stone steps are even and smooth and easy to climb.  The air is warm and fragrant.  You can see glimpses of a starry sky through the high narrow windows above you and you climb step by step up and around and up and up and up and around.  You can no longer see the door but you keep climbing wondering when you will reach the top.  Just as you are considering turning back you come to another door. 

The stair continues to spiral even further upward and you consider continuing your ascent but you are drawn to the door. It is a warm golden wood carved with spirals and ancient symbols.  You test the latch and the door opens smoothly and easily outward into a forest of ancient trees in full green, the stars of the summer night sparkling through the leaves and branches high above your head. 

Fire flies glow and blink their green light everywhere between the trees and as you watch them you notice a path before you and a creature standing in the path some yards ahead.  It is large and very still and you have to look for a few moments before you can discern what the creature is.  Then you begin to make out the graceful antlers reaching up from its brow and you know that the creature standing so still, waiting for you, is a Great Stag.  And He is indeed waiting.  You step forward onto the path and the Stag begins to walk away from you. You stop and he stops looking back at you and waiting, so you step forward again and follow the magnificent creature as it leads you down the path deep into the forest.

You follow the Stag for what seems a very long distance.  You begin to worry that you will be lost in these woods but then the Stag disappears around a bend in the path and when you reach the spot, your heart pounding from the fear that you have lost your guide, you find yourself in a glade, the Stag indeed gone from sight. 

The ground is clear and smooth, a small brook flows along one side and there reclining beside the brook, playing with the flowing water with one hand, is a very strange looking man.

He is naked and his long brown hair is braided with vines and feathers and from his brow raises a graceful pair of antlers.

This is Cernunnos.  Green Man and Horned God.  Lord of the Forest, Lord of the Beasts.  The Wild God. 

He looks up at you and grins, his eyes sparkling with mischief and what seems like laughter.  He doesn’t speak but rises and you hear plainly in your head “Lets Run!”

 He runs, and you follow.  You find that despite what you would have expected you are able to run as fast as He.  Faster and easier than you ever have, leaping higher and with more power and grace than you have ever known. It is exhilarating and your heart beats and your blood rushes through your veins and your muscles move with a strength and agility you have only ever dreamt of.   You Run and run  until you finally lose sight of him and you stop running, not even a little out of breath and step forward into the glade and find him as you did before.

Drink from the brook, cool your brow if you wish, relax on the soft ground.  Spend as much time as you like with the God.

When you feel it is time to go, thank the God and take your leave of Him.  Follow the path back to the tower. The door stands open and you enter and descend the stair then pass through the Door to the place where you began.

So Mote it Be

I spent New Year’s Eve the way I do every year, doing magick and journeying all night to gain guidance from my Gods, Ancestors and Allies. I look back on the past year to remember the lessons and the moments of profound joy and the moments of understanding.  I seek to hear the voices of those who guide me to discover what they would have me do, where I should focus my attention and efforts. 

This year I am in the process of doing the work to accomplish my third degree initiation.  This year They have given me more than guidance, this year They have given me specific imperatives.  In every area of my life there are specific things that I must accomplish if I would follow ALL that they require of me.

I must be writing every day.  I must be actively crafting poetry and create at least one poem each month.  I must write at least one chapter of the novel and one short story each month. I must journal every day; I must post to the Journeys of the Runes and Stories from the Cauldron each month.  I must post to Exploring the Other Side of the Looking Glass each week and I must post to this blog for the Pagan Experience each week.  I must finish the book and submit it to a publisher before the year is out.  I must read my poetry in a public forum. 

I must find opportunities to connect with my local community.  I must engage in broader community and with family and friends each month.  I must begin to engage in opportunities to teach.  I must begin to read the Runes for others and improve my ability to communicate the things they tell me so that others may understand what they have to say to them. I must complete the first year of Shamanic training that I have committed to for the next two years.

I must spend time outdoors each week and I must journey each week.  I must continue my daily practice and adapt it when necessary.  I must visit the Sweat Lodge and make use of the opportunities that my astrological transits present to me to grow. I must complete my staff and I must strengthen my relationship with fire by learning new skills and engaging with the element directly.

I must care for my mundane life by being diligent in doing the things that are necessary.  By saving for retirement and keeping food in the house and seeing my chiropractor and getting a massage more often. 

There are many things that I have hoped to do over the past years, and some I have accomplished and some I have not.  But imperatives from those who guide me are not to be left to chance, they are vows of intent and naming them on this blog is the equivalent to stating intention in sacred space because for me this is sacred space.  And words said in sacred space hold power over us until they have come to pass.  I will accomplish those things my Gods, Ancestors and Allies have given to me to accomplish in this coming year by diligently applying myself to my commitments day by day.  So Mote it Be.

Ysbryd

I have lived in my tree-house for over three and a half years now.  When I first moved in, I cleansed my rooms, blessed them and cast protections. If those protections were not strong, they were sufficient for the magick that I was capable of at the time.  At that time my relationships with my Patrons were about as much protection as I needed, as my magick was not truly strong enough to draw attention from anyone with whom I did not have a strong relationship.

It took me one year and three moves to find my tree-house.  Since moving in, my home has supported me, comforted me and sheltered me.  It has kept me warm and safe.  It provides me with light and beauty and the quiet solitude that I find necessary to do my work.  It nurtures my life, my work, my heart and my soul.  It is the place I sleep, dream, write, make love, share tea with my friends and family and cast magick, worship my Gods, honor my Ancestors and my Allies.  It is the home I return to at the end of every day, and the place where my Pwca lives day in and day out.  It is that place of safety and strength from which I venture forth into this world and into the Otherworlds. 

During the past three years my magick has grow and at one point it became bright enough, strong enough to draw interest from “others”.  Pwca was reacting to the presence of other energy with a great deal of agitation, not a good thing in a familiar who is magickal and wild by nature.  So I decided that we needed to cast new protective spells in order to keep out what was disruptive to us and our peaceful cohabitation.  I included Pwca in the casting because he lives here and he has his own magick.

But something unexpected happened.  The spell was transformed.  It was made into something more elegant, lovelier.  Instead of simply providing protection, the magick lifts glamours and facilitates truth and healing.  This was not even in my thoughts although, my heart would have held these intentions had my mind thought of them.  I believe that it was the Spirit of the tree-house who affected the spells. 

Ysbryd is a Welsh word for spirit.  It is the name I use for the Spirit of my home.  I have been working to strengthen my relationship to Ysbryd.  I have a small altar on a corner of the kitchen counter where I make offerings of thanks and love to Ysbryd.  I greet her and light a small candle.  I burn incense and offer my thanks for all that she does for me and Pwca.  I place a small vase of flowers or a cup of tea and ask for her continued care and magick.  And I sing for her and then listen to hear what she might have to say to me.

I give thanks for Ysbryd and for her influence on my life and for her care of my beautiful home.                                                                                                                                            

Experiments

We are constantly changing.  When we are involved a process of spiritual evolution, our abilities and the ways in which we function, are constantly growing and shifting. 

In order to learn how to live with these new perimeters, we need to experiment.

We need to try new ways of doing things.  We need to test different ways of magick, of loving, of living, of being.  

Some of our experiments will teach us about what no longer works, some will teach us what might work and we may need to adjust our course along the way.  Partial successes, failures, false starts, miss-steps, course-corrections are part of the process.  Perfection is not a realistic goal.  We learn by trying and every time we attempt something new, or in a new way, we gain understanding through the experience. 

I am a fan of the scientific method.  I enjoy the experiments and the exploration.  I enjoy the creative effort of figuring out what works,  how I work.

The journey itself is the point.  The journey IS the magick.  

Water

Water is the element most essential to Life. 

Without Water the Earth itself would be unable to support life.  In fact the Earth is covered in the element, and our bodies are more water than any other thing. 

Water is the Ocean and the Tides and the Moon that moves them.

It is the waves and the currents and the depths where life continues unobserved.

It is the lake and the mist rising from the surface and the fog that clings to the open places between the woodlands and to the road we walk in the evening’s twilight.

It is the stream in the woods where birds and creatures gather to drink of its life-giving. And the rain that falls upon the fields.

It is the river always flowing to the sea, carving the earth and moving everything that stands before it.

It is the fluid in which all life gestates and which flows when each life begins, whether from womb or egg or chrysalis.

It is that which we use to wash our bodies and the dishes and the laundry and the floors and the windows.

It is the silver chalice upon the western altar and the Cauldron at the center of the Wheel and the blessed water used to purify, and the wine that we share in the name of the Goddess, and the Holy Well that heals us.

Water is the semen that carries the seed and that which flows to welcome it.

It is the sweat on our skin and the tears of our heart and the dreams in our sleep.

It is the grief and desire and joy that fill our lives and the love that powers our greatest magick.

Un-Reconciled

Magick is not an immediate thing.  Sometimes it works in ways that are completely sideways from what you expected.  Your intention may be clear, and it does work if you are not muddled in your intention but, it seldom actually happens the way you think it will.

And sometimes, especially when the magick involves changing the way you exist, the way you function, your internal structures, and the way your magick works, it can take a long time and it can be unsettling, ungraceful, and even painful.  But that does not mean that the magick is not working. 

I have been feeling un-reconciled.  The magick feels un-resolved.  That is because it is.  It is working itself out and that takes time.  It is difficult to be patient.  It is uncomfortable to be changing.  But the journey is where we learn the lessons.  The path is not the destination but, rather the experience  we gain along the way.

Transformation, evolution, is a flowing river, always moving and shifting and becoming.  Always un-reconciled.  I am learning to sit and walk and work and love and live in the current.  Blessed be.

Re-awakening

When I finally came to this path, or returned to it, and I do believe that this was always the path I was meant to follow, I was almost dead.  I think that is why I finally found the path.  I needed to, without it I was done for this life.

I had silenced and shadowed and suppressed every natural and wild instinct I had, every magickal impulse, every source or expression of power, every hope my heart and soul and mind and body and spirit had ever had of living.

I can finally see now, that through all of it, I kept trying.  I kept reaching and pushing and scratching and clawing, I kept trying through my childhood, through my adolescence, through my years of wandering the wasteland.  Then, I found a book, and in that book I found a glimpse of what my path should be, what my life could be, and I finally began to let myself live.

It has taken another twenty-one years to fully emerge from that half-life of sleepwalking.  Over that time I have slowly and painfully re-awakened much of myself.  Each of the parts of myself had to be remembered and revived.  Each of my chakras has had to be unlocked and brought out of a state of near-death.  I feel as though I am finally ready to begin. 

In attempting to see my whole self these past few weeks, I have discovered that the last part of me to awaken may be the most important, the most vital, the key to my strength and power. My sacral chakra is the one part of me that I have only recently begun to allow free expression and it is the place in my body that I most identify as myself, as “home”.

From my earliest memories, that part of me has never stopped striving to express itself, not to the world, but to myself.  In allowing my source uncensored freedom to express and explore and experience, I have discovered that life has more depth, more vibrancy, more energy, more color and sound.  Every sense I have, including my psychic senses, as well as my “sense of self” has been heightened.  I have more energy to engage with others, with my work, with my life, with my writing and with my magick.

Each of my chakras, each of my parts, must be healthy and whole, free to express and experience life, to do the work of living.  I cannot allow any of them to be silenced or shadowed if I am to complete my work. If I am to live the life I am meant to live.  I give thanks for dear friends who have helped me to awaken and become more fully alive.  Blessed be.

No Holding Back

This past Midsummer, my coven held the kind of ritual that makes magick that follows you home.  We were challenged to declare our beauty and our successes, our flaws and what we have left undone, and what we will do to continue that work.  We also challenged one another because; sometimes we see each other more clearly than we see ourselves. 

One of the wisest women I have ever met is an initiate of my coven and one of my greatest teachers.  Her challenge to me was “no holding back”.  That is indeed one of the principles that I have been striving to live by, not always successfully.  Lifelong habits are difficult to break.  It takes practice and diligence.

This past autumn I had the opportunity to fall in love, and indeed I did fall in love, with someone that I have loved and respected and trusted for quite some time.  This man is beautiful and brilliant and strong and compassionate and there is no reason in the universe that I should not have fallen in love with him, in fact it was quite inevitable I think.

Yet, instead of telling him, or showing him, instead of going to him and loving him the way my heart desired to, uncensored, without reservation, I held back.  I did not hold back out of fear, but gave myself rational and logical “reasons” and they matter not even a little bit because, I let the opportunity to love him go unrealized. 

What “reason” could possibly justify squandering the chance to show someone how you love them?  Even, or especially, if it was only a brief moment in time, would not every second that you could share with them be a priceless treasure not to be wasted?  Every moment we live is a chance to embrace our soul’s true calling.  What higher calling can there be, but to love others the way our hearts would dictate?

I let that chance pass by, I held back.  I cannot change that, life does not work that way.  But I will not continue to hold back.  Not my love, nor my magick, not my words, nor my power, not my desires, nor my purpose.  Not with my family, not with my friends, not with my beloveds nor with my community, nor with anyone else with whom I might fall in love.

I will live my life, no holding back, so mote it be.

Looking in the mirror

One of the tasks that have been put to me this month is, to finally turn around and look into the mirror and SEE who I am.  Not to look at my shadow but, at the entire truth of my Self.   That may sound like a simple thing but, a lifetime of habit can be a difficult thing to overcome.

I am not only my shadow. I have only recently become accustomed to standing in the light. That is not the same as looking at myself in the bright light of day and seeing who I am.  Glamours and veils not only hide who you are from those around you but, from yourself as well.  So the time has come to see myself as I am, without the distractions, without the veils and glamours, without the comfort of shadows.

I am a very strong person.  I am persistent and relentless and patient.  I am the warrior who sits beside the river until the bodies of his enemies float past him.  I am unyielding and adaptable and mutable like the river itself, constantly flowing along the path of least resistance, changing course but never relenting, finding every tiny crack and crevice to flow through, slowly and quietly eroding the earth that contains me but, always flowing to my destiny.

I have power and a need to communicate, a need to make an impact, to leave a mark upon the earth, upon my community, upon my world.  Not the impact of a meteor, not a simple round hole, no matter how big, but a line, curving and wandering, to show where I have been and the path that I have taken so that others may follow it when I am gone and find where it has led me, and continue it beyond the places I have journeyed to.

I have a purpose and the power to accomplish that purpose.  I have a path and a destiny.  I have an enduring strength that will not be controlled or contained. 

“The River she is flowing, flowing and growing, 

the River she is flowing, down to the Sea. 

Mother, carry me, your child I will always be, 

Mother, carry me, down to the Sea.”

just sitting by the fire...

This past weekend I attended a small Pagan festival with a group from my Tradition.  About forty of us went camping in Virginia with about eighty other Pagans (that we did not know before).  It was raining and sunny, warm and cold, quiet and noisy.  There was learning and teaching, rituals and cooking (and dish duty for those of us that do not cook), eating, drinking and not enough sleeping.  There was laughter and singing, grumbling and bitching, making new friends and visiting with community.  It was both wonderful and exhausting.

I spent a good deal of time just sitting by the fire.  Not the “Big Balefire” but the small campfire in the quiet space at the edge of our encampment.  This was the most profound experience that I engaged in this weekend.  Each time that I had to leave the fire, to go to bed or take a shower, to eat or wash dishes, to attend a class, or a ritual, or to pack up and travel home, I was at least a little reluctant to do so.

From my place beside the fire, I shared in community.  I witnessed family and long-time lovers, two young people making a new connection, and a very wet mother and her two small children warming themselves beside the fire of new friends.  I heard the alarm when the smallest went missing and the joy of her being found wandering unharmed down the road the way little ones will do.  I heard funny songs and told the story of a zombie war and the cauldron at the center of it.  

I sang a chant of my own making and sought to gain answers from the embers.  I asked questions and learned about things from others with knowledge I do not yet possess.  I shared tears with a coven-mate whose heart is amazingly open and full of love.  And, alone for a brief while, I practiced tending the fire (successfully to my great satisfaction).

I had been told over a year ago on a journey that I need to spend time just sitting by the fire, and tending to it.  It was time well spent and I give thanks for the fire and for community.

Joy

Sometimes, I think, we lose track of one of the most important aspects of our incarnate lives here on this Earth.  We lose track of one of the most fundamental and overriding purposes of our human experience.  We become so focused upon the working and struggling and suffering in this life that we forget the most valuable moments: those in which we experience JOY.

Because we do not live in a constant state of bliss, because moments of joy are fleeting, we forget that they are real and indeed the very essence of life.  Life itself is ephemeral (at least in the physical) and joy is a reflection of that transience.

But make no mistake, JOY is our purpose.  We live to experience those moments, those jewels of love, inspiration, creation and transformation.  Our lives are tapestries of many colors and many moments.  And here and there the sparkling gems of enchantment and joy are found within the pattern. 

Each of those moments is a treasure that teaches us the value of that which caused it.  The smell of the smoke from the sacred fire, the sound of a loved one’s laughter, the taste of chocolate or a sip of wine, the soft, warm touch of a lover’s hand, the forsythia blooming in the April Sun.  

The small everyday moments, and the big mountaintop moments, all of the moments we feel joy, no matter how fleeting, these are the moments that we are here to experience. 

This path we walk is one of joy.  The more often we can recognize it and pause to experience it, the more full of joy our lives will be.  And that is one of our most fundamental purposes, to live a life of joy. 

May your life be joyful.  Blessed be.

Fragile-Handle With Care

Humans are incredibly fragile creatures.  Just a moment of disruption in the development of the fetus can be the difference between life, or still-birth, or defect and dysfunction.  Just a few moments without enough oxygen can cause permanent brain damage or death. 

But even when the body and brain develop without traumatic injury, without physical disruption of any kind, the soul and the heart and the mind can incur damage that remains unseen to the casual observer.  Indeed these wounds can become infected and fester unacknowledged by the wounded, unrealized even by those who love them.

We can interact with others whose souls are damaged to the point of death and never know.  We can unwittingly contribute to the damage they have suffered, and because their own defenses are so fragile, one, small, unintentional unkindness could be the last assault that kills their souls beyond the possibility of healing.

We cannot know the state of another’s soul.  We cannot know whether the person we encounter in a chance moment of our mundane life is sick unto death.  We can only live each moment to the best of our ability. 

We can choose to live mindfully and consciously.  We can choose to live with kindness and generosity.  We can choose to handle our Earth, its creatures and our fellow human beings, and yes, even ourselves, with care.  We may never know if that small kindness is the moment when the damage ends and healing begins.  

Fire

Fire is dynamic and intangible.  Its effects can be measured, but it cannot be contained.  It can be extinguished, but not boxed or bottled.  Fire is not an object but, rather a state of becoming. 

Fire is transformation and change. It is destruction of form and release of energy.  It is heat and light and movement.

It is the wild-fire that rages and the lightning strike that sparks the flames, and the sunlight that causes life to grow anew.

It is the need-fire that provides warmth and preserves life, the torch that provides light that allows us to see and the hearth-fire that cooks sustenance for the tribe.

It is the campfire in the night, and the stars in the sky above, and the song of community shared.

Fire is the candle on the southern altar, and the sacred fire at the center of community.

Fire is the wand and the staff that act as conduits for the movement of energy and the energy we move through them and through ourselves.

Fire is the bright red flower in full bloom and the dawn turning to day and the noonday sun in the height of summer bringing the crops to fullness and fruition.

It is the firing of nerve synapses and the chemical reactions within every cell of the body.

Fire is the soul and the seat of desire, passion, will, drive, courage and righteous anger.  

It is the life force that fills the cauldron of warming, and the glowing ember in the cauldron of vocation that moves us to action and the fire in the head, that divine spark in the cauldron of wisdom that compels us to seek and explore that which cannot be found in the mundane existence of the sleepwalker.

Fire is the Phoenix rising from the ashes and the Dragon in the fearless flight of freedom.