Wild Woman Rising

Wk 3- August 17: Deity and the Divine – This will be the third week’s topic every month and an opportunity for you to share with everyone those who guide, inspire and inform you. Tell us about your favorite Deity of Learning or Harvest this week!

I spent last week with a tribe of wild women at Women's Wilderness Workshop 2015. This event is a four day gathering of women, a transformative and joyous adventure in learning, and a deep retreat in nature. Our teachings focus on skills to bring one closer to the Earth, skills to both survive and thrive on your earthwalk, including things like hide tanning, fire making, basketry, harvesting animals, herbal medicine, Yoga, belly dance, and spiritual tools.

Each day, I rose at dawn to teach a Yoga class, then taught my Meditative Archery in the afternoon. In the evenings, I helped to lead our ceremonies in the moon lodge and around the fire. In my (*cough cough*) spare time, I revelled in our beautiful community and learned new things for myself. It was a busy, full week that I am still unpacking mentally and emotionally.

Together, we built a sacred wild woman sculpture, a kudzu goddess. She was a bit taller than a person, with a wood and kudzu frame, a head covered with burlap, flowers for eyes, and ah, what was the word...she was anatomically vivacious. She was complete, I hear, with aureoli, a yoni and luscious buttocks. I didn't check underneath her sarong, but I trust in the sisters who constructed her. We all contributed something to her being, whether it was a borrowed piece of finery, a birch branch, a trailing garland of kudzu, or a clothespin infused with our essence.

Our Sacred Wild Woman presided over our ceremony by the fire on our closing night, the New Moon in August, the Healing Moon, the Harvest Moon. We called out to the five sacred things - air, fire, water, earth and spirit. We drummed, danced and sang. We did many a thing not to be spoken of outside the circle. It was a beautiful and sacred occasion, to me made all the sweeter by the collaboration of the musicians, facilitators and our lovely celebrants.

Several people said afterwards that the Wild Woman loomed over us during the ritual, seemingly ten feet
tall. Dear friends, you and I know that Goddess entered our sculpture. We chose to call her "wild woman" because the gathering included women of many faiths. That doesn't matter; it is true that she personified the archetype of wild woman. Regardless, She is what She is, no matter what name by which She is known. Whether Goddess enters a living priestess or a sculpture like this one, She stands tall, filled with power that crackles like summer lightning, lifting the hair on the back of our necks. And so it was.

There is so much more to say about this gathering, of tremendous vulnerability and strength, power and curiosity, creativity and healing, community and compassion...so many beautiful things, moments, people. But I find it hard to write about; perhaps it is just something that must be experienced.

One more thing I will discuss: this event and others like it are important. It is valuable for those who are just beginning to see another way of living. It is valuable for Pagans who struggle with their connection to the natural world - of these, I have met so many; but that is a story for another day. It is valuable for women who struggle with their identity as women. It is valuable for women who struggle with their relationship to other women. It is valuable for those who have knowledge to share. It is valuable for those who are searching. It is valuable for us all in some way.

One of our sisters, a woman of color who lives in an urban area, spoke of her struggle to find her place in this community. She is not particularly outdoorsy, does not teach survival skills...she wondered if she belongs with us, why she is drawn to this community. She asked us to share why this event is important to each of us, so that she could better understand her own place within it.

My answer is this: our world is at a crisis point. We are on the brink of ecological disaster and possibly a financial collapse of unprecedented scale. Maybe. Or perhaps we are not, but it is certainly true that things are dire in many respects. People speak of political change, of laws and regulations. It is true that governments need to take action.

But I am starting to see another truth. We need cultural regeneration, especially in my home country, the USA, but in many, many parts of the world as well. Without a change in our collective consciousness, a shift in the zeitgeist of our age, mere regulations will not fix the problems that we face today. We must realize our place as citizens of the global ecosystem, and as stewards tasked with its preservation. We must rise above the use of force to settle our disagreements. We must heal ourselves of our greed and selfishness. We must work together to create global change.

With all love and respect for men, I believe that this cultural healing may need to come from women. Are we not the keepers of life? Are we not the preservers of beauty and culture in times of natural disaster and war? How else can we heal from the wounds of patriarchy? Who better to bring forth something new?

So we begin with healing the relationships between women. We continue the work of our mothers and grandmothers. They stand behind us as we reclaim our connection with Mother Earth, with Gaia, with Pachamama, with Goddess, and by doing so, we reclaim our power. We heal ourselves, and by doing so, we heal womankind as a whole.

Each woman that is healed becomes whole, and she can birth a new life who will stand on her shoulders to take the work further. As creators of life, women must lead the way as we heal our families, our communities, our tribes, our nations...our world.

What do you think? Have I flown off into flights of feminist fancy? It seems strange to me that I would now be writing such a post. For most of my adult life, I have not identified with the feminist movement.

Instead, I have called myself a humanist. I have thought that our task is to stop focusing on gender and start focusing on becoming the best human beings that we can be. Age and experience have taught me that this is naive. We are not past feminism yet. Not while human trafficking still exists. Not while women are treated as chattel by religious extremists. Not while men are oppressed by their gender roles. Not while animals are treated as objects. Not while we exploit our natural resources, our sacred home, the Earth. No, patriarchy is still in place, and it harms all of us - all genders, all sexual orientations.

Here in the US, the foundations of patriarchy are wobbling. We have a black president who, while a product of our flawed political system, is making historic changes. A man who fights for the equality of all. A president who, in this twilight of his final term, seems to give no fucks at all about his many naysayers. A man who is charging ahead, making every effort he can with the power that remains to him.

The cultural backlash is severe at this time. I have said many times that the cultural war has been won, and this agitation we now see is the result of the old guard making a last ditch effort to turn the tide. Let it be so. Let their hysterical cries of fear and hatred die with them. Let the oligarchy die with them as well. Now more than ever, we need democracy. We need change, and we need something new.

At the end of our magical conference, our convocation of wild women, we did not burn our kudzu queen, our Sacred Wild Woman, our vegetative Goddess. No, some said that our ancestresses who died by fire precluded this idea. Instead, we reverently removed her finery. We dismantled her body, and we returned her to Mother Earth. We put her to rest in the bed of kudzu from which she came...until next year.

One thing is certain. It is time for all wild women to rise. Cast off your fetters and rise, women of Earth! Come back to the Goddess, if only by reclaiming your own sacred power. Heal your relationships with your sisters. Rise and spread the teachings to others. Rise and pay honor to wild men in partnership and mutual respect. Rise and heal the Earth.

RISE, WILD WOMEN!

This week, Wild Woman is my favorite deity of learning, of harvest. So much of the spiritual work that I have done in the last five years has led up to the beautiful harvest brought in at this gathering. It was transformative for me on a personal and professional level. I am happy to call myself a wild woman and a priestess, in the old sense of the word. I hope to help many other women find their own wild woman within in the years to come. I have found my tribe. My Clan grows stronger with each passing Moon. I will howl at the moon, sing to the stars and always, always listen to the wisdom of the Earth. I am rising. Join me, sisters!

So mote it be. 

And so it is!

30 Days of Deity Devotion: Day 12

Places associated with this deity and their worship.

In the trees, my body is free

In the forest, I know my power

Away from the walls of men, my heart is free

In the wild air, my mind grows sharp

In the tree tops, my spirit flies

On the mountain, She is with me

I can see the trail in front of me

I am wild, eternally.

-Tanaria, copyright 12/10/2014

Keeping the Faith: Carrying the Flame of Hope in Uncertain Times

I've just read Rewilding Witchcraft, an article posted by Scarlet Imprint. It's a powerful piece about the health of our planet and how that impacts witchcraft, and it has me all roiled up. This post is my response, so it won't fully make sense unless you read the article.

I reject despair. I reject the notion that witchcraft is broken, fading or failing. I reject the notion that our rituals must be a lament for a dying Earth. This article is full of such pain, and for that, the author has my sympathy.

I agree, Earth is at a crisis point. Human beings have had an unimaginably huge impact on the ecosystem. We are beginning to see all sorts of changes as a result. I have been angry and upset about this situation for as long as I can remember. By middle school, I was known as "The Crusader". I circulated endless petitions and spoke passionately to anyone who would listen about the need for environmental restoration and conservation.

But I also found that activism is largely pointless in terms of creating policy change. The US government is inextricably linked with corporate interests. By and large, those corporations are interested in just one thing: making money, at any and all costs to the human population and to our environment. They just don't care that people wave signs. They won't care until the last drop of oil is extracted, and the environmental ruin comes to the gate of their compounds. Or until the group of people demonstrating becomes the majority instead of a vocal minority. Even then, I wouldn't rule out military law.

I don't say this to disparage friends and colleagues who choose to engage in this way. I respect their commitment and their valiant efforts. But I also know that I can't do it anymore. I have an inflated sense of justice, and when I spend my energy in this way, I descend into anger, hatred and despair. That means that I can't do my work. I can't lift others up or open their minds, especially in my environmental education work, with this sorrow eating away at my heart.

I also agree that witchcraft needs to regain its wild roots. That is exactly the work I want to do in the coven I am forming. We need to get out of our living rooms and onto the land. This is no time for esoteric, cerebral ritual. This is a time to get our fingernails dirty, our hair wind snarled and our faces glowing with the kiss of the sun. We need to connect with the spirits of this place, not just give a generic "thanks to the Earth". Ritual thanking plants and animals is hollow if we don't know those plants and animals personally.

But there too…that is my path. It may not be the path for all, and as a fiercely independent person, I can't ethically say that others should do what I do. Not everyone can, for starters. Some of the most powerful spiritual experiences I have had have been on mountaintops or in remote wilderness. Places one can only get to with a lot of physical effort and a minimum of physical impediment. It is not for me to say that other experiences are less valuable, less witchy, less anything. I don't believe that they are, and I resent any implication to that effect.

The article feels disjointed, as if the author is trying to jam disparate concepts together. The land is suffering, yes. But that doesn't mean that witchcraft is broken, or that our spirituality must become something ugly to reflect the pain of the Earth. Nor does every witch bear the responsibility of activism in order to justify their faith. The author seems to be calling for a revolution in witchcraft. A re-imagining of the craft as some some of zombie movie-esque apocalyptic funeral mass. But it also sounds like that is the path of this author. Which is fine. He or she is angry. He or she is full of despair and sadness. Express that. Do as you will. But don't for a second believe you have the right to dismiss the faith of the rest of us.

I refuse to stop honoring the land on which I live. I refuse to stop singing to the Cape Fear River which flows near my home. Are the land and the river impacted by industrialism? Surely. Most of the land here has been cash cropped for generations, producing mostly tobacco and cotton. I have no doubt that the methods used have exhausted the soil and contributed to erosion. The Cape Fear River has been the center of controversy lately because of Duke Power's coal ash contamination.

But must I wail in lament? Must I hold a funerary mass for my dying home? I say no. The Earth is not dying. She will correct Herself, and that may involve exterminating humanity in the long run. But She has been here for untold eons and will remain for eons to come. The Earth as Mother Gaia does not despair. The plants and animals as the Horned Lord simply keep growing. Keep striving for existence. Plants grow up through the cracks of untended cement. The forest returns to barren meadows every chance it gets. Foxes adapt and live in cities. Life never gives up.

This author may do what he or she likes. As for me, I will sing. I will dance. I will celebrate the beauty that still surrounds me. I will live in as ecologically friendly a manner as I can. I will educate others about humanity's true place in the world - a member of the global ecosystem, not as the master of it. I will get wild, be poetic and will never give up hope.

For as long as one person carries the flame of hope, humanity and our capacity for faith, beauty and reverence will never die.

So mote it be!