Samhain’s Ancient Grandmother
One Samhain That Samhain we sat in the third floor Aerie. That Samhain we sat on the floor in the dark. That Samhain we sat with a row of candles and lanterns marking a pathway. That Samhain we sat smelling the sweet incense. Between those lights, we sat on the floor in the dark and […]
Prayers for the Dead: All Souls
Blending in with the spirits, monsters, and long-legged beasties that go bump in the night. Carving turnips and later, pumpkins, into Jack O’Lanterns. Honoring the dead who move through the Veil between the worlds. Calling the names of the saints. Praying to our own Dead. There is a lot going on over the next few […]
Are We Grieving? (thoughts on some poetry)
There are two poems for fall that I love best. One, “Ode to the West Wind,” I’ve written about in Reflections. The other is by Gerard Manley Hopkins, one of my all-time favorite poems. (Check out “Pied Beauty” for sheer glory of words.) The Hopkins is called “Spring and Fall,” and has the dedication, “to […]
Why Care for the Ancestors?
Why should we care about who came before us, those we knew, those we didn’t, and those who are lost to memory? Why do we care for our ancestors? It isn’t so we can save them. It isn’t so we can absolve them of their complexities, their transgressions against us and oppression of others. It […]
In It Together with Our Mighty Dead
“Ancestors, O Ancestors—reach me, teach me, bless me through…Ancestors, O Ancestors—reach me, teach me, bless me through…Ancestors, O Ancestors—reach me, teach me, bless me through.” You don’t need a séance to learn from your ancestors. And who are our ancestors, anyway? Those beings some call our “Beloved Dead,” or as I say, our “Mighty Dead.” […]
Ancestors: Who Made Us?
My family is full of stories of those who have gone before us, those from whose lives I come, those who—as someone in a Facebook group of mine said—made me. Those who made me. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, thinking of ourselves as being more than OUR OWN selves. Yet there are so many ways in […]
What Do the Dead Leave Behind?
Today, August 18, is the anniversary of the death of my father, John Dawson Carl Buck. This post is in his honor, the king of my Mighty Dead. And today, I also honor my grandmother, Ann Elizabeth Dawson Torrey. I honor my grandmother Florence Antonia Finder Birmingham. I offer all who came before them whose […]
I Speak Their Names
Any list of ancestors is incomplete. We are all one another’s ancestors. We are all creating the world they created and the world they left us. It is also we ourselves whom they have created left to this life and so we are among their greatest gifts. They continue, as we will continue, forever and […]