The Lovers: Sexuality and Spirituality
“Passion and expression are not really separable. Passion comes to birth in that powerful impetus of the mind which also brings language into existence. So soon as passion goes beyond instinct and becomes truly itself, it tends to self-description, either in order to justify or intensify itself being, or else simply in order to keep […]
Beauty and Reverence at Christmas
9:00 pm 24 December 1989 I am sixteen. It is my last year of high school. I am dressed in my Christmas best. Velvet. Or perhaps black and silver satin. I fix my hair—asymmetrical, in accordance with the year. 10:15 pm We pull into the driveway of Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic Parish. Between […]
The Ethic of Commitment and the Magic Cord
Since I wrote about the omphalos, the navel of the world, in my last entry, something else has occurred to me. It is part of a teaching from the Wicca 101 class I offer, much of which comes from Stone Circle Wicca. The first tool I teach is not the athame, wand, cup, dish or […]
Where Do the People Come From?
Axis mundi. Omphalos. Strange words to our English-hearing ears. Each expression means, in its own way, the Center of the Universe. The Axis Mundi might be the World Tree in any of a number of myths. The Omphalos, or Navel of the World, might be anywhere that is held most sacred, anywhere said to be […]
The Warm Renewal of Retreat
What do the words “spiritual retreat” conjure for you? For me, they bring up all kinds of experience. The phrase reminds me of silent retreat where I only spoke when I met with a spiritual guide once per day and spent the rest of the time reading, making art, swimming, and walking the grounds of […]
UU Minister and Wiccan Priestess: Initiations
I am being ordained into the Unitarian Universalist ministry on April 19 of this year. If all goes well, the congregation of All Souls Church Unitarian in Washington, DC will confer ordination upon me, and many people will come from many parts of the United States (and possibly beyond) to witness and join in the […]
Yemaya and the Ancestors
Yemaya Assesu, Assesu Yemaya Yemaya Olodo, Olodo Yemaya. That’s a song I know—one tiny sliver of knowledge pertaining to the great orisha, Yemaya, the lady of the sea, “she whose descendants are as numerous as the fish.” Today, 7 September, is one of her feast days (as well, I have just learned, as International Goddess […]
Are You At a Crossroads?
The event was Four Quarters Drum and Splash, a veritable feast of dancing, drumming, singing, and swimming, all over the US Independence Day weekend. I don’t remember the year, but it’s some time ago now. Ten years? Twelve? A long time ago. The ritual team had talked for a long time about this ceremony, main […]
The Beauty of the Stones: Part Two
My feet may yet be wanderin’ But my heart has found a home In the Center of Four Quarters In a Ring of Standing Stone. “The Center of Four Quarters” So what is the benefit of raising a Stone Circle in the middle of southern central Pennsylvania? For twenty years, hundreds of people have come […]
Altars, Altars Everywhere!
I am looking at the rickety wooden table to the left of my desk. It was given to me by Maria, my first lover, then roommate, then ex-roommate, now reconnected friend. Maria gave me this small, wooden table she painted sky blue. She gave it to me to be an altar, a place to center […]