I was pleased to share this poem, which has a lot of meaning for me. Persephone is the Goddess of the turning wheel of planetary life; for she is both the Spring Maiden who brings the rebirth of the world at the spring equinox, and she is also the fearsome Queen of Death, who rules for part of the year in the underworld with Hades. She is the ever changing Goddess of liminality.
magically from water air the soil from water earth air earth water air light earth and sunlight
sunlight vibrating waves shimmering grasses in the sun
........Felicia Miller*
Saying Farewell
Pink Ladies say "Hello"
"Then what is the answer?— Not to be deluded by dreams. To know that great civilizations have broken down into violence, and their tyrants come, many times. To keep one’s own integrity, and not wish for evil and not be duped by dreams of universal justice or happiness. Those dreams will not be fulfilled. To know this, and yet know that however ugly the parts appear the whole remains beautiful.
Integrity is wholeness, beauty is Organic wholeness
Love that, not man apart from that"
Not Man Apart - Robinson Jeffers
*My friend Felicia passed away in 2010 - she was a mermaid never entirely easy on land. Robinson Jeffers spent much of his life wandering the Big Sur coastline of California. I always think of them both when I visit the coast, feeling perhaps their spirits leaving footprints in the sand still.
"Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans" Allen Saunders
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“The truth is all of life is a grand, blooming ambiguity"
James Hollis: WHAT MATTERS MOST: Living a More Considered Life
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"Coyote is an anarchist. She can confuse all civilized ideas simply by trotting through. And she always fools the pompous. Just when your ideas begin to get all nicely arranged and squared off, she messes them up. Things are never going to be neat, that's one thing you can count on. Coyote walks through all our minds. Obviously, we need a trickster, a creator who made the world all wrong. We need the idea of a God who makes mistakes, gets into trouble, and who is identified with a scruffy little animal."
Ursula Leguin, "Coming Back From the Silence"
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I do think Ursula Leguin has it entirely right. A great deal, if not most, of the human experience has to do with the human hubris (I do like that word, which rhymes with nothing I can think of) that makes us think we can somehow "control" things. Actually, all the things that mostly count it seems to me we can't "control". Rather, the Gods or Goddesses or Fates or perhaps most of all Coyote/Trickster enjoy creating the necessary chaos of uncertainty.
Yellow Dog
Coyote howls a midnight serenade
to the desert tonight,
Her chorus answers, noisy as all hell.
She brays down a tale about the frayed moon,
a prairie dog’s misfortune,
old dancing bones,
and all my carefully conceived plans.
Coyote is running tonight
between the splintered shutters
of my house of doors,
laughing through every tattered crevice
in all my certainties.
That yellow dog
Is a real pain
(1996)
“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent,
intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.”
"I experienced contact with something or someone sentient and much greater than my individual self. I had experienced contact, even momentary communion, with the "essence" of what could be called a transpersonal presence. Afterwards I was told by the local shaman or caretaker that I had met with the guardian spirit of the place.....Pilgrim Martin Gray described a (similar) unification experience he had while attending a Shinto religious festival."
Having seen recently a film recently about the mysterious elemental beings of Japanese folklore I found myself remembering my own fascination with the "Numina", the presence of place I have often felt in special places. Or even in not so special places as well.
In light of climate change, and the loss of species happening every day, I personally think that developing "mythic mind" and opening a "conversation with place" is important. ................and thinking about the numinous, intelligent, living sense of "presence" I have experienced so many times in nature, and in particular in power places. I have a book (which I greatly value and have on display) by Martin Gray, who spent some twenty years of his life visiting sacred places around the world as an international pilgrim. ( I take the liberty of sharing below an article from his amazing book, SACRED EARTH.**)
I myself have experienced things "paranormal" at places of power, inexplicable experiences that include heightened energy, dowsing rods that go crazy or "helicopter", orbs, strange photographs, dreams, visions, and other phenomena. Some of those places, if I pause to consider, influenced me to make changes in my life that were significant.
"The Lady of Avalon" (artist unknown)
the Tor
When I climbed the Tor in Glastonbury, I remember that all my photos were oddly infused with violet light.....which is the color associated with the Lady of Avalon, the "Numina" or Genus Loci of Glastonbury. My camera hasn't taken "purple photos" before or since.
I remember when I was living with with my former husband in upstate New York in the 90's. Where we lived was a rural area rapidly being built up with industry. One of the mysterious places in the area, to me at least, was a field I used to visit. To get to that field, which bordered our property, one had to go through a kind of obstacle course - you crossed an old stone wall, immediately ran into a rusted barbed wire fence, and then tramped through a barrier of poison ivy, grape vines and small trees.
Braving all of this, a beautiful field appeared. Bordered on all sides by trees, you could stand there in the tall grass, or the snow, and see nothing of the warehouses or homes nearby. It felt, oddly, as if it was somehow protected, as if you entered a special, quiet, mysterious place. The land had obviously once been worked, but it had been left fallow for many years, and in the center of the field, if you looked, was a "fairy circle". Small trees, bushes, even tall grasses formed a surprisingly visible circle. With my divining rods, I found there was a ley crossing in that exact spot - the rod "helicoptered" and whirled.
We were actively involved in Earth based spiritual practices, and my ex facilitated an enthusiastic men's group. One night when the moon was full the group, energized by drumming, decided to visit the field. There was snow on the ground, and as the young men strode to the stone wall, something pushed two of them into the snow! Being young, they got up and chose to go forward again - and something pushed both of them backwards once more! They fell on their behinds in the snow! This was apparently enough moonlit strangeness for everyone, and the group turned around and went home. The next day, we took offerings to the edge of the field. I remember placing crystals and flowers on a stone, and as I did, I felt such an overwhelming sense of sorrow that tears ran down my face. I believe I was feeling the sorrow of the guardian spirit of that place. It was a very intense feeling, and sadly, a year later there was an oil spill in a nearby truck depot, and the wetlands that bordered "the Field" suffered tremendous ecological damage, and a big tree we associated with our "Green Man" died. I don't know what the "meaning" of this experience was, except that I and my former husband experienced communion with an intelligence of nature that belonged to that special place. Perhaps it was the "Guardian" of that place? The Numina that cared for it, the spirit that sensed the advance of industry that would destroy the beauty and ecological balance that was there? I can't know, I only remember what I recount in this story.
Sages and seers from antiquity have repeatedly remarked that the dimension we see with our physical eyes is not the only dimension of existence. Many other realms exist and within them a variety of beings, spirits, energies and entities. Traditional peoples the world over have spoken of the existence of these presences, calling them such names as elves, gnomes, leprechauns, devas, fairies, genies and ghosts.
Since time immemorial humans have sought contact with these unseen forces. Shamanic practitioners communicate with the spirits of animals, ancestors and the plant world. Psychics, clairvoyants and mediums conduct séances to speak with entities from nonvisible realms. Religious mystics affirm the presence of angels, deities and other heavenly beings. Whatever we choose to call these entities, and however we attempt to explain them, it is certain that something mysterious is happening in dimensions other than those perceptible by our normal senses of sight, hearing, touch and smell.
These mysterious presences seem to be especially concentrated at the power places and sacred sites. In some holy places, particularly those of remote forest and desert tribes, these unseen presences are the sole focus of ritual activities. No Christian church or Buddhist temple will be found there, only a small shrine indicating the abode of some nature spirit. In the world's more celebrated pilgrimage shrines, these presences receive less acknowledgment than the primary religious deities. While the presence of the unseen forces usually long precedes the arrival of the historical religion that now maintains the pilgrimage shrine, those forces are frequently denied, dismissed, demonized or given only marginal importance. In the temples of Burma where we find great monuments to the Buddhist faith surrounded by small shrines dedicated to a host of pre-Buddhist spirits called Nats. In the Christian churches of Europe, Britain and Ireland flow springs long ago dedicated to pagan earth goddesses. And in the courtyards of enormous south Indian temples stand numerous small shrines housing various spirits called yakshas, nagas and asuras.
These unseen forces may affect pilgrims without their having any knowledge of the forces, or they may purposely be summoned to appear by the performance of ritual actions and invocations. Traditional rituals practiced at many shrines are potent, time-honored methods for invoking various spirit forces. Such methods are not the only way to summon the mysterious powers. Focused mental intention is an effective method of invocation, and prayer and meditation are the tools of spirit communication.
It is beneficial to first learn something about the nature or character of the spirit entities that inhabit a sacred site. Reading guidebooks concerning the mythology and archaeology of the site or questioning shrine administrators and priests are good approaches. The unseen forces will be described in terms such as spirits, devas or angels. These terms are simply metaphors for the actual character or personality of the forces. These terms also serve as metaphorical representations indicating how the forces will psychologically and physiologically affect human beings. Next, carefully consider the character of the unseen forces dwelling at a sacred site - this important point should not be lightly dismissed. Those forces may have either beneficial or disturbing effects on different people. Invocation of unseen forces at sacred sites is a powerful practice. It is important to exercise caution lest unwanted forces be admitted into an individual's personal energy field. Martin Gray
The Chalice Well, Glastonbury
"There is an earth-based energy available to human beings, concentrated at specific places all across the planet, which catalyzes and increases this eco-spiritual consciousness. These specific places are the sacred sites discussed and illustrated on this web site. Before their prehistoric human use, before their usurpation by different religions, these sites were simply places of power. They continue to radiate their powers, which anyone may access by visiting the sacred sites. No rituals are necessary, no practice of a particular religion, no belief in a certain philosophy; all that is needed is for an individual human to visit a power site and simply be present. As the flavor of herbal tea will steep into warm water, so also will the essence of these power places enter into one’s heart and mind and soul. As each of us awakens to a fuller knowing of the universality of life, we in turn further empower the global field of eco-spiritual consciousness. That is the deeper meaning and purpose of these magical holy places: they are source points of the power of spiritual illumination." Martin Gray
** Sacred Earth is written and photographed by Martin Gray and is the culmination of twenty-five years of travel to hundreds of sacred sites in more than one hundred countries. Gray’s stunning photographs and fascinating text provide unique insight into why these powerful holy places are the most venerated and visited sites on the entire planet. Maps adapted from the National Geographic Society show the locations of all the sites presented, and a thorough appendix includes a comprehensive list of over 500 of the world’s sacred sites. The book can be purchased from the author on his website: www.sacredsites.com
I first heard this poem spoken on Jennifer Berezon's 2005 DVD PRAISES F"OR THE WORLD, which I bought after seeing her perform it in 2008 at the Kripalu Institute in Massachusetts, where I was privileged to teach a workshop. Dellinger read as part of an amazing ritual performance in Oakland, California that featured Jennifer Berezon, Drew Delinger, Alice Walker, Gloria Steinem, Joanna Macy, and many others, all within the container of Jennifer's exquisite devotional song. At the end, all voices rose to join her in its praise.
Mr. Dellinger's poem, recited at the performance, has haunted me ever since, especially after I wore the DVD out by playing it, and Ms. Berezon's music, over and over again. So here is a link to a UTube video in which he recites it live, and I invite anyone reading this to as well to the music of Jennifer Berezon as well. For my own pleasure, I copy the poem below, and I also have copied the only video I could find on UTube of that extraordinary gathering in Oakland.
let’s meet at the confluence where you flow into me and one breath swirls between our lungs
let’s meet at the confluence where you flow into me and one breath swirls between our lungs
for one instant to dwell in the presence of the galaxies for one instant to live in the truth of the heart the poet says this entire traveling cosmos is “the secret One slowly growing a body”
two eagles are mating— clasping each other’s claws and turning cartwheels in the sky grasses are blooming grandfathers dying consciousness blinking on and off all of this is happening at once all of this, vibrating into existence out of nothingness
every particle foaming into existence transcribing the ineffable
arising and passing away arising and passing away 23 trillion times per second— when Buddha saw that, he smiled
16 million tons of rain are falling every second on the planet an ocean perpetually falling and every drop is your body every motion, every feather, every thought is your body time is your body, and the infinite curled inside like invisible rainbows folded into light
every word of every tongue is love telling a story to her own ears
let our lives be incense burning like a hymn to the sacred body of the universe my religion is rain my religion is stone my religion reveals itself to me in sweaty epiphanies
every leaf, every river, every animal, your body every creature trapped in the gears of corporate nightmares every species made extinct was once your body
10 million people are dreaming that they’re flying junipers and violets are blossoming stars exploding and being born god is having déjà vu I am one elaborate crush we cry petals as the void is singing
you are the dark that holds the stars in intimate distance
that spun the whirling, whirling, world into existence
let’s meet at the confluence where you flow into me and one breath swirls between our lungs
All artwork and text unless otherwise specified is COPYRIGHT Lauren Raine 2024
A Dog in Dürer’s Etching “The Knight, Death and the Devil”
by Marco Denevi (1966), translated by Alberto Manguel
A brilliant, haunting response to the famous etching by Albrecht Durer. I first heard it read back in 1988, and was pleased to remember it, and to actually find at least one reading on UTube.
What is so extraordinary about this short story is that it is composed as one long sentence, that runs, like the stream of the writer's mind, as if he himself was riding along in the procession of the knight and his horse. And a dog. As if the thoughts of the observing writer clip clop along, imagining and intersecting with the thoughts of the knight himself, who is returning weary and changed to what was once his home, his youth, and his dreams from many years of war.
"THE KNIGHT (AS WE all know) is back from the war, the Seven Years’ War, the Thirty Years’ War, the War of the Roses, the War of the Three Henrys, a dynastic or religious war, or a gallant war, in the Palatinate, in the Netherlands, in Bohemia, no matter where, no matter when, all wars are fragments of a single war, all wars make up the nameless war, simply the war, the War, so that although the knight returns from travelling through a fragment of the war, it is as if he had journeyed through all wars and all the war, because all wars, even if they seem different when seen from close to, seen from a distance
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