Goddess Centered Practice

In the woods behind my house rest a collection of nine large flat rocks. Daily, I walk down to these “priestess rocks” for some sacred time alone to pray, meditate, consider, and be. Often, while in this space, I open my mouth and poetry comes out. I’ve come to see this experience as "theapoetics"—experiencing the Goddess through direct “revelation,” framed in language. As Stanley Hopper originally described in the 1970’s, it is possible to “…replace theology, the rationalistic interpretation of belief, with theopoetics, finding God[dess] through poetry and fiction, which neither wither before modern science nor conflict with the complexity of what we know now to be the self.” Theapoetics might also be described, “as a means of engaging language and perception in such a way that one enters into a radical relation with the divine, the other, and the creation in which all occurs.”

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Molly

Molly

Molly Remer, MSW, D.Min, is a priestess, teacher, mystic, and poet facilitating sacred circles, seasonal rituals, and family ceremonies in central Missouri. Molly and her husband Mark co-create Story Goddesses at Brigid’s Grove (brigidsgrove.etsy.com). Molly is the author of ten books, including Walking with Persephone, Whole and Holy, Womanrunes, the Goddess Devotional, and 365 Days of Goddess. She is the creator of the devotional experience #30DaysofGoddess and she loves savoring small magic and everyday enchantment.

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Here you are,
in-dependence
with all things.
The land is threaded
with rivers
that connect your body and blood
to the sea.
There is salt both on your skin
and in the distant waves,
and there is lightning
slicing from rain-thick clouds
behind the vultures coasting over the mesa.
The wind
against your face,
the same air that carries the
monarch butterfly
to desert milkweed,
that lifts the ravens’ wings
over the ruins of
the Hohokam,
that has kissed
the cheek of a thousand
generations.
The earth is made
of days
beyond count
and roots beyond question.
The fire in your belly
is that which whirls worlds into being.
There is iron in your blood,
iron at the planet’s core,
iron in the stars,
iron in beak of hawk
and eye of crow,
and iron in the red rocks
beneath your feet.
This air you breathe is
river woven,
lightning laced,
tear salted,
iron eyed,
earth kissed,
raven winged.
Wait,
let this breath expand
your chest
and know:
here you are,
today,
in-dependence
with all things.

Happy In-Dependence Day! May we each remember that our well-being is interwoven with the well-being of every strand in the web.


I wrote this poem on the 4th of July last year while traveling in the desert. A video reading version of it is available here.

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Today, I gathered five candles,
some sea salt
in a small dark cauldron,
a lighter in a starry brass holder,
a rattle made of gourd,
a singing bowl,
a crow's feather,
and my determination.
I watched the candles flare
and called in inspiration,
for the faith to keep on going
in a world that too often
feels crumpled with despair.
I planted my feet,
reached out my hands,
and lifted my voice,
believing with everything
I have left
that no matter how many stories
have been told to us
about brokenness,
we're here anyway
still whole.

This past weekend I held a small summer solstice retreat with six friends. It was supposed to be larger, but people kept cancelling. It was supposed to be at the river, but risky heat indexes put us inside. It was supposed to be cooler inside, but the AC went out and we were relegated to the basement. And, it was perfect. It was just what I (and we) needed. Something that I remembered after the retreat was over was of the importance of paying attention to how you feel after something is over. Let those moments teach you.

I've been thinking and writing recently about reorienting our lives by joy and steering away from obligation. How we feel after something is over can tell us a lot about whether we are steering our lives by joy or obligation.

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  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Molly, So profound and relevant. Don't we all need to find that balance to live our best lives? Your verse is beautiful. I pray,

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It is now that the hydrangeas b2ap3_thumbnail_meditation-goddess-with-raspberries.jpg

are in bloom, 

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  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Molly, Great stuff as always! Your words bring back so many memories of summers past. The hydrangeas and milkweed aren't quite
  • Molly
    Molly says #
    Thank you! Curiously, there are actually no watermelons growing nearby either so we don't understand what it is that we actually s

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We may wonder 

what there is to celebrate, 

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"When she arrived at her building, she noticed a beam of silvery light shining down on the front stoop. Even after all those years, the moon still knew where she lived."

--Elizabeth A. Gould (The Well of Truth)

The Well of Truth is a creative synthesis of novel with metaphor plus myth, allegory, symbolism, and archetypal experiences of truth. I’ve never read another book quite like it—it blends the fictional story of a woman’s life with larger mythical understanding and lessons and reads more like a “teaching” than like strictly fiction.

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  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Molly, The book sounds really cool!
  • Molly
    Molly says #
    It was quite interesting!

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I stood beneath
the eclipsing moon,
the sound of whippoorwills
a chorus
rising from damp trees.
Thin white clouds
scudded around fresh stars
and I recited
the Charge of the Goddess,
slowly and alone,
remembering as I always do
the feel of sand beneath my feet
and my baby’s head
against my heart
when I first memorized
these words,
“let your divine innermost self
be enfolded in the rapture
of the infinite.”
The sky that day was gray bowl
above the sea,
spitting rain onto my shoulders
as I turned in wide circles
across the sand,
letting the words
become a part of my soul,
sink into me,
until my bones remembered
them too.
Now, I stand,
hand on my heart
and say aloud:
“Goddess, we need a world
that does not hide you
and that does not hide from you.
Let me be a part
of creating this world.”
I feel her,
as I do,
both beneath my skin
and everywhere,
all at once
and I allow myself to be
enfolded for these
breaths in the rapture
of the infinite,
the full moon
becoming enclosed
in the shadow of the earth.

b2ap3_thumbnail_orange-ooak-muse-with-sunset.jpg

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  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Molly, Thanks for sharing! Great stuff as always.

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There is a red-winged blackbird
with only one foot
that comes to our bird feeder.
It balances precariously,
small stump churning the air,
as it selects its seeds.
There are flowers
on the mulberry trees
and bees in the raspberries
and we saw three
monarch butterflies
in the field
and watched an oriole
who hit the window
manage to fly again.
There is a pair of cardinals
who visit the bird feeder too,
they sit together
with their shoulders touching
and sometimes tenderly
choosing seeds and putting them
into one another's beaks
reminding me of how
I watched my great uncle's hand
softly caress
my great aunt’s back
one afternoon
at the park in the rain.
Twenty-seven years ago today,
I went on a first date
with the man I married.
It was a last first date
for both of us
and here we are now,
watching those two cardinals
feed each other seeds,
knowing how they feel.
These things
give me hope.

b2ap3_thumbnail_pink-meditation-goddess-in-the-tulips-in-Virginia.jpg

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  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Molly, That's beautiful. It would have been perfect inside your anniversary card for your husband! (If you do cards...we do.) An
  • Molly
    Molly says #
    Thank you! And, yes, I do think it might have some magical powers!
  • Deborah Quartz
    Deborah Quartz says #
    Beautiful powerful words this poem holds for me, evoking my own long lost memories, and recent pleasures too. A few days ago I wa
  • Molly
    Molly says #
    Aww! Thank you for sharing.

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