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.”
All you need to make magic...
“The tools are unimportant; we have all we need to make magic: our bodies, our breath, our voices, each other.”
We had a small family full moon ritual last night and incorporated a simple gratitude ritual into it. The sky was overcast so we couldn't actually see the moon, but my four-year-old daughter wanted to get out glow sticks left over from Halloween. We had SO much fun dancing around with them and making patterns in the dark night! We sang a chant I recently made up:
Hallowed evening
Hallowed night
We dance in the shadows
We offer our light.
We then did a simple gratitude practice by placing corn kernels in a jar, one for each thing we are grateful for from the past month. We started out slowly and taking turns and then we sped up and the gratitude offerings came tumbling out, over one another. Even the one-year-old added corn, rapidly yet with great concentration to make it actually go in the jar. We drummed and called out, "We are ALIVE! We are GRATEFUL! We are POWERFUL! We are CREATIVE!" When we finally decided to close our ritual and go back inside, the moon peeked out from behind the clouds to briefly say hello and it felt like a blessing on the magic we'd just created together.
As we went back inside, I felt relaxed, happy, and connected. For being something very simple, not particularly pre-planned, and semi-chaotic, it felt like one of our deepest and most connected personal family rituals. The quote above from Starhawk floated back into my mind and I reflected that when I try "too hard" to get things ready for a perfect ritual, I often end up feeling a little disappointed. Things might not work out as I envision or my kids might be as cooperative as I hope and it often takes longer than I expect. While I do enjoy getting some ambiance set up with candles, an altar, a mandala, or a fire, running outside with our glow sticks and spinning around together under the cloudy sky was more than enough to create a sense of magic.
I then stayed up too late coloring mandalas with my daughter from our new free goddess greeting card set. I've only recently discovered the magic of sparkly gel pens. Such delight!
Source for corn ritual: Some Quick Thanksgiving Magic - Jess Carlson- Another great offering from Jess, a free gratitude journal: End the Year with Gratitude! - Jess Carlson
- A full moon ritual outline: Creative Ceremony Academy: Simple Family Full Moon Ritual - Brigid's Grove
- A gratitude ritual outline: Autumn Bounty Ritual Recipe (Fall Equinox Ceremony for Families) - Brigid's Grove
- New moon calendar offering: Free Calamoondala Class with Womanrunes Book Purchase
- Come Join the Circle! - Brigid's Grove
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