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.”
I Keep Vigil to the Fire in My Heart
One Imbolc, former pagan blogger Teo Bishop wrote about creating community poetry for use in liturgy based on the starting line, "I keep vigil to the fire in my heart." As someone who frequently experiences spontaneous poetry in the sacred spot in the woods behind my house, an experience I refer to as theapoetics, I was instantly captivated by this idea. Imbolc has a natural connection to the cycles of pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding and the fire in my own heart burns brightly for these pivotal life experiences. So, I went down to the woods, opened my mouth and this is what emerged…
I keep vigil
to the fire
in my heart.
I keep vigil
to the women
of the world
women’s voices
women’s stories
women’s lives
I keep vigil for the birthing women of the planet
whether she gives birth
at 5 weeks, 12 weeks,
15 weeks, 20 weeks
or 42 weeks
I keep vigil for the women
who pull their sweet, warm, slippery babies
up to grateful hearts and breasts following birth
and I keep vigil for the women
who let tiny bodies slip through their own
never to take a breath of life.
I keep vigil to the midwives
and the women who serve each other
I keep vigil for the mothers who laugh
and the mothers who cry
the mothers who sing
and the mothers who moan
the mothers who need
and the mother who give
the mothers who triumph
and the mothers who “fail”
I keep vigil for the mothers
who try again
I keep vigil
for the mothers of the world
I keep vigil
for the women of the world
I keep vigil
to the fire
in my heart.
What comes to your mind when you think about keeping vigil? This Imbolc, what fire in your heart are you tending? What burns brightly in your spirit? To what are you keeping vigil?
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I feel a special connection to Imbolc and this time during the Wheel of the Year since it is also the anniversary of Brigid's Grove, my sculpture and goddess jewelry company. In celebration, a new handout on "how to draw a calamoondala" will go out to e-newsletter subscribers in early February (free Womanrunes e-kit and newsletter sign-up is available on our site).
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