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February on the wane. Snow lies deep, but underneath, the rich earth waits.
It's a month yet until Equinox and calendar Spring: still plenty of time to stoke up the oven and savor the dark, warming foods of Winter.
Think of it as sympathetic magic. The lentils' pebbly texture and loamy, over-seasoned umami pair beautifully with the mashed potatoes' creamy blandness.
Beneath the snow, the rich, dark earth awaits.
Boss Warlock's 'Spring's a-Comin', But She Ain't Here Yet' Lentil Shepherd's Pie
One of the things about spirituality is that without some effort, it can become a bit…navel-gazing.
It’s not a failing, nor anyone’s fault. What we do through our religious paths helps us to grow, heal, and cultivate joy, all of which are internal things. They help us to build community, too, which adds to happiness and contentment in life.
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There are lots of ways to connect with the people of ancient cultures. They were ordinary humans just like us, so they cooked food and used cosmetics and celebrated the changing seasons.
They also had jobs. Yep, they Did Stuff every day just like we do. What kinds of occupations did the Minoans have?
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Lo, the fair beauty of earth,
from the depth of the winter arising...
On the island of Syros, the goat-men are dancing.
Achilles Among the Women
Syros, in the Aegean Sea, is perhaps best-known as the place where—in an attempt to avert his predicted, premature death in the Trojan War—the mother of Achilles hid her adolescent son, dressed as a girl, among the female companions of the king's daughter.
The ruse, though, was uncovered by the wily Odysseus, who—knowing full well that the Greeks would need the heroic efforts of the “best of Achaians,” whatever the cost—had laid out an array of mirrors and jewelry, with a lone sword among the display, as gifts for the women of the court.
Just then, an alarm was raised, as if the island were being attacked. Achilles threw off his veil, seized the sword, and rushed out to meet the supposed attackers. So his true nature was revealed, and his fate sealed.
But already the womb of the king's daughter had kindled, and so was born Neoptolemos, only-begotten son of godlike Achilles.
A Modern Dionysia
This week marks the third and final week of Apókries, Greek Carnival, a folk-festival that, while tied to the ecclesiastical calendar, has never—for obvious reasons—been fully countenanced by the Orthodox Church. As elsewhere, the celebration is characterized by immoderate eating and drinking, disguises, and public parades.
These days, secular Greeks tend to associate the wine-fueled festival with the god Dionysos, whose Greater Dionysia were also, in Classical times, celebrated in the Spring.
(I would hasten to add that, while there is no known historical connection between the ancient and modern festivals, one could certainly argue for a certain continuity of spirit between the two.)
But in Syros, it would seem, Aprokries is given to another god—or rather, goddess—altogether.
“In the Lust of the Goat is the Glory of God”
Rocky Syros is an island of goats.
During the last week of Carnival, the young men of the island, masked in kid-skins, don furry black goat-herds' coats and goat-bells, and go out, wooden crooks in hand, to dance raucously in the streets.
The more vigorously that they dance, the louder the clatter of the goat-bells that they wear.
Being in the world to see it,
is the best way to learn
its secrets and stories.
Walking with a poet’s eyes,
a dreamer’s mind,
and a witch’s heart,
is the best way to
fully inhabit
the story of your own life
as it is being written
right now.
Choosing to see
the magic
that is at work,
right now
exactly where you are,
is a radical and revolutionary act
of re-enchanting the world.
In a Place of Wild Ginseng
In the language of the ancestors, a gore was a wedge-shaped area of land—the word originally meant a spearhead—bounded on two sides by other features. (You may recall that the Gore of Lothlórien was bounded by two converging rivers.) The Gore of Sweetwood is defined by two coulees (ravines), and wild ginseng grows there.
There, on the delta-shaped Ginseng Gore, with stones from the surrounding coulees, we will raise the Mother Cairn. In the earth beneath it will stand, facing the point, a terracotta image of the Mother herself, her holy delta lovingly modeled.
There will we lay the ashes of the dead.
A cairn is the ultimate in democratic architecture: anyone can add to it. So, through the years, the Mother Cairn will grow, like a pregnant belly, as more stones and ashes are added; it will be for us a place of memory, and rebirth.
Just as the first humans sensed that stones contained energy and special properties, so too they found that metals boasted energies that had tremendous influence and power. Metals used to be very commonplace in magic, but their popularity has lessened within the last 500 years, after alchemists began to turn into scientists.
Magical Metallurgy has rebounded a bit and plays a definite role in gem magic. The simplest way to employ magic metals is to place a copper penny in your pocket or carry a pouch containing a horseshoe nail for luck. Mystical metals—from bewitching bronze to supernatural silver—can add a whole dimension to gem magic in your life.
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