clover

     Well hello!  What a glorious day, weatherwise, after that rainstorm!  A bit windy, she says while wind is actively blowing the small herb pots over – oh thank you Clover!  Wonderfully helpful – yes please, just in the side area, out of the wind – up against the big planters should hold them!

     Well, come in, come in, have a seat – oh yes, just nudge the cat off the chair, she’ll find somewhere else – and help yourself to cherries – pits in the bowl, if you please!

     Gracious, what a week it was, last week.  I mean, not that good things didn’t happen – and we really can’t forget that – but the bad things were exceptionally heavy.

     I did try, you know.  I tried very hard.  There were offerings.  There was dancing.  But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

     Last week, there was an election.

     Now, it wasn’t a very big, whole-country election, but neither was it a little Mayoral deal.  It was a Big Enough election, enough that the end result would matter rather a lot to the lives of people, under certain circumstances, and so, in self-defense if nothing else, I did try to, shall we say, give light to the future I would rather have.

     So it occurred to me that I ought to work with the cow-goddesses on this – not just because the most grounded and compassionate of the candidates had a name that was practically an anagram for ‘Hathor’ – but because I figured that if I could bring in a province-wide feeling of abundance and nurturing, people might not be so swayed by the candidate who was working from a mindset of scarcity and closed-mindedness.

     That candidate is real bad news, and the extra bad news is, he won.  But I’ll come to that.

     So I started with Hathor – cow-goddess of beauty, music, love, she who sets the sun in the sky every day on her horns, and who takes it back down on her horns at the end of the day, to carry it safely in her womb overnight until the next day.  (I asked her if she knew the scarab, the one who pushes the sun across the sky, and she laughed, “Yes.”).  With her, Bat, and also Iset (whose better-known name I am reluctant to type in these turbulent times), also a wearer of the sun-disc set in cow-horns, my mischievous, magical big sister Iset. 

     Then Hera / Juno – it’s June, so it’s her month – also cow-goddesses. 

     And Audhumla, the great cow in the Ancient Norse creation stories.  And the runes Fehu (cattle) and Uruz (Aurochs), the tame and the wild.

     I also went a bit of a research quest to find what music cows like, and thereby discovered the incredible art of Kulning, ancient cattle-calling originating in Sweden (you may want to peek at the videos of Jonna Jinton for some exquisitely numinous examples).

     I know there are many, many more cow-goddesses out there, but in the interest of time, I worked with these ones I knew.

     Hathor told me, when I finally approached her directly, that she had already been working on it, so there was that.  And she helped me shapeshift into a cow form briefly, in the NOR, to feel that great groundedness, that presence, that solid connection to Earth.

     So the night before, I gathered clover as offering, and visualized the entire province rich and abundant with plenty of clover, and I sang and danced, dancing the setting the sun into the sky, dancing the taking the sun down to carry in my womb, dancing the setting of the sun back into the sky again.

     After, Hathor said, “I liked your dance.”

     On the day itself I really immersed myself in a cow-magic-flow state – I wore a cow tail in the NOR – I visualized and gave light to the visualization of the future I wanted to have manifest, trying to let the less desirable future option fall by the wayside – I mean, if you focus on the monsters, you become anchored by them – you are looking at them and cannot move forward – whereas if you focus on the future you want, the monsters should fall by the wayside.

     Yes, of course I also voted.

     Sadly though, it was to no avail, and another monster was added to the already growing number of monsters being put into positions of power all over the world.

     I suppose in that I didn’t spend the lead-up worrying about that outcome, I was at least spared that stress on the way.

     But that, plus the news of the suicide death of one of the dearest, most kind-hearted and adventurous personalities in the world the following morning, made for a very, very sad beginning to that Friday.

     I was so sad that I almost didn’t go to the sound-session that night – but I did, and I’m very glad I did – also focusing on Hathor, I was reminded of the power of the light that shouts from us all. 

     And I remembered the dance, and how that helps us even now – because as the world grows darker, it is even more important for those of us who can to protect the light in our womb-space – protecting, nourishing, nurturing, singing to, dancing with, and carrying the light through these darkening times, letting the glow of it shine through for whoever is still able to see it – until we can set our suns in the sky once more.

     And I found myself thinking about the monsters, and the people who serve them, and before I realized what I was doing, I found myself typing the following:

     At a certain point, Evil must be allowed to build its Tower.  When it reaches that point, no one can stop it anyway, so we may as well say it is allowed, though of course we must by our very natures continue to fight it, and that's the trick, see - this will speed its building, so it is in the best interest of all to keep fighting it, even while it is being built - in fact, if you see it is being built, that is your cue to fight it harder than ever.  The Tower must be built high, so high that collapse is inevitable (because Evil always destroys itself, which is one of the few built-in good things about it), but in such a way that it looks not only strong but powerful and defiant, so that it attracts as much Evil as possible to join with it, to give to the building of it and to move themselves into it.  The Evil must all cluster close together, cramming itself wholeheartedly into the Tower, feverishly building it higher and higher and higher, so that when it falls, and it will fall, it takes as much Evil as possible with it, so that it takes years and years and years to dig itself free of the rubble, and when it does, it is scattered, disoriented, in tiny, hateful little pieces that will have to work for years and years and years more to get their strength back and return to any kind of power.

     This is how we seal it.  It seals itself.

     We only have to hope we live long enough to see it happen again.

     If only this fall could be permanent!  But like the old stories, Evil may be sealed for a thousand years, but always something happens to free it, and then we must work to seal it again.

     Meantime, protect the Light, nourish and nurture it.  Keep it safe, keep it remembered.

     It’s been a few more days now.  Of course the birds sing as they always have, the trees are thick with leaves and make that wonderful hushing sound I love so much when the wind blows through their branches.  There is so much beauty to focus on, even while the horrors carry on out there, monstrous acts by the monsters in power that people feel powerless to stop.  But as I said earlier, it is important to remember that good things do happen.

     The world needs hope right now. 

     Oh, poor dear one, I am sorry to have been so bleak tonight!  Please look around you, look at all the good things around you, the people and animals and other lives you love, the beauty of Nature, the little joys in every day.  This is all still there!  And you can always find the Radiance, everything is the Radiance, even the air!  Even you!  So let us not despair, as tempting and as overpowering the urge is to do so lately.  Instead, dance, create, spend time focusing on your loved ones, on loved activities.

     Here, here is the thing I wrote after we first had word that the monster was going to be in the running – it applies now more than ever:

     Right - to start with - as Caroline Casey says, "Persistence is better than Resistance". We can overwhelm the venom by shining harder, filling the world with our magic, whatever our best magic is. The bad stuff will still be there, but it will be lost in the good stuff. This scary stuff will make you gasp and want to shut down, hide your shine - don't! We need all our shining now more than ever.

     Turn off the news, turn away from the stuff that is being blared out endlessly that is meant to make you crazy but that really TRULY doesn't affect you, especially the stuff you can't do anything about. You'll know what you need to know if you need to know it. Focus on your family and friends, your pets, your loved ones, the things that nourish you and bring you joy. Go for walks in Nature. Listen to birds. Cook and bake. Sing and dance. CREATE.

     We can do this. Let's do this. Shine and shine and if something scares you, shine HARDER. You can shine BIGGER than the scary thing. And if you start to feel like you can't, find someone you can shine together with and for SURE you can.

     I KNOW we can.

     And here is Clover with a little bag for extra cherries for you to take home with you – enjoy enjoy!  Oh don’t worry, we have more than enough!  And thank you, Clover!

     Please be safe on the way home – it is gusty, even though the temperature is mild.  And watch out for downed trees!

     Take care!  Goodnight goodnight!