The first myths were passed orally, from generation to generation, and visually, painted onto cave walls. Prehistoric myths conveyed essential ancestral guidance for surviving hunter-gatherer lifestyles that followed the seasonal migrations of animal herds and wild vegetal food sources. Fascination with life’s processes of birth, death, and reincarnation – the Great Mysteries – developed into primary mythic themes. These stories...
“Loss and grief are initiations into a changed landscape, reminding us that everything is passing. By dying before we die, we are able to accept this fact and embrace this amazing chance we have to be alive.” (Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow, 2015, p. 124) I have been thrice initiated into the Mystery of Death through the losses of...
I began praying the rosary daily with the Way of the Rose at the beginning of 2020, just two months before the start of the pandemic. When I discovered the practice in January I had no idea that an experimental spiritual pastime would very soon become a lifeline. In March I found myself at home alone indefinitely with my baby...
As we experience acute climate crisis and face cascading species collapse, have you imagined your own extinction? The annihilation of your language, culture, kin…and species? Here is my imaginal wander in Neolithic Europe at the moment of the Indo-European “Kurgan Horde” invasions which, according to eminent feminist archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, destroyed the prehistoric culture of the goddess and instituted patriarchal...
Tucson sprawls from west to east. Stripes of asphalt spill from a black basalt mountain marked ‘Alpha.’ The city derives its name from the Pueblo Indian earth epithet, Ts-iuk-shan, the gate of western hills that the sun departs through each evening. An urban concrete grid is superimposed over a wild, deadly garden which brims with fierce flora that evolved for self-defense...
Joyful Mystery of the Devoted Masculine Sitting in a sacred grove, under the Tree of Life, the Maiden Mary conceives of the Holy Spirit. Joseph of Nazareth weds Mary to shield her from the brutal force of the empire that would otherwise see an unmarried, pregnant maiden stoned to death. Joseph midwifes as Mary labors and he catches her son in his...
There are several festivals in November which lead us in a procession deep into the Sacred Dark. Following the folly of Halloween, then All Saints’ and Souls’ Days, I celebrate Samhain season for the entire month of November. If you overlay Christian and Pagan festival calendars a number of coincidences will be revealed. Dr. Georgi Mishev, scholar of Bulgarian and...
Joyful Mysteries In the beginning there was Chaos – the void – the gaping vulva of primordial darkness. From the expectant womb of creation, matter and ether separated with a great orgasmic shudder and sigh. Gaia – the Earth – was born into form. “[Her] body is the body of the world, and your body is one with that body.” Gaia’s was...
Christian legends tell us that in the 4th century, St. Catherine, daughter of the Governor of Alexandria, was a beautiful, learned, and privileged girl who was martyred for her Christian faith at the age of 18. Digging below the surface, we find that her story mirrors that of the 4th century philosopher, Hypatia. Yet another layer reveals, through the original...