Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 28
June 16, 2022
The Craft is for everyone
Excellent videos from Jason Mankey. The Craft is for everyone, and the central mystery of Wicca is love.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Jason Mankey (@the_silicon_valley_witch)
And also this (I’ve been saying that the central mystery of Wicca is love for years).
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Jason Mankey (@the_silicon_valley_witch)
The featured photo on this post is from Mat Auryn’s 2017 post, The Man, the Myt...
The Gods know their own (and are not transphobic)
If a person I have known and loved before were trans (or intersex or non-binary or something else) I would honour that.
I would initiate them with a Priest or Priestess or all of us together or whatever the fuck worked to generate the dynamic interplay of energy needed.
I would invoke upon them the Goddess or the God and trust that the Gods know their own and would come.
I would kiss them as a sibling and hold them and call them by Priest, Priestes...
June 6, 2022
Review of Queer Qabala by Enfys J Book
Incredibly clear, beautifully written explanation of the Hermetic Qabala and its inherent queerness, expressed in the idea that there are three pillars (force, balance, and form), and that the Divine includes all genders and sexualities.
The book is written with style and wit by an expert in the subject. There are path-workings to help you fully experience all aspects of the Qabala, and journal exercises to deepen your understanding of the worlds, spheres, and pathways of the Tree of Lif...
May 26, 2022
Censing vs smudging
What’s in a name? What do you call it when you are blessing your ritual space with fragrant smoke?Indigenous people have repeatedly requested that non-Indigenous people not use sage bundles for incense or refer to it as smudging / smudge.
There are many other plants that we can use (sage is getting over harvested due to the demand) and the name of the practice is censing.
Palo Santo is also getting over-harvested, please use something other than that, too.
I have never referred ...
May 23, 2022
“how come we were never taught this in our schools?”
The oppressors never teach their children
About the oppressed, or their suffering.
Instead they claim that they brought technology,
Civilization, religion, as gifts
To the colonized, the marginalized,
The brutalized and the enslaved people.
You have to learn to look between the lines
At the imperfect feet of the statues,
And the nakedness of half-truths and lies.
Stolen land, stolen lives, streams of language
Dammed, diverted, stopped. Whole cultures broken
Into scattered fragments, gathering dust
In museum...
May 17, 2022
Lily minds
If we saw the brain
As an elaborately folded flower
Containing thought bees
Nestling among the petals
Searching for nectar
We might think of the soul
As the roots of that flower
Drawing nutrients from the river mud.
Inspired by the phrase “lily-minds” in Elegies by Kathleen Ossip.
Photo by Wim de Graaf. Public Domain
May 2, 2022
The singing will never be done
Once, you could hear
Sheep munching grass
Half a mile away.
Now the soundscape
Is full of mechanical sounds:
Auditory assault.
We have lost the music of the world:
Birdsong, animal sounds
The wind in the trees.
Birds have to sing louder
To be heard over the sound of cars.
Whale song is interrupted by ships.
The singing will never be done,
But no one can hear it when
we have lost the music of the world.
Yvonne Aburrow
8:19 am, 2 May 2022
Inspired by the phrase “the singing will never b...
May 1, 2022
The Sun came up
It was May Morning this morning and all the Morris dancing made the Sun come up.
But wouldn’t it have come up anyway, I hear you ask.
For the answer to that question, Terry Pratchett had an answer, in The Hogfather, where the sun will not rise unless the Hogfather rides safely home.
“WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN’T SAVED HIM?”
“Yes! The sun would have risen just the same, yes?”
“NO.”
“Oh, come on. You can’t expect me to believe that. It’s an astronomical fact.”
“THE SUN WOULD NOT...
April 30, 2022
Books I read in April 2022
Another exciting tale of magical creatures, with lots of thoughts about conservation and wildlife.
India: one man’s personal journey round the continent, Sanjeev BhaskarThe fact that Sanjeev Bhaskar is part of the Indian Diaspora and visited India as a child gives him a really good perspective on India, as both insider and outsider. He also writes in a very engaging way, so this book is easy to read. The TV series it was writt...
April 29, 2022
“into the twilight woods”
Twilight. Betwixt. Liminal.
The setting sun
Making an archway
Through the trees
A window to infinity.
Things half-seen
In the mazy places.
Not sure where this path goes.
Maybe through, or within.
Some hollow place.
The half-light transforms
Known into unknown.
The woods drift between.
Trees asleep,
Nocturnal animals stirring.
Shadows gather.
Time stretches out,
Ready to pounce.
One star. Night’s eye.
Colours drain away.
Everything waits
For moonrise,
To flood the woods
With silver.
Yvonne Aburrow
8:1...
