Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 30

Missing Witches

I was on the Missing Witches podcast recently. It’s a new and original format for a podcast: more like a structured group chat, ably facilitated by the lovely hosts.

Among other things, we discussed the subject of the book I’m currently writing, Changing Paths, which is about changing from one spiritual path to another. I was also really pleased with the circle opening that I did for this episode.

You can catch the episode at Missing Witches.

That different fulcrum

What is the fulcrum of your life?
Do you keep it in that drawer of odds and ends
Near the sink? Or the basket of mismatched wool and thread
That sits neglected under the bed?
Does that old key still have a matching lock?
What about the oddments sitting quiescent
In the basement, gathering dust?
Are any of these the key to your dreams?
The one lever that would make you turn
And view your life from a new angle,
Or lift the carpet that hides the stain on the floor?
What is that different fulcrum,
That would tu...

A shiver of light

Was it the light, or a shadow?
A mirage quivering,
Something half seen
On the edge of sight.
The echo of love
In the folds of quietness.

The light in all things
Trembling in the wind.
That moment when everything
Is illuminated from within,
And you can hear it singing.

Yvonne Aburrow
11:49 am, 17 April 2022

Inspired by the phrase “a shiver of light” in Dear One Absent This Long While by LISA OLSTEIN

Sunlight through fog, by Scott

Dear faces

In the candlelight,

faces and bodies are rosy, softly lit.

Love springs from gesture and sound.

The repetition of familiar words

So we know we’re on holy ground.

We walk together

into known and unknown

Steering our vessel

by the winds of the unseen

Sharing our journey within.

Yvonne Aburrow

10:15 am, 15 April 2022

(About the experience of a Wiccan circle)

Inspired by the sentence “Dear faces like a multitude of moons hang over the table” in The Seder’s Orde...

My childhood river

The weeds waving:
Green hair of river nymphs.
Clumps of reeds,
The heads of dreaming giants.
Clear water flowing,
A world of mystery.
Under the willow trees,
A hidden realm, where time runs differently.

Yvonne Aburrow
13 April, 2022. 8:12 am

(about the rivers Itchen and Test in Hampshire)

The River Test (CC-BY-SA, Soil.net)

Inspired by the phrase “childhood river” in:
Meditation at Lagunitas

Books I read in March 2022

This month I have read 100% books by women. Hurrah! Octavia Butler, Victoria Raschke, Patti Callahan Henry, A S Byatt, and Cornelia Funke.

The Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler

This book is amazing and also disturbing. It was written in 1993, and is set in 2024 when society has started breaking down because of climate change. Society in the book is worse than the current state of things, but I can still see how we could get there from where we are now. Some of the things are already...

Trans Day of Visibility

Today is International Trans Day of Visibility.

It’s more important than ever that everyone stands with trans and nonbinary people, as there’s a concerted campaign to erase us from existence.

36 US states are bringing forward legislation to prevent life-saving access to trans-affirming care, prevent trans kids from competing in sports teams that match their gender, criminalize anyone who helps trans kids get access to care such as beta-blockers (harmless and reversible). It also preve...

Call for contributions – Changing Paths

Have you changed from one religion to another, or from a religion to none? Did the process take a long time or was it a sudden change?

I am writing a book to support people through the process of changing paths (leaving a religion, joining Paganism, or changing paths within Paganism).

I am looking for contributions of around 1500-3000 words from people who have joined a Pagan tradition from elsewhere, or left a Pagan tradition for another path.

I am especially interested in people who...

Books I read in February 2022

As February is Black History Month in North America, I was very pleased to get hold of a copy of Black and British, which I had been wanting to read for ages. I also got Once upon a Wardrobe as I enjoyed the author’s previous book.

Black and British: a forgotten history by David Olusoga

This is an excellent overview of how African people became entangled in the history of Britain. The earliest Black people in Britain lived there during the Roman occupation. There were Black Tudors. Th...

Resist the truckers

Thoughts on the trucker convoys and how things got to this.

Liberal democracy (such as it is) rests on the social contract: that the governed consent to be governed, and the government will do right by them and take care of their needs. It often fails in practice but that’s the ideal.

What has happened over the last few decades of “neo-liberalism” (where the liberalism is applied only to the freedom of markets) is that the social contract has been broken over and over again. Individual...