Wildfires Scorch Three States: It’s Like Nothing I’ve Seen Before
Colorado Wildfires: 3,2000 Flee Their Homes.
Colorado Wildfires Signal One of State’s Worst Seasons Ever.
Torrential Rains Cause Flooding, Damage in Florida Panhandle.
Biblical Flooding in Progress Near Tallahassee, Florida.
Florida Flooding Causes Millions in Damage.
Fire Rules: Energy, spirit, heat, flame, blood, sap, life, will, healing and destroying, purification, bonfires, hearthfires, candle flames, sun, deserts, volcanoes, eruptions, explosions.
~ Starhawk in The Spiral Dance: Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (20th Anniversary Ed.)
Water Rules: Emotions, feelings, love, courage, daring, sorrow, the ocean, the tides, lakes, pools, streams, and rivers, springs and wells, intuition, the unconscious mind, the womb, generation, fertility.
Id.
I came home last night to see a glorious waxing Half-Moon hanging in the Western sky. The Half-Moon represents a time of balance between the promise of the New Moon and the Fulfillment of the Full Moon. I sat in my garden, full just now of flowers — daisies and white day lilies, Queen Anne’s lace and silvery sage — that are especially lovely in the moonlight, and meditated upon balance.
When Witches cast a circle, we strive for balance among the Elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.
And, yet, it certainly seems that Mama Gaia is out of balance.
Too much fire in some places, too much water in others. Record-breaking heat waves covering much of the country, even though it’s only June. My own watershed is technically in drought, but, when we do get rain, it comes in a deluge and brings with it winds that rip the roofs off of buildings. Editors are running out of adjectives; floods are now “biblical,” and fires are “unlike anything ever seen.” And, beyond the irreparable loss of huge forests, liminal wetlands, precious plants, and endangered wildlife, there’s a huge amount of property damage and even loss of human life. A dear Sister who does mental health work in disaster-struck communities has been educating me about how the emotional damage caused by these “natural” disasters lingers for years after the actual event.
As a Witch I grieve and I try to hold Mama Gaia in my heart and rock her as she burns with fever and sweats and cries and rages with too much rain. As a magic-worker, I send healing energy to the affected landbases and watersheds and hope for renewal. I call to Brigid, Hestia, Pele, and Stata Mater to protect Colorado. I call to Chalchiuhtlicue, Vellamo, and the Nix to protect Florida. I burn incense and I make other offerings.
As a citizen of Planet Earth, I am outraged. For years, every single suggestion for controlling our out-of-control population, for decreasing, via conservation, the amount of carbon-based fuel that we use, and for substituting less-polluting forms of energy for coal and oil has been fought tooth-and-nail as “too expensive.” Every day I read a round-up of energy-related news and every day I see corporations and Republicans (but, then, I repeat myself) and, sadly, even Democrats, insisting that moving to renewable energy will “kill jobs,” (it wouldn’t; it would create them) or would make it “too expensive to do business in our state,” as if the expense of re-building after a flood or wildfire were negligible.
And, so, my magic does not stop at meditating on balance, grieving with Mama Gaia in her death throes, or sending healing energy to the mountains and the swamps.
My magic includes my vote. My magic includes protests, and letters to my representatives, and speaking up for the environment whenever I can. My magic includes my decision to have only one child. My magic includes my rain barrel, and my hybrid car, and my decision to not run the air conditioner. My magic includes my efforts to buy food and other products from local merchants.
Yes, I do understand, as Derrick Jensen so eloquently says, that we can not consume our way out of this problem. But I can recognize the first rule of healing which is: Do No Harm. It’s significantly close to the Wiccan Rede: “An’ it harm none, Do what ye will.”
Tonight, I will sit at my stone altar and breathe, and center, and ground. Tonight, I will send all the energy that I can send to Mama Gaia. Tonight, I will conserve all of the energy that I can conserve. Tonight, I will write a letter to my representatives, on paper that I have blessed, with ink that I have spelled, under the waxing Moon which adds increased energy. Tonight, I will move what magic my old, broken body can move in order to help re-balance the circle.
hecatedemeter 
I spent time at my altar tonight and outside under the sharpish Moon. I thought of my rain barrels and how I must water my garden in the morning early and water it deeply. I thought of Florida and of Colorado Springs, where I visited friends long ago. Too much, too far. That’s what I think, in my worst moments–it has gone too far and we will perish in smoke. We have done too much and our near-worthless “leaders” have neither courage nor vision. Like Jensen, I am without hope. But I come here into your garden, my sister-witch, and I think there may be a little magic left in these old girls yet. In Hecate, in Byron, in racked old Gaia. Like you, I loosened my throwing arm and sent forth some spells, into the dark and holy night. Some South to Florida, some West to Colorado. And some North, inside the Beltway.
Byron, I love you.
Pingback: I See the Moon « myvillagewitch
Ditto.
It’s heartening to know there are witches working on climate change, writing letters to their elected officials, protesting in the streets.
Reblogged this on The Darkness in the Light.
“I try to hold Mama Gaia in my heart and rock her as she burns with fever and sweats and cries and rages with too much rain”
This is such a powerful image and one I think more people could benefit from. This is an essential frame for the 21st century. Thank you.
Very powerful – I’m stunned to tears and pushed to action. Thank you for reminding me of hope.