Archive for the ‘Ritual’ Category
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
I wrote this piece shortly after Victor Anderson’s death, in October 2001. I am reprinting it here because Victor’s name came up in conversation with a friend this morning, and I realized that I want the story of my experience at his memorial to be available to readers here as well. Things just hadn’t been [...]
Tags: Feri, Macha NightMare, Reclaiming, Victor Anderson
Posted in General, Ritual, Spirit | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
How did that happen? How has it been seven years since we started doing a Silent Poetry Reading for the Goddess Brigid (patron of poets, healers and midwives) on our blogs? The answer to this question is generally uninteresting to anyone save the questioner, so I will spare you my thoughts about the passage of [...]
Tags: ancestors, Brigid, Brigid Poetry Festival, invocation
Posted in Poetry, Ritual | 13 Comments »
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
I have two poems to offer this year: an invocation by Leonard Cohen, and an elegy by Rumi. Both of these I read at my nephew’s funeral last Fall. Both I think deserve wider reading. So here they are, in honor of Brigid, the poet’s muse. May the light return to us all. – Holy [...]
Tags: Alex Johnson, Brigid, Brigid Poetry Festival, Leonard Cohen, Rumi
Posted in Family, Poetry, Ritual, Spirit | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011
It is that time of year again, when bloggers around the world post a favorite poem in honor of Brigid, the Irish goddess and patron saint of smithcraft, poetry, and healing. Brigid’s feast day is February 1st, so between now and then is the perfect time to publish a poem to celebrate. Last year many [...]
Tags: Brigid, Brigid Poetry Festival
Posted in Blogging, Poetry, Ritual | 16 Comments »
Sunday, October 24th, 2010
There we stood in a park in San Francisco, about fifteen of us circled around a large ceramic bowl on the ground in which we had written the things we wanted to see increase: more money for this, more power to that, healing for her, a better job for him. Interspersed among the slips of [...]
Tags: California Cosmology, Hotel California, Macbeth, Samhain, tchotchkes, winter solstice
Posted in Leadership, Ritual, Spirit | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
The ramp-up to this year’s huge PantheaCon event has been remarkably mellow for me. I have been working hard on it for days now, but blessedly without the usual high-pitched whine of anxiety in the background. I attribute it partly to the unheard-of luxury of having a partner who has my back and is happy to [...]
Tags: California poppy, California School of Herbal Studies, Gail Julian, PantheaCon, Serpentine Music
Posted in Dreams, Ritual, Society | 1 Comment »
Friday, January 29th, 2010
I had to go back to this post to find the earliest reference (Reya’s original blog post is lost in the mists) to the now annual Silent Poetry Reading in honor of Brigid (Saint or Goddess, as you prefer). And while the first invitation was for a single day’s blogging event, watching the misty full moon tonight got me thinking of [...]
Tags: Brigid Poetry Festival, John Berryman, Silent Poetry Reading
Posted in Blogging, Poetry, Ritual, Spirit | 33 Comments »
Friday, December 25th, 2009
One summer in the beginning of the Aughts, I spent an amazing week in Somerset with Donald Engstrom and Sharon Jackson. That is to say, the weather was amazing, the countryside amazing too, the company was fabulous, and the spot we were staying in was perfectly lovely. Our job, on the other hand, was thankless, arduous, [...]
Tags: Avalon Spring, Donald Engstrom-Reese, Sharon Jackson
Posted in Ritual, Spirit | Comments Off
Monday, December 21st, 2009
We’re all about holidays in this house: Solstice, birthdays, Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve, and Hangover (New Year’s) Day. It’s all good, and all cause to light the house with shiny, colorful things. Yesterday we headed to Deborah Oak’s place in San Francisco to celebrate the Solstice with old friends and great food. John Sulak [...]
Tags: Deborah Oak, KWMR, Parliament of World Religions, winter solstice
Posted in Ritual, Spirit | 2 Comments »
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Phillip Zarrilli’s new book may have a title that only a theater critic could love, but the body of his work deserves to be known and practiced by a much wider audience—and in terms of this blog’s readership, I am referring to anybody involved in the expressive or healing arts, ministry, ceremony, or public speaking. [...]
Tags: kalarippayattu, Phillip Zarrilli, Stanislavski
Posted in Reviews, Ritual | 1 Comment »