In honour of the ancient Goddess on the festival of Beltain

SHADOWS OF AN ANCIENT GODDESS by Bríd Wyldearth 2011 An ancient woman squats above an old church door. She holds her vulva open, impossible to ignore. Weird witch Síla na Gig, powerful, daring and rude, I wish I dared sit on a church wall wicked and wanton and nude! Eerie faerie Síla na Gig, bathing your quim in the sun, your holy hole outrageously obvious, your mouth fixed in a mocking grin, you might as well be shouting to pilgrims rich and poor: “I am your mother, your sister, your wife, your daughter, your lover, your whore." Orgasmic dancing Síla na Gig, are you just prehistoric pornography? Or do you have something to say to the twenty first century? "I will not collude in your big cover up. I will not clothe myself in your shame. Uncensored and open and honest and proud, I show the world who I am and why I came." Why do you sit on a church wall? Why do you show us your cunt? Why did the stonemason carve you? And what exactly is it that you want? “I was here before the church was and I’ll be here long after it’s gone. I honour the place of original magic the place from which we all come I open the gate between worlds the doorway to life and to death this gesture is just as important as any gesture to pray or to bless I am your ancestral goddess. I am swollen and violated and raped. This is the result of your violence. I will not disappear without trace. When you seek to disempower me, you invade me against my will you build churches over my temples and groves and convince my children that I am evil. Remember where you originate. Remember your spiritual roots. Remember that god is a woman as well. Remember deep, radical truths. Womanhood is as sacred as any church or holy place. We give birth, we give pleasure and we give love, we give comfort and healing and peace.”