moondrummer

Thursday, 31 January 2008

This is a photograph of my painting: Holy well and Sacred Flame. It is an abstract representation of the Goddess from whom I get my name, Bríd, goddess of fire and water, poetry, healing and smithcraft. We celebrate her feast on 2nd February as the first lambs are born to suckle in ewes milk from which we get the ancient name of her feast Imbolc - pronounced imolg.

Here is an invocation which I wrote some years ago and use on this day:

Invocation to Bríd

by Bríd Wyldearth 2007

Bríd, Brighde, Brigid, Birgit, Brigita, Brigantia

Woman of the Sacred Flame

Woman of the Deep Well

Gone is the time of little sun, ruled by the fierce, one-eyed hag, Cailleach

In a chariot, drawn by swans, she rode to the Sacred Isle of Youth

She drank from the spring in the holy oak grove

and transformed into youthful, beauteous Bríd

like the snake, emerging from her winter lair,

sloughing her skin, renewed again

re last post

I am new to this Blog buisness so please forgive me for omitting to add that the last post was copied from Oak on her blog branchesup.blogspot.com . Thank you Oak for this invitation. Last year we held a minifestival on wimminsmoondrum@yahoogroups.com because I did not yet have a blog or know how to access them with dial up connection from a windows 98 machine! A Happy and poetic Imbolc
to anyone who reads this!

Invitation to the third annual Imbolc cyberspace poetry reading

Well, Anne Hill asked if we were going to do this again, and I say YES! Feel free to copy the following to your blog and spread the word. Let poetry bless the blogosphere once again!

WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading

WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2008

WHERE: Your blog

WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day

HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd.

RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this post. Last year when the call went out there was more poetry in cyberspace than I could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun.

Feel free to pass this invitation on to any and all bloggers.

Thank you, Reya, for beginning what is now an annual event.

Wednesday, 23 January 2008

Imbolc Full Moon

IMBOLC FULL MOON 22 JANUARY2008

I lay on my couch in front of my wood burning stove and started to drum on my large moon like drum. She sang with the heat of the fire and I filled my charkas with firey earth energy and then icy moon light through thick clouds and sheltering roof.

I journeyed to my clan lodge and was welcomed with hugs and love. I felt that I belonged. I was told that when we ask for something we have to be prepared for the possibility that the answer might be “No”. It was necessary to start the wimminsmoondrum for my own solitary journey. The dream of community and wimmins drumming shaking the earth may only belong to dream reality. I might never have met the wimmin in my clan and moon lodge had I not started the moon drum. My grandmother noticed that my singing voice was stronger and more in tune. I was given a wolf mask to wear – to feel how it was to be wolf and told to read up about wolves – maybe it is my lot to be a lone and grumpy wolf, longing for clan….

We went together as wolf clan to the moon lodge and I went to the centre of the labyrinth and howled. Bev was there and gave me a big hug – said that she would not have missed it. She noticed that I had her lippy in my coat pocket.

I sent blessings to each woman in the drum and came back, exhausted into my living room…. And kissed my beautiful drum.

Saturday, 29 December 2007

xmas lies

As for xmas - it was very important for me to admit all the crappy things about it for me - It is so very, very long since I spent it with somebody that I loved and I have been pretending ever since to join in by sending cards and presents and saying "Happy Xmas" and really not being able to join in because one of the truths about xmas is that there is nobody else around because they are all with their families, whether they want to be or not, and there is only one thing more depressing than xmas on my own and that is xmas in some other family who are being kind - nomatter how kind they are, it is even more obvious to me what I am missing....

What I have realised about xmas, by trying to be honest about how I feel, is that most of it is a horrible lie and that is so sad. The biggest lie is father xmas - the whole world pretends that he exists - why cant the whole world pretend something useful like world peace or an end to hunger???? - I do have nothing against presents and magic and love but if anyone came down your chimney any other day you'd call the police wouldn't you? And would the police believe him if he said he wasn’t a thief but had brought presents? And wouldn’t they then call sniffer dogs and/or the bomb squad? And if you told your teacher or social worker that your parents let a strange man into your room to give you presents while you slept can you imagine he investigations? And if the parents then insisted that they had been lying to you and that it was them all along???? And how many people spend how many millions in therapy over the lies their parents tell them anyway????

The reason that I hate the lie about father xmas is not the lie, but because, when a child finds out about the lie, xmas is never the same again and they stop believing in magic and I think that is very, very sad and might even be the reason that we put up with war and famine and dictators etc etc - When we stop believing in magic, we stop believing that we can help to change our world and we stop believing that change can happen...

It has taken me many years, not to restore my belief in magic, but to experience magic and know that it exists every second of every day of every year in my enchanting life on this awesome planet and I know that with the help of magic I can and do make a difference.

At this moment, I do not know how I will experience xmas next year but I suspect it might be even more magical!