My New Name for a Blog

What Watertiger Said.

Damn. Girlfriend is on fire these days.

My New Name For A Blog

What Starhawk Said.

But Seattles—like those blinding moments in a love affair when the whole world stops, like those perfect poems that write themselves, like the song so catchy and beautiful it becomes a world wide hit, like the glowing day in the forest when you find the giant chantrelle, like any amazing, ecstatic, lucky peak experience, happen rarely. They’re the Black Swans, the unusual occurrence, the outlier. The daily grind of political activism is showing up, over and over again, with the same hundred people you’ve seen before. Getting yourself up off the couch where you’d much rather be, to march around feeling slightly foolish and chanting the same things you’ve been chanting since 1966. “Peace Now!” “Stop the Bombing!” “End the Occupation!” The effects, if any, of your actions are so far away and far removed that any sense of accomplishment or achievement is rare and abstract, and the chances of getting whacked, clubbed, trodden upon, hoarse from screaming, tear gassed, pepper sprayed, stun gunned, tasered, arrested, interrogated, deported, or facing other unpleasantness rise daily. The personal motto that carries me through these things is Garrison Keilor’s observation, that “things that are horrible for most people are good for writers.” And the sure knowledge that every freedom we cherish, every great change, every liberation of a slave or shift in conciousness or small increase in justice was won in just this way—in the streets by people who mostly felt at the time that they were losing.

We’ve got to do it. All those email petitions on the internet, all those phone calls are fine—but there’s no substitute for human beings putting our bodies in the way the operations of injustice and pounding on the gates of the exploiters and raising our living voices in outrage at stupidity and greed.

I'm an old woman and there are only a few things that I know for sure: Grounding is important. Kindness is seldom wasted. Photosynthesis is the highest good. Keep your house clean, your papers in order, some money set aside. Don't tell the Man much about yourself. Sisters make it all much better. As above, so below; as inside, so without. The moment when monkey mind most wants to take over, when fears are most intense, when you have the most reasons to turn back -- that's the moment when magic can happen. Hecate will be there for me, at the end. And, Starhawk is right. There is no substitute for human beings putting our bodies in the way of the operations of injustice. I have been glad every time that I did that, and I regret every time that I lost an opportunity to do so. I'm old, but I know this for sure.

Picture found here.

Raising Power Month

Looking for an amazing magical ritual to perform between now and Yule?

Make seed balls, charge them, and toss them with intention. Send sex magic to the plots on the full Moon. Dance up energy for them. Ground and feel the roots of the seeds growing with your own.

Among the proponents of seed balls are guerrilla gardeners, who call them seed bombs and toss them in neglected patches of the urban landscape, hoping they take root. We wrote about the phenomenon last year. From Joe Robinson's amusing story:

In London, Berlin, Miami, San Francisco and Southern California, these free-range tillers are sowing a new kind of flower power. In nighttime planting parties or solo "seed bombing" runs, they aim to turn neglected public space and vacant lots into floral or food outposts.

Part beautification, part eco-activism, part social outlet, the activity has been fueled by Internet gardening blogs and sites such as GuerrillaGardening.org, where before-and-after photos of the latest "troop digs" inspire 45,000 visitors a month to make derelict soil bloom.

Picture found here.

Blog About Raising Power Month

Lyon has up an interesting post in response to September being Blog About Raising Power Month.

If you've posted on the topic and I missed it, please let me know and I'll link to your post here.

Picture found here. (BTW, the whole site is pretty amazing.)

Raising Power Month

There are already a number of quite amazing posts in response to my suggestion that we make September "Blog About Raising Power" Month. If I've missed yours, please let me know and I'll try once a week or so to collect them and link to them.

Here are some v good ones, so far:

Nehanda

Woundedness and Power, with poems, and a deeply feminist close.

Power and relationship.

Picture found here.