Return With The Elixir

It's THAT time of year.  OUR time of year.  At this turning of the cycle, fierceness is required - we look deeply into the things that trouble us, the things we're afraid of, the underworld, and we find...

Healing.  Solutions. Keys to the Mysteries. Regeneration.  We learn how to light the way, for ourselves and others. We grow into our own power.  We learn to hold our heads up and cross into whatever territories we need to go to get shit done like we own it. 

Return with the Elixir.  Inanna and Her Seven Veils.  Persephone. Isis.  We know these stories, the travails and challenges on the road build.  And then, as someone near and dear would say, "Damn, it's the BOSS battle now - I gotta level up!"

And so with that, if you've been following along on our Heroine's Journey, we have reached our "boss battle" - Return With The Elixir.  Our ancestresses and goddesses are prepared.  We have come through the year, we have walked down into our underworld and are in need of the healing salve, finding our truth and our power, and allowing our brilliant hearts to shine and be beacons for ourselves and others in the dark.

Io, Selene!  Io, Persephone! Io, Hekate!  Hail, The Benevolent Dead!  Bless us as we Retrieve The Elixirs, and may the merit from our activities be applied to the benefit and blessing and healing of all!

Leap and Let Go!

Yes, it's time for another Sisters of Fierceness production!  Now with even more help from our awesome Distance Dedicant team! 

Fall is in the air.  What trust the leaves must have to let go of the trees.  What trust the trees must have to let go of the leaves!  Everything cycles around again, change is the only consistency.  Our theme for the Equinox is Leap and Let Go! 

There comes a time in every journey when there is nothing more you can do but keep on going.  It is as far to return to where you came from as it is to get to wherever you're on the road to.  It reminds me of the time I took my sweet landlubber husband out kayaking in the Salish Sea.  Safely (to me) ensconced in one big bay comprised of two smaller bays, we were about half way across one of them when he says, "NOPE!  I'm done! We're too far out! I want to go back now!"  I was able to talk him into going to the far side of the bay & then paddling back to our starting point following much more close to the shoreline.  He wasn't ready to get out of the boat, just ready to get closer to land.   If we'd immediately gone back to the side closer to where we'd taken off, we'd have missed a huge part of the far bay that was well worth exploring and a really nice afternoon paddling around.  It was a moment of trust - he had to let go of the shore behind us (as far away as the other side was close), and refocus on and commit to getting to the far side.  Leap and let go!  

Our goddess this time is multiple aspects of Tara.  She who is ready to leap into action to assist us.  Fierce compassion.  As we let go, we all need compassion.  For ourselves, for any companions we meet on our road as well - we are all hitting a brand new curve where who knows what comes next!  Tara will help us.  OM TARA! OM TARA!

The Solstice of the Golden Road

It's summer, what's better than a road trip!? The Sisters of Fierceness will be celebrating the Solstice of the Golden Road! Whether it's Thelma & Louise looking at each other and saying, "DRIVE!" or Amelia Earhart flying around the world, or just a jaunt across state to see your family and beloved friends, what would a Heroine's Journey be without the journey itself? Not much! So we've heard the call, we've made some decisions, we've found our support team, and now it's time to hit the road. 

Amelia Earhart serves as our ancestress. Aphrodite Euploia, She of Fair Travel, our goddess.

Coincidentally, or not so coincidentally, we see this reflected in our distance dedicants. Some are actively On The Road, including our Presiding High Priestess, Yeshe in Tibet (THE OG Golden Road, the Silk Road!). I took a surprise trip in early June to Oakland and got to see the Sacred Well and a few people In Real Life (3-D and everything!).  Then in July there are family visits and island visits and maybe other travels as well.

Looking forward from the road, in early August, we'll be celebrating Leap & Let Go!

And speaking of Aphrodite Euploia, whatever roads you choose to travel, may the wind be at your back, and the road rise to meet you.

Still feeling the influence of an unexpected trip to the Bay Area, this post seems incomplete without this:

The Joy of Trusted Friendship

The third in the sabbats for the Sisters of Fierceness is when we have found the path, the next steps are identifying who comes on the road with you. Who are your allies, the ones you turn to in trust when the road gets complicated and rough, the ones you turn to for celebration when something good happens? Initially we couldn’t decide whether we wanted to go with the title the Joy of Trusted Friendship or the Gathering of Allies. When you’re on the road, you need to have both at different points. Sometimes those allies are your trusted friends, and sometimes they extend beyond that circle. Our conclusion was that first you need the trusted friends, and from that point you can then call in the allies. So, this year anyway, we’re starting with The Joy of Trusted Friendship. And who are the ones you can trust? Who are the ones you have riotous belly laughter with? Who are the ones that understand you? Who can you tell your secrets and fears to? Cry on their shoulders? Who do you sit around the fire with, arm-in-arm, singing songs, telling stories, scaring the bejeebers out of and then giggling furiously about how spooked everyone was? What fun, what friends, as we continue on where ever this adventure is going to take us! Cross-posted to the CAYA Coven blog as well.

The Heroine's Journey

**cross-posted to the CAYA blog**


The Sisters of Fierceness are developing our own Wheel of the Year. We live geographically disparately and what is one person’s season might not be the same for another person. Where I’m at in Seattle, for example, we have the wet and dark season, and summer! As The Sisters of Fierceness are a group dedicated to personal development, it seemed appropriate that maybe instead of a seasonal year, we have a traveling year as we venture forth through life’s adventures.

To that end, we are developing the following Sabbats:

• Call To Adventure (Early February)
• Refusal & Acceptance (Spring Equinox of Discernment)
• Gathering of Allies/Joy of Trusted Friendship (Early May)
• The Golden Road (Summer Solstice - Celebrating The Journey)
• Leap and Let Go (Early August)
• Challenge & Opportunity (Fall Equinox)
• Acquiring the Elixir (descent & subsequent transformation, Late October)
• Rebirth & Renewal (Winter Solstice)

Part of my commitment this year is to provide a series of articles as we develop our sabbats. Today, we’re playing a little catchup and covering both The Call To Adventure as well as the upcoming Rite of Discernment, Refusal and Acceptance. The names are still somewhat in flux as we explore for the first time what each of these events are about. Bear with us as we explore our possibilities in joy with open hearts!

In early February we celebrated The Call to Adventure. In the still quiet of the February darkness, the seeds in the heart of the Earth, baby lambs, and Spring itself hears The Call — come unfurl and see what awaits in the big wide world! In fairy tales, all genders start each story hearing some Call to Adventure. And we, every day, face the world anew. Some of our adventures are big life-changing adventures, some adventures are mundane like going to the grocery store to pick up some salad greens (but check out what Jack got from a simple produce run!). What is calling you? What secret things are unfurling in your heart, starting to reach for the emerging daylight?

At the March Equinox we will be celebrating The Rite of Discernment, Refusal and Acceptance. Just because you hear a Call, doesn’t mean you have to answer it. In some fairy tales, this is built in — the rejection of the call… but the call comes again, and again, until it is accepted. Discerning whether this is a Call you want to follow is an important piece of the journey. Sometimes you need to say “no” to one call in order to answer another. Sometimes it seems like there is no choice in the matter and you’re thrown into the deep end to see if you sink or swim. In these cases, the discernment, refusal, and acceptance is less about the journey itself, but your attitude towards it. Are you working within your new found adventure with grace and making the best of what you can control within the larger picture? Or are you going into it resisting and kicking and screaming? Sometimes it’s appropriate to kick and scream! Your discernment of Right Action is critical.

We hope some of you can join us on our explorations as we follow this Journey through the year/s! We are looking forward to seeing how it develops and evolves!

Wheel of the Year

Ohhhhhh thheeeeeeeeeeeee
Wheel of the Year turns round and round,
Round and round,
Round and round,
Oh the Wheel of the Year turns round and round,
All through time!

M1 asked me last night why she's considered a summer baby as mid-September is totally Fall territory in our minds.  I told her it's because we've lost the cross-quarter days of an agricultural calendar & the general population is confused and calls June 21st, Summer Solstice, "The first day of summer," when in fact it's mid-summer, (hence it's other name, 'mid-sommer').  May 1st/Beltane is the first day of summer, and spring begins way back in February as the days slowly begin to be noticeably longer, and (some) seeds and bulbs start germinating in time for mid-spring to be in March at the Vernal Equinox.

Yes, that means that fall is upon us, in August!  The second major harvest festival of the year! And we have another two harvest festivals -- Autumnal Equinox to catch the dog days of summer, and Halloween where we thank our ancestors and all for another year of harvests, & put the earth to bed.  And winter begins after Halloween when the cold, damp darkness hunkers down for the year.

But because we've lost the observation of the quarter days as seasonal changes (rather than religous and festive dates), we have this silly thing where summer begins at midsommer & winter waits all the way until the longest night of the year to say, "ok, now it's srs bizness."

Another thing we discussed was people are allowed to have their opinions.  Their opinions may be wrong, but they're allowed to have them.  :)

And still the Wheel of the Year spins round & round...

May Madrigals

As often happens with blogs, IRL has kept me busy this month. My life has changed, the repercussions yet to be determined.  I think it's all for the best.  It is hard for me to be both in action and reflective enough to support spending much time writing. Not that reflection hasn't been happening, reflection and processing have absolutely been happening, just that the written recording of those processes have not been happening.  The thought of how much writing that would have been is rather overwhelming!

In the meantime, the aspirants have had their ethics and warding/safety classes.  They went well. Nice group of folks.  I like the discussions.

We're almost at the mid-point of the year.  I've been joking with my boss that it's nearly the end of 2015 since the beginning of the year because time passes so quickly, and yet, here we are and the first half flew by, as it does.  Yeah, yeah -- barely a month until summer solstice, but that's a matter of days in quick succession.  The wheel turns faster and faster.

It's a thing, this wheel of time.  And sometimes all the things it contains are too big to find words for.  Silence does not indicate a lack of activity, but rather the opposite.

Grandmothers at Christmas

Had an interesting realization today as I was puttering about the kitchen making cookie dough -- while Halloween is about ancestors generally and those who have crossed over, Christmas is about my grandmothers in amongst the other shuffle of topics. And not so much veneration as honoring those very personal relationships and history. Like they'd both be sort of meh about the whole Halloween thing, but they almost can't resist looking in from wherever they're at because *Christmas*, y'know?