Sabbath: Moon Races

“Goddess ritual, insofar as it generates reverence for and celebrates that which is female…is fiercely empowering,…[with] possibilities as limitless as the sunshine and the wind.” –Sonia Johnson

“Moon races!
All the women running with hair unbound,
All the women running free
and full of laughter.” –Donna Wilshire (Virgin, Mother, Crone)

You’re a song, a wished for song.
–Rumi

“The archetype of the witch is long overdue for celebration. Daughters, mothers, queens, virgins, wives, et al. derive meaning from their relation to another person. Witches, on the other hand, have power on their own terms. They have agency. They create. They praise. They commune with nature/ Spirit/God/dess/Choose-your-own-semantics, freely, and free of any mediator. But most importantly: they make things happen. The best definition of magic I’ve been able to come up with is “symbolic action with intent” — “action” being the operative word. Witches are midwives to metamorphosis. They are magical women, and they, quite literally, change the world…”  via The Year of the Witch | Pamela J. Grossman.

(This was an interesting article! I have trouble embracing the term “witch” myself because of the many years and layers of negative cultural associations…)

The Goddess made the world
with her needle. First
she embroidered the moon
and then, the shining stars
and then the fine sun and
the warm clouds beneath.
Then the wet pines in the forest,
the pines with wild animals beneath,
then the shining waves of the sea,
the shining waves with fishes beneath.
Thus the goddess embroidered
the world. The world flowered
from the swift needle of the Goddess.

Northern Russian folklore
via TheGypsyPriestess