Back to the Beginnings

I took a much needed vacation to the woods after an incredibly taxing summer. There, I slept under the Cow Mother’s Milky Way, swam in her river, tended to a sacred site, and sat around the fire with friends. It was refreshing in a holy, deep way.

It is always a challenge to return to a mundane life afterwards, but the dichotomy between them is not so sharp, unless we let it be. From the woods I have brought home purposeful simplicity, soft music, reminders to only take what we need, and to practice a custody of the eyes.

Part of the way I am doing this is to have a more curated presence on social media. Folks like to see my priestess work – and there’s a recurring belief that if it isn’t on the internet, it doesn’t exist – but I want to ensure that my social media use does not become a distraction, as it is designed to be. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram, focused solely on my work as a priestess.

My reading for this moon is also my personal theme – Back to the Beginnings, by Ceisiwr Serith. This, coupled with Deep Ancestors, is my focus this month as I contemplate beginnings, creation, the dúile, primordial gods, the home, and women’s work – all things I know, and would know again.

I have chosen to highlight this focus by changing my jewelry, returning again to wearing the triskele that was part of my Dedicant Oath fifteen years ago, made as part of Ár nDraíocht Féin but served a far wider purpose – placing me directly in service to the Gods, most specifically the Tuatha Dé Danann. My clergy oath, taken as part of my Ordination as a Priestess in ADF, is an extension of that first Dedicant Oath.

In the sacred site in the woods, we stood around its border with an offering stone in the centre, and people spoke with truth about the gods they love and honour. In that place, I could feel and remember the work that has been done there, by myself and my friends and by others that I do not know but are likewise devoted. Silence is a beautiful thing, but so is shared inspiration.