Re-post: "Archetype: Priestess"

Re-post from my old Super Duper Social Worker Blog, July 2012

While standing around, waiting for ritual to start tonight, I went on a little rant about my recent trip to New Mexico. Last time I was home I facilitated a little ritual for some friends and family while we were out camping, and I was surprised that nearly five years later, they still remembered it. I was even more surprised that they wanted me to facilitate another ritual for the group.

Sometimes I'm amazed at the leadership role I've come into over the years.

Wait, let me explain! I'm not amazed that I take on leadership roles. Let's be realistic. I'm an Aries and the firstborn child out of a large family. It's easy for me to decide to be leader. But what I'm surprised at is this particular role, the role of priestess and minister.

I'm amazed that people trust me so much! I personally don't ritual with just anyone, and I'm pretty critical of ministers and clergy because people in this role have the potential to inflict so much damage. It's a sacred honor, and it should not be taken lightly.

So, when my family asked me to do another ritual, I was excited but nervous. Me? Why me? And I felt as if they had high expectations. I wanted to "wow" them, sure, and show off a bit. But I also wanted them to have a positive and healing experience.

One friend said "well, you write good rituals!" which came as a shock to me because I feel like I have such a hard time writing rituals, though facilitating rituals has gotten much easier over the years. (but I still get pre-show jitters!) and another friend said "well, welcome to the role of priestess."

Because being a priestess isn't just writing rituals. It's not just having a script and getting enough people together at the right time (ha!) to cast circle. It's a role where I am not myself. I'm speaking for Deity. I'm acting on behalf of the Cosmos. I have to be aware of the circle and the participants and time and space and myself. It's reading people and energy and keeping a flow, as well a balance of energy and emotions.

I haven't been doing this priestess thing for very long, not really. But I'm becoming more and more aware of it, being a priestess in both service to God/dess and to those who are in need. So me doing a ritual for my friends and family wasn't just Amanda hanging out in Tracy's backyard. It was a Priestess providing a service for the community, and I hope I was able to do so.

I hope I did them proud, not just Mutti and her friends and my sisters, but God and Goddess, too, and to all of the spirits, seen and unseen, who helped that night.

Re-post - "Who Wants to Live Forever?"

Repost from my Super Duper Social Worker Blog, February 2013

I have always loved science fiction, and Doctor Who is a great example of sci fi that embraces the human element. Cheesy, campy, goofy – sure. But also charming, heartbreaking, inspiring and wonderful. Just like the newest series of Doctor Who is an updated version of the old silly classic, the Doctor’s story can be seen as a re-imagining of mythology and folklore.

“He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and can see the turn of the universe. and... he's wonderful.”

Because we’re always telling and retelling stories, right? We’re always reinventing and recreating the same old stories because the same old stories mean a lot to us. Like the Doctor, stories have the same old heroes, just with different faces. So we create these stories and then pretend it’s weird when people Fan Girl about them, but myths and religions are just made-up stories, too. So what’s the difference between the Doctor and Odysseus? Jesus and Harry Potter? 

“Who am I then? Nothing...? I'm just a story?”

The Doctor is constantly waking up to realities of the universe all around him. As much as the Doctor has seen all of time and space, there is actually very little he knows about the grand scheme of things. 

“Turns out I've had the most terrible things happen. And the most brilliant things. And sometimes, well, I can't tell the difference. They're all the same thing. They're... they're just me. You know, Stephen King said once, he said, 'salvation and damnation are the same thing.' And I never knew what he meant. But I do now.”

The Doctor, although an alien called a Time Lord, struggles with his own humanity. He clings to it and loves it, is disgusted by it, can’t escape it, doesn’t want to escape, must escape. 

“The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. Hey. The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant.”

Life, to the Doctor, is a beautiful, wondrous gift and blessing. Heaven on Earth, because the Kingdom is here and now. And so is Hell. Tragic, terrible, and awesome. 

"Across the entire universe, never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust. And the dust will become atoms and the atoms will become... nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation. *This* is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality *itself*!"

He reminds us that You Are Not Alone. The loneliest man in all of time and space, and he’s not alone, and neither are you. 

“When you're a kid, they tell you it's all... grow up. Get a job. Get married. Get a house. Have a kid, and that's it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It's so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better.”

And isn’t that what a religious life is all about, anyway?

“Do you wanna come with me? 'Cause if you do then I should warn you, you're gonna see all sorts of things. Ghosts from the past; Aliens from the future; the day the Earth died in a ball of flame; It won't be quiet, it won't be safe, and it won't be calm. But I'll tell you what it will be: the trip of a lifetime.”