Pagan Sermons

The World

The World was the last card in my spread for the New Moon in Sagittarius Nov 2019, answering the question, "what insight should I consider" in restarting my memoir?  I was struck by the youthful naivete of the angel standing on top the world.

Three of Cups

I asked of the tarot cards, "Who are my allies?" and I drew this one.

The Fool

I asked myself during a tarot reading for the New Moon, "what obstacles are blocking me from continuing my memoir project?" And then I wrote this poem in response to what I discovered beckoning within me.

The Sacred Ear

I was visited with the image of a giant ear, and intrigued, I stayed with the image, letting it unfold like a dream. What emerged was the vision of a sacred ear embodied large and beautiful, like a Goddess and like a shrine.  I wanted to draw it, but it seemed more accessible to first evoke it in words. 
 

Da - - -

This poem is an effort to communicate to a woman that appears in two photographs in my grandmother Mary's photo album.  My grandmother grew up in the south, and her family had at least one black servant.  My frustration is I do not know anything about this woman besides her name, and even that is incomplete.

Unseen Trees

About admiring the beautiful ordinary...I think this tree is called a 
Quercus virginiana, or Southern Live Oak.

Mary, You Trickster

Written on a morning with increasingly friendly feeling towards my late grandmother, whose portrait has been installed for about a week in the window of my writing nook.  Yesterday my dad sent a veritable treasure trove of old photos of Mary as a youngster.  She was quite a character.  This is part of my ongoing effort to know her from as many perspectives as one can with the quiet-voiced dead.

Bone Dragon of Retrograde

I saved the bones from a chicken broth I made earlier this year and bleached them clean.  Yesterday, in my writing nook, I glanced at the bag of bones and felt compelled to string them on a long strand of lace I found on my daughter's desk. The strand of bones then evolved into a hanging sculpture, and this poem resulted this morning after I took inspiration from what appeared to be a dragon-shaped creature facing backwards. 

Forest Goddess

I composed this recitation in a slight trance state after meditation, based on dreams from last night.  I didn't write it out first, so that might explain some halting and tongue tripping in places.  

Mary, Speak!

I am taking a Poetry class about communicating with Ancestors.  This poem is directed to my paternal grandmother, Mary Chamberlayne, who died before I was born.