Lesson One

Lesson 1: Witchcraft and the Wounded Miracle Planet

How do we cultivate wonder and whimsy on this wounded miracle we call a planet, and what is the role of the Witch in our changing world? There is no one-size-suits-all maxim that can answer these and other pressing questions of our time, but there is also much medicine in mystery, in myth, and in magick. What does it mean to approach the world story with curiosity, even and especially now?

Magick fundamentally requires a level of humility, an acknowledgment that we are able to move energies and affect change in our worlds because we are all made of the same cosmic material. We are sovereign within the collective, and our spell-work is as much a dance as it is an intentional molding of forces, a weaving with time.

The Pentagram of Being

                 

Point 1: Gratitude

Point 2: Ancestry

Point 3: Land

Point 4: Body

Point 5: Season

For Reflection:

1.  How do you feel about the “circle as story” method of creating sacred space? What larger story was born from the 4 smaller “seed memory” stories?

2.  What stories have made you? What tales are wrapped around your bones? If myths incarnate in ordinary people, then what myths are living on inside of you, animating your movements and envisioning through your eyes?

3.  How do you feel about holding the tension of energies, including confusion and befuddlement? What does “mystery” feel like in the body?

4.  Are there any other practices or points from the prologue, introduction, or House of Initiation sections in Seasons of Moon and Flame that spoke to you, gave you pause, enraged or inspired you?

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“As Witches, healers, and wildlings, we intuitively know that our magick

is channeled through the body, through our very roots then out, in, up,

and down again. Our magick is a dance with the wilds; thus, our breath,

our movement, and the sounds we make matter. Our own healing, our

own wholeness, matters. Magick is sensual, and there can be no separation

between the malleable beauty of our own soft skin and the writhing

collective of nature, both seen and unseen, grotesque and lovely. The

imperative is to get low to the ground; feel the hum and the pulse not just

in our hearts but in our bones; get under our thinking minds; get dirty

and reforge a felt intimacy with the spirits of land, sea, and sky.”