Witchvox Article

Author: Diotima Mantineia [a WitchVox Sponsor]
Posted: April 16th. 2000
Times Viewed: 5,215

I went outside tonight. After a pleasantly tiring day of planting raspberries and Shasta daisies, I went out onto the front porch of my North Carolina mountain home, and looked to the southwest.

Behind the barely-leafed trees the crescent Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all shone within a circle I could embrace within my arms. I ducked, squatted on my heels and then stood on tip-toe, all for a better view. The stars are very clear here: even through the trees, I could see the planets gathering together.

I thought of how this home was a dream-come-true for me. I thought of how I really like it here. I thought of how I could hear the Earth's song so much more clearly. I sat down, put my feet up, and listened to the birds and the stream running by my house as I watched the moon and stars shining in the night sky.

I'm used to tractors. I know quite a bit about farming. So when the farmer in the apple orchard down the hill from me started up his tractor not long after sunset, I knew why. This is the Moon of Spraying Apples.

My thoughts followed my eyes as I sat outside, watching first the moon and then the tractor.

I thought about organic methods of pest control that could make most of this spraying unnecessary, and wondered what tonight's spray was designed to kill. I reveled in the beauty of the moon, shining on the trees and the mountains. I thought, sadly, that the tractor drowned out the song of the birds and the stream. Entranced, I watched the beautiful plumes of spray highlighted against the blossoming trees in the tractor's lights.

The wind shifted. My nose began to itch from the spray. I brought my cats inside, shut the windows and door, and looked at the world I live in.

I looked in dismay at a world where poisons are still sprayed indiscriminately and affirmed my ability to change; to do magick. I affirmed that the life I strive to live is one in which my consciousness is interwoven with the Web of Life, in all its beauty, complexity and breathtaking freedom of possibility.

My carefully-tended compost pile, the recycling stacked in my garage, the now large and vigorous plants I started from seed when I moved here in February—all these are my healing magick.

A Witch learns to listen to the irrepressible song that plays in the Web. I sit inside at my altar and listen with my inner ear to the trees and the birds. I listen to the tractor, I listen to the farmer, and I listen to the land.

What I hear, what I know, is that while we make mistakes, we are not evil, we do not sin. We are learning; exploring life and consciousness and the gift that has been given us—our ability to create. We are learning that we must soon create a change in the way we live for our lives to continue. Our current technology is not sustainable to future generations. We do not sufficiently respect the Web of Life—we kill the microbes, the insects, the animals and each other before we even understand them.

Our technology has brought with it great gifts—it has also damaged the Web. The damage has reached the point where we can no longer ignore the fact that we are part of the Web, and it is the Web that sustains us. This realization is a gift in itself. The poisoned apples can heal us, if we pay attention, and take action. The apples are one manifestation of a Spirit that is stronger by far than any poison, and that Spirit speaks to us in many ways.

Communion with the Divine, with the Elements and with the Web tells me death and time and space are all illusions in the service of change. They tell me even change is subject to the Love that creates it all. The Lady and Lord gift us with love, change and the power to create. What to do with this amazing magick?

I light candles, and some incense. I pour water, and taste salt. I work my small magicks of compost and of seed, and I listen to the land. I know every spell builds on a resonance that is strong and focused—a resonance that expands to find the harmony in others' souls, and in the soul of the land. With our magick, with our love, the Web shifts and changes.

I know that the changes I want must begin with me. As Gandhi said, we must be the change we wish to see in the world. I am focused, and I am patient. It will be.

For now, I seek the music of the tractor, the song of the Earth, the symphony of the stars. In the Moon of Spraying Apples, all three sing.

Associate Editor - The Witches' Voice
April 6th, 2000

ABOUT...

Diotima Mantineia

Location: Hendersonville, North Carolina

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