If God's a Willing and the Creek Don't Rise

Memorial Day weekend, my family, my wife and our two kids, got trapped by rising flood waters along the San Gabriel River. This is the second time in my life that flood waters have affected me, but this time was very different. When I was about ten years old our house flooded while my brother and I were at my Dad's house, my mother faced that flood alone. This time I was fortunate enough to be trapped with one of the greatest groups of people I know. The entire experience has reshaped how I view my life and the fragility of life in general. I have learned much about LOVE and its expression when guided by WILL. So grab a cup of your favorite beverage and sit down a spell, I have a tale I want to share. I'm going to warn you, you will feel emotions, have thoughts provoked, and quite possibly learn something.

ANCESTRAL BLUES

In the heart of the Mississippi Delta in a little town called Indianola, in 1925, a boy by the name of Riley B. King was born. This is very relevant to my tale, but we will get back to that in a moment, first let us talk about the South. The Mississippi Delta like most of the South was once ruled by three things, King Cotton, free labor, and Rivers. All three of these play into my personal history as well. Cotton is still important and grown with free or practically free labor. Then it was slaves, now it's prisoners. In Texas, theses prison farms are located along rivers, the same rivers used by plantations. Those prison farms are named after the plantations that once occupied the same land. I know because back in 1989 I lived there for 14 months.

Over the Memorial day weekend I attended the first regional Burn festival established outside of Burning Man; Flipside. I actually volunteer my time to help keep the festival going. This year I worked Pre/post which means I went out early to set up and stayed after to tear down. Only it didn't quite go down like that, more on that later, let's get back to Riley King. While I was at this event I took the opportunity to enter the Land of Fey. While there I took a stroll through the city of Pyropolis to see the theme camps that had sprung up like so many Mushrooms after the rain. As I passed one camp the music they were playing called to me like a siren. A guitar named Lucille, played by B.B. King, who was born, Riley King.

Transfixed I followed the sound and found a comfortable seat with a view of a pecan tree and the sound of the river in the background. As B.B. King played I heard the muddy bottoms of rivers, and cotton fields. I remembered my Cajun Grandmothers beer joint were the blues used to play on the jukebox, back when they still had 45's in them. Lucille's siren song took me back to East Texas, to my childhood. Then the Ancestors came, marching down the road, one by one to tell me something. Each had a different message, the overarching theme was, that if I wanted to be a worthy ancestor I must follow their examples. When I inquired as to the nature of this, the reply was simple, every ancestor literally dies carving out a path for the future. The very mud spoke to me.

WHERE EARTH AND WATER MIX

From the very start this years festival was very different than any other I had attended. ( I have been doing this for 11 years now.) It wasn't the presence of the rain or even the timing, it had rained the two previous years. No it was the volume. The absolute sheer amount of rain. We have been in a severe drought for about seven years now, so rain is appreciated, just not 10 years worth in one month.Even when we end a drought in Texas, we do it in a big way. And lest you think I'm pulling your leg check this out:

There are a few quite predictable things that happen when this much water falls in one place. The first thing is mud, even the limestone caliche of the Texas Hill Country turns to mud. Mud was everywhere, at some point one gives over to it like dust on the playa. We had mud on our boots, mud on our pants, in our tents, on our faces, probably trace amounts in our food.

My Wife the Muse, informs us during the ritual of smoke that mud is really heavy emotions. Her reasoning to which I defer, goes a bit like this; Water+ Earth = Mud. Whereas water = emotional being; and Earth= Physical Being; Mud = Bodily manifested emotion. There was a more social one-on-one atmosphere, we were forced together out of the rain. Huddled together we talked and discovered new things about one another and we bonded. The rain and mud brought us together and so emotions were released. It was beautiful. I believe many of us moved through some major blockages this year. Bodily emotion could also be trauma, and I definitely talked to a few folks who were working through theirs. The mud spoke to my heart.

THE HEART OF LOVE

 

As I navigated this wondrous landscape, something amazing happened; the scales fell off my heart. LOVE was everywhere, the grass and trees were expressions of it, other people embodied it, the volunteers sacrificed some time for it. Everything that was happening was a manifestation of love that some one felt like sharing. I brought my Spirits and the traveling shrines with me, out of love. Others shared food or companionship, performed art or played pranks, stayed whimsical and supportive, while swimming through the mud.

Blood and bone, heart and sinew, something primal emerged and we found ourselves. Washed clean by the rains and reborn in the mud. All became Other and embraced one another. Tendrils of love spectrally enveloping masses of souls. We became more fluid with our identities and the boundaries of imposed society. It's all an experiment. Stolen kisses, proffered kisses, kisses of souls, all floating in the wind, softly landing on willing recipients.Embracing Huggery ensued, and minds were freed. The wine flowed, as did the mead, and hedges were crossed by many. All of this was just foreplay, the main event loomed. We were Wizards of Odd and we had a wizard to burn.

Gathered together as in days of old we waited and watched as the effigy burned. Then we reveled. the celebrations lasted well until dawn. A New Day, shining forth with promise and hope. We had gathered in LOVE directed our WILL and succeeded at the task we spent so many months building. With the flames we released our sorrows, hopes, failures, triumphs, and wishes to fly upon the embers into the night. In that moment we were one. The time had come to part. The mud had spoken to us all.

GATHERING CLOUDS

 

Every year the exodus leaves one feeling drained and exhausted, yet with a new outlook on life. This year as we prepared to get everyone out, we were warned that another major downpour, like the one we had experienced the night before, was to be expected. We got soaked the night before, but our tents and shelters held strong. I and one of the other volunteers in our camp were staying for post, so we made sure everyone got on the road before the storm. He grew up in Oklahoma and I grew up on the Texas Coast, so we were familiar with storms. We watched the clouds gather and prepared for rain. We had no idea what was coming.

During the ensuing deluge, we gathered under my EZ-up and discussed our exit strategies. We were planning to pack up everything we didn't need after the rain. In the morning, my wife would take our kids home, and I would join them later, after I finished breaking down event infrastructure. So we sat down to wait for the storm to pass. After about twenty minutes the rain suddenly stopped and the air pressure dropped so fast I felt it in my ears. We checked the sky for the green clouds that always spell doom no matter the storm. Before we could figure out what was happening, 55 Mph winds hit us and tore down pop-ups and collapsed tents. My wife put our kids in the car and we tried to prop our tent back up. We had no idea what was coming.

The winds, as I mentioned were gusting at 55 Mph and tree limbs were coming down. My wife and I decided to give up on the tent and get in the car with our kids. Safety volunteers came and told us to come with them to a safer location.The rain that came with the winds dumped 4"-6" in 45 minutes and the river was rising. The land owner had conveyed to Safety HQ that we needed to be moving people to higher ground. We spent the next 18 hours in disaster mode. During all of this my wife ended up on the opposite side of the property from me and the kids. It was a very long night. We had no idea what was going on.

GREY CLOUDS AND SILVER LININGS

 

In the midst of crisis one gets to see the true nature of people. During this ordeal I watched many people offer emotional support to others, share food, tobacco, and conversation. My children shined like Rock Stars. My daughter was so confident of the volunteers that she slept while others fretted. My son jumped in and helped put together benches and reminded people to drink water and eat snacks. I am so very proud of both of them. I am also equally impressed by the safety volunteers. These people volunteered to see this event through to the end. Many needed sleep and were preparing to go home themselves, yet they stayed on and made sure everyone was safe. Our community trains to handle situations like this, but we always hope to not need those skills. The reason these wonderful souls do this is out of love for their community. The mud binds us.

As the waters rose and fell, I thought of flood myths and their meanings. The implicit life, death, and rebirth motif. The renewal of the land with nutrients from the river bottoms. There are many flood myths from around the world, but I always liked this one from the Chitimacha of Southern Louisiana;

Long ago, a great storm came. The people baked a great earthen pot, in which two people saved themselves. Since rattlesnakes were then the friends of man, two rattlesnakes were saved in the pot, too. The red-headed woodpecker clung to the sky, but the waters rose so high they wet and marked his tail. When the waters sank, the woodpecker was sent to find land, but he could find none. The dove was sent next and came back with a grain of sand. When this grain was placed on the water, it spread out and became dry land.

Mostly I think I like it because I know these people, Rattlesnake and Woodpecker. Rattlesnake has great significance, which I promise to share at a later date, and Woodpecker has always been there. I have a fascination for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, the stuff of legends, supposedly so big it made folks cry, "Good gawd", or "Good Lord" thus its colloquial names. Like my namesake, the Sasquatch and the Ivory Billed Woodpecker are forest guardians. They both draw people into the forest and both are found in pristine old growth woodlands.

In the same swampy bottom-lands of my youth, the Ivory Billed Woodpecker disappeared only to be sporadically spotted, but never definitively. There are other tales, blue lights in the woods at night, the Creature of Boggy Creek, and how Crawdaddy created land. All there in the bayous and creeks of East Texas.The mud binds us.

All of Texas became flood-land that weekend, and the following days. As of this writing the death toll stands at 23 with several more still missing. The most recent body was found several hundred yards away from a friends house in San Marcos. This has affected everyone, 167 of our 254 counties suffered from these floods. Experts say this is a "flood of record" that only occurs about once every 200 years. People are still cleaning up, the debris is everywhere, and everywhere there is mud. The mud binds us.

WATERS OF LIFE

Just as the waters slowly rose, covered the land, slowly retreated and left everything transformed, so too did water reassert itself into my life. Throughout the entire process I felt a vast array of emotions and yet never became so overwhelmed that I broke down. I reached the breaking point several times and had to stop and take care of myself. Thanks to my firm grounding (pun intended) in Earth Work, I was able to be a centered and focused Dirt Sorcerer. Love permeated me and I gave over to the feeling, willingly. Terror and panic tried to overwhelm me, I let them have their say and then dismissed them. I sought knowledge and fact instead of rumor and fear. Comforting others comforted me, I am a big hugger. Water slowly permeated my flesh like the flood waters took over the pecan grove. We merged, my body and my emotional self; I am more integrated. I am the mud.

Some of my earliest memories are of mud, and swampy places. Bullfrog, turtle, crawdad, and catfish were my companions when I played in the creeks. I knew them all and more importantly they knew me. In the summer we all occupied the same space. That narrow margin between water and solid earth, whether on shore, or along the bottom, it was mud. There we came together and learned about each other. We were all mud.

As I reflect upon my journey, I feel I must thank several groups of souls for all they did. First a most heartfelt thank you to all the volunteers who dedicate their time and energy out of LOVE. You are all beautiful. Thanks to my Ancestors, who reminded me of where I came from and helped me appreciate where I AM. Thanks to Saint Cyprian and Santisima Muerte for prayers answered and grace given. Mi Patron y mi matrona, mi espíritu está en sus manos. Usted llena mi corazón de alegría entusiasta. I give thanks to the Creator, for all that we have accomplished we are still the same as that first DNA strand that you formed with lightning and our raw material. We are all mud.

 

Going Feral and Half Earth

It all started when I was eight years old standing in the prairie land of Katy, Texas, just west of Houston. That was 1976, and I was there because my father was building houses on what used to be grazing land next to a rice farm. The rice farms and grazing lands are all gone now, paved over and forgotten by all but a few. It was there and then I decided that I was anti-"progress". My grand vision was to become wealthy and buy all the land I could, tear down anything human on it and let Nature exist uninterrupted by humans. I didn't know it then, but the land was speaking to me, no it was pleading to me to protect her. thirty Eight years later and I still hear her call. That is just one of the many reasons I support the efforts of groups like the Native Prairies Association of Texas.

I never let go of that idea and over the years met others of a like mind, but all we ever did was talk about how grand it would be if everyone shared this idea. Then I read Rewilding Witchcraft by Peter Grey and those old stirrings started to come to the surface again, I even mentioned it in my Savage Sorcery post. Like many different souls within our greater community of witches, I agreed wholeheartedly with Mr. Grey, at least in spirit anyways. Beyond that I have been searching for ways to revive my vision and manifest it, enter this months issue of Smithsonian Magazine.

This months issue is perhaps one of the greatest mainstream media pieces about Pagan topics presented in a non judgmental way I have ever seen. The cover article is about new discoveries at Stonehenge, there is an article about a 9000 year old North American mans remains and the article that captured my heart; a piece about biodiversity expert E.O. Wilson. The article in question is titled "Can The World Really Set Aside Half The Planet For Wildlife?" My resounding answer is YES. In fact, I believe along with many others that if we are to survive we have no choice but to do this. Please read this article and the one on Rewilding Witchcraft, these are the issues of most importance to our ongoing survival.

After reading the Smithsonian article, I was renewed with passion for my old vision. Heartened by the knowledge that others not only shared this vision but were actually working to make Half Earth a reality, I began doing research to discover what I could do to help. Currently financial support is all I can lend but without money nothing happens in our current environment. I found the following groups to contribute to; the Rewilding Institute, the Rewilding Foundation, Rewilding Europe, and Rewilding the World. The last site also has news from all over the world, letting one keep up on progress being made.

Lest one think that I am anti-human or anti-civilization, let me introduce the Rewilding of Humans. The ReWild University and Rewild Portland are two great examples of this ethos. Being both a Green Anarchist, and an Anarcho-Primitivist, I have a more extreme vision than most, but I am cognizant enough to realize that everything starts with baby steps. Although I do feel strongly that Rewilding will lead us to a more anarchistic state of being. I guess I am a bit opposed to "civilization" as it currently exists, in order to be truly civilized the rights of all creatures must be respected.

I would like to introduce you to fellow from my ancestral homeland of Wales, George Monbiot. His Manifesto for Rewilding the World is a must read for anyone interested in the topic. Perhaps not as exciting as Mr. Grey's piece but still essential reading. I would also recommend Mr. Monbiot's book Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding, and judging from the essays on his website I am sure this will be a welcome addition to any animist's library.

I am going feral, in the best sense of the word, that of having escaped domestication and going wild. We humans are only domestic primates after all, and not very good at it. I believe that if we can Rewild the world and ourselves with it we will finally be truly civilized, not merely domesticated.

Earth Workings and The Lesson of the Nazarene

First let me start off with a brief description of my initial Earth Workings. Over the Memorial Day Weekend I attended Flipside, the largest regional burn outside of Burning Man. I participate in burns because they encapsulate the ideals of Open Source Culture better than any other place I have been. This year for the second year in a row we took our children. Children are perfect avatars of the divine principle of Lila, which is Divine Play. If you have forgotten how to play and therefore lost some of that magickal shine hang out with some kids they will teach you all about Immediacy. It was in this setting that Earth yielded its first lesson, the magick of connectivity with positive humanity. There were many wonderful conversations, sword fights, balloon animals, bubble machines, a city that appeared in an enchanted forest and disappeared several days later, not to mention the pirates, unicorns and fairies, all of this temporarily existed as a manifestation of many individuals collective imagination. Better than Disneyland.

So Earth has begun revealing to me the underlying principle of magick everyday, all of creation is a miracle. Physics, mathematics, chemistry can all describe some of what is going on, but not why. Yes I know cause and effect, but what is the purpose? It is this ongoing question that fuels our imaginations and feeds our souls. it is the culmination of Intellect fired by Passion and cooled through our Emotive Selves that manifests as Earthy goodness.To often we get caught in the other realms, intellect, passion, emotions, are all wonderful in themselves , but when one becomes obsessed these elements reveal their dark side. I should clarify, obsession is what ultimately makes things ugly, however there is a cure. Remaining grounded, doing the routine maintenance, tending your garden, whatever you call it the important thing is to do it.

Now I am not so naive as to suggest that grounding will heal everyone, nor am I naive enough to claim its counter, suffice to say, it works most of the time. You will find all kinds of rituals on the interwebz  for grounding, but I want to offer you three  Open Source Magickal workings that have a lifetime of benefit. First, stretch, either with yoga or plain stretching, it will keep you limber. Next, go for a walk, it will keep you connected to nature, even human nature. The change in perspective will inform your magick better than any book, and it will also benefit your health. Not to mention the psychological benefits. God how I love brain chemistry. you should try to do the preceding rituals daily if possible or at least three times a week. Now the last grounding technique is as needed, but I suggest that you try it as soon as possible, go get dirty. I don't mean to do gardening or touch some potting soil, what I mean is play in some mud, or a sand box, or go to the ocean and play in the mud and the sand. In fact the beach is the perfect natural environment to experience all of the elements at once. Be aware wild mud has parasites, so boost up your vermifuge intake. Earthy wisdom is also the domain of one of my favorite Theriocephalic Godforms, Ganapati, but more on that later.

The Lesson of the Nazarene

While at the aforementioned burn event, I learned that a friend was in the process of losing his Grandmother. Having just gone through the process a mere two weeks earlier, it allowed for an interesting opportunity for conversation. Most folks will shy away from such conversations, but not Goose,which is one of the reasons I love him. Out of respect for both of us I will not divulge the intimate details of that conversation, but I will tell you about a revelation that was the direct result of that conversation.

Everyday at the event I did a Pronoia Love Circle, here is the flyer I made.

In the midst of talking about Pronoia and Love, I have a deep conversation with a friend about Life, Death, and Spirituality. Part of that conversation turned to the faith of our Grandmothers, so I began to ponder the message of the Nazarene. Over and over he talks of Love, equating it with  the divine. If we are to be alignment with the divine we must strive to be open to love. When we fully give ourselves over to this Love we are free from fear. The more you love the less you fear. Simple and effective. As I went about spreading good cheer, messages of Love and Pronoia, and hugs, I noticed all the love I felt in return. That's the thing  about Love you have to give it away to get more.

The lesson I learned is this; the Divine is Love, to participate in the divine, start loving, and all things even people whose political views you hate, you don't have to agree with someone to love them, just love that they too have a spark of the divine in them. When show love to even the most detestable of people we grow and love triumphs, this will not undo their acts or make them better people, but it will make you more humane.

Earth has been a profound and subtle reminder of the Magick that exists around me everyday. I will try not to take it for granted. Many blessed returns, now go play in the dirt!