Embodied Spirituality

Posts about Embodied Spirituality and embodiment

The line of prayer

/ Yvonne Aburrow

Roots pushing down
Into the dark earth
To find the mother.

A tendril of incense smoke
Seeking the stars.

Sparks from the fire
Riding the currents of air,
Winking out in the night.

Water threading its way
Through caves
Ready to be reborn
Into the light.

Love finding its way
Through the cracks
In the pavement.

A hand extended
To caress or bless.
Reaching for the sun.

The heart’s rhythms
Exploring the depths
Of the underworld.

A thread of gold
Snaking through the clouds
Of the unknown.

Inspired by the phrase “the line of prayer” in Some feel rain by Joanna Klink

I am the Earth

/ Yvonne Aburrow

If you hold a shell up to your ear
Then you can hear
The oceans in your blood.

If you stand or sit or lie
Then you can feel
The earth’s crust in your bones.

If you focus on your breath,
Then you can sense
The air that gives us life.

If you touch your belly’s curve
Then you caress
The fire that lives within.

If you know that these are sacred
Then your body knows
You are the Earth and the Earth is you.

Without the oceans, trees,
And birds and bees,
There is no Earth, there is no me.

The Earth is sacred,
The Earth gives us life
There is no planet B.

Yvonne Aburrow
7:20 am, 22 April 2022 (Earth Day)

Inspired by the phrase “I am the Earth and the Earth is me” in Earth Day by JANE YOLEN.

Witchy aesthetics

/ Yvonne Aburrow / 2 Comments

There’s a lot of talk about Halloween being “the season of the witch” and it is true that what sets us apart from many other paths and traditions is an enthusiastic embrace of both darkness and light. But that is not the full extent of witchy aesthetics.

There should also be winter witches and springtime witches and summer witches. We are a religion for all seasons!

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The light of the water

/ Yvonne Aburrow / 1 Comment

Water • September Pagan Challenge # 26

In OBOD Druidry, Autumn Equinox is called Alban Elfed, the Light of the Water. So here are some photos of water and light. I think Alban Elfed is a wonderful name — light and water are a natural pairing and the reflective nature of water does amazing things with light. Water is sacred in most Earth-based traditions, including ancient and modern Pagan traditions, and Indigenous traditions of Turtle Island (North America).

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Green witch

/ Yvonne Aburrow / 1 Comment

Green witch • September Pagan Challenge # 18.

Whenever anyone asks “are you a black witch or a white witch?” (thankfully this is an increasingly rare question), I say “neither, I’m a green witch”.

I love walking in the woods and gardening, so I think that makes me a green witch. I also try to be green by doing recycling and using less resources.

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Spiritual bypassing

/ Yvonne Aburrow / 3 Comments

Recently there has been a pattern on social media of BIPOC people expressing their completely valid pain and anger and sadness over the continuing murder of Black people by police, and getting pushback from “spiritual” people claiming that their anger is too much, or somehow misplaced. I have also experienced this phenomenon. I used to call it “spiritualler-than-thou” syndrome, until I discovered that it already had a name, spiritual bypassing.

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The melancholy of lost spaces

/ Yvonne Aburrow / 1 Comment

There are spaces that once existed that we can no longer visit. The bedroom I had as a child is gone. I went to university. My parents sold the house and relocated the remainder of my stuff to the new house. That was a cute room, too. Various apartments I’ve lived in over the years, creating cosy spaces — those spaces can never be exactly recreated. Even if your parents still live in the same house and didn’t redecorate your childhood room — you still see it through different eyes as an adult.

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