The Wheel Turns
The days are a bit longer now.
The area where I live has been beset by storm after blessed storm, so-called “atmospheric rivers” pouring onshore to deluge the parched land of California. We smile beneath our rain hoods and grumble cheerfully about knotted traffic. And despite the dark, pendulous clouds, it is palpable: the days grow longer. It isn’t December any more.
Meanwhile, of course, the greater Darkness we knew was coming after November 8 is now manifesting itself. The petulant toddler we have elected is swinging a wrecking ball in every direction, cheerfully making a mess of all that is decent. This will continue.
The wheels are turning: astronomical forces beyond our control swinging the Northern Hemisphere slowly back into warmth and light, into fecundity and bursting birth and life and death again; the human cycle of history, currently grinding underfoot what is decent and kind and life-affirming.
How do we countenance such paradox? How bear such juxtaposition?
On the one hand, we must, of course, resist. As millions who marched this past weekend have, we must stand up and say that the ugliness of Trumpism is not ours, nor our vision for our world. We must inventory our strengths, take up our available weapons, and fight. This is not a time for mediation and understanding and conciliation, for what confronts us is nihilism and brutality: it has no human heart. It is the time for those of us who can to be heroes: to take up our swords and ride.
On the other, it is a time to survive. The winter is growing old, and if nothing else, the simple fact of lengthening days means that we are succeeding in meeting the challenge of Winter’s yearly Death.
It is a particularly cold and hostile one, and it will last at least four years. We must gather our loved ones close, draw about us the resources we cannot do without. We must hide if we are targeted and do not have what it takes to stand tall. We must make common cause so we cannot be easily disappeared. We must be heroes if we can, but more importantly, we must survive, for it is we who will tell the story of how we defeated fascism when it came to America. It is we who will be The Resistance.
It is we who will see the Spring come again. As Pagans, we must believe, despite what is before our eyes, that the bloom of life and love and kindness will come again, however dark the winter may get.
Some of us will not make it. Some will be martyrs. Some will be victims. As it has always been with winter, some simply will not hold out until Spring. Those of us who do not have privilege will be more at risk than those of us who do, and it is therefore even more our obligation to fight for our comrades who do not enjoy it.
But we are Atheopagans. We are clear-eyed in looking at the world. We do not kid ourselves. This is going to be hard, and there will be suffering.
But we will survive. Our values will survive.
Spring is coming. The cross-quarter Sabbath of the beginning of February, which I celebrate as Riverain, the Festival of Water, but many others call Imbolc or Brighid, is nearly upon us.
It is time to nurture the flame. To ready our tools. To plan our strategies. To envision what will grow in the coming season.
To take oaths of service to what we love.
Each of us will do so in their own way. And ours is not to judge how another chooses to proceed.
But each of us can swear to fight as we can. Each of us can commit to something that contributes to the return of Spring.
If you are coming to Pantheacon, I invite you to join us for the Earth Devotional ritual on Saturday night. It will provide you an opportunity to swear an oath to the Earth—to solemnly, formally join The Resistance with love, determination and Will.
If not, perhaps this can be a part of your Sabbath rites this Imbolc.
Because we need you.
Planet Earth itself, and so many of her vulnerable humans, needs you now.
Photo credit: Susan Seasons
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Strange as it seems, there is a part of me that is almost grateful for the heavy-handed, blatant, unmistakable attack on our values and our world.
For many years, now, I have taken refuge in cynicism and a kind of amused, intellectual detachment from what I’ve seen happening. I read a lot of history, and it’s been easy to say, “Well, so our little democratic experiment is going down the tubes, pretty much right on schedule”, and chuckle at the funny monkeys who aren’t smart enough to understand what is happening, and why.
But now I’m feeling… what is it?… it’s anger, yes. I’m actually feeling pissed off, because I, personally, am being treated as if I don’t matter. They’re going to take my health care and my social security away, if they can, and I, personally, am going to be poorly housed (if I’m lucky), and sick unto death, with no recourse. In other words, they’re trying to kill me, and I- in all my white, middle-class entitlement- resent the fuck out of that.
So, I’m bestirring myself, looking for ways to push back, and beginning to find them, and you know what? It feels really good! It feels good to transcend relativism, and say “These are bad guys, and I’m going to do what I can to get them out of their newly acquired offices of power, and back into their accustomed office suites, where they can go back to screwing incautious consumers and ducking federal laws. There’s a place for predators in the world, but it needs to be in the strip malls of the world, not in the White House.
Feels good, like coming back to life and, strange as it seems, I’m grateful to the bastards- not that I’ll ever tell them so.
Exactly. We have been far too cushioned for too long. The so-called Greatest Generation got that way because they knew real adversity, and they rose to meet it.
I agree and am of the mind that America is already great and all of the President’s retoric is scary as hell. But what is really scary is how so many have gobbled it up and say #americafirst! And many are my friends and they just don’t see why that scares the begeezes out of me.
Marching is good, joining a resistance is good- but honestly that isn’t enough.
How many of those marchers called their senators or emailed their senstors to tell them what they thought of the President’s cabinet picks?
This is one of those things where you can’t just protest politics- you need to join in on politics.
So check and see what committees your congressmen and senators are on, find their office numbers and put them in your phone and call them about bills and appointments and make them work for you- not against you.
Sorry for the long post…. I just get a bit riled about protests cause while they are good they make people feel like they accomplished something and so often it feels like then people go- okay I got instragram pics of me being an awesome protestor! Now I’m going to sit down and shut up and I’ll vote again in 2020.
We need to take the next step: work with what we have (elected officials) to try and stop what we can.
Oh- and on the weekends protest away if you wish- but please don’t just do that.
I completely agree! I spent many years working in politics and also feel that street protest is usually an ineffectual tactic–the reason the Women’s March was effective was because it was so huge. When I call for people to resist, I mean through every channel, not just symbolic gestures.