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Night Has Fallen, Light Your Torches

Night Has Fallen, Light Your Torches

Last updated on: January 14, 2017 at 5:29 pm by Laine Mardollsdottir

Night Has Fallen, Light Your Torches 2017-01-14T17:29:44-07:00 Laine Mardollsdottir

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The Great Queen

(The Great Queen by Malcolm Maune. Please consider supporting his art by following his page and contributing to his Patreon)

Back in the summer 2015, I asked the Lady about my feelings of foreboding. I felt the world shifting in ways that made me nervous and I was looking for answers. I’d felt this way before, and 9/11 and our insane and disproportionate response and massive resource and land grab (not to mention destruction of sacred sites and countless innocent lives) came after. So had some of my friends, but we were young baby Pagans without access to years of experience. It was a smaller apocalypse, that time.

So I called to Her and asked Her what was going on. After some quiet time I saw Her, sitting on the edge of a wall, golden and beautiful. She held a sword in Her lap and was sharpening it and polishing it. As She did so She sang joyful songs about young warriors going forward and writing glorious new sagas with their blood.

It chilled me to the bone. It answered some questions, but it took a while to process. Then 2016 came.

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(Image courtesy of Pixabay)

There was a bright and starry sky. One by one, stars shook loose and fell. On the ground it wasn’t much better. As the light in the sky dimmed, the monsters started taking their masks off (apocalypse means “unveiling” after all) and baring their fangs. Some people have seen the faces under the loose-fitting skin but they weren’t heeded or believed. I know I was shocked by the extent of it.

“As above, so below.” is a hallowed spiritual principle or a trite maxim depending on how it’s used. It’s appropriate here, though. The tidal swell of awareness of and resistance to these things in some of our own halls was heartening but the need for it was telling and reflected at large on the land.

The ether shook and started to give way. People who are generally fairly “cement headed” have been experiencing spiritual shakeups, and people who are already on some kind of vibe are humming. Or shrieking – there’s some of that too.

Things that boggle reason are happening. Lies have become truth and truth has becomes lies. Inversion coils on itself in an inversion-recursion as things are turning topsy turvy in a way that is too obvious to be wholly mundane.

Now night has fallen. We stand on the edge of internal and external turmoil (and that was originally misspelled as “eternal” and that seemed worth note). The storm that all of the Morrigan folks have been talking about is here.

We are going to need clarity and guidance in the darkness and confusion that will follow. Fortunately times like these are the ones where the Gods and spirits seem to want to be the most actively involved. We don’t know why, but then we never do, do we? We do know that they’ve been pushing us hard on our spiritual and mundane work. They’ve been tapping people and bringing in folks who didn’t even believe in Gods a month or two ago. They are singing loudly, their battle-poetry, their inspiration-prayers, their insult-curses.

For a while I decided against posting my own gnosis on things in general, but it’s come to the point where that’s no longer an option. So for long as I have a voice, and as long as night hangs over us, I’m going to keep trying to speak and hold a torch for others. You will see more articles about this as things come to me. For now, here are the basics:

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(Image courtesy of Pixabay)

Trust The Signs – They are speaking loudly now. Now is not the time for self-doubt, or “Why would a God speak to poor little me?” They are speaking to you because they choose to, and because you’re useful to them. They have roles for many of us to play in this conflict. Listen clearly to the signs and omens. Do the weird rites and spells and whatnot they tell you to do. Do the life-shattering, brutal things that they tell you to do. Listen. Listen! LISTEN!

Keep In Touch – Daily practice, meditation and devotion, grounding and shielding, have become so much more important now. As it seems like there is less time for them, their importance increases. We need to keep open channels to the Gods. Cleansing yourself gets rid of interference. Grounding keeps you from floating off into lala land. Centering keeps you in yourself and your power and on task. Shielding protects you from nasties both astral and physical, depending on how you work it. Meditation cleans and resets your mind so that it can be more clear and you can sort out your own voices from the voices of others. Devotion connects you to the Gods. There are exercises that can be done that incorporate all or many of these things at once; I may share some here soon.

Find Hope – For Heaven’s sake, find hope. There is nothing that can’t be overcome. Even if it can’t be overcome by one person, a tide can wash away the rock. This is not hopeless – it is a dark time with dark men doing dark things under the cover of night – but it’s not the first one. Our myths and legends and histories are filled with darkness overwhelming and darkness being overcome. Find every little crack that you can insert yourself into to put pressure to change things and share that crack with others to show them where they can help.

Make New Friends, Try New Things – Reach out to spiritual communities that interest you that you haven’t. Get tighter with the ones that you are already in. Share and spread the wisdom and power. Help with rites of passage and empowerment, with rites of thanksgiving and prosperity, with rites of protection and oaths of service. Don’t over-extend yourself, but service to your spiritual communities will only strengthen us right now, and new techniques and connections will help with that.

Wear Your Gods Like Armor – “Let Us be your armor, wear us and bear us with you wherever you go.” Christians are using this time to call for injustices in the name of a God most of them likely don’t believe in anyway, likely don’t have gnosis of or devotional practice for, and likely don’t do very complicated magic with. We have three distinct advantages right there. Wrap yourself in them, fill yourself with them, fill your world with them, world them.

Every Shoulder To The Wheel – I’ve heard/felt this one coming from the Great Queen over and over again (I’m very new to Her service but then, many have been drafted recently). Every bit of effort will be needed to turn things around. The wheel can be turned by main force, but it will take all hands pressing at all of the weak points to make it go. Otherwise it will turn at its own bone-grinding speed, and the Night will still end, but in its own time. The Gods goad us to push through it, protect one another, and turn it around. They know things we don’t. As I said before, it’s time to listen.

I’ll keep posting, keep lighting torches to pass, and keep speaking as long as I’m able. You are not alone, and there is hope to build on. Keep lighting each others’ candles so we can see, keep sharing your strength and hope. Some of us will fall, but many of us will make it through this, and we can only make the world a better place at this point.

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(Image courtesy of Pixabay)

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