Bewitched by the Blackthorn Being, part II ~ sacrifice & service

"Beloved, gaze in thine own heart, the holy tree is blooming there..." W.B. Yeats

I absolutely adore this stunning blackthorn pattern by William Morris, which was first sold by Morris & Co. in 1892. It is mostly the work of John Henry Dearle, as Morris was reaching the end of his life during its design, but it contains many of Morris's signature themes, such as daisies and entwined leaves.

I can see so many aspects of the Blackthorn Being here; owls, with shades of Blodeuwedd, foxes, stags, the presence of serpents in the snake's head fritillary which form the eyes of the Mother of the Woods; she is serpent-eyed indeed. In the Irish legend, 'The Pursuit of Diarmaid & Grainne', the deer goddess, Sadhbh, becomes pregnant as a result of eating sloe berries, the dark fruit of the blackthorn. Her son is born with a lump on his head, which contains a snake. Later, the snake is killed in sacrifice to save another man, underlining blackthorn's sacrificial service in mythology.

Since I wrote about blackthorn the other day, I have been reflecting on this sacrificial aspect which feels to be part of her purifying medicine. She is a great stabiliser of emotion & a bringer of hope & joy, a healer of depression. She does this by taking in negative, stagnant energies which are not her own; scapegoating herself, just as the, primarily Welsh, 'sin eaters' once did for the newly dead. How appropriate then that she was believed to be one of the trees woven into Christ's crown of thorns; the crucifixion as the ultimate scapegoating, sin eating for the world. Sacrifice and service. 

Blackthorn too seeks to transform despair into hope, death into life, just as winter transforms into spring. Indeed, the Buddhist practice of 'tonglen', or taking and sending, does much the same thing; breathing in the negative as a thick dark smoke and allowing it to settle in the heart chakra before breathing it out as transformed light. At its most powerful we are not working with only our own suffering but the suffering of others, whether of body, mind, or spirit, seeking to transform it as a gift, and a relief, to them. With our breath we can offer others a breathing space, an opportunity to also, at last, 'breathe out'. This turns on its head our usual human urge to avoid discomfort and seek out only what makes us feel good. Sacrifice and service. In this way we awaken compassion in ourselves for the suffering of others, whether human or non-human. Might we do this for humans with whom we vehemently disagree, as well as for those we love? Might we offer our heart breath to the victims of the badger cull, to trees cut down? 

But, of course, what we do for others we also do for ourselves, and vice versa. Pema Chödrön describes this as "breathing in for all of us, breathing out for all of us". It may be that we are too deeply entwined in our own emotional, spiritual, or physical, journey to feel that we have anything to offer to others. I have written about this before; the sense I have that some of us who feel a great deal are also feeling for those among us who are too overwhelmed, numbed, or disconnected to feel. This is the path of the serenydd, which I hope to write about more this year when I can find the words. Here is the path of the wounded healer, offering healing from our own pain & turning what seems like poison into medicine. Sacrifice and service. 

"You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal
of your body love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, 

and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on."


Mary Oliver, ‘Wild Geese’


And this is the gift that the blackthorn also offers us; physiologically, as all trees do in breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen, but also spiritually in the power of her deeper prayer. She is so often regarded with suspicion and fear, as all beings associated with death are. That is because we have cut death off from life. Still, she keeps breathing for us and offering us her medicine.

And of her association with death, blackthorn is a tree of the 'warrior's journey' helping us to face our own dying, perhaps the bravest journey of all. But she also teaches us how to be fully alive. She is a wise, wild teacher to anyone who has an enduringly negative or pessimistic attitude, interpreting their life story through the bad, rather than the good. Blackthorn reminds us that the stories we tell ourselves about our lives matter, that we can re-frame them & change everything. I dislike intensely the 'New Age' view that we are somehow to blame for the terrible things that happen to us, just as we would not blame a blackthorn if she were mindlessly cut down. There are many with power in this world who do not use it well but it is good to be reminded that we have some power. On a day when we are feeling particularly compassionate we might choose to breathe in their suffering. Again, blackthorn teaches us that we don't need to rid ourselves of our 'thorns', or let go of our protection against what wounds us, in order to offer healing to that which wounds.

As for our own power to interpret our stories, I once read, I think in 'New Scientist' magazine, an article which talked about the disturbing trend for aid workers seeped in our cultural way of thinking to go to other parts of the world where natural, and other, 'disasters' had occurred and think that they were being kind by persuading the victims to take anti-depressants, of course encouraged by pharmaceutical companies who were keen to increase the market for their wares. But the issue was the assumption that the people who had experienced the death of loved ones, the destruction of homes and livelihoods, would be depressed. But often this wasn't so. They may have been in shock, desperately grief-stricken, angry, horribly sad and distressed, all entirely appropriate in those circumstances, but they had ways of framing their experiences within a worldview that we can scarcely even imagine. Anti-depressants just weren't the sort of medicine that were needed.  Indeed, our propensity to medicate perfectly valid human reactions to experience is to be questioned in our deepest core. It might be also be suggested that, increasingly, natural disasters due to climate change are caused by the rich Western world disproportionately effecting the poor elsewhere, and that, rather than seeking to truly offer healing, we wish to numb victims in order to avoid seeing, or engaging with, the pain that we ourselves have caused. Even medicine becomes the tool of oppression in the wrong hands; a colonisation of the heart. Unfortunately I have been unable to trace the article but there is an equally interesting, and more recent, article here on similar themes.

In our culture happiness has become a tyranny, but in so many ways victimhood is becoming equally attractive. The inauthenticity of emotion is a disease; the denial of grief, when there is so much to grieve, the burying of anger, when there is so much to rage against, and the refusal to see beauty in spite of, and because of, our grief & anger when there is so much that remains beautiful. Grief AND gratitude is increasinly the wild edge that we must walk upon. As in so many fairy stories, we perhaps need a jab from the sharp thorn to wake us up to reality and then the medicine of her petals to help us forgive it. There is so much that needs to be re-written and re-framed.

Tony Benn comes to mind. He said;

"There is no final victory, as there is no final defeat. There is just the same battle. To be fought, over and over again. So toughen up, bloody toughen up." 

A true warrior of the blackthorn speaking truth to power! No one said that it was meant to be easy. That's why we need to befriend the dark and the beings who understand its medicine, lest we should slip into a fairytale of denial or depression.

Interestingly all of this is a conversation that often arises here in the hedgehermitage, most recently today even before I had fully thought about blackthorn in this way. There is always a reason why our attention is drawn to a sister or brother being at a particular time and blackthorn is so rich with medicine and meaning. There is a lot to share, but of course it is personal too.

Returning to this lovely pattern, Morris & Co. tell us that, "the face of the Mother of the Woods in the wine red version gives life to the tree & the forest ~ a sort of a Morris 'green man'". They also note that, "sometimes children are afraid of the Mother of the Woods, kindly though she is, & so it's possible to place the daisies in the centre to 'ofset the crone'. I'm not at all sure that that's but I wish them much luck!

References:

Previous piece on Blackthorn ~ https://radicalhoneybee.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-blackthorn-being-and-vashtis-great.html

William Morris Blackthorn pattern images, Wiki Commons.

William Morris Blackthorn tiles information ~ http://williammorristile.com/textiles/blackthorn.html

Blackthorn folklore ~ https://www.druidry.org/library/trees/tree-lore-blackthorn

Sin Eaters ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin-eater

Mary Oliver, 'Wild Geese' ~ http://rjgeib.com/thoughts/geese/geese.html

Buddhist practice of tonglen ~ http://awesomemindsecrets.com/healing-meditation-tonglen/

Pema Chödrön, 'How to Practice Tonglen' in 'Lion's Roar' ~ https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lionsroar.com/how-to-practice-tonglen/amp/

'The modern epidemic of sadness destroying heart and soul cannot be solved with anti-depressants', Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, International Business Times,  23rd February 2018 ~ https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/modern-epidemic-sadness-destroying-heart-soul-cannot-solved-anti-depressants-1663346

Novena for the Fallen Through ~ our seventh prayer for the people of Grenfell

Here is the seventh of our Novenas for the Fallen Through, which for this month are devoted to Brigid and to seeking justice and healing for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. If you would like to read more about this work please pop and have a look here.

Today we weave a prayer appealing for fair reporting of tragedies such as the Grenfell fire in and by our press and media, whether in newspapers, on television/radio, or on line.

Among so many other things, St Brigid is also known as the Patron Saint of journalists. There is a holy well dedicated to her; St Bride’s Well, in Fleet Street in the south eastern corner of the land belonging to St Bride’s Church, which is one of the oldest in London. Although the ‘wedding cake’ like structure that many of us know now was designed by in 1672 by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London, there is a much older church below this from the 6^th or 7^th Century, which is said to have been founded by St Brigid of Kildare herself. There may be an older still pre-Christian sacred site beneath even these. The well was built over during the building of a modern part of the church, following damage by WWII bombing, but there are records of it being accessible into the 19th century.

The church has been associated with journalists and journalism for many hundreds of years. It might be assumed that this is simply because it is to be found on Fleet Street, the historic home of the press, but the association runs deeper than this. In 1500, publisher and William Caxton’s apprentice, Wynkyn de Worde, set up a printing press in the building next to it and until 1695 London was the only city in England where printing was legal. After bombing during the Blitz, it was was newspaper proprietors and journalists who raised the money for its repair. Indeed, by the 20^th Century, Fleet Street and the surrounding area were dominated by national newspapers and related industries. It was Rupert Murdoch who, in 1986, moved the publication of The Times and The Sun from Fleet Street to Wapping in East London, causing great controversy and protest and removing their activity from the immediate gaze of St Bride, removing the press from sacred space. Make of that what you will!

Reporting of the Grenfell fire has not always been as compassionate and fair as many of us might have wished. In the days following the event The Independent Press Standards Association received more than 1,300 complaints about an article in the Daily Mail, which appeared to be victim blaming by focusing on the actions and behaviour of the man in whose flat the fire is believed to have started. Complaints made referred to concerns about privacy and harassment and to intrusion upon grief and shock. The Mail is said to have ‘toned down’ the article following the reaction, although they deny having done so. Labour MP David Lammy, whose friend Khadija Saye and her mother Mary Mendy were killed in the fire, has accused the mainstream media of colluding with the Government to underplay the possible death toll, a suspicion shared by many members of the local community.

As individuals we are also responsible for the things that we write and share. For example, Falmouth resident Pauline O’Brien was greatly criticised for a letter which she wrote to her local newspaper complaining about Grenfell survivors being offered free holidays in Cornwall. That letter is now easily found via an internet search and her words, which she may or may not regret, are recorded there forever. We all need to be mindful of the words that we choose.

At the same time, both social media and certain sections of our press have been instrumental in revealing the scale of the fire, keeping it in the public eye, and in drawing attention to the underlying inequalities that may have contributed to its happening. The Mail on Sunday, for example, has reported that the fire riskconsultant who inspected Grenfell Tower repeatedly advised the managing group to “bury” the fire risk assessment, or risk further “expensive fire safety measures”. The Guardian and The Independent, together with The Mirror, have also done much to open eyes to the lives of those who lived in the Grenfell Tower, both before and after the fire. Many uncomfortable truths about the society we live in have been spoken.

In her stunning and thought-provoking book, ‘Gossip from the Forest’, Sara Maitland shares the progression of meaning held within the word ‘gossip’..

“Gossip: God + Sib (akin, related)

1. One who has contracted a spiritual relationship with another by acting as a sponsor at a baptism.

2. A familiar acquaintance or friend, especially applied to a woman’s female friends invited to be present at a birth.

3. Idle talk; trifling or groundless rumour, tittle-tattle.”

(Oxford English Dictionary)

This change in meaning is somehow revealing of the ways in which the sharing of information, of news, which was once a sacred contract between the offerer and the receiver has been degraded until it is believed to be of no value at all. It is this sacred relationship that we must insist upon our journalists and national media upholding in the face of pressure from Governments and powerful corporations. Without that we will all be vulnerable to manipulation and to believing the worst of our neighbours, whether badgers, foxes, refugees, benefit claimants, the disabled, or victims of tragedies like Grenfell.

(Michelle Lee Phelan)

Novena for the Fallen Through ~

Justice, healing, and wholeness for the people of Grenfell, and for us all.

This prayer begins with Fire.

Blessed Brigid,

Holy Woman,

Saint and Goddess,

Mother of Fire.

Brigid of the mantles,

Brigid of the peat heap,

Brigid of the twining hair,

Mary of the Gaels.

St Bride of Fleet Street,

of the river of holy water and of words running beneath the City,

we thank you for our journalists, for our national media,

and for all who seek to share the truth.

We know that many have suffered in the pursuit of justice

and of truth-telling and we honour the deep heart and courage of their work.

We ask that our media be protected from pressure by Government,

corporations, media moguls, or anyone with an agenda

to manipulate the things that we hear and see,

or from their own agendas to be more acceptable or popular.

And we ask for the sacred contract of the speaking of truth to power

to be upheld, and where it is broken to be mended, for trust to be regained.

Blessed Brigid,

Holy Woman,

Saint and Goddess,

Mother of Fire.

Brigid of the mantles,

Brigid of the peat heap,

Brigid of the twining hair,

Mary of the Gaels.

We hold sorrow for all the times that we have believed news

that made us feel more comfortable without justification,

less willing to act in another’s defence,

more willing to judge, or to be moved to anger,

where care and compassion might have been our response

had we not allowed the media to soothe us into apathy.

We hold sorrow for all who have shared news that they knew to be untrue,

or to be designed to manipulate or hide the truth,

knowing that they have their own pressures which we cannot understand.

Let all stand together in the spirit of wild, courageous disclosure and communal truth,

and we ask for the Grenfell fire; it causes, its aftermath, and its investigation

to be held in this same spirit.

Blessed Brigid,

Holy Woman,

Saint and Goddess,

Mother of Fire.

Brigid of the mantles,

Brigid of the peat heap,

Brigid of the twining hair,

Mary of the Gaels.

We ask that our own sharing of news, of story, of good gossip,

be blessed by your sacred presence in our hearts and in our words.

We ask that you make us mindful of the words we speak

and where we speak them,

knowing that others may be hurt, or discouraged,

or belittled by what we choose to say.

Let our words build up, where they might knock down,

offer comfort, where they might condemn,

offer truth, where they might conceal,

and offer love, where they might stir the pot of hatred and division.

For this we pray.

We ask this in memory of Mohammed Neda, Ali Yawar Jafari,

Karen Bernard, Lucas James, Rania Ibrahim and her daughters,

Fathia and Hania, Stefan Anthony Mills, Ligaya Moore.

We ask this in memory of Zainab Dean and her son, Jeremiah,

Khadija Saye and her mother, Mary Mendy, Gary Maunders,

Mohammad Alhajali, Hesham Rahman, Tony Disson, Sheila Smith.

We ask this in memory of Mariem Elgwahry and her mother, Suhar,

Jessica Urbano Ramirez, Deborah Lamprell, Steve Power,

Dennis Murphy, Amal Ahmedin and Amaya Tuccu, Isaac Paulos.

We ask this in memory of Marco Gottardi, and Gloria Trevisan,

Mohammed Nurdu, Fouzia el-Wahabi, her husband, Abdul Aziz,

Nur Huda and Mehdi, Yasin.

We ask this in memory of Nadia Loureda, Maria Del Pilar Burton,

Berkti Haftom and her son, Biruk, Nura Jamal, her husband, Hashim,

their children, Yahya, Firdaws, Yaqub, Kamru Miah.

We ask this in memory of Fatima Afrasehabi, her sister, Sakina,

Nadia Choucair, her husband, Baseem Choukair,

their children, Mierna, Fatima, Zainab,

their grandmother, Sirria, Raymond Bernard.

We ask this in memory of Majorie Vital and her son, Ernie,

Joseph Daniels, Logan Gomes, Khadija Khalloufi, Abdeslam Sebbar,

Fathia Ahmed and her son, Abufars Ibrahim. Of Omar Belkadi,

Farah Hamdan, Malak, Leena, and Tamzin who lived.

Of Mohamednur Tuccu, Husna and Rebaya Begum,

Mohammed Hanif, Mohammed Hamid, Vincent Chiejina, Hamid Kani,

a ‘woman’ unnamed, all the unnamed, the disappeared.

Blessed Brigid,

Holy Woman,

Saint and Goddess,

Mother of Fire.

Brigid of the mantles,

Brigid of the peat heap,

Brigid of the twining hair,

Mary of the Gaels.

We thank you that we live in a society in which

we can at least hope to hear the truth through our media,

knowing that in many lands it is otherwise,

and knowing that many of those who lived

in the Grenfell Tower had experienced living

in countries where truth was very rarely heard.

We are blessed compared to so many,

yet we are made vulnerable by our own innocence.

We ask for discernment to know when we are being told half-truths,

or where there is more truth to find, or when we are being lied to.

We ask to be given the confidence to make up our own minds,

to seek and to find our own information, and to know when it is enough,

when it is time to clear our minds and hearts of too much news.

But most of all, we ask for the end of the scapegoating of the poor,

the stranger, and the ‘other’ in our press and in our communities,

and in our own hearts and minds.

We ask to see through the manipulation, through agenda, and prejudice,

and to become a hollow bone for the sharing of your loving presence.

This prayer ends with Fire. Let it be the Fire of Truth.

For this we pray.

Aho mitake oyasin, amen, blessed be. Inshallah.