Here
is the ninth, and so the last, of our November Novenas for the Fallen
Through, which for this month are devoted to Saint Cuthbert and to a
call for protection for our wild kinfolk. If you would like to read
more about this month’s novena you can read our first prayer here.
We
have already lifted prayers for our badgers, our hedgehogs, and for
the street trees of Sheffield, for
otter, cormorant, and seal, and for sharks and orcas, for stag
beetles, for starlings, and for water voles. Today, we must return to
ourselves, perhaps having learned something of the lives and
struggles of our wild family, both those close to us and those who
live in ways that we can hardly imagine, such as our sea kin, the
sharks, orcas, and seals. Perhaps we will feel more deeply woven into
the web of things, or have found a new creature to speak up for, or
cried tears of blessing for what has been lost.
Rumi
said, “There
is sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of
power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are
messengers of overwhelming grief and unspeakable love." I
know
that I have learned a
lot, cried a lot, and that
I have very much valued making this deep journey with St Cuthbert. I
am so very fond of him. Anne, a a Facebook friend who has a long and
devoted relationship with him, told me that she and her father refer
to him as ‘Cuthbert Greenpeace’. I liked that. And I liked that,
this very evening, he helped me to make a big decision when I was
reminded of the dream I had about him and the breaking of the cross
to reveal a Tree of Life. He is a fine soul friend.
We
have shared many stories of Cuddy during this Novena but the other
day I was reminded of one that speaks deeply of relationship,
devotion, and how powerfully woven in we can become with what, and
who, we love.
St
Cuthbert had a dear friend for many years called Hereberht,
later St Herbert of
Derwentwater in Cumbria, who was also an anchorite (someone who has
withdrawn from the world for spiritual contemplation) living on a
small island. Each year it was Hereberht’s habit to visit his
friend on the Holy Isle to seek spiritual instruction. In 686CE he
heard that Cuthbert
was visiting Carlisle and chose to go and see him there. On meeting,
Cuthbert told him, “Brother Herebehrt, tell me now all that you
have need to ask or speak, for never shall we see one another again
in this world. For I know that the time of my decease is at hand.”
Hearing this, Herebehrt fell to his knees and wept, begging Cuthbert
to obtain grace from God for them both to enter heaven at the same
time. Cuthbert prayed and then said, “Rise, my brother weep not but
rejoice that the mercy of God has granted our desire.” And so,
Cuthbert returned to Lindisfarne and Herebehrt returned home but soon
he became ill with a long sickness. Both men died on the same day;
20th
March, 687CE. In 1374, Thomas Appleby, Bishop of Carlisle, granted an
indulgence of forty days for anyone who, in honour of St Herbert,
visited his island in Derwentwater and was present at the Mass of St
Cuthbert, sung annually by the Vicar of Crosthwaite. Such deep love
that one could not bear to live this life without the other.
This
is the love that our culture has
lost for our wild kin; the sense of interdependence, of devotion, of
knowing that we could not live one without the other. The
relationship of Cuthbert and Hereberht, and Cuthbert with his wild,
and our’s with our own, reminds me of Glenn
Albrecht’s
phrase
‘soliphilia’,
which he describes
as 'love and responsibility for a place, bioregion, planet, and the
unity of interrelated interests within it', 'soli' coming from
'solidarity'; fellowship of responsibilities and interests, from the
French solidarité, from solidaire, interdependent, from Old French,
in common, from Latin solidus, solid, whole.' I wrote more about this here; 'Soliphilia: On the Seeing of Stars'
I
hope that we find many, many things to fall in love with in the days
and months to come and that we are brave enough to cry sacred tears
when we must.
Novena
for the Fallen Through
Protection,
justice, and shining health for our wild kin.
This
is a prayer is for the warp and weft, for the weaving of the web.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
The
first is for the badger people.
We
seek to weave a prayer of protection and bright and thriving life
for
our companion of soil, sett, and ancient
soul.
We
honour badger as digger and unearther, old tunneler,
keeper
of the songlines of burrow and root, wild forager,
quiet
earth hunter, beloved of the Elder Mother,
lover
of the soil, warrior spirit, wild
gardener,
planter
of primroses, carrier
of earth scars, watcher of time,
guardian
of land, mapper of memory,
snuffler
of
spirit
paths,
wisdom-keeper
of home and hearth and clan,
story-holder
of the ancient tales of land and tribe.
We
seek to weave a wild spell of word and prayer to surround
our
badgers, tonight and every night.
We
weave a thread of good company and solidarity with the badger people,
our
wild kin.
The
second is for the hedgehog people.
Blessed,
furzepigs, tip-toe urchins,
we
come to you in sorrow for the ways in which
we
have contributed to your suffering and your decline.
May
we come to see the beauty and potential in seeming untidiness,
value
the wild poetry of leaf and woodpile,
the
silver trail of slug and snail,
knowing
that they too are our neighbours and our relations.
Help
us to be more mindful in our use of pesticides,
casting
them aside forever as we truly weave ourselves
into
the ecosystem that we too are part of,
listening
to, rather than dominating, the earth,
finding
natural ways to bring health to our ordinary Edens,
knowing
that all creatures come to teach us balance,
how
to care in wilder and better ways.
We
weave a thread of good company and solidarity
with
the badger and hedgehog people,
our
wild kin.
The
third is for Sheffield’s street trees, the standing people
We
ask for strength and protection for all
in
Sheffield who stand for tree and home,
all
who speak truth to power,
knowing
that attacks on people, badgers, trees,
and
all wild kin, come from the same place of
fear
for what is truly alive in a world of ghosts.
Let
there be justice in Sheffield for trees and people,
rooted
in wild grace and the sweet soil of community.
We
weave a thread of good company and solidarity
with
the badger. hedgehog, and standing people,
our
wild kin.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
The
fourth is for the seal, otter, and cormorant people.
We
ask for the return of health to our waters,
wild
children of the Silver Salmon Mother seeking Source,
salt
and sweet, fish brimming,
overflowing
with diversity of life,
not
valued for what we can take,
the
money we can make,
but
for itself as the womb from which we all were born.
We
weave a thread of good company and solidarity
with
the badger. hedgehog, standing, otter, cormorant, and seal people,
our
wild kin.
The
fifth is for the shark and the orca people.
May
all beings of the sea that you so loved,
where
you sang Pslam songs to time and tide,
be
bountifully blessed and wild with mothering,
hallowed
with fathering,
and
may we, in the name of salt and sea,
walk
in grace with grief and gratitude
until
justice comes for all beings of land, sea, and sky.
We
weave a thread of good company and solidarity
with
the badger. hedgehog, standing, otter,
cormorant,
seal, shark, and orca people,
our
wild kin.
The
sixth is for the stag beetle people.
May
the stag beetle kin thrive,
may
they teach us gentleness in seeming fierceness,
to
not judge by appearances, to love the unfamiliar.
In
following the tracks of the little deer people,
may
we weave a web of noticing,
shimmering
threads of right relationship,
woven
with the family of all beings.
And
in that weaving let there be
a
mending between human and wild,
a
knowing that we can take communion with life,
that
we can be forgiven, make amends.
We
weave a thread of good company and solidarity
with
the badger. hedgehog, standing, otter,
cormorant,
seal, shark, orca, and stag beetle people,
our
wild kin.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
The
seventh is for the starling people.
May
the starling kin thrive.
In
a human world where so many walk with loneliness,
let
them teach us the value of good company
the
protection of community,
the
joy of dancing in constellation,
and
may humankind and starlingkind
become
celestial family,
a
twinkling stellar society,
find
that our futures are entangled,
that
it’s written in our stars.
We
weave a thread of good company and solidarity
with
the badger. hedgehog, standing, otter,
cormorant,
seal, shark, orca, stag beetle, and starling people,
our
wild kin.
The
eighth is for the water vole people.
May
the water vole people thrive,
once
more become the tiny engineers,
the
cornerstone of the cathedral of our wild,
find
safety and peace in our waters,
help
us to regain balance,
allow
us again to sink into stories
without
the taste of bittersweet,
become
the awe-filled, open-hearted earth-children
that
we were born to be.
We
weave a thread of good company and solidarity
with
the badger. hedgehog, standing, otter,
cormorant,
seal, shark, orca, stag beetle, starling people,
water
vole and mink people,
our
wild kin.
The
ninth is for the web.
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.
Meanwhile
the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are
moving across the landscapes,
over
the prairies and the deep trees,
the
mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile,
the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are
heading home again.
Whoever
you are, no matter how lonely,
the
world offers itself to your imagination,
calls
to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting,
over
and over, announcing your place
in
the family of things.
Blessed Cuthbert,
Beloved Cuddy,Saint of Salt and Fire,
Antlered ancestor,
Friend of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
May our string of prayer beads,
formed in the starry sea where all things are one,
gathered on the shore of meeting,
be filled with life, love, and wild justice
for all beings on this earth we share.
For this we pray.
Aho mitake oyasin, amen, blessed be. Inshallah.
“For
Earth to survive, she needs your heart. The songbirds and the salmon
need your heart too, no matter how weary, because even a broken heart
is still made of love. They need your heart because they are
disappearing, slipping into that longest night of extinction, and the
resistance is nowhere in sight. We will have to build that resistance
from whatever comes to hand: whispers and prayers, history and
dreams, from our bravest words and braver actions. It will be hard,
there will be a cost, and in too many implacable dawns it will seem
impossible. But we will have to do it anyway. So gather your heart
and join with every living being.” (Deep
Green Resistance)
References:
a beautiful meditation on the web that sustains us all, on our kinship, on what I hope---so very much---will lead to our redemption.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. I hope for that too xx
DeleteGreat post! I never really thought about it but the best posts are always "Do" posts.
ReplyDeleteHoney
Thanks for the ideas!:)