Dear
people of good heart,
Here
is the first of our full moon Novenas for the Fallen Through, which
will be devoted to Brigid and to seeking justice and healing for
the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire as the Public Inquiry begins. I find that I am struggling to find the right words, if there are any
right words, but perhaps that is why people do 'fall through'; because
we can't find the right words to stop them falling, to make their
suffering solid and real where we can offer help and solidarity, and so we have to try.
These
prayers are to Brigid, goddess and saint, who watches over the triple
fires of creativity, healing, and transformation, and who dwells at
the intersection of many faiths, particularly in our land Pagan and
Christian, and so offers a hopeful bridge between spiritual
traditions. She is also a holy woman who has been carried in the
hearts of many travellers on their long migrations, having threads of
her being woven into Scotland and Ireland, and as far as the
lands of the North and India. She finds her sisters in Sarasvati of
India, in the ‘serpent-skirted’ goddess of South America, in St
Lucia of Sweden. She has accompanied the poor and the sick. She has
midwifed the dead. And she has keened for the lost, which the aspect
we will begin with today. The Holy Woman, the Mother, the Goddess,
the Saint, is not the companion of the rich and the powerful, who
have so often cast their attention far from the sacred. She walks
always with the ‘fallen through’.
Here
is a poem which I wrote for her very long ago..
Serpent
Skirt (Dedicated to Monica Sjöö)
From
Mawu’s labyrinthine belly birthed
the
serpents of your feathered dreaming.
From
Coatlicue’s dark Underworld
the
threads of your soul shuttle weaving.
And
travelling deep in snake-blessed fire
You
sing the land worn old with waiting.
You
shed your skin, transform the earth;
your
beauty ever self-creating.
In
Tanit’s darkened wells of power
your
kundalini flames are rising.
And
deep in moist maternal earth
your
serpent song of life is sung.
Oracular
waters hold the key
to
memories of ancient knowing.
And
Sarasvati’s lute reveals the
sweetness
of your tongue.
Swan
feather winged, you fan the flame
of
creativity and learning.
Your
spinning wheel the tool on which
the
web of life is spun.
And
serpent coiled beneath the hearth
your
primal fire is stirring.
Your
snowdrops whisper courage to the sun.
(Jacqueline
Durban, 2006)
For
this novena, we will lift prayers together for the victims of
Grenfell, whether dead or homeless and beginning again, whether
scarred in body or in mind, for the Emergency Services who came to
their aid, for our press to report truthfully, for justice to be
done, for healing, for hearth and home, for lost creativity and
possibility, and for Brigid’s fire to be made holy again. And we
will speak the names of the dead and the missing.
Each
day for nine days I will write a prayer dedicated to St Brigid and to
one of the aspects of the Grenfell fire and its victims, and share
them here and everywhere. If you would like to join with me then you
need only set aside a few minutes each day and perhaps light a candle
for hope, for healing, for renewal, and for justice to be done,
together with making your prayer using the words that I share or your
own. I will also be creating a simple altar to remind me
of our intention and our work. There is no right or wrong way of
making these prayers. We will be heard. If you prefer not to pray,
but would like to support us, please do light a candle and/or keep
this work in mind.
Novena
for the Fallen Through ~ our first prayer
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.
As
the full moon begins her shining,
we
come to you in prayer.
As
the full moon begins her shining,
lighting
the shadows where injustice dwells,
we
come to you in prayer.
As
the full moon begins her shining,
reflecting
her light into bottomless
pools
of horror and grief,
we
come to you in prayer.
We
pray for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire,
we
ask for a blessing on the dead,
and
on the living who were burned in mind, in body, in spirit,
who
must begin again with a heavy burden to carry.
Keening
woman, weeping woman, grieving woman,
Swan
woman, singing your haunting song for the dying,
hear
our lament for the lost,
for
the terror they felt, for the screams they heard.
Hear
our lament for the lost,
for
the loss of life, of innocence, of trust.
Hear
our lament for the fallen through
as
they begin to walk the long road to justice,
hear
our lament for the hearts of those who
put
greed before life.
Brigid,
Mid-woman, Mid-Wife,
walker
of the space between life and death,
walker
of the space between injustice and justice,
join
with us in our grieving song,
help
our tears to become healing waters,
our
burning anger to become a good fire
that
we can carry on the long road to
righting
all that is wrong,
in
our land, in our society, in ourselves.
Brigid
of the many names,
we
pray for the missing and the dead of Grenfell.
We
offer you their many names as a prayer.
We
offer you the names of Mohammed Neda, Ali Yawar
Jafari,
Karen
Bernard, Lucas James, Rania Ibrahim and her daughters,
Fathia
and Hania, Stefan Anthony Mills, Ligaya Moore.
We
offer you the names 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
offer you the names of Mariem Elgwahry and her mother, Suhar,
Jessica
Urbano Ramirez, Deborah Lamprell, Steve Power,
Dennis
Murphy, Amal Ahmedin and Amaya Tuccu, of Isaac Paulos.
We
offer you the names of Marco Gottardi, and Gloria Trevisan,
Mohammed
Nurdu, Fouzia el-Wahabi, her husband, Abdul Aziz,
Nur
Huda and Mehdi, Yasin.
We
offer you the names of Nadia Loureda, Maria Del Pilar Burton,
Berkti
Haftom and her son, Biruk, Nura Jamal, her husband, Hashim,
their
children, Yahya, Firdaws, Yaqub, and of Kamru Miah.
We
offer you the names of Fatima Afrasehabi, her sister, Sakina,
Nadia
Choucair, her husband, Baseem Choukair,
their
children, Mierna, Fatima, Zainab,
their
grandmother, Sirria, of Raymond Bernard.
We
offer you the names 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.
As
the full moon begins her shining,
we
offer you the names of the dead and missing of Grenfell,
we
ask that they be kept safe in the arms of their holy ones.
We
ask that the living who saw, and heard, and screamed,
and
the families who lost loved ones and heart,
and
those who came to offer help, to offer comfort, to save,
be
held in their journeys of healing.
Let
the radiance of this full moon
and
your keening healing song,
light
their way into the blessed Otherworld,
or
back to life where we can offer them good company.
In solidarity. In humanity.
This prayer ends with fire. Let it be the fire of hope.
For
this we pray.
Aho
mitake oyasin, amen, blessed be. Inshallah.
