For me, now, the Goddess is the name we put on the great processes of birth, growth, death, and regeneration that underlie the living world. The Goddess is the presence of consciousness in all living beings; the Goddess is the great creative force that spun the universe out of coiled strings of probability and sets the stars spinning and dancing in spirals that our entwining DNA echoes as it coils, uncoils, and evolves… We do not believe in the Goddess, we connect with Her, through the moon, the stars, the ocean, the earth, through trees, animals, through other human beings, through ourselves. She is here. She is the full circle: earth, air, fire, water and essence — body, mind, spirit, emotions, change.

-Starhawk

The earthquake cannot harm the mysterious sky no matter how much its powerful shaking overturns and destroys.
The ocean cannot harm the mysterious sky no matter how much its turbulent waves flood and destroy.
The fire cannot harm the mysterious sky no matter how much its angry flames burn and destroy.
The hurricane cannot harm the mysterious sky no matter how much its violent winds blow and destroy.

-Thinley Norbu

Where you see only darkness and demons, my love
know them to be a part of you
showing their faces and barred teeth
only – in truth – to ask for your healing touch.
Know the louder they roar
the more they need a hug.
Know no matter what comes to you
your essence cannot be harmed
so if you shake in fear when the shadow
is about you, my love
remember this simple truth:
You are the pure light of awareness
nested deep in the one heart of
love and compassion.
Seek yourself in nothing outside.
the only way you see and comprehend
anything at all
is because your light shines upon it…
Life takes place in the dark womb of the Mother
where all we ever encounter
is our own fingers and toes.
You see all these things that disturb you
are just parts of you
but you may forget and say,
“Ah! I know what that shape and sound is!
A monster!!”
Yet the only thing that makes a demon seem
different from an angel
– the only thing that makes them so mighty –
is that we claim them to be monsters,
we think they are something they’re not.
So when you see only darkness and demons, my love
know to look in your very full and beaming chest
for all the love and compassion
all these parts of you could ever need
or dream of.
Remember to ease your minds’ worry –
the essence of all is love,
no matter whether it’s remembered or forgotten
this light is here always in you
whispering with the gentleness
of a lullaby
let the light out
give all wings to fly…

xx, Luna Marie Valin

Formless metamorphosis…

Tilt and melt into new
uncharted space
secrets of Grandmother Spiders’ lace
Father Formless
meets Mother Magic
the spirit of one bliss
in the art of the kiss.
Bend and wind a fine song
that only the bee can hear.
Walk quietly in gentle stride
legs like the ocean ride.
Hand in hand
remember a wholeness so intimate
a thousand breaths dance
the hair on my neck entranced.
The lines of bare skin
brush together and apart,
as the mind finds stillness
in combined consciousness.
See, held within my core
there’s room for your space,
for you to stretch and contract
til there’s no “other” face.
Here, a wealth of knowledge
means opening your eyes
so wide they bathe in the nectar
of pure divine light
Here, where I find refuge in me
and in you, and you in you, and you in me
the heart pulses free.
The rhythm of nature rejoices
in its truth knowing itself
as no self at all.
The paint of masks
drips up and falls.
Names find peaceful demise
in the carvings or plants that burn
in a fire that whispers
“There’s nothing here to mourn.
Do not cry.
Nothing dies.
Nothing is born.”
In the womb of gravity
faces and hearts ask constantly
to remember the truest essence
that exists beyond all transcendence.
In Divine Union there is no “union” anymore
because where souls and symphonies
lie into the river of Life’s breath
they become it.
Not as though they weren’t it before
but in that moment, they search no more.
So the river flows freely
as water sees its essence
in wood, metal, earth, and fire.
Where did “we” go?
When Father Formless
meets Mother Magic,
when above knows it’s luminosity in below,
and below knows it’s vastness in above,
there is only love.

xx, Luna Marie

Love her

but leave her wild.

-Atticus

So when I see people showing sexual ambiguity, or showing flesh, or dancing to music, I applaud all of this; because it’s an impulse to return to the body; what is authentic and archaic. At the center of impulses is the desire to return to a world of magical empowerment & feeling; & at the center of that impulse is the Shaman, intoxicated on plants, speaking with the spirit helpers, dancing on the moonlight & vivifying a world of conscious mystery. The world is a living mystery, our birth, our death, our being in the moment are mysteries. They are doorways of self exploration & empowerment & hope for the human enterprise.

-Terrance McKenna

I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone’s heart. I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark.

-Raymond Carver

Dare to see yourself realistically, especially to see the gifts and talents no one has ever taken the time to recognize.

-Lorie Dechar

Allow your life to unfold naturally
Know that it too is a vessel of perfection.

-Lau Tzu

Never before had he been so suddenly and so keenly aware of the texture of a tree’s skin and the life within it. He felt a delight in wood and the touch of it, neither as forester nor as carpenter; it was the delight of the living tree itself.

-J.R.R. Tolkien