New Moon Ritual: November 2024
And then we would hear them. Wolves in the distance. Their howls breaking through the false security of our camp, rousing within us the memories of what we were running from and, more importantly, what we were seeking in the first place.
In a panic we uprooted our camp, barely better off than when we stopped that first night, and continued marching on.
Ritual: “Sunlight Is The Best Disinfectant” Summer Solstice Ritual
As I’m writing this, misinformation and disinformation are flooding social media as part of a coordinated global campaign to undermine democracy and fully rupture any attempt at consensus reality. In the midst of the 2024 general election, one party is helmed by an actual insurrectionist who has a 50/50 shot at reclaiming power and establishing a theocratic autocracy in the United States, all of which is enabled by members of that party spewing outright lies without any meaningful pushback. Every week we seem to uncover yet another example of right-wing billionaires buying votes on the Supreme Court.
The ritual outlined below builds upon this idea and weaves in the energy of the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, with the goal of dragging these lies and liars into the stark light of the sun. This ritual harnesses the powerful solar energy of this time of the year to shine a spotlight on their corruption. This ritual calls in the purifying flames of the sun to burn away the darkness to expose their machinations.
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Leonard Matlovich
Leonard Matlovich was an American Vietnam War veteran, recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, and was the first openly gay service member to purposely out himself to the military in order to fight their ban on gay men serving in the armed forces. He is also the first named openly gay person to appear on the cover of a U.S. news magazine.
Personal: Magical Thinking Won’t Stop Fascism
I’m writing this blog post after driving to work listening to a podcast that just made me more and more frustrated. I’m not going to say which podcast it was because I’ve spent my entire adult life on the internet and the current social media culture doesn’t exactly allow for nuanced critique. The episode was about taking care of yourself in this larger socio-political global moment and navigating the feelings of shame, guilt, obligation that come up when feeling like you need to prioritize your own safety and sanity. This is something that deeply resonates with me right now and I was hoping for a few “A-ha!” moments, and instead I got a greatest hits of what I can only call privileged magical thinking.
Personal: Writing A Personal Code Of Ethics
A recent assignment, almost a sort of final for the module, was to synthesize all the readings we’d done around morality, values, and ethics and to write my own personal Code of Ethics. I was surprised by how challenging this assignment was for me! The purpose wasn’t to write a sprawling thesis on our own ethical code but to boil it down to the real heart of what we believe.