Inside: What I’m thinking about on my Summer Road Trip, plus an invitation to our Full Moon in Aquarius ritual this Wednesday 7/29 at 6pm PT. We’ll be working Lúnasa magic to call in the solar powers of confidence and gratitude, as well as preparing for our Lion’s Gate ritual (since the Lion’s Gate begins on August 1st).
One of my research questions for my doctoral dissertation is simply: why do some people care about the land while others do not? The third chapter is set at Big Trees State Park, the very place you see in the image above.
The Sierra Miwok people had made their summer home amidst these trees for over 10,000 years. Less than one year after white people ‘discovered’ these Giant Sequoia, one of them – the largest of them, over 1,200 years old – had been cut down, its bark stripped and shipped back to the East Coast to be put on display at a novelty show for a nickel a ticket.
There are many reasons some people can’t seem to recognize our moral imperative to honor the beauty of the living world. But one major reason for it, I believe, is the loss of land-based rituals.
Rituals are generative. They conjure our systems of ethics from the stone of our imaginations. They weave together our relations to the land and to each other.
When those rituals cease to exist, so do our relations to the land.
Durational spells require more gumption to complete, but they also offer us more time to internalize the practices that get us great results.
Even before I started Mystery Cult in 2022, I’d been leading this Lion’s Gate ritual with my online witch community.
The Lion’s Gate opens on the 8th day of the 8th month, when the Sun is in the sign of the Lion and the air is ripe with heat.
Imagine this time as a porthole.
Crossing the threshold of the Lion’s Gate takes courage. On the other side of that gate is you, burning brighter, using your true voice, and standing in your dignity as your most authentic self.
Many things need to fall away before we step through that gate.
We must let go of excuses we’ve made as to why we’re not doing the thing. We must let go of the fear that we’ll be punished, or that we’ll do it wrong.
The good news is that on the other side of that gate is Your Calling. The contribution you’re here to make. The thing only you can do.
Your calling, longing for you to begin.
Preparation guidelines for the Lúnasa/Lion’s Gate moon ritual on Wednesday are in the subscriber section below.
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