An Earth Day Call to Action

On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets in protest of environmental destruction to feed the machine of consumerism. This protest was sparked by a major oil spill, and the reverence of seeing the first color photos of the Earth from space. Earth Day was a grass-roots movement organized by those who had learned the value and power of the collective voice from the civil engagment of the 1960’s, and the change that they knew was possible when the people of this country come together.

In December of that same year, congress established the Environmental Protection Agency and the decade that followed was full of legistlation, and election campaigns, centered around conservation.

Slowly, this movement has been hijacked by corporate interests, and Earth Day turned into a day to sell more “earth friendly products,” rather than demand systemic reform to actually protect and steward the Earth.

Those first color photographs of Earth from space were taken by the astronauts aboard Apollo 8 on December 24, 1968. Now, 57 years later, the astronauts aboard the Artemis ll mission were the first humans to ever see the dark side of the moon, and have accomplished the feat of travelling further from Earth than any humans before them.

We have entered the age of Artemis. The wild, sovereign sister of Apollo. She who never took a mate, who maintained her chastity, and who spent her days with wild creatures. She to whom young women were devoted, living in her temples, and learning to be Arktoi, little She-Bears. She who embodies the wild, sensual, whole and changing, shadow side of feminine nature.

Buying “green products” won’t save the Earth.

Attending earth day vendor’s markets won’t save the Earth.

Buying organic vegetables won’t save the Earth.

We must become Arktoi. Little She-Bears. Mama bears who act on behalf of the Earth. We must remember how to embody sensual feminine power, and rage. How to put our bodies between violence and innocence. How to put children, rivers, trees, potable water, at the center of our decision making. How to tear down the pedestals of power with our teeth and our claws. And we must remember how to demand the men in our lives join us in this posture. To bare their teeth and their claws against violence that would harm innocence.

May this Earth Day be a radical initiation and awakening of repressed feminine rage in service to Life. May Artemis and her changing sister Selene call upon the powers that we have disowned in ourselves as not “feminine” enough, and put those powers in service to Life.

May we grow claws. Let our lips curl into snarls. Bare our teeth and remember how to growl and hiss. And may we feel no shame in this, but instead feel the throbbing hot power of love at its core which connects us to all things.

Our rage is holy.

Our love is sacred.

Our instinct to protect innocence is a sacrement.

All of the layers of gatekeeping and required permissions to access these holy vestments must be destroyed now.

Our fierce, raw, authentic love of Life and protection of Life is the only credential we need to directly access this power in the name of Love.

Trust yourself. Trust your instincts. Trust your growl.

The Great Mother needs us now. Not for her own survival, she has survived worse than us. But so that we, humans, can remember our rightful place as stewards and kin to all beings.

It is the time of the She-Bear. The She-Wolf. The Phantom Queen of the Battlefield. The Fierce Hag of the Icy Cliffs.

She is awake, in you and in me. And we can trust Her, this face of the Divine, to guide us back to balance.