Roots
This is the close of my last day in New England. At 8.10 p.m. tomorrow my flight leaves Boston MA for Manchester UK. In 15 days I have driven over 1,000 miles around six states. It has been quite an experience, day time temperatures have been as low as 42F and as high as 94F. Miles and miles of forests and lakes have filled the soul with beauty and the coast of Cape Cod has its own special charm.
In days gone by when people travelled they often took with them a little of the good soil from home. We are truly rooted in the place we live and we loose something of our soul if we are away for too long. The followers of big monotheistic faiths are sure their omnipotent God is everywhere and seem to have little regard for place. Christmas is still celebrated in December and Easter in March or April south of the Equator. But what about those of us who are polytheists, who touch "smaller" more intimate Goddesses and Gods?
At home in Brighid's Isles my roots go deep into the soil. I know all the places that Brighid has been honoured. The places She was celebrated by my ancestors, and is still celebrated today, are etched into the map of my heart. I know deep within my soul that Verbeia can be found in the Wharfe Valley, Rhiannon and Cerridwen in the valleys of Wales, the Morgans in Avalon.
When I travel the Goddesses I love come along in my heart and soul. I know they are with me. I know they watch over me as I travel. But I know too that they, like me, are divorced from their roots in place.
Here in New England Spirits of Place I cannot name have touched me. Like the American people themselves they have given me a warm and friendly welcome. I have honoured them in my heart. I have left offerings in thanks for their welcome and their guardianship of this beautiful part of the world. But I know they will never be part of me in the way Brighid, Cerridwen, Rhiannon and Verbeia are - for we are rooted in the same land.
Maybe this is why many Americans still long for a connection with Ireland or their ancestral home in Europe. These ancestral connections run much deeper than many people today are even willing to contemplate. One of the great advantages of being a polytheist, apart from the fact that it is the natural human religious state, is that it deepens one's roots and sense of place.
So it is good to travel, to see new places, to expand the mind and the heart, but it will be good to return home and to push my toes into the soil of the Goddesses I love, the soil of the ancestors I call upon each Samhain.
Labels: Connection, Roots, Spirits of Place
posted by Paul at 23:43
4 Comments:
My ancestors, too, were raised on British soil.
Here in Africa, however, the ancestral connection is more ancient- it calls to the ancestry of humankind.
So, although I have grandparents and parents only who died in this land, as a representative of humanity I have thousands and thousands of years' worth of predecessors to connect with come Samahin.
Yes, it's a difference (and boy do I agree with you about Christmas and Easter celebrations south of the equator, but I must look upon them as opportunities to educate)but I think it contributes to a more 'universal' outlook for southern hemisphere Pagans-or it should do!
Love,
Terri in Joburg
Oh yes, Africa the cradle of humanity from which all the ancestors hail. What a deep and sublime connection that is and every person has their own unique strand of connections that make up the web of the Goddess.
I have always puzzled why Christianity took root in Northern Europe, Africa and South America because in a real sense it seems very foreign with its roots in the deserts of the Middle East and a really pessimistic view of humanity and of the world.
Yes- I see Christianity as foreign to Africa and it's people, too.
I think we mustn't underestimate the tenaciousness of the missionaries, though, and the timing which saw them bringing western medicine, clothes, food and 'wealth' along with their doctrines.
It seems to have been largely a desire to prosper materially and to take advantage of these modern 'advantages' which swung the opinion in favour of the new religion.
Even today, we see an underlying assumption among black Africans that in some fashion it's superior to be a Christian.
Although I must say, in the last couple of years I've heard a whisper of the voice of the Mother, again, after all this time.
Love,
Terri, the optimist
in Joburg
Please excuse that misplaced apostrophe in the first sentence-I'm coming down with 'flu!
Love,
T in J
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