Pagan view of the Qld flood crisis
Sitting here with no internet or phone, listening only to the now familiar sound of television choppers overhead I cannot help reflecting on the flood crisis that now has 75% of our state declared a national disaster zone. After leaving my home late at night with no power as the high tide came in I have now just returned. A few blocks from me a deep lake has appeared where the train tracks and industrial zone once was and the news is filled with heartbreaking stories of lost lives and homes.
My senses feel so heightened in these last few days, listening and watching the land. It has amazed me how similar we all are. As the waters rolled in, people scurried about- such a nervous energy in the air. I sat in my garden watching the birds doing much the same. As the water level rose and started swallowing streets, people began to be displaced, homes were lost. I walked down to the waters edge and saw snakes, legless lizards trying find somewhere to hide, spiders clutching their eggs all scrambling on the flood waters edge. I saved several of them moving them to higher ground.
I find myself in two minds in this crisis. One the Morrigain Mother; as the waters approached packing my bags, being fiercely protective of my baby and sand bagging my doors on alert, the sense of my sword on my back as I watch so defensively the water level on my road and the creek that runs so close to my home. Secondly, the Danu Earth Mother is glowing in me, feeling the immense power of HER flowing across our country with such force and magnificence.
While my heart breaks for the many displaced people and animals, I have not felt afraid or angry during this crisis. I trust that our Earth Mother has much to do to align herself, and I watch with excitement to see the great powerful Mother shift what She needs to. Before my power went out two days ago, I received countless emails and face book requests. ‘Stop the floods’ ‘meditation against the floods’ ‘healing energy to stop the waters’. Face book pages full of comments about the violent or angry waters, what is the earth telling us, what have we done? I have found it perplexing reading these. Perhaps it is because I come from a pagan and not christian perspective. Christianity -a religion that views nature as something to be controlled, or as a sign of punishment from God. I neither think she should be controlled- nor do I have any inclination to control Her. I do not believe I have that right. She is the Earth Mother. She knows what she is doing. I do not want to stop the floods, or meditate to lower the waters and change Her course of action. Presuming I believed in the first place that I had more power than the Earth Mother. She is doing what she needs to and I will nothing to get in her way.
Floods are a part of the natural world, part of Her cycle; she uses them periodically while balancing in Her ecosystem. In my research, my visioning and my work as a Priestess I have found that the Earth Mother does many things in the natural world to bring things into balance, as they should be. Shifting lay lines, song lines and energy webs across the lands. She does this without personal vendetta to anyone. It is not punishment, it is not a message, and you are not blessed if your house was spared in these last few days, as mine was. She is just doing what she needs to, aligning the Earth, and the best we can do is just listen and get out of Her way. She is doing great work of a grand scale, and she will not stop for us.
Our land is flooding; moving and creating new lines in the Earth, and not coincidently three cyclones are also shifting and swirling the seas right now too. Our destroyer Goddess is at work, with Her great power of transformation. She is re-birthing, and to birth and renew there first must be destruction. This is no accident, nor punishment; it is the natural order of the Earth.
The birds are now busy re-building their nests as I put back all my belongings that have been precariously balanced on tables. The thick smell of the Death Hag is heavy in the air and I sit for a moment and welcome Her, and wait for the fertile birth that will follow. I listen to our now labouring mother moving intensely through the Earth and I pledge to take time to be with Her in this time of great transformation. Just like labour, I will not fight against this great power, but surrender to the immensity of it, and let the amazing process of deep darkness, transform the blood and tears into a the light of new creation.
Jodie Danaan
January 14th 2010
