“I am that soundless, boundless, bitter sea.
All tides are mine, and answer unto me.
Tides of the airs, tides of the inner earth;
The secret, silent tides of death and birth.
Tides of men’s souls, and dreams, and destiny –
Isis Veiled, and Ea, Binah, Ge.”
~ Dion Fortune, “The Sea Priestess”
Staring out at the endless sea, there is a deep primal presence that churns within. It rises. It falls. It beckons. It lures. It dreams. It envelopes. It coaxes. It devours. It renews. As we peer out to that something beyond the horizon and below the surface, we feel it, but what is it? Do we understand the enormity of it all? As mere mortals, do we even have the capacity to even scrape the surface of it? Try as we might, just as our ancestors did, we stare out to the endless sea and feel… something. That deep churning, the longing, that hunger and need for connection and meaning. As we search for understanding, we seek to know what our purpose is. We can feel the ancient and primal forces that are all around us and we try to understand them. As we do this, something shifts below the water’s surface before us. From the deepest depths, she emerges. The Cailleach rises once again.
There are stories of the Cailleach rising from the depths of the earth to bring winter to the lands. There are also stories of her emerging from the depths of ocean so she can walk upon the earth, collecting the bones of humans and animals that have passed. By collecting the bones, she honors life. The Crone, the Hag, the Bone Mother, is not one that brings forward death out of fear or revenge. No. She emerges to collect what has passed in order to honor and care for the life that once was. The life that has lived and loved. The life that deserves to be celebrated. And she also collects the lives and pieces that we shunned, forgotten, vilified, and denied. Those bones also crave to be known, held, and witnessed. The Bone Mother walks the land to collect them and bring them to her cave. You can say that the winter she brings is destructive, harsh, and cold. However, it is necessary in order to assists us. We need the time and space to go within ourselves so we can surrender what has died within us. How much do we carry that weighs us down? How much do we carry and hide in our bones that keeps us from moving forward? How much fear and grief do we cling to, keeping us from love and new life? The Bone Mother understands. She is that primal force, the ancient tide of life and death, that moves in ways we can only try to begin to understand. Like “Isis Veiled, and Ea, Binah, Ge”, The Cailleach is a primal force that is deeper than the oceans and is older that time. Talk to her. Open the lines of communication to your primal forces within you so you can open the primal forces to her. What is it that stirs beneath your surface? What has the Bone Mother come to collect from you?
Take some time to contemplate the primal forces all around you. What are your feelings about the endless and unknown depths of the ocean? Endings are necessary. Winter is necessary. Destruction is the primal force that brings forward the power to shift, change, and to create the space for new beginnings. It is not always easy. It is not pretty. It is not what we may want. Sometimes, it is what we need in order to release the past and what holds us back. It can clear your inner landscape to make room for rebirth and creation. Talk with the Bone Mother. What wisdom does she share with you?
Be well today and offer yourself the space to allow what you need to come to you.
Renee Bedard ~ The Whispering Crow
The Whispering Crow 