2023 the year we learn to listen to life

Week 32--in which the fire reminds us how to pray

Friends, soul writers, mystics, witches, and lovers of prayer,

I had all kinds of beautiful ideas for today's newsletter. I wanted to talk about finding your Heart's Desire, the one thing that just keeps getting richer and more thrilling as the years pass. I know my heart's desire is deep soul writing. After 26 years it still makes my heart sing.

But that's not today's Notes from the Field.

Because of Fire.

The fires in Hawaii are a shock for everyone, but for me and everyone in all my prayer intensives, they feel personal.

• Because of Emma Kupu Mitchell, who has been our depth numerologist and shamanic astrologer for years.
• And Kahu Lahela Johnson, with whom I've shared 8 prayer intensives on the Hawaiian shamanic prayer of forgiveness.
• And Geralyn Camarillo who makes all our chaplets and pendulums.
• And dozens of members of intensives over the years who live on the islands of Hawaii.

I just couldn't write about my Heart's Desire today. The joy of that concept felt too out of rhythm with what is happening in Hawaii as the fires reveal the horror of the Wasteland.

In preparation for the first Learning Gathering in The A.R.T. of Becoming a Witch that is happening today at 2pm eastern, I've been making and walking the ancient 7-circuit labyrinth at the heart of this intensive and all 7 intensives in The Witch Sequence.

When I walked it on Saturday, something happened.

Something that stunned me into a deep bone memory of:

• the real purpose of the original labyrinth
• why labyrinths are found on tomb walls
• the purpose of the myrrhophores, the ancient priestesses who served the mysteries of life, death, and rebirth
• the hidden well at the center of the labyrinth--why labyrinths are always connected with water
• the deep meaning of the ancient Celtic story of the Maidens of the Wells
• what really happened when Mary Magdalene waited outside Yeshua's tomb
• and why witches are not only called to heal the Wasteland, but are the only ones who can

I could barely stand after all this became evident. And I wasn't the only one. Other members of this prayer intensive are having similar experiences as we cross the threshold between worlds in the mystical theta brain wave state.

I want to share all this with you, but not until I've digested it with everyone in this intensive. Especially Kahu Lahela in Hawaii. Something very large and sacred is being born. But it's in seed form.

If you want to experience all this in community, you can still register for the intensive. The link is at the top of this newsletter and at the bottom.

But in the meantime, I wondered what to put in today's Notes from the Field. I felt like it had to be a prayer. But I don't have any prayers that fit death and destruction and fire. 

Or so I thought. 

But when I scrolled through my computer on the way to open the file called Prayer Artist, where I store all my prayers, I noticed a file I haven't opened for years called Poems by Janet.

I opened it. 

And lo and behold, I have written a prayer about fire!

I started to read it and OH I remembered! I wrote this prayer for the rededication of the Peace Chapel at Unity Church of Clearwater that was destroyed by fire in 2005. 

As I read it aloud tonight (6pm on Saturday) I realized I was given the perfect healing prayer for our experience of fire in 2023 eighteen years ago, long long before prayer artist!

I recommend reading this aloud and letting it do its healing work on your scorched heart. 

Invitation from the Fire

A dedication blessing for the Unity Church of Clearwater Peace Chapel

This is where it all begins
The fire
Right here, right now

I didn’t want the fire
I didn’t choose fire
None of us wanted the fire

We would not have said: Yes, let’s have a fire
Yes, let’s force ourselves to change
Move outdoors, step aside from what we know, what we do, what we expect
Leave our comfy comfort, our little home,
our lives as we know them

Why, yes, let’s call upon fire to transform us

No, the fire had to come to us
Invite us
Slither its way into our lives, up these walls,
into this ceiling, and into this air

The fire had to welcome us—invite us—
to the dance

Right this way, little children,
to the Red Hot Blue Cool brand new dance
The swing and sway of fire and peace,
fire and peace, fire and peace

Fire is red hot

Fire changes things fast, in a flash, in a moment
What was, is not; what we knew,
we can’t be sure of
What we did, we can’t do anymore;
what we expected is gone, simply gone

Peace is blue cool

Peace changes things more slowly, subtly,
over time, as hearts melt a little, shift a little, move a little, blend a little, and then,
a little more

Until I am in you and you are in me

This is where it begins
The fire
Right here and right now

Because I am the fire:
I am hot red change
I choose to be red change

And I am the peace:
I am that cool blue change
I choose to be blue change too

That makes me a dancer,
a Red Hot Blue Cool dancer

I move fast, twirling and spinning in the fire power of the Goddess
And I turn slowly, bending softly in the peaceful strength of Her

I am a dancer
The fire invited me to this dance
And I accept

From this time and this place on,
I dance in the power and peace of Her

May we all heed the call of fire to heal the wasteland, 

Janet

PS: here's the link to join our labyrinth-walking, threshold-crossing intensive

The A.R.T. of Becoming a Witch

How to Awaken, Remember, and Trust
Your Innate Ability to Cross the Threshold Between Worlds

website: janetconner.com

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