Week 32--in which we ask "When does it end?" and Hyldemoer of Wyrd answers

Beautiful Ones,

I have spent every moment this week—waking and sleeping—remembering ancient Minoan Crete. Cathy Stevens Pratt and I just finished preparing a massive visual presentation on Crete for our first Learning Gathering in ART 6.

A surprising thing happened that I think might be a helpful tool for all of us wondering how to survive living in this violent patriarchal wasteland.

Cathy and I are not archaeologists, historians, or classicists. What we are are mystics, artists, and intrepid explorers of the imaginal realms.

We are rememberers. The ones who remember the once was—the time before patriarchy.

It is important to remember that patriarchy is a blip in history. An ugly blip. A destructive blip. But still, just a dollop of time in our long presence on earth. And just a millisecond in the multi-billion year story of our precious blue planet.

Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor, authors of the seminal book, The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth say it clearly:

“The god of patriarchy from the beginning has been a god of war and economic exploitation; incessant warfare and economic exploitation have characterized the four-thousand-year history of this male god, a timespan that is very brief relative to the 300.000- 500,000 years of humanoid life on earth, but still long enough to make us feel, as a species, that ‘it has always been this way.’”

It's comforting to remember that it wasn’t always this way.

And thanks to spending this past week doing nothing but creating a story-filled visual Immersion Tour through Minoan Crete, Cathy and I have been able to remember that the last great matriarchal culture on earth was real. And prospered in peace for over a thousand years. In our war-laden world it is next to impossible to imagine living in peace for a millennium. Under patriarchy we have not lived without war for more than a decade, maybe two.

So, despite being aware of the horrors unfolding in our world: war, starvation, genocide, injustice…. I woke today in joy. Why? Because all I did all night was dream of living in Crete.

• I could smell the salt air, taste the olives, embrace the smiling people
• I remembered what it was like to live in interdependent community
• My hands remembered making art: Clay. Fabric. Jewelry. Frescoes.
• I remembered living in a land and time devoted to the Goddess

All the pictures Cathy and I put together for our Immersion Tour on Sunday, entered my dreams.

But I wasn’t dreaming about Crete, I was in Crete. And it made me so very happy.

I highly recommend finding things to read and do and watch and remember that remind you that we are sacred creative beings capable of healing the wasteland and living in peace.

How?

Well, for that, I remembered how Hyldemoer of Wyrd answered that question three and a half years ago when I was in the baby stages of creating a year-long witch mystery school, Remembering the Songlines of the Witches.

Hyldemoer was a gift from a brilliant doll maker in England, Polly Paton Brown. You cannot see beneath Hyldemoer’s needle-felt skin, but underneath Polly embedded names of sovereign women. Boudica, for example, who came within a hair of defeating Rome, has her name emblazoned across Hyldemoer’s back.

Polly said Hyldemoer wanted us to remember that Boudica has our back. That makes me feel a bit stronger.

When Hyldemoer of Wyrd arrived, I set up a silk pillow bed for her and held her hand each night to pray. Then, in the morning, I brought her into my office where she has a special place beside my painting of Jeanne d’Arc.

They make quite the power pair.

One night, Hyldemoer woke me with a command to record this message. She is a very commanding, demanding presence! This became our mantra for Remembering the Songlines of the Witches.

I read it today to Cathy and was startled to realize that this message wasn’t just for Songlines.

Read it and see for yourself if Hyldemoer isn’t telling us exactly what we need to do to heal the wasteland and remember how to live in peaceful communities.

Hyldemoer of Wyrd speaks

received by Janet Conner in the early dark hours of 1-20-2022

I, Hyldemoer of Wyrd, child of the moon,
ancient of days, now speak
And you, children of the same moon, now listen

I have returned to you at this time,
with this face, in this dress, with these sacred tools
to tell you a story and remind you that you are that story

your voice sings the song of the story
your heart remembers the seed of the story
your hands and my hands hold the shape of the story

the story, the original story, is alive

It begins:

In the beginning
before the gods of law and light
we were many

we ran in the rivers
thundered over the mountains
danced in the sacred dirt

we tended the fires
we protected the seeds
we fed the children with milk and memory

and it was good

And in our hearts we cradled the starter—
the original starter

Then the suffering began
the rivers suffered
the seeds suffered
and the children became hungry

When does it end
when does it end
when does it end? you ask

I answer:

It ends when you speak
it ends when you tend the fires
It ends when you protect the seeds
It ends when you feed the children
milk and memory

It ends when you sing the songlines of the witches

I, Hyldemore of Wyrd have spoken

____________________________________________

She always ends her messages with that emphatic line. There is no doubt. She is clear about every word she chooses. I must simply write them down.

I'm so grateful that i saved this powerful message. The wasteland is in even worse shape than it was in 2022.

The members of ART 6 are going to embrace Hyldemoer's answer.

• We are going to explore what wants to be spoken--and speak.
• We are going to find the fires that need to be tended--and tend them.
• And the seeds! I didn't understand that line in 2022, but i do now. Because that's exactly what we're doing in ART 6. We are going to open the four element libraries and receive a sacred seed from each element to plant for Her Garden of Reverence.
• What does it mean to feed the children milk and memory? I'm not sure. But memory is the heart of ART 6.
• What does it mean to sing the songlines of the witches? Perhaps that's what we're doing as we walk through Crete, and onward through the Neolithic Goddess cultures and on to the Paleolithic.

So much to discover, or rather re-member.

This is the last week to register. I will close registration this Friday.

ART 6 
The Memory of Reverence ∞ Devotion

Life is Fragile. Handle with Reverence.

Janet
website: janetconner.com

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