A walk with Darkness & Death as the most holy Medicine Woman

Welcome to this recording that I’ve entitled:

The Winter Solstice: A walk with darkness & death as the most holy Medicine Woman

Intimate shares, musings, poetry, reflections from the past year on darkness and light as a mother in mourning.

This year has been the ceremony I never wanted to sit in,
sacred songs that sound more like sobs,
mothering that feels more like mourning,
and healing that looks more like humbling.

The path of child-loss,
my relationship with darkness,
death,
suffering,
grief, pain, and
the cold
have all been my greatest teacher.

A Medicine Woman,
and Wisdom Keeper.
The mother of death,
sister of darkness,
goddess of the cold.

Not something to fear,
run or turn away from,
but something to embrace,
to welcome,
to love and befriend.

In reverence,

Emma

THE VERSES, POEMS, & PIECES OF WRITING REFERENCED IN THIS RECORDING:

🤎
Tao Te Ching: Verse 50
Translation by: Stephen Mitchell

The Master gives himself up
to whatever the moment brings.
He knows that he is going to die,
and he has nothing left to hold on to:
no illusions in his mind,
no resistances in his body.
He doesn’t think about his actions;
they flow from the core of his being.
He holds nothing back from life;
therefore he is ready for death,
as a man is ready for sleep
after a good days work.

🤎
Befriending Darkness
By: Emma Cardinal

… and suddenly I woke up,
it was December.
Whispers of winter caressed the air,
silent footsteps echoed between naked trees,
my gaze inward,
body collapsed to the Earth,
limp and humble.
The mother of darkness approaches.
“Death is here, my daughter,” December sings to me softly,
blanketed by a cold embrace.
“Wh-why?” I fret, “Why now? Why me?”
quivering, shaking, moaning,
from anything but the cold.
“To be your friend.” she replies.

🤎
Dancing with the Dark Goddess
By: Arlene Bailey

Not all are called to walk
the edge between the worlds.
For those who are, who dare to risk,
magic awaits.
Not easy wave-your-pretty-wand magic,
but magic that is deep and rough,
pulling and tugging at your very existence,
plunging you into the deep, dark,
murky waters of all feelings
from all times.

Not all are called to dance
with the Dark Goddess,
but for those who are,
a day will come when travelling
between the worlds of dark and light will be a
profoundly juicy journey
of depth-diving into the
shadowy recesses in order to purify,
mature and perfect
that which is the deepest
of All mysteries…
The soul of a woman.