BLACK MOON ESBAT

The blackness was palpable, cloying like funerary cerements as I followed the deer path more by instinct than sight. I smiled to myself, pondering how the imagination of the non-nocturnal urbanites could ever come close to realizing just how much light the eyes are capable of collecting from the stars alone.
A few yards to my right something was pacing me. Quiet, but not quite quiet enough.
And it had size.
A coyote, perhaps a wolf, or maybe one of the black bears that have been sighted along Dry Creek of late. But, Black Bears tend to be less stealthy than this creature was.
The night belonged to Goddess Hekate, guardian of crossroads and cemeteries, protectress of the dead, Queen of Wytches.
My Queen.
My skin prickled in anticipation of our union.
A little below me, and off to the left, I could hear the living water lasciviously licking the large rocks and boulders that stud the belly of the bed it follows. Ancient monoliths they are, stretching for the constellations whilst they mutely mark the passage of Sacred Eon, as they have done for centuries.
My soul began to tremble as I listened for the call of that piece of ground that yearned to become sacred space, to witness the union of the Dark Mother and Her son. It's not a sound you know. It's more of a tingle, like that of a mild electrical charge. The call is a magnet, and I the iron filings.
I paused on my trek, hearing the whispers of my own breath as I scanned the heavens for Sagittarius flinging His arrows into the galaxy.
My stalker paused too,
it's creature curiosity even more piqued.
Having sent greetings to my birth patron my eyes sought the moon. If you wish to see the black moon look for black on black, you will find Her. She's darker than the rest of the nocturnal canopy, a swirling vortex of darkness, an abyss in which you see your true self, warts, lesions and all.
I resumed my journey.
As did my companion.
Vibrations thrilled my flesh as my feet splashed the shoreline. My destination was near.

Goin' Down Ta New O'leans

I've got my mind made up!
Ah huh huh.
Ah huh huh.
I've got my mind all made up!
I'm a goin' down ta New O'leans.
Gonna meet that black skinned woman what put her ju ju all on me.
Ah huh huh.
I've got my mind made up!
There really ain't that much ta tell
but she sho' put a gris gris spell on me.
The one Black Stump Swamp folks Laveau
ya' know, as in Queen Marie.
Ah huh huh.
I've got my mind made up!
I'm a hopin' the dark rhythms in her soul
will make me feel what b'fo I onc't felt
back when there was blood on the moon
in the ta'bacca belt.
I've got my mind made up!
Ah huh huh.
Ah huh huh.
Ah huh huh.
I've got my mind all made up!
)O(

FULL MOON ESBAT

I eased out the back door and stepped into a cocoon of twenty degree air. For several minutes I stood deeply inhaling the crisp breath of night as I felt my senses stirring, awakening from the narcolepsy induced by the synthetic wombs we dwell in.
The shift fell sudden and abrupt. I had become alert, focused to the scents, sounds and movements of the nocturnal world.
Leisurely I strolled across the back yard, hopped the offensive fence separating me from my destination and firmly planted my feet on the brittle grass of the mow. I gazed about, bathing in the silvery shower of moon kisses. I had stepped through the hidden garden gate of secrets and mysteries into the realm of Goddess Nyx.
It was time to go skyclad.
After shucking my garb down to cutoffs I shouldered my Craft tool bag and began my journey.
As I loped along the skirt hem of the wood line surrounding the meadow I listened to the grousing, peeping and twitters of tiny woodland creatures both undisturbed and unperturbed by my presence.
Weaving in and out amongst the trees, occasionally hopping over frigid rivulets, I made my way to my goal, a lone and ancient Cedar that stands sentinel watch over the treeless shrubless field. I could feel a myriad eyes upon me marking my passage. From time to time they winked the moon at me as soaring Selene went about Her business of making and breaking shadows. Without knowledge of  the lapse of time or space I was there, standing beside my friend.
I laid my bag on the ground, sat down to lean my back against his rough trunk, and watched.
Before long I was blessed with the sight of a honking flock of forty or more geese languidly winging their way across the moon's face. Nice.
Hard on their heels, from the belly of the forest, a fox entered the open ground to trot a straight line across to the wooded shelter on the far side. Intent upon some urgent errand and feeling secure she looked neither left nor right. Silence ensued, and I was alone.
After a lengthy time of quiet wonder the sharp crack of some befallen branch snapping magnetized my attentive gaze to my left. A buck and his doe stepped timidly into the clearing to stand statue still and blow luminous clouds of fog from their nostrils as they tested for warnings of foes. Being upwind, yet near enough to hand, I could smell the warmth of their hides. Satisfied that all was well they meandered across, pausing only to graze at treats here and there until they were swallowed again by the morphic shadows.
My soul was lifted up and my heart sang: O Lady. O Lord. How wondrous are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all. For the heavens declare Thy glory, and the earth shows forth Thy handiwork.
Stiff with age and numb with cold I awkwardly rose to my knees and laid out the contents of my satchel unto the ground.
A wand for inscribing my circle, charcoal and incense, two jarred candles, a flat smooth round holed stone, a pine cone and a seashell to hold my offering of nuts, herbs and spices.

I rose to my feet, shed my denim shorts, and stood erect as I lifted hands and face to the heavens. In a loud cry I declared myself and invited the four sacred elemental guardians, the Goddesses and Gods to attend my ritual. A rush of heat flooded my physical frame.
My rite of honoring, petitioning and thanksgiving was set afoot.
)O(  
  

I've been Yaweh's holocaust
far too long
What is it to you
who knows naught of me
that I now choose
to become Aphrodite's
oblation song

SEERESS

You called me Father
I said identity mistaken
You stepped in so much closer
the more to search me over
And with sad punishing eyes
low laid me down in surprise
when by strong contradiction
you called me Father
yet one time again
Oh ... Reverend Sister
but this question I propose
Just how
did you know

Sisters Passing

A sister passed so close to me
one very soft September eve
and I shivered in holy dread
as there was none sound born of her tread
Hard I did gaze rapt in wonder
whilst my heart clapped trembling thunder
This bride of Christ
was more shimmered than winter ice
At each station
she genuflected her Lord's passion
so unaware it must be said
of falling leaves nimbus dancing
above the veil of her bent head
As I watched her move
over the mow and through the wood
no note heard I of pipping bird
or Lourdian spring
Only whispers
of her Virgin Lady smiling
Frozen in time I had realized
that from behind some Autumn elm
she never again materialized
And as I turned for to take my leave
I saw yet even more sisters
on that golden eve
Eager to make each their own round
in St. Cecilia's resting ground
With weeping heart quite discreetly
did I depart that hallowed place
being much wounded
of St. Cecilia's most secret grace
)O(

HAUNTED

Scattered bones, like broken stones
disturb the field of my dreams
Light less eyes, kissed by flies
died in a symphony of screams

I have to know, what made you go
to the killing ground
where your teardrops fell
without sound

Scarlet rain, like rampant stain
dampens the weave of my thought
Velvet thighs, bruised and tied
lie in a requiem hard caught

I have to know, what made you go
to the riverbed
where your blood drops fell
blackest red

Whispered name, like notations wane
disrupts the tide of my breath
Stunned by lies, urgent cries
sigh in a granite hail of death

I have to know, what made you go
to the desert night
where your life-drops fell
crimson bright