Decomposition : creative commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>In Ireland,\u00a0 the chthonic energy of decay is experienced as Crom Dubh, the dark, bent one who takes the grain under the ground.\u00a0 He was a sacrificial god heavily associated with Lughnasadh.\u00a0 In fact, while many Irish people may never have heard of the \u2018festival of Lughnasadh<\/em>\u2019 (apart from the movie), they have certainly heard of Crom Dubh\u2019s Day: D\u00e9 Domhnaigh Crum-Dubh<\/em>.\u00a0 This is a day of pilgrimage to the high places: a custom maintained with the yearly climb of Croagh Patrick.\u00a0 More anciently, Crom was associated with sacrifice: King Tignermas offered human sacrifice, and there is a long history within antiquity of scapegoat sacrifice to underworld powers.\u00a0 In more modern folk practice, Crom was the \u2018old bent one\u2019 who lived in the rings and forts, waiting to receive the Lughnasadh offering of the strangled black cock.<\/p>\nTo understand the placing of offerings in storage pits, it is perhaps helpful to think of corn storage itself as, in a sense, a ritual or religious act, whereby the grain was given into the safe-keeping of the chthonic or underworld gods. [\u2026] The animals [or humans] which rotted in the ground, their blood and vital juices seeping into the earth, nourished the earth-gods in whose territory the pits were dug.<\/em>\u00a0 \u2013 Animals in Celtic Life and Myth, Miranda Green.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIt\u2019s about exchange, right order, and living in balance, so as not to draw undo attention.\u00a0 The powers were never seen as playthings to be called for fun; rather, great lengths (taboos, social customs, etc) were gone to so the world of human-persons and the world of Other did not meet.<\/p>\n
The Power, or force, of decay is also seen in urban environments.\u00a0 When a building, a living structure, is no longer occupied, it is reclaimed by the force of decay.\u00a0 When vines or other plants begin to grow up a structure, the force of decay rides with them.\u00a0 The order we create is in constant peril, under siege from the Powers of decomposition.<\/p>\n
Austin experienced severe flooding at Halloween this year.\u00a0 People I know had water seeping into their homes.\u00a0 It was a dire situation, because the Other world was coming into direct contact with the human world.\u00a0 Fast action and decisive measures were taken to remove the water, and\u00a0 prevent the Power of decay from getting a foot-hold: industrial fans were rented, high-powered vacuums used,\u00a0 sheetrock stripped, carpets ripped up.<\/p>\n
I spent the past weekend removing, ending the life of, tree-persons who had grown too close to the house.\u00a0 Their bark touching the exterior walls\u2014the Other world touching the human world\u2014opening a portal for the Power of decay.\u00a0 This weekend I will rake and pile fallen leaves, for this same reason.\u00a0 It\u2019s why we paint or protect wood, embalm our dead, or get plastic surgery: \u00a0we wish to slow the Power of decay.<\/p>\n
Yet we must remember the balance.\u00a0 Decay and Death are necessary parts of the whole.\u00a0 We do seek to dance with them, in a fashion.\u00a0 One taking the lead for a song, or two, until it is time for the Other to lead.\u00a0 Sensing this natural order, the rhythm of the dance of life and death, is what a witch does.\u00a0 It is what any spiritually minded person living in a society connected to the natural world does. \u00a0And when we cease to hear the rhythm, or even remember there is one.<\/em>\u2026.well, that\u2019s when we invent things like cosmetic surgery.<\/p>\nAs I pile my leaves this weekend, adding them to the bones of the trees I cut down last week, they will be transformed into a scapegoat offering.\u00a0 In my compost pile, they are offered to the Powers of decay.\u00a0 An act intended to nourish the Powers of decomposition in my soil, and as a religious act of thanksgiving to the Power of Death that brings Life.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Death and decay, forces that have concerned human-persons for millennia, are still actively propitiated in modern times. This week, Traci shares how an urban witch might sacrifice to these Great Powers, and why. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1296,"featured_media":1806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,92,18,148,151,24,19,14,40,79,468],"tags":[149,34,469,1896,1894,325,7,8,20,1895,9,283],"class_list":["post-1805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-austin-united-states","category-cities-sacred-spaces","category-connection-2","category-earth","category-experiential","category-folklore","category-how-to-build-it","category-ireland","category-sacred-spaces","category-united-states","category-witchcraft-2","tag-animism","tag-cities","tag-faery-tradition","tag-folklore","tag-ireland","tag-lughnasadh","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-place","tag-texas","tag-urban","tag-witchcraft"],"yoast_head":"\n
Urban Witchcraft: The Power of Rot<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Death and decay, forces that have concerned human-persons for millennia, are still actively propitiated in modern times. This week, Traci shares how an urban witch might sacrifice to these Great Powers, and why.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Urban Witchcraft: The Power of Rot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Death and decay, forces that have concerned human-persons for millennia, are still actively propitiated in modern times. This week, Traci shares how an urban witch might sacrifice to these Great Powers, and why.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Sense of Place\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-21T15:35:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-11-21T20:36:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/310\/2013\/11\/1024px-Urocyon_cinereoargenteus_Decomposition.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"551\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Traci\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Traci\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/\",\"name\":\"Urban Witchcraft: The Power of Rot\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-21T15:35:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-21T20:36:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/#\/schema\/person\/f8958a0ef9ce9baa5c56c5ddb2beff68\"},\"description\":\"Death and decay, forces that have concerned human-persons for millennia, are still actively propitiated in modern times. This week, Traci shares how an urban witch might sacrifice to these Great Powers, and why.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Urban Witchcraft: The Power of Rot\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/\",\"name\":\"A Sense of Place\",\"description\":\"Pagans encounter the land beneath their feet\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/#\/schema\/person\/f8958a0ef9ce9baa5c56c5ddb2beff68\",\"name\":\"Traci\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c1c1101786d4107c4e7ca4d8d8bbe806?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c1c1101786d4107c4e7ca4d8d8bbe806?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Traci\"},\"description\":\"Traci is an animist living in Ireland and hails from the great state of Texas (a mythic heritage she is quite proud of!).\u00a0\u00a0Her current academic pursuits are in Sociology and Psychology, and she engages a \u201csensuous scholarship\u201d when seeking to understand Place.\u00a0 She can also be found at\u00a0Confessions of a Hedge Witch\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/hedgeconfessions.wordpress.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/author\/traci\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Urban Witchcraft: The Power of Rot","description":"Death and decay, forces that have concerned human-persons for millennia, are still actively propitiated in modern times. This week, Traci shares how an urban witch might sacrifice to these Great Powers, and why.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Urban Witchcraft: The Power of Rot","og_description":"Death and decay, forces that have concerned human-persons for millennia, are still actively propitiated in modern times. This week, Traci shares how an urban witch might sacrifice to these Great Powers, and why.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/","og_site_name":"A Sense of Place","article_published_time":"2013-11-21T15:35:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-11-21T20:36:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"1024","height":"551","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/310\/2013\/11\/1024px-Urocyon_cinereoargenteus_Decomposition.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Traci","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Traci","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/","name":"Urban Witchcraft: The Power of Rot","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-11-21T15:35:06+00:00","dateModified":"2013-11-21T20:36:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/#\/schema\/person\/f8958a0ef9ce9baa5c56c5ddb2beff68"},"description":"Death and decay, forces that have concerned human-persons for millennia, are still actively propitiated in modern times. This week, Traci shares how an urban witch might sacrifice to these Great Powers, and why.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/2013\/11\/urban-witchcraft-the-power-of-rot\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Urban Witchcraft: The Power of Rot"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/","name":"A Sense of Place","description":"Pagans encounter the land beneath their feet","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/#\/schema\/person\/f8958a0ef9ce9baa5c56c5ddb2beff68","name":"Traci","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c1c1101786d4107c4e7ca4d8d8bbe806?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c1c1101786d4107c4e7ca4d8d8bbe806?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","caption":"Traci"},"description":"Traci is an animist living in Ireland and hails from the great state of Texas (a mythic heritage she is quite proud of!).\u00a0\u00a0Her current academic pursuits are in Sociology and Psychology, and she engages a \u201csensuous scholarship\u201d when seeking to understand Place.\u00a0 She can also be found at\u00a0Confessions of a Hedge Witch","sameAs":["http:\/\/hedgeconfessions.wordpress.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/author\/traci\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asenseofplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/310\/2013\/11\/1024px-Urocyon_cinereoargenteus_Decomposition.jpg\" "\\"1024px-Urocyon_cinereoargenteus_Decomposition\\"")
<\/a>