Tragedy at the border: Helping through the practical and the Magickal

Like so many, I’ve felt anger, sad, horror, terror, powerlessness over the separation of families at the border. I’ve wanted to smash my computer with a brick. I’ve struggled to concentrate on work. The sounds of weeping babies stays in my ears.  I want it to stay. I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to normalize.

I’m not alone. I shouldn’t say, “I feel powerless.” I should say, “We feel powerless.”

Yet, we are not without power. An Irish friend posted today, This is flat out fascist internment camp territory, and it’s up to you to stop it. Yes. YOU.

She is right.

We are not without power, even if it feels that way.

There are things we can do. I even made a list!

• Register to vote and vote out anyone who isn’t screaming and jumping up and down about how terrible this whole situation is. Don’t come at me with “I don’t believe in voting” or “I’m not a political person.” At this point, not-voting is voting-for-complicity.
• Donate to the campaigns of candidates who oppose family separation at the border. Now is not the time to get hung up on single issues. Okay, so you’re not totally on-board with a candidate’s views on guns or repo rights. There was a time when Obama was opposed to same-sex marriage and he came around. Folx in power can be moved. If you can live with at least 80% of a candidate’s views but they’re not in your district, send cash. Even $1 helps.
• Call your Congresspeople. Flood their phones. Send them home with their heads ringing with the sound of “END THIS BARBARIC POLICY, NOW.”
• March or sit-in. There are protests happening all over the country. Enter your zip code at this link and join one. If you can’t join, consider donating supplies or gas/transit money for folx who can.
• Draw folx in–don’t push them out. Even if their views make you want to punch a whole through a brick wall, we need unity. I had a frustrating conversation with a “Deport Them All” dude on Facebook. As much as his hurtful, dismissive rhetoric made my face sizzle, I avoided cursing him out or making personal attacks. At the end, we were actually agreed on one thing–children should not be removed from their parents. I ended the conversation asking him to at least help with this endeavor, even if I will continue to push back against all other things this dude supports (e.g., guns guns guns, elimination of public programs and abortion, etc.). Will he do it? I don’t know. But a tiny victory is still a victory.

Okay. So, when you’re doing the “So Below” work (e.g., the on-the-ground work), you can work the “As Above,” weaving some Magick into this mess in the hopes of clearing it up.

An old spell to St. Brigid (who some call a descendant” of the Goddess Brigid–but many believe They are the same) involved taking or making a cradle and rocking it as though to rock a baby. The purpose of the original spell was to bring about a pregnancy, but it can be augmented to reunite parents with their babies.

What you’ll need: 

• A cradle or symbolic representation. A doll’s cradle is fine. You may also find something inexpensive that evokes this image at a craft store.
• An image of a parent and a child. These can be images of actual parents and children separated at the border or simply stock images of a parent and a child. It is important to use two separate images, one of the parent and one of the child.
• Wrap the two together with pink ribbon and set in the cradle.
• Light a red candle to Brigid and as you rock the cradle say the following words:
  Blessed Bride, Blessed Bride,
  Bring Your light into this fractured land,
  Unite Mother and Child, Father and Child,
  In safety and love,
  With haste and ease,
  Blessed Bride, Blessed Bride,
  These Babes are in Your hands…
  Blessed be.