{"id":19459,"date":"2020-07-23T03:00:09","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T09:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=19459"},"modified":"2020-07-21T15:56:13","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T21:56:13","slug":"in-the-doldrums-but-the-wind-is-beginning-to-stir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/in-the-doldrums-but-the-wind-is-beginning-to-stir.html","title":{"rendered":"In the Doldrums\u2026 But the Wind is Beginning to Stir"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Those of you who work with deities and other spirits who tend to be loud and demonstrative (the Morrigan for sure, but also many others): have you noticed an extended period of silence?<\/p>\n

Not absence, just silence.<\/p>\n

In my case, the Morrigan was insistent that I honor Her in the online Summer Solstice Ritual<\/a>. But while there was a clear call<\/em> in that ritual, it was less a recruiting sergeant\u2019s impassioned speech and more a quiet planting of seeds that will not be harvested for some time. And since that ritual, I\u2019ve heard very little from Herself.<\/p>\n

I still pray to Her every night. I still make offerings to Her every week. She\u2019s still there \u2013 where ever there<\/em> is. She\u2019s just\u2026 occupied.<\/p>\n

The same is true of other deities and spirits I work with<\/a> and for, to a greater or lesser degree.<\/p>\n

Are you experiencing anything like this? A few close friends I\u2019ve talked with are seeing the same things I am.<\/p>\n

Most of my extended friends who talk about such things have been rather quiet themselves.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On one hand, this shouldn\u2019t be a surprise. Our Gods are part of our lives and we are part of Theirs, but we are not Their only concern \u2013 nor are They ours. We\u2019re dealing with the worst pandemic in a hundred years and with social unrest that has been far more than a hundred years in the making. Perhaps They know we\u2019ve got a lot on our plates right now and They\u2019re giving us room to deal with it. How do you tell people to do deep mystical work when they\u2019re struggling to stay safe?<\/p>\n

On the other hand, this is still Tower Time<\/a>\u2026 though this is a case where The Storm<\/a> is a better name for everything that\u2019s going on in this world and in the Otherworld. But I didn\u2019t expect the mystical, Otherworldly portion of this phenomenon to suddenly stop.<\/p>\n

Now, hurricanes have still centers and ordinary storms often have bands of calm and rage. A break in the action is not uncommon. But in this case, I think a better weather-related metaphor is something that\u2019s become largely irrelevant in the age of engine-driven shipping: the doldrums.<\/p>\n

The Doldrums<\/h2>\n

In our time, \u201cthe doldrums\u201d has become a term for a period of emotional apathy, a feeling of being down that probably isn\u2019t clinical depression but that\u2019s serious nonetheless.<\/p>\n

In the age of sail, the doldrums<\/a> referred to the area around the equator where winds are generally calm and sometimes don\u2019t blow for days or weeks at a time. They\u2019re worse in some spots than in others, and eventually the winds will pick up again \u2013 eventually. You just had to hope your ship had enough food and water to last until you could get through them and get to some place where you could resupply.<\/p>\n

Spiritually and metaphysically, I feel like we are (or at least, I am) in the doldrums. Fellow Denton Pagan Cynthia Talbot used the word \u201cbecalmed<\/a>\u201d \u2013 another nautical term from the age of sail.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m maintaining my devotions. I\u2019m doing the work I\u2019ve been tasked with doing. I\u2019m hearing no complaints\u2026\u00a0 and in the past when I\u2019ve disappointed the Morrigan, or Cernunnos, or even Brighid, They\u2019ve made Their displeasure quite clear.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve had no strong ecstatic experiences in quite some time. I\u2019ve had no calls to action, especially the kind of between the worlds activity that was common from around 2013 till late 2018 or so.<\/p>\n

As I frequently tell people, these things come in their own time \u2013 they cannot be commanded. That\u2019s as true for me as it is for a raw beginner. Still, the absence of these experiences is conspicuous.<\/p>\n

Or rather, their absence is conspicuous now that I think about it. I\u2019ve been so busy I haven\u2019t thought about it very much.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Storm is both this-world and Otherworldly<\/h2>\n

Many of the elements of the phenomenon we call The Storm are decidedly this-world things: climate change and its impact, the decline of the American empire, the rise of fascism, nationalism, and xenophobia.<\/p>\n

Other elements are just as decidedly Otherworldly: the \u201cShredded Veil<\/a>,\u201d more frequent encounters with the Fair Folk, Gods on recruiting missions.<\/p>\n

And then there are things that are probably a little of both, like the increased interest in magic and witchcraft from ordinary people.<\/p>\n

If The Storm has an Otherworldly component, then it stands to reason that Otherworldly persons \u2013 including Gods \u2013 are dealing with it \u201cover there.\u201d That makes their silence understandable. Perhaps this has most of their attention. Perhaps their situation is such that we\u2019d just get in the way if we were trying to help. Perhaps they figure we\u2019ve got our hands full with this-world concerns.<\/p>\n

Or perhaps they\u2019re just focusing on their own plans. When Lugh, Nuada, Ogma, and the Dagda were planning the Tuatha De Danann\u2019s overthrow of the Fomorians<\/a>, They stayed in \u201ca quiet place\u201d for a year. Immortal beings operate on a different time scale than we do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The wind is beginning to stir<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m starting to feel the need to work some very deep magic \u2013 something far beyond the practical and narrowly focused operative magic I\u2019ve been teaching.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t an external call to action \u2013 this is me feeling an Otherworldly desire all by myself. Now, might that mean it\u2019s not the wind rising but me wishing for wind? Or in plain this-world language, are all the Covid-related concerns and restrictions driving this desire? It\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

But a conversation with a few like-minded friends confirmed they\u2019re in the same place: in the doldrums and ready to start sailing again. And at the end of the day \u201cdoldrums\u201d and \u201cbecalmed\u201d are nautical terms used as spiritual metaphors, not spiritual realities. Humans have magic of our own, so even if our Gods are otherwise occupied, we can start moving anyway.<\/p>\n

As much as the Morrigan expects me to follow Her orders, She also expects me to not sit around waiting to be told what to do next. You see something that needs to be done, you do it \u2013 whether that something is in this world or the Otherworld or both.<\/p>\n

Where are you in all this?<\/h2>\n

The purpose of this post isn\u2019t to tell you that the spiritual wind is blowing again and a whole new set of metaphysical experiences are coming our way. Or that some new set of instructions is coming from any of the Many Gods.<\/p>\n

The purpose is to ask like-minded people what you\u2019re seeing, hearing, and feeling.<\/p>\n

So, what are you seeing, hearing, and feeling?<\/p>\n

Have things gone quiet for you? Have certain persons become conspicuous by Their silence? Are you starting to feel the need for something deeper, more ecstatic, more magical?<\/p>\n

And if so, what are you going to do next?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have things gone quiet for you? Have certain Gods and spirits become conspicuous by Their silence? Are you starting to feel the need for something deeper, more ecstatic, more magical? And if so, what are you going to do next?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":19465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[531,42,4,5,8,2532,565],"class_list":["post-19459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practice","tag-lugh","tag-magic-2","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-polytheism","tag-the-storm","tag-tower-time"],"yoast_head":"\nIn the Doldrums\u2026 But the Wind is Beginning to Stir<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have things gone quiet for you? Have certain Gods and spirits become conspicuous by Their silence? Are you starting to feel the need for something deeper, more ecstatic, more magical? 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