{"id":1972,"date":"2014-07-18T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/?p=1972"},"modified":"2016-03-23T13:18:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T17:18:21","slug":"again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/","title":{"rendered":"Embodiment and Woundedness: Owning Up to Being an Animal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my birthday month, and I\u2019m sorry to say I got a crown.<\/p>\n

Not a sparkly one from some kid-friendly chain restaurant. Not a crown of branches or horns from a Neo-Pagan ceremony. No, I won one of those plastic, temporary tops for a cracked tooth that will soon enough be replaced by porcelain.<\/p>\n

Happy Birthday. Feeling older, much?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>I should have taken a page out of your book, Wayland, lord, and asked
\n<\/em>if the dentist would carve me a tooth out of bone.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m feeling a little vulnerable, tonight. Aware of my body, more than I usually am, and its tender places, its wounds and scars. This is probably doubly true because I just started a shapeshifting<\/strong> class at Cherry Hill Seminary<\/strong><\/a>. Here are the very first sentences of the very first reading assignment:<\/p>\n

Owning up to being an animal, a creature of earth. Tuning our animal senses to the sensible terrain: blending our skin with the rain-rippled surface of rivers, mingling our ears with the thunder and the thrumming of frogs, and our eyes with the molten sky. Feeling the polyrhythmic pulse of this place\u2014this huge windswept body of water and stone. This vexed being in whose flesh we\u2019re entangled.<\/p>\n

From <\/span>Becoming Animal<\/em>, David Abram<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What does that mean? What is \u201cshapeshifting\u201d anyway? my friends ask me. For me, the concept of shapeshifting offers (I hope) a way to enter the experience(s) of world more deeply, more fluidly. I\u2019ve been looking forward to the start of class for weeks. But after the first Google+ chat session, I feel more trepidation than anything. The teacher emphasized what a personal<\/em> journey this is going to be for us.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that in order to learn how to move even an inch or a minute away from the usual mundane experience, I\u2019ll have to become a little (or a lot) vulnerable. The adult layers of defense and protection I worked so hard to create? Peeled away.<\/p>\n

Shields down, friends. It\u2019s about to get real.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

For years, no matter what term\/s I called myself\u2014poet, theologian, at-home-parent-trying-to-survive, polytheist, or (as I used to say in a whisper) just a vague-ish pagan-ish sort\u2014my practice has been pretty much the same: a shifting triangulation between historical source\/text, poetry, and myth. With this class, it looks like NATURE may be about to assert itself as the fourth leg of that practice. That includes (especially) my own human animal nature, bag of skin and muscle and bone, hair and bacteria. I welcome that. And I fear it too, a little. Abram knows this:<\/p>\n

Corporeal life is indeed difficult. To identify with the sheer physicality of one\u2019s flesh may well seem lunatic. The body is an imperfect and breakable entity vulnerable to a thousand and one insults\u2026Small wonder then that we prefer to abstract ourselves whenever we can, imagining ourselves into theoretical spaces less fraught with insecurity, conjuring dimensions more amenable to calculation and control\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s completely appropriate and serendipitous that we\u2019re also just back from our annual camping trip up on Madeline Island<\/strong><\/a>, in Lake Superior. I have some coastal friends who scoff at the idea of the Great Lakes\u2014it\u2019s not the ocean<\/em>, they say with a shrug of a shoulder. Of course not. The ocean is endless, absolute.<\/p>\n

The Great Lakes are something else again\u2014interior seas<\/em>. And so they fit differently into the psyche. There have been a couple of blog posts I\u2019ve seen, here <\/strong><\/a>and here<\/strong><\/a>, in which the authors map out their spiritual geographies. I find the idea fascinating\u2014and I tried it one night with my crayons and sketchpad. It\u2019s not finished yet, but already off to one side, there\u2019s a lake. A large one. When I stepped into the waters of Lake Superior, I recognized the sensation exactly. I\u2019ve swum here before.<\/em><\/p>\n

Remember when we pitched our tents,
\n<\/em>young as we were, above Superior\u2019s gray shore,
\n<\/em>and discovered there a steep path to the back
\n<\/em>we hadn\u2019t seen before?<\/em><\/p>\n

On my own map, it\u2019s labeled the Lake of Sorrows, and there have been times when I have had to swim it, ready or no. Maybe someday I\u2019ll write about that. About the temptation to stay there, in the water. Under the water. It was one chapter of a longer journey. Maybe someday I\u2019ll write the rest.<\/p>\n

\"credit:<\/a>It was a journey of healing, after a wounding of my own that was a little more serious than a cracked molar. And it\u2019s important to tell our stories, to ourselves and others. But today I wonder\u2014when I move in this essay from Lake Superior itself to my Lake of Sorrows, am I merely imagining myself into one of Abram\u2019s \u201ctheoretical spaces less fraught with insecurity\u201d? I\u2019m willing to consider the possibility, although admittedly nothing <\/em>about swimming that interior Lake feels \u201cmore amenable to calculation and control.\u201d Not at all.<\/p>\n

Here there be dragons.<\/em><\/p>\n

You aren\u2019t kidding.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Shapeshifting is partly about knowing yourself intimately, and all your wounds and weaknesses. In the Northern pantheon that I am learning about, woundedness is a common theme. These gods are for the most part not young and beautiful\u2014they have their scars. I\u2019m far from an expert in the lore but off the top of my head: Tyr gives up a hand to bind Fenrir, the wolf that represents Chaos. Sif\u2019s beautiful hair is hacked off (and we all know what that represents, right?). Both Frigga and Sigyn lose their children. Sigyn is burned, scarred by the poison she protects her husband Loki from. Odin the Allfather sacrifices an eye for wisdom, hangs himself for nine days in order to win the runes. And Wayland the Smith is hobbled, and held captive for years.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

He looks at the pictures of Lake Superior on my computer screen.
\nWe call it the Quench.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Lake Superior?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Shaking his head. Water. We use water to quench
\n<\/em>the hot blade. That is the moment of testing, to see
\n<\/em>if what we made will be true, or if it will torque, twist, corrupt.<\/em><\/p>\n

*** <\/em><\/p>\n

Any blessing carries its shadow, sometimes for years,
\n<\/em>folded like the wings of a bat at noon.
\n<\/em>How grateful I am, friends, for that shared memory,
\n<\/em>now that I have reached another interior shore,
\n<\/em>this time alone, and again to strip down\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

We all have our scars and wounds, not all of them visible. Not even remembered, some of them, maybe, until that sudden plunge into a new element. Wish me luck.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Don\u2019t trust to luck.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Notes and References<\/p>\n

The whole poem, \u201cYouth Was Armor Enough\u201d can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Abram, D. (2010). Becoming Animal. <\/em>New York, NY: Random House (Vintage)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I stepped into the waters of Lake Superior, I recognized the sensation exactly: I\u2019ve swum here before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1856,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[737,8,37,267,210],"tags":[65,21,15,270,134,290,268],"class_list":["post-1972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embodiment","category-my-story","category-pagan-studies","category-poetry","category-praxis","tag-ecology","tag-embodiment","tag-paganism","tag-poetry-2","tag-practice","tag-shapeshifting","tag-wayland"],"yoast_head":"\nEmbodiment and Woundedness: Owning Up to Being an Animal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When I stepped into the waters of Lake Superior, I recognized the sensation exactly: I\u2019ve swum here before.\" \/>\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\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Embodiment and Woundedness: Owning Up to Being an Animal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I stepped into the waters of Lake Superior, I recognized the sensation exactly: I\u2019ve swum here before.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dowsing for Divinity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-18T12:00:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-23T17:18:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/files\/2014\/07\/Superior-at-madeline-by-Yinan-Chen-via-Wikimedia-Commons-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Sadie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Sadie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/\",\"name\":\"Embodiment and Woundedness: Owning Up to Being an Animal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-18T12:00:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-23T17:18:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#\/schema\/person\/27655e6b032f2abdc75245113f9ae4dd\"},\"description\":\"When I stepped into the waters of Lake Superior, I recognized the sensation exactly: I\u2019ve swum here before.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Embodiment and Woundedness: Owning Up to Being an Animal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/\",\"name\":\"Dowsing for Divinity\",\"description\":\"Pagan Theology, Poetry, and Praxis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#\/schema\/person\/27655e6b032f2abdc75245113f9ae4dd\",\"name\":\"Sarah Sadie\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b8925eb40205478e58bc8d8822a34e35?s=96&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b8925eb40205478e58bc8d8822a34e35?s=96&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Sarah Sadie\"},\"description\":\"Sarah Sadie's newest poetry collection, \\\"We Are Traveling Through Dark at Tremendous Speeds\\\" was published in spring 2016 by Lit Fest Press. When she's not writing or driving the kids somewhere, she helps people connect to their creativity and to each other. Combining interests in embodied spirituality, creative endarkenment, the wisdom of the body and the power of art, she seeks out makers, dreamers, and anyone who wants to push out of stale routines.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/author\/ssadie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Embodiment and Woundedness: Owning Up to Being an Animal","description":"When I stepped into the waters of Lake Superior, I recognized the sensation exactly: I\u2019ve swum here before.","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\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Embodiment and Woundedness: Owning Up to Being an Animal","og_description":"When I stepped into the waters of Lake Superior, I recognized the sensation exactly: I\u2019ve swum here before.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/","og_site_name":"Dowsing for Divinity","article_published_time":"2014-07-18T12:00:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-03-23T17:18:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/files\/2014\/07\/Superior-at-madeline-by-Yinan-Chen-via-Wikimedia-Commons-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"Sarah Sadie","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sarah Sadie","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/","name":"Embodiment and Woundedness: Owning Up to Being an Animal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-07-18T12:00:23+00:00","dateModified":"2016-03-23T17:18:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#\/schema\/person\/27655e6b032f2abdc75245113f9ae4dd"},"description":"When I stepped into the waters of Lake Superior, I recognized the sensation exactly: I\u2019ve swum here before.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/again-to-strip-down-owning-up-to-being-an-animal\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Embodiment and Woundedness: Owning Up to Being an Animal"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/","name":"Dowsing for Divinity","description":"Pagan Theology, Poetry, and Praxis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#\/schema\/person\/27655e6b032f2abdc75245113f9ae4dd","name":"Sarah Sadie","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b8925eb40205478e58bc8d8822a34e35?s=96&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b8925eb40205478e58bc8d8822a34e35?s=96&r=pg","caption":"Sarah Sadie"},"description":"Sarah Sadie's newest poetry collection, \"We Are Traveling Through Dark at Tremendous Speeds\" was published in spring 2016 by Lit Fest Press. When she's not writing or driving the kids somewhere, she helps people connect to their creativity and to each other. Combining interests in embodied spirituality, creative endarkenment, the wisdom of the body and the power of art, she seeks out makers, dreamers, and anyone who wants to push out of stale routines.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/author\/ssadie\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1856"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}