As Samhain tides rise, witches typically take stock of all we’ve grown that year. In 2020, that is more like an accounting of what precious shreds we’ve managed to hold onto. Look into your metaphorical harvest basket, and if “well-enough” and “making do” and “getting by” is what you’ve harvested? You’re doing alright. With the Covid-19 pandemic, job insecurity, political unrest, natural disasters, folks murdered in the streets, suddenly working and schooling our children from home, while almost every planet turned retrograde at once? Skidding into Samhain (sow-wen) sideways, but alive, sober* and still on-line, is triumph enough! However, we still have an election on November 3rd to harvest. That societal reaping needs to be HUGE. We can’t just “get by” with this magick! Lives are literally on the line. For a “Blue Wave” of Democratic victories, I call upon the elemental mysteries of Water.
* Ok, not completely sober, that would be asking too much.
Powers of Elemental Water
In the Great Work system that I use, I align the seasonal and elemental tides to the wheel of the year. From Lammas to Mabon, water’s projective lessons of Daring are first explored. Daring is all about water’s ability to unify, rise-up and courageously overflow anything which seeks to limit our growth. Water doesn’t discriminate…all drops are welcomed into the pool.
Then from Mabon’s ebb, rising to Samhain’s high tide, we turn inward to explore Water’s receptive lesson of Acceptance. This time of acceptance requires us to evaluate which of our boundaries must be defended, in order to maintain our emotional balance. Consider the witch’s chalice and cauldron, the magickal tools of water. They teach us about defining and honoring boundaries. Acceptance is the “cup” that molds our emotional water. What cauldron edges are your defining issues for you this season? This election?
The receptive power of acceptance is an acknowledgment of what currently defines and guides our path. In other words, I have to know what is true now (the good, the bad and the ugly) in order to diagnose and heal my wounds, strengthen my weaknesses, and put my strengths to work. I have to know where I am NOW, so that I can chart a course to where I want to be.
What is true right now is that America is riding the crazy train to Nazi-town. The conductor is too busy scream-tweeting QAnon conspiracies, to care that the train is on fire, and the landscape is on fire, and the tracks are falling apart, and heading over a cliff, and half the passengers are rabid-plague-zombies who think this trip is “great.”
Acceptance is the first step in any evolutionary path toward emotional maturity. Acceptance is where our true emotional power lies. For example, death. Death is our constant companion in Covid-19 times. However, if we are to live at all, it is necessary to accept our mortality. A huge part of witchcraft is embracing the mutable phase of every cycle, because death and transmutation are natural and necessary. Acceptance of this truth releases our true power, and allows us to fully enjoy the fleeting joys of life and love.
Consider the characters of Voldemort in Harry Potter, and Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies; both characters feared death, and became embittered over the loss of love. Both turned to baneful magick in an attempt to thwart death, becoming evil villains capable of atrocity. In both tales, evil forces were defeated by scrappy underdog rebels whose love and friendship empowered their inevitable victory. Love always wins… eventually…even if it takes 8 movies!
Tales like these illustrate how many individual drops of daring water rose up together to become a tidal wave of change. They bravely risked dying in battle, so that together they can overcome the evils which divide us. They liberate suffering people, because it is the only right thing to do.
Victory through loving cooperation is a human anthem which repeats throughout our history and culture. For example, the Allied Forces of World War 2 joined together to defeat fascism in Europe. They liberated the Jewish people from concentration camps. Did every single soldier, or nation, love, look, worship or live the exact same way? Of course not, but they could agree on the fundamental truth that Fascist Dictatorships are very, very bad. That racism and religious discrimination are very, very bad. These stories illustrate the emotional relationship between accepting there is a problem, acknowledging that problem involves you, because we are all interconnected, and then daring to rise up together and correct that problem, no matter the personal risks.
The Blue Wave
When I see folks calling for a “Blue Wave” of Democratic candidates winning elections this November 3rd, I see that as a collective magickal intention. For this magick, it is the elemental lessons of water we need to invoke.
Listen, I don’t love every aspect of the Democratic party, either. I’d much rather be voting for a Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren ticket right now. However, I accept the current reality of how our political system works. It is a broken system, with entrenchment of two imperfect parties. The nefariousness of gerrymandering, and voter suppression, systemic racism, classism, and misogyny are blocking the progressive path right now. The electoral college was founded to protect slave-owners, to our shame, and is the reason why we’re in this sorry Trumpster-fire in the first place!
All the tables are tilted, and the game has ALWAYS been rigged in favor of white, male, christian, (presumably) straight millionaires. If the rest of us want to even stay in this game, we have to win this election playing by the current rules. We need the strength of numbers if we ever hope to be in a position to change those rules.
I ACCEPT that right now it is imperative to the survival of our Democratic Republic, that we oust the malignant White Nationalists and Evangelicals of the Trump/Pence administration. Then charge, try and send them to jail for their treason. We have to oust every one of his hypocritical, racist cronies in Congress. The only way we can do that is for every possible voter of good conscience to band together and throw our collective might behind the most likely candidate to defeat them. We all know that is the Biden/Harris ticket, and they have many excellent plans I can easily support.
We have to DARE to unify behind the best-case option, people. If we combine all our little drops of “hell no” we can become a tsunami of “GET THE F*CK OUT!” which will hopefully wash the orange stains from our shredded constitution. Hail Powers of Water! Rise up in victory Blue Wave!
Moral of the Story
For me, it’s not about any one person on the ticket this time. Progressives can’t fall into “cult of personality” traps, the way that the Trump-cult has. For me, the Blue Wave is about Americans of good conscience banding together around shared ideals of decency, and correcting our course conscientiously toward a more civilized and honorable society. We must restore integrity to the White House. It’s about an expectation for honesty, equity, cooperation, science-informed decisions, and honoring our diversity.
The Blue Wave is about playing the long game to bend the arc of our story line back toward liberty and justice for all, with more compassion for our fellow Americans and international neighbors alike. We have a much better chance of tweaking the system and making further progressive strides from there. Hail powers of Water! Aid our Blue Wave revolution with your dynamic powers of daring, acceptance and compassion for all humankind.
This election season, please consider voting Blue!
~Heron
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