Those connections make us a tribe, a community, and the new face of family. Our gatherings become reunions and our rites lift my spirit. The old curmudgeonly, staff-toting shaman, represents to me not only my future -- let's face it even in my mid-20s I am pretty curmudgeonly -- but also my Grandfather/Grandmother and the earthly face of the God/Goddess in their guises of Sage and Crone. In my quest to find myself, I have found other people to share the journey with me -- my tribe. But instead of questing for wooly mammoths, or wildebeests, our quest is for spiritual connection, and a new world order that values rather than destroys the earth.
We honor the past by taking what we need from it and by paying attention to the lessons our ancestors suffered through. But at the same time, we know that every step along the road creates a new future, not only for ourselves but for those who will come after us. It is up to us as a family, as a community to decide what we want to take with us, what brush strokes should be added to the canvas. Because what we build today, we create not only for those of our blood, but also for those who walk the path beside or behind us. In choosing to quest together, instead of alone we take back some of those pieces of identity that our elders so lament losing.
Mya Om is a lifelong witch. She was initiated into the craft in 1998. Mya has degrees in History and International Relations; she currently writes a monthly column for Pagan Edge Magazine and has written two books for Llewellyn World Wide.
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