Gargoyle Clan

Gargoyle Clan

by Rose Sinclair

Not long ago I had the good fortune to gather and celebrate with like-minded people and as we caught up, one said to me, “I am glad to see you well.”

I thanked him and explained what was happening in my waking world to which he replied, “I am also glad that life circumstances are peaceful for you, but that is external, I mean you are well on the Inside.”

I paused and considered the difference. What Sight was necessary for him to perceive them separately without being invasive? The idea for the Gargoyle Clan was born. External circumstance doesn’t imply the Stuff originates with me; how do I sort that out? How could I make informed choices about what I was feeling/perceiving/responding to, and see clearly what the implications of those choices might be?

How often do we find ourselves in situations where we are stuck wondering what to feel, say, think, do, or even perceive? Sometimes we get whelmed by sensory overload, regardless of what sense(s) we mean. Sometimes we are convinced we feel something; it wasn’t a spider crawling on us after all, but our own hair moving gently in a breeze (I laugh even now considering spinning around trying to find what was tickling me only to find it was me!). How can we refine what we perceive, how can we separate psychic (and even physical) “noise” from that which is potent and important for Us to know, to sense, to allow, and perhaps to act upon?

There is more to the idea of grounding/centering/shielding than may seem evident. It isn’t enough to say “ground yourself” — that can sometimes feel like we are a fish being told a climb a tree. These processes involve some nature of flow — whether from the self to the physical earth, or in the mind using visualization to affect reality, or light touching our optic nerve; all requires flow. At Twilight Covening this year the Gargoyle Clan will work deeply with this flow concept. What flows over me, around me, past me, through me? Can I change the flow? Can I turn it off and on? What about your flow and how it affects me? In these days of information/idea whelm, Gargoyle Clan will learn practices for discernment, filtering, assessing sensory input, and how to allow the flow of ourselves and our perceptive world back into the stream of life.

Twilight Covening: A Poem

by Emily Cavin
written the Tuesday before Twilight Covening 2019

It is Autumn
It is a chilly, cloudy, day
But when the Sun breaks through the Clouds
Colors shimmer in the Lake
Reflecting the leaves, flying from the Trees
Rooted in the Mountain, under the Sky,
Lit by the Moon and Stars,
And the glow of the Season.
I am with myself
I am with Spirit
And with many other Pilgrims,
Sisters and Brothers All
Honoring the Sacred Earth.
This will be my seventeenth Visioning Ritual.
It will be the seventeenth time I have gathered in a Circle
As a member of a Clan.
I have been held in natural harmony by the Cranes
Transformed as a Luna Moth
Sailed the Sky with Swifts
Traveled far on the Labyrinth
Shifted shape as a Salamander
Run the river as an Otter
I was a weaver among Spiders
Called out the cry of the Screech Owl
Kept silence with the Swans
Knew the forest as a Deer 
Dreamed the dreams dreamt by Bears
And flocked with the very first murder
Of cauldron-keeping Crows – 
After being reborn with wings, from within a Chrysalis.

Sometimes it is a struggle to be here – 
I have to work hard at it.
More often, I am encircled and guided by Beauty and Mystery,
And also joy.
When all the stars and powers align,
I am riding, with ease,
An otherworldly wave that seems to know 
My Spirit’s very heart’s desire.
Whatever my journey here,
It informs in true and potent ways
the journeys I make everywhere else.

I declare!
There is only one place
In the whole wide web of existence
I could be 
And speak of all of this as Truth.
Twilight Covening!
All Beings of the Earth
Teach me
Carry me
I am here once more
I am opening – 
My Soul 
Is on Fire