“When witches don’t fight we burn.” – American Horror Story: Coven
When life feels like a twisted form of survival games from literature, when as witches we feel bullied, bloodied and bruised by a world that we seek to be guardians of, when death and decay stalks us at every turn throughout a year which has earnt a collective grimace from the residents of the western world; it can feel as though hopelessness is gaining an edge on the empathic and sensitive folk who are drawn to the journeys of spiritual growth and the practice of Witchcraft.
This can easily manifest itself in what has commonly come to be known as a dark night of the soul; when our spirituality, our hopes, beliefs, and dreams, are not only called into question but analysed, dissected, thrown away and then picked up again, and where hopelessness and despair hold sway and rip their claws into our very being, leaving us bloody and broken on the floor.
I have reiterated on multiple occasions that I believe 2016 to be a year of Death, perhaps even causing us all one very long night of the soul, that leaves even the stoic amongst us despairingly asking; “When exactly does this horror show stop, exactly?”
However, we must realise in all of this turmoil that something always, even inevitably comes from death and decay; rebirth.
The Dark Phoenix rises.
Embracing the energy of the Dark Phoenix in 2016 is not only possible, it seems pretty damn vital in order to shrug off a negative mindset that feels battered and bruised in order to reignite our inner spark, to find the fire within our souls to carry on and stand together against the real threats to this world that we are living in; the hatred that seeks to divide us from our brothers and sisters worldwide by branding us as different.
Recently I called on my fellow Witches to Stand up; for Warriors to be Warriors, Healers to be Healers and those who are a Voice to use that Voice in a Supermoon Goddess Morrigan video ;
The spark of this within my own soul came from a combination of personal work with the Goddess Morrigan as well as embracing the archetype of the Dark Phoenix; originally the energy of which was for a spell set; for Dark Phoenix Spell energy whereby the premise was to interweave the Dark Goddess energies of the Goddess Morrigan with the difficult lessons of struggle, sacrifice and overcoming difficulties; The Dark Phoenix further builds on this including Dark Goddess energy, which teaches us that sometimes complete destruction is required for rebirth, all that was simply must be burnt to ash and no longer exist. Such an experience has life altering rewards, but it is not easy. Infact, the process burns, and there is no guarantee it will always be a quick process. Somethings require a “slow-burn” in order to completely remove them from our lives.
In the creation and connection to this energy matrix I faced a dilema that I feel typifies some of the problems faced in 2016; if I was to publically announce and discuss the energy of the Phoenix and Morrigan in the same breath, there would inevitably be those bullies and haters who would use it as fodder to discredit my intelligence as well as my relationship with the Goddess, likely disguising it as passive aggressive teachings about how Phoenix energy has no place in ancient Celtic society and nowhere does it turn up in Morrigan mythos.
As with all clever passive aggressive bullying; the truth is used in such a way to bend and break those expressing a different perspective, for nowhere in the creation of such spell energies did I ever claim that Morrigan mythos contains Phoenix references or symbolism; I am personally, quite aware that it does not.
Instead I was asked to aid someones spiritual journey, in difficult times, by interweaving separate (but lets face it, not conflicting) energies. Goddess Morrigan helps those broken and battered warriors to keep fighting through their personal trials. Phoenix mythos speaks of birds who die in flames but are reborn from the ashes. It’s not even a stretch.
Ultimately this year has felt very much like the turning of mean little screws that give way to much larger problems within society; nasty comments that often have scarier motivations beyond petty jealousy that are in fact stemming from xenophobia, racism, sexism or homophobia.
So what does the Dark Phoenix do in the wake of all this hatred? It sees this year for what it is – Death, and the bubbling up of all that is outmoded and decaying. All that shit rises, and then so does the Phoenix – burning away all that disease in its’ cleansing flames; burn it all down Witches.
This time it is not the Witches who are burning, but instead standing together.
Rising.
Many blessings, Starlets.
Joey
