Sophia Bonnie Wodin

If that which we seek we find not within our selves, We will never find it without…..                                     (from The Charge of The Goddess, Doreen Valiente, adapted by Starhawk) I recently joined a local ‘sangha’ (a meditation community).   The circumstances being remarkable in their synchronicity.   I had had the thought that I wanted to meditate with others on a regular basis for only a few days when I mentioned it to a group of students celebrating their final gathering.   One of the women knew of such a group.   As luck would have it, they met the very next evening.   And I was invited to join. My spirituality is a personal mixture of many traditions, including Buddhist roots and Earth-centered, mystery-oriented practices and psychological training with a smattering of cultural Judaism thrown in.   I have been part of several sanghas during the many years I have been a meditator.   Each one has its own ‘personality’.   But one thing I learned from

Every ending is a new beginning.   And thus it is with Samhain.   The harvests have been brought in.   The grain is cut down, the last beans picked, flowers gathered and seeds brought in to dry and wait the time of replanting.    We have partaken of the harvest feast with gratitude, knowing that we carry this yearly bounty in our hearts and minds and bodies to keep us through out the long winter.   Persephone has welcomed the souls of those who passed beyond the veil, calling them home.   Home to rest in peace and wisdom.   That which has passed returns to settle into the arms of love. It may seem strange to think of approaching the longest darkness as a new beginning.   In our culture we are schooled to think that new beginnings are bright and shiny.   A new car or toy or dress….. But all beginnings start in darkness.   In rest.   In gestation.   And so it is with our year now a tiny seed held within the darkness of earth. What will we grow during this cycl