A New Building Stands Upon My Memories
This is the fourth in a series of guest blog posts by up-and-coming author, Suzanne Hersey. Her first book, Faith, Food, Family, will be available from Iaconagraphy Press in Fall of 2018!
I have spoken of my Grandparents’ summer cabin in my last blog posts. It is the place where I go in my dreams and in my astral travels, as my starting point; it is a place that holds a few old memories of my childhood, but also great gaping chasms of memories-lost. Still, it is my waypoint to Yggdrasil. That old cabin is long gone, as is the outhouse that I certainly never used, and the old dock, where I would sit and wait for my love to come to me, knowing even as a small child that she would find me one day. But that is another story that I will likely never tell. The old ship in the harbor is gone and a fine new home sits on the grass among the trees and the wild blueberries. It is new and pretty; it likely has heat and electricity and running water far better than we had as kids. I loved it the way it was, but if I hit the lottery one day, I am getting that home back. I will live in that fine little cabin in the summer and dive in the bay every chance I get. I would make it my own, but I would not tear it down and put an old cabin back in its place. That is an exercise in moving back. We cannot go back, only forward.
Okay, so what is my point here, spiritually speaking? I do not deign to claim that I am half as wise or as studied or as brilliant as my beloved, Connla, or my best friend, Michelle. They have been at this far longer than I. I would not try to stand alongside the likes of Christopher Penczak or Mat Auryn; Heron Michelle, Storm Fairywolf or Laurie Cabot. They are trailblazers, with far more magic and wisdom than this little kitchen witch, but they inspire me every single day. I see them working, teaching, and moving the magical community forward. And that is what needs to be. We can visit our ancestors via trips through the roots of the World-Tree; we can learn of what our DNA has given us genetically and what our families did to build new lives. We can share and draw-in other cultures that touch our lives through the heritage of our families, friends, and our children. My children carry my heritage and that of their fathers: my son, Norwegian, and my daughter, Irish Italian. I have nieces and nephews of varied cultures as well as friends from all over the globe. I do not just cook the foods of my heritage: I cook what calls to me; what I know those I love would cherish and enjoy; what will nourish and excite; what makes magic. I have learned from reading, meeting, and taking classes with all of these amazing witches and so many more. We are so lucky to live here, close to the Temple of Witchcraft and to so many shops in Salem, Massachusetts. We have gotten to know people of many paths and I have worked over the last several years to figure out where I fit spiritually. It has been a bumpy road, full of tears, failures, insecurities, and revelations. I have recently begun walking a Norse path, and I have found that, despite some of the crappy racists screwing it up for the rest of us, the path of my European ancestors fits me well. But I cannot stay on just one straight and confining path. I am a “mutt of cultures”, after all. It is just not how I am wired.
Recently, I started a journey with someone whom I expected to be a wonderful teacher on the path of the Volva, the Norse Witch. I got whacked over the head by Freya, made a stav as instructed, and I was off on my way. Until the walls closed in and I was made to feel that I could not be a part of my friends’ and mentors’ paths. That was not going to happen! So here I am, declaring that we should build new paths. We can access our ancestors and the wisdom that those before us recorded and left to guide us, but we are on a cusp. I think most of you have felt this: the need to gather together and to make the magic fix all there is that is crumbling around us in the world. Yggdrasil belongs to all of us, and we need to start meeting there.
There is a new generation coming forward, disenfranchised from the faith of their youth that has rejected them or that is so mired in a 2000-plus-year-old book that they cannot see the change in the world. We should all be moving forward: writing, creating, meeting, and learning from each other. We need to all build new cabins to shelter those in need and to create foundations for them to grow and change the world. We do not need to be living in cabins without running water or indoor toilets. We need to be creating the new stories, the new magics, the new sagas. Don’t toss the old ones out–no, they are as precious as old photos from our childhoods, long-gone-by. But take new snapshots for our children and their children to look to for wisdom. Take the foundations we have, and build a new spiritual house!
