there seems to be something so potent in the rhythm of the autumnal web of life, especially around the ides, mid-month… each turn around the sun at this moment i feel the collective dark night, the collective trauma reaching feverish pitch so intensely and  spilling into the personal realm… as the full moon of the stormy seas and global dark night cast a shadow across the cosmos, i’ve been experiencing a mini dark night, profound loss in a brief moment until i act like a squirrel by gathering the quintessence and calling in Porcupine Goddess to share an ancient wisdom story illuminating the place i and we find ourselves…

long ago, in the coldest winter ever, many of our relations were dying… we of the porcupine council met and decided we’d nestle together to keep warm and stay alive… alas, we were warm but the quills of our neighbors were wounding us, so we decided to separate from each other to relieve the hurts of living in close quarters… although now we were protected from being wounded, we began to die one by one, alone and frozen cold… faced with our extinction or living as wounded porcupines, we chose wisely – deciding to return to being together… we learned to live with wounds caused by being in close relationship to receive the greater benefit of the warmth that comes from others. this way, we were able to not only survive but also to thrive; to flourish in regenerative cycles organically arising from the harmony sung by the implicate order…

may we be as wise as our porcupine relations real-eye-sing interdependence, the way of the  openheart, is the way…