“Being a victim of oppression… is not enough to make you revolutionary, just as dropping out of your mother’s womb is not enough to make you human. People who are full of hate and anger against their oppressors or who only see Us versus Them can make a rebellion but not a revolution. The oppressed internalize the values of the oppressor. Therefore, any group that achieves power, no matter how oppressed, is not going to act differently from their oppressors as long as they have not confronted the values that they have internalized and consciously adopted different values.” ~ Grace Lee Boggs ~

“The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation. When everything is lost, and all seems darkness, there comes the new life and all that is needed.” ~ Joseph Campbell ~

there seems to be something so potent in the rhythm of the autumnal/vernal web of life, especially around the ides, mid-month… as we continue to experience the outer dark night collectively at the close of this era, i feel the imperative to remind us, especially myself on this day of turbulent outer world energy, that when we listen deeply we can hear the even more beautiful world breathing and to 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 myself and 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, re-membering interdependence, the way of the  openheart, is the way…

~