Written 3-10-24.
Dearly Beloved,
Happy New Moon in Pisces!
As we move through this New Moon, I feel moved to talk about endings.
Often in the spiritual life we move towards things. We build relationships with the Divine (as the One or the Many), we “invoke often”, we “enflame ourselves with prayer”, and we look forward to and work towards our next ordeals and initiations. But all too seldom do we discuss the other half of the equation: purgation. Banishing. Letting go. Saying goodbye.
It’s obvious why. Beginning new things and embracing new experiences often feels good. Purgation, banishing, letting go, and saying goodbye often feels bad. Sometimes we are forced into moments of purgation, moments where we are forced to confront some part of ourselves and our lives that no longer fits, that is causing unnecessary pain, or that is downright harmful to ourselves and possibly others, and these moments often hurt badly.
As pagans, we embrace a naturalized theology. We look to nature for our knowledge of the supernatural and to the physical for our knowledge of the metaphysical. So what does nature teach us about purgation? Nature teaches us that every cycle of growth and life must in turn have a cycle of decay and death. In some traditions of magick, this period of decay and death is talked about in terms of the “Dying God” or “IAO” formula, and associated with the dark side of the year (Fall and Winter) where half of the Earth lays cold and fallow. In particular, the Reclaiming Tradition states beautifully in their “Principles of Unity” that “we see the Goddess as immanent in the earth’s cycles of birth, growth, death, decay and regeneration”, emphasizing that the Divine is immanent (present, with us) in this pattern of birth, life, death, and rebirth we participate in as parts of nature.
Many traditions also note that a similar pattern takes place in the spiritual life of the initiate, where periods of learning and becoming something new are broken up by periods of letting go of the things that no longer serve us. Often these periods of self-examination and letting go are deeply unpleasant, and the experience is sometimes talked about in terms of St. John of the Cross’s “Dark Night of the Soul” (a book I highly recommend to anyone pursuing the spiritual life).
Because of the pain and remorse often associated with these periods of purgation, sometimes we may want to avoid them. “Just let me hold onto this one thing!”, we pray. Sometimes we try to negotiate with the Divine, swearing that if we can just hold onto this one person, this one idea, this one behavior, that we will do everything else asked of us. And sometimes, despite the fact that we know we must let go, we put it off much longer than we should, causing harm to ourselves and others as the waters in our life that should be flowing clean and strong are held stagnant and become putrid.
So let us pray instead to know when to let go. Let us hold ourselves accountable, examining our beliefs, our relationships, and our lives each and every night, each and every New Moon, each and every Winter. Let us examine ourselves and our lives and purge the old ideas, behaviors, and relationships that have come to their natural end.
Happy New Moon.
In love,
Soror Alice