Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for All ... - reading...

Book I: T he Magick Circle 59
40. Hymn to Gaia
When o’er your dreaming hills the dawning
day ignites its fire,
And on your seas the light’s caress awakens
wind and spray,
Your breath bids bud and branch push forth
to echo your desire,
And in a womb a heart begins your
rhythmic hymn to play,
The eye that opens upon itself, an eye that’s
opened before,
Seeks knowledge deep with each repeat,
the better to adore.
So Yes! Yes! to the beating heart,
That echoes the surge of the sea,
And sends blood’s course
With primal force,
Urged on by the will to be.
And Yes! Yes! to the pulse that flows,
The stream of life’s rebirth,
The sacred flame intones your name,
Oh Gaia, soul of the Earth.
When out of seed and spore and shoot and
egg your song is raised,
From lovers’ bliss your holy kiss awakens
flesh anew,
To search and feel, and to behold, and find
a voice for praise,
And then to sing beneath your sky one
sacred hymn to you.
A song of life begat from death that only
life may give,
Begins and ends with one refrain that
heralds the ages—I’ll live!
So Yes! Yes! to the song of life,
Where all the voices are one,
The pulse and beat that all repeat,
What’s ended is begun.
And Yes! Yes! to the quick’ning heart,
That bids the darkness be spurned,
A wild tattoo that shouts anew,
Great Goddess, I have returned!
You dance upon the spiral stair of chromosome
and gene,
Oh soft of eye and red of maw, you pare
and prune the tree.
In many forms I’ve sung your song,
through many eyes I’ve seen,
In many forms I’ll wake again, more fully
yours to be.
Many’s the dance I’ve danced with you,
one round a pale, cold mask,
The next a glow in a mother’s eye as into
Earth I’m cast.
So Yes! Yes! to the dance of death,
Oh Kali, devour me whole,
Take me home, consume my bones,
And sing your song to my soul.
And Yes! Yes! to the wheel of life,
Oh Isis restore me anew.
Return my breath to laugh at death,
And revel, oh Gaia, in you.
When from your warm embrace I’m torn,
in fields of stars to dwell,
Your voice, a sigh on cosmic dust, calls
after your lover “return,”
“Embrace my green and loam-filled breast,
drink of my scented well,
Ignite my fire with love’s desire, shout
through my winds, ‘return,’”
Then longing for my lover’s arms will call
me back to you,
And in a cloak of soil-born flesh I’ll swear
my troth anew,
And Yes! Yes! I will dance with you,
And forsake the fields of stars,
And plunge me deep
In the Earth to keep,
My vow to Lady and Lord,
And Yes! Yes! I will live again,
And ensoul the living Earth,
At my mother’s breast,
In the hour of death,
I pledge you my rebirth!
—Tom Williams
41. T he Charge of the Star-Goddess
Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess,
The dust of whose feet are the hosts of
heaven;
She whose body encircles the universe:
I am the beauty of the green Earth,
And the white Moon among the stars,
And the mystery of the waters,
And the desire of human hearts.
Call unto your soul: Arise and come unto me!