FERAL LIGHT
DARK WILD

In the dark of the moon
Caillech sits with me
by the low fire
slowly stirring the cauldron of love,

my heart the main course
to sip the red blessing of devotion

after all that has been laid at the lips of the sacred cleft—
an opening to truth
a return of essence

Our grandmothers circle,
faces alight,
stained by the blood of renewal:

my body the altar,
staff in hand
Singing my song

rising to greet the flames of swollen ecstasy,

I re-member my golden radiance

Spine undulating, slithering
awake
attuned to the resurrection of maanväki, vitun väki, my väki.

Áhkká dances with me
eyes of embers
and
asks if I will enter the lovi,
to be penetrated by life, by death, by freedom

Her hand in mine,
turning to the Cauldron of All,
I slip into the black vessel
heart dissolved—
a baptism
into the
wild night sky
and
I ignite

—Rebecca Cavender