New Yule Moon Blessings
On this darkest and longest of nights
Winter Blessing
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedIn darkness our refuge,
may she cover you with her feathers
as we shelter in the long night,
her truth our dark star.
May she cover you with her feathers.
She knows your name,
her truth our dark star.
She calls through the gloaming;
She knows your name.
I will be with you in your troubles,
she calls through the gloaming,
keep the fire lit and the spindle spinning.
I will be with you in your troubles,
in darkness our refuge.
Keep the fire lit, the spindle spinning
as we shelter in the long night.
I wrote this pantoum for the Taibshear Collective Winter’s Last event two years ago. A pantoum is a repeating form, the lines of the quatrains interlacing as they repeat. It is a Malay form, and one of my favourites. It’s braided nature also seems quite Celtic to me, an interlacing ribbon of stone or melodies—bells ringing.
This poem was originally written as a much longer one, part of something I was writing that would work as rites for the dead, specifically, the women killed as witches who had no rites said for them at their deaths— the people I was writing about in Ashes and Stones. You can read that poem—the final version of Rites—by becoming a paid subscriber. You will get access to previous posts, where Rites in its final form lives.
Come to the Ashes & Stones Virtual Launch.
Join novelist Jesse Bullington and me in conversation for the launch of Ashes and Stones. Online 21 January, 7pm GMT FREE tickets via Eventbrite
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Preorder Ashes & Stones:
Options for audiobook, ebook and hardback in the UK are here.
Blackwells ships the hardback free to the USA & EU.
Upload your proof of preorder here and you could win a sterling silver witches ladder necklace I have made, inspired by the book.
Also coming in the new year:
My first online workshop of 2023: Writing as Ritual
A crash course in first lines, new habits and starting out. In this workshop we will discuss ways to face the blank page, modes of creating a writing ritual for yourself and as well as warding your practice in the face of upheaval and uncertain times. I’ll opening enrolment for this in the next week or two—save the date: 4th Feb. 2023 7pm GMT
