2020-21 ritual arc:

ROOT TO RISE

Intention: Remembering that connection is joy and healing, we reach out and create what we need to survive.

When the wind rises and storms come, live oaks have already prepared. They spend their lives reaching into the soil, until their root systems are 40-80 feet deep. Those roots connect with mycelium in the ground, and weave a sacred web with the roots of other plants. As that below-ground community builds, it isn’t just the oak that survives a storm better--so do the plants and animals around it. Yet, a live oak doesn’t think about any of this as it grows. It’s just evolved to connect, and reach deep--and so, some believe, have humans.

adrienne maree brown, a Black scholar and spiritual leader, discusses this in her book, Emergent Strategy. She poses the question: What if, instead of preparing for war, conflict, or to fight against an enemy, we focused our energy instead on building loving and resilient connections?

We’re facing a difficult year, where it’s likely that every ritual we do together will be online. In these times it’s really easy to feel isolated. Joy and celebration may be hard to find: COVID, continued white supremacist violence, economic stress, authoritarianism, and further degradation of our environment will all likely be hallmarks of the coming year. Yet through all this, we are magical beings who know how to dream a desired future, resist the forces that would thwart it, and connect to pursue our visions.

The arc for this year, Root to Rise, recognizes that joy, healing, and survival can emerge from our connection to others. Connection helps us find ways to absorb and redistribute the force of traumatic impacts. It allows small actions done by many to create big results. Our rituals will focus on connecting through close observation, imagination, and embracing our needs and desires. We will be starting with co-created original stories for most of our arc that reflects these themes, and trust in the magic that what emerges from the story writing process will reflect what is needed in the community at that time.

We know that a typical ritual arc description might tell you something more about what is coming, and that certainty could lead to comfort in a time it is deeply needed. But the truth is, we don’t know how these stories will unfold, either. Breathe into that unknown with us. Along the way we’ll be sure to find familiar things: witches’ tools, fantastic dreamscapes, our own reflections, a favorite recipe passed down from one family member to another. We are all creative beings, dreaming the world we desire in spite of injustice, cruelty, and chaos unfolding around us. When we connect our creative paths, we can root down deep and prepare for anything. We Root to Rise.