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Wood and Water      The Labyrinth of the Heart

Invocation to Hecate.
(on the first full moon 1979)
 

Lady, I call on you,
Not as a summoning,
But declaring "I am here."
And though I fear I am not ready,
And though if I am ready I still fear,
Yet I ask you to come.
For until I face your mirror of shadows
And seeing my shadow self
Can greet him joyfully
I cannot be whole.

Those who would live always in the light
Will create only the city Omelas
Whose beauty is based on degradation,
And it is not possible to reach Mother Carey
Without first facing Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid.

So I offer myself to you,
Knowing that I shall suffer
And that as your cleansing waters close over me
My lungs will gasp as I drown.
But I hope that I shall rise up through your waters
And I know that others will pass through them
To greet your light sisters
And join in the general dance,
Meeting you all
At your appropriate times.

© Daniel Cohen

(Notes. This poem was written in response to the poem Poem for the Dark Goddess on the Full Moon, written by Miriam (Diana) Scott and published in The Politics of Matriarchy (Matriarchy Study Group Publications, London 1979).

The city Omelas comes from a moving short story The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula le Guin. Mother Carey and Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid occur in The Water Babies by the Victorian clergyman Charles Kingsley. It was only when reading that book in later life that I realised that these and other characters in the book were my first introduction to the Goddess. The phrase "the general dance" comes from the carol Tomorrow Shall be My Dancing Day.)
 

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