Our modern western culture has grown to value spring energy above all else – forever young, forever upward, forever producing, forever shining.
Yet when we look outwards into the heart of nature, we see that this is not only damaging, but unnatural. And when we also look into the heart of our own nature, we see this way of being is exhausting and also unnatural.
The seasons that move around us, move within us too, deeply affecting our psyche, our bodies and our spirit, with the way they shift and change the energy and scenery, they show us that the journey of being human is not linear, but cyclical.
Autumn and winter especially tell a very different story to that of our modern cultural narrative; they show us that to know ourselves and where we wish to head, we need to spend time tending to our roots, our dark matter, in order to tend to our future paths.
Yet we are often shamed for being different, for resting, for being quieter, for going inward. And if we depend on our spring energy to be pleasing, liked, approved of, or to fit in, then autumn and winter can be especially triggering both personally and culturally. People can end up thinking there is something deeply wrong with them when they don’t want to keep partying, being outward, being golden, being the same – day in, day out.
But maybe there is something deeply right with them instead. They are hearing the wild and natural call to transition, to go inwards, to descend, to quieten, to listen, and to feel; to compost away the old, to fall apart, to change so the seeds of becoming may thrive.
What if more people stopped gaslighting their inner autumn and winter, and instead allowed themselves to explore it rather than hide it.
What if they realised there is nothing wrong with them, that maybe they are more attuned to the wild’s way, to their human way, of embodying alchemy.
– Brigit Anna McNeill via Facebook
November 9, 2022
A number of writers over at Jacobin, including David Sirota (right), have jointly written a piece that highlights “8 lessons from the midterm elections” that “quash the narrative” that progressive platforms and policies are “too extreme.”
“While voters this year declined to offer a stiff rebuke of the party in power,” writes Sirota, “they indicated via ballot measures, exit polls, and large preelection surveys that on key issues . . . the electorate is more progressive than elected officials and corporate media pundits care to admit.”
This is a perspective that I and others have long maintained (see, for example, here, here, and here.
Author, activist, and former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson (left) offers this same perspective when in a recent appearance on The Hill TV’s Rising program, she observes that “the country is moving in a progressive direction” and that “people are seeing through the propagandist projections onto progressive policies that they represent ‘socialism’ or ‘the nanny state.’”
What should this mean for the Democratic party? Continues Williamson:
The Democratic party now should align itself with its own progressive base, should align itself unabashedly with the traditional pillars – in an FDR-sence of what the Democratic party once was – of unequivocal support for the working people of the United States. . . . Only then will we be able to make a real dent in the authoritarian force field that’s coming at us and coming at us strongly.
Following is an excerpt from David Sirota, et al’s recent Jacobin piece and the 12-minute Rising segment featuring Marianne Williamson.
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Corporate media, industry-funded think tanks, and Democratic operatives were chomping at the bit to blame the party’s anticipated midterm election losses Tuesday on progressives and a prefabricated narrative about Democrats’ supposedly extreme brand. Then, the results began rolling in.
It’s not clear yet which party will control the House or Senate, but this was not the “red wave” that polls had projected, nor the midterm bloodbaths that Democrats faced under President Barack Obama in 2010 and 2014. In recent decades, the party controlling the White House has almost always lost seats in the midterms, with the stark exception of the 2002 midterms when Republicans took back the Senate thanks to the momentum of President George W. Bush’s “war on terror.”
While voters this year declined to offer a stiff rebuke of the party in power, they indicated via ballot measures, exit polls, and large preelection surveys that on key issues such as abortion rights, health care, higher minimum wages, workers’ right to collectively bargain, and legalized cannabis, the electorate is more progressive than elected officials and corporate media pundits care to admit.
Many factors can explain the Democrats’ unexpectedly strong performance in a midterm cycle, such as the Supreme Court’s massively unpopular decision to strike down a constitutional right to an abortion and voters’ apparent rejection of Republican candidates closely tied to former president Donald Trump. But there is another equally important takeaway that Democrats should take to heart.
The results suggest that when the Democratic Party listened to its progressive flank and adopted bold proposals like the child tax credit, student debt cancellation, and massive climate spending, voters rewarded its politicians.
To read David Sirota, et al's’ article “8 Lessons From the Midterm Elections” in its entirety, click here.
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Following is the November 10, 2022 segment of Rising featuring Marianne Williamson on “how the 2022 midterm elections were not about the Republican or Democratic Parties, but rather the American people delivering a message” that said, “Okay, enough with the crazy; let’s get back to who we are.”
If you love someone who is gay or black or Jewish or an immigrant, or if you love someone who is elderly or sick or if you love children and women, don’t vote for people who will hurt them. They’ve said they will. They couldn’t be any clearer. Don’t vote for them because your gas or your groceries cost more at the moment. They’ve also been very clear that they have no plan to fix that. They have no plans, period, except to make themselves rich. It’s simple. Vote for the people you love.
The material world is literally the substance and being of God. Every nanosecond, divinity births the world from its own essence, incarnating a profoundly sacred place. Look deeply into anything and you find God.
The Green Man [is] an ancient pagan archetype of masculine connection with Nature. Depicted in image and stone with his beard and hair growing (or formed of) leaves, vines and boughs, the Green Man is the steward of the forests and the land. He is “husband” to the plants and trees, animals, and the feminine Gaia. An enlightened being who exists in conscious relationship and harmony with the living energies of Earth and the cosmos, the Green Man embodies a silent, gentle wisdom through his respect of all living things. Bearded and inherently masculine, he offers a different model of manhood and strength: one based on relationship, caring, and true husbandry or stewardship.
Far older than Christianity, the Green Man reemerged powerfully in the twelfth century alongside the Goddess as embodied by the Holy Mother, Mary. His bearded image can be found carved into stone pillars in cathedrals throughout Europe. At the sacred site of Chartres, France, the Green Man can be found at least seventy-two times within the great cathedral, and reputedly over a hundred of his stone faces can be found in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.
As an embodiment of the Sacred Masculine, the Green Man understands the hidden laws of nature and interconnected relationship. In a modern incarnation, he stands for environmental awareness and action, symbolizing cooperation with Nature rather than domination over it for resources, wealth, and power.
. . . For men today, there is much of value in this ancient, archetypal energy as a representation of the Sacred Masculine – an image of malehood entwined with Nature and mystery. He offers a signpost for a different way forward, a path of balance and wholeness through conscious relationship and harmony. The way of the wild soul.
. . . You have a deper purpose and your body holds the key. We need to unplug and, even amid the noise, begin to listen. Not simply with ears but with our senses. Feeling. Intuition. We need to “tune in” rather than “tune out,” and allow ourselves to be guided deeper into a tactile, sensual connection with life and the way of the wild soul.
All of creation is held in a delicate and sometimes precarious balance. My walks in [nature] put me in closer touch with that balance, reminding me that I am made of the same dust of the earth from which all creation was born. If only I could tune my own lumbering movements a little more often to the cadence of creation. Maybe then I’d feel more intensely the holy balance intended by the Creator. Only rarely have I known the peace of it settling into my body and spirit. Have you felt it? I can’t explain it, but I know it when it comes. Through it, God speaks.
– Jennifer M. Ginn Excerpted from “Walking in Wonder” Gather
September/October 2022
I love the beauty of life’s last dance with the above ground realm at this time of year, as each being turns inward, towards the darkness and the sweet embrace of quietude. How I love these golden displays, this fire that burns bright in yellows, oranges and reds, before descending to feed the ground below, turning to compost, dark matter, feeding and holding the seeds, the future.
And as winter takes hold of the land, if you listen, if you watch, you will feel, hear, sense the seeds, as they dream into being, held by their elders, nourished by their homeland. Dreaming, stretching, reaching tenderly, powerfully; growing into medicine, food, beauty and life.
Take a moment to listen on those darkening days, to feel the beauty, the becoming, being whispered upon the land. Use this as a mirror for your own soul, your own inner landscape. If you feel into the darkness, when all around you feels lost; if you listen deeply enough, compassionately, you will notice the seeds inside yourself, learning, stretching, growing; wanting to rewild the concrete, birthing your medicine, for you.
I always appreciate the informed perspective of Phyllis Bennis – author, scholar, and director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. Indeed, she’s one of my “go-to” people for information and insights on U.S. foreign policy and its implications both here and abroad. Her latest piece, published November 3 in In These Times magazine, asserts that “it’s time for a ceasefire in Ukraine.” Following is an excerpt.
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There is a desperate need for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Russia’s war continues to bring death to thousands, displacement of millions, and the destruction of towns and cities across Ukraine. The war, now entering its ninth month, has been illegal from day one. It violates both the UN Charter and international humanitarian law. Years of provocations by NATO, Europe and most of all the United States did not justify Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine.
A ceasefire to end the war was urgently needed on February 25, the day after the war began. A ceasefire was imperative when Russia escalated its attacks and seized Ukrainian territory in the south and east of the country starting in early April. A ceasefire was critically important when the Ukrainians succeeded at wresting back much of the seized territory in September. And a ceasefire is desperately required now as the Ukrainian counter-offensive continues and Russia persists in its retaliation against civilian targets across Ukraine.
In some ways ceasefires can seem complicated – by themselves they don’t solve the problems that led to armed conflict in the first place. By themselves they don’t hold the perpetrators accountable. By themselves they don’t change the balance of forces on the ground when they go into effect. In short, by themselves, ceasefires are never enough. But in one fundamental way they are as urgent and simple as can be: once declared, and for as long as ceasefires hold, while other issues are being negotiated, people are no longer being killed, injured or made homeless.
. . . There must be real, serious diplomacy and negotiations. As is always the case with negotiations, that means a long bargaining process. The United States certainly has no right to impose specific concessions on Kyiv – Ukraine is a sovereign country. But as the primary weapons supplier and economic backer of Ukraine’s military and government, Washington has not only the right but the responsibility to push for diplomacy. Despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hostile rhetoric, the claim that Russia isn’t interested simply isn’t enough, especially when Russian officials have voiced openness to participating in talks.
Neither side is likely to show willingness to negotiate without pressure – and telling the leadership in Kyiv that Washington will continue to provide unlimited billions of U.S. tax dollars and weapons to continue this war, at the potential cost of far more Ukrainian lives, with no endgame in sight, is simply not acceptable. The risks are too great.
The United States doesn’t need to tell Kyiv what it should concede, but it certainly should make clear its own diplomatic positions. That could start with making clear that U.S. sanctions on Russia, designed ostensibly to push Russia to negotiate, will in fact be lifted when a ceasefire in Ukraine is implemented.
Second, the United States could call for new bilateral U.S.-Russian talks designed to reopen and strengthen all existing and abandoned nuclear disarmament and arms control treaties. That could start with a new commitment from both the United States and Russia to implement Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which calls for the recognized nuclear weapons states to move towards “nuclear disarmament, and . . . general and complete disarmament.”
Third, the United States could announce its intention to halt construction on its latest overseas military base, currently being built in Poland just 100 miles from the Russian border. The base is designed to serve as the Pentagon’s 5th Army Headquarters, and will include the deployment of strategic missiles as well as a full field battalion of soldiers, the first permanent U.S. troop deployment among NATO’s eastern European post-Soviet members.
Any or all of these moves by the United States – while appropriately limited to Washington’s own negotiating positions – could go a long way in pushing reluctant politicians in both Kyiv and Moscow to reconsider their need for a ceasefire and diplomacy. And they could go equally far in reducing the current threat, however small it may seem, of direct U.S.-Russian nuclear engagement.
To read Phyllis Bennis’ article “It’s Time For a Ceasefire in Ukraine,” click here.
I half-jokingly refer to the summer just past as “my summer that wasn’t”. This is because for much of it I was hampered in my movements and outdoor activities by a bout of debilitating sciatica, a condition I’d been living with since the end of 2021. Thankfully I had back surgery at the end of the summer which seems to have greatly alleviated (if not completely ended) my sciatic pain.
Despite living with sciatica for most of the summer, I managed to have an enjoyable and active-as-possible time. And so here a look back at the people, places, and experiences that were most meaningful to me in the summer of 2022.
Above and below: “Take me out to the ball game!”
Above and below: Amelia and Eddie – September 11, 2022.
Above: My friend Deandre and his cat Tyga – June 24, 2022.
Above: My friends John and Noelle (Amelia’s grandparents) – June 26, 2022.
Above: Lunch with my dear friend Noelle at the Good Earth restaurant in The Galleria in Edina, MN.
Above: When in a high-end store in The Galleria I saw a beautiful serving plate that featured a French postcard set under glass by artist John Derian.
I later discovered that the art of cutting and gluing paper images to surfaces and/or under glass is called decoupage. Derian collects antique fruit, flower, and animal prints and then, through decoupage, makes them into plates, platters, paperweights, lamps, tabletops, umbrella stands, vases and shadow boxes. His designs are handmade in his studio in New York.
Above: Celebrating my dear friend Angie’s birthday – July 9, 2022. Pictured with Angie is her husband Bryan and mother-in-law Dar.
Above and below: Fun, friendship, and beautiful views at Pelican Lake, Glenwood, MN, on the weekend of Angie’s birhday celebrations – July 9-10, 2022.
Above: My attic abode – among the trees and clouds! 😄
Above: In the garden of my friends John and Noelle’s St. Paul home the morning after my lumbar Hemilaminectomy surgery – August 31, 2022.
Although my sciatic pain was now thankfully gone, the incision area on my lower back was very tender and sore, hence the need still for my cane. A week after this photo was taken, I was back at work and no longer needing to use a cane. Three weeks after my surgery, however, my sciatica returned, though not as severe as before. In the months since, it has gradually abated.
Said my friend Angie about this photo: “I can see in your face and eyes that you are no longer suffering in such awful pain. I’m so grateful and happy for you! This is a handsome photo of you and really expresses your loving, gentle and patient soul!” . . . Thanks, Ang!
We have a critical mass of people who realize that the same-old same-old won’t fix [the crisis we’re in], who realize that the neoliberal status quo won’t disrupt itself and that in many ways it’s played a role in gettng us to where we are. . . . We have to stop pretending to ourselves that the same-old same-old will in any way sustain us or lead us to a survivable future.
– Marianne Williamson
With the U.S. midterm elections less than a week away, I can’t think of a better person to hear from on the state of the nation than author, activist, and former progressive Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson.
Anyone who follows this blog will know that I’ve long respected and supported Marianne, and agree with philosopher and social critic Cornel West when he says that Marianne is “one of the few in the higher echelons of public life and public conversation who understand the intimate relation between the spiritual and the social, the personal and the political, and the existential and the economic.”
Continues West: “It’s very rare that people have this synoptic vision, [one that ensures that] spirituality, morality, and integrity sit at the center and at the beginning of any serious discussion about the relation of a self and a society.”
This “synoptic vision” of Marianne’s, greatly needed in our fractured world today, is on full display throughout Nina Turner’s recent conversation with her, one that you can watch below and which is of 10-minutes duration.
What many consider to be the Celtic New Year takes place this evening. It’s a turning that has its roots in the Gaelic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in) marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or “darker half” of the year. It is held on November 1 but its celebration begins on the evening of October 31 as the Celtic day began and ended at sunset.
Samhain is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals along with Imbolc, Beltaine and Lughnasa. Historically it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. Similar festivals took place in Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany.
Wikipedia notes that:
Like Beltaine, Samhain was a liminal or threshold festival, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned, meaning the Aos Sí (the “spirits” or “faeries”) could more easily come into our world. Most scholars see the Aos Sí as remnants of pagan gods. At Samhain, they were appeased with offerings of food and drink, to ensure the people and their livestock survived the winter. The souls of dead kin were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality, and a place was set at the table for them during a meal. Mumming and guising were part of the festival from at least the early modern era, whereby people went door-to-door in costume reciting verses in exchange for food. The costumes may have been a way of imitating, and disguising oneself from, the Aos Sí. Divination was also a big part of the festival and often involved nuts and apples.
As you’ve no doubt ascertained, many features of Samhain have been incorporated into the Catholic celebrations of November 1, “All Hollows Day” (or “All Saints Day”) and November 2, “All Souls Day.” Filtered through these celebrations, elements of Samhain also emerge in the modern holiday of Halloween.
Hallowtide, is the name I use for the time of transformative power that all these names, origins, meanings, and dates call to mind and heart.
A song which for me calls to mind and heart the transformative power of Hallowtide is “Pretty Tune" by Kiki Dee (left) and Carmelo Luggeri (with guest artists Pandit Dinesh and Micky Simmons). It’s from their sublime 1998 album Where Rivers Meet, a beautiful title that evokes the meeting of worlds associated with Hallowtide.
Hallowtide Blessings!
May this time of transformation
bring you the endings you need and
the beginnings you desire.
Dark afternoons, driving into strange cities
And if we feel the doubt, it’s only change
Back when the days were long we could do anything
Bathed in the sunlight
It’s just a different place
This is my November song
The end is not the end
It’s just a beginning
A year in your life
What’s in a name?
It’s just my pretty tune
Radio views, I’ll look and I’ll listen
But I think it maybe time not to buy these wares
Each step moves us on
Right now I’m going home
I’m going home
I established The Wild Reed in 2006 as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith. The Wild Reed's original by-line read, “Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective.” As you can see, it reads differently now. This is because my journey has, in many ways, taken me beyond, or perhaps better still, deeper into the realities that the words “progressive,” “gay,” and “Catholic” seek to describe.
Even though reeds can symbolize frailty, they may also represent the strength found in flexibility. Popular wisdom says that the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm. Tall green reeds are associated with water, fertility, abundance, wealth, and rebirth. The sound of a reed pipe is often considered the voice of a soul pining for God or a lost love.
On September 24, 2012,Michael BaylyofCatholics for Marriage Equality MNwas interviewed by Suzanne Linton of Our World Today about same-sex relationships and why Catholics can vote 'no' on the proposed Minnesota anti-marriage equality amendment.
"I believe your blog to be of utmost importance for all people regardless of their orientation. . . . Thank you for your blog and the care and dedication that you give in bringing the TRUTH to everyone."– William
"Michael, if there is ever a moment in your day or in your life when you feel low and despondent and wonder whether what you are doing is anything worthwhile, think of this: thanks to your writing on the internet, a young man miles away is now willing to embrace life completely and use his talents and passions unashamedly to celebrate God and his creation. Any success I face in the future and any lives I touch would have been made possible thanks to you and your honesty and wisdom."– AB
"Since I discovered your blog I have felt so much more encouraged and inspired knowing that I'm not the only gay guy in the Catholic Church trying to balance my Faith and my sexuality. Continue being a beacon of hope and a guide to the future within our Church!"– Phillip
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"I grieve for the Roman institution’s betrayal of God’s invitation to change. I fear that somewhere in the midst of this denial is a great sin that rests on the shoulders of those who lead and those who passively follow. But knowing that there are voices, voices of the prophets out there gives me hope. Please keep up the good work."– Peter
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"Michael, your site is like water in the desert."– Jayden
