Mighty Lady

Dedicated to all my Initiates in the Wildwood Tradition. You are my greatest teachers and most profound touchstones of the fierce love of Our Lady. x

In the Wildwood Tradition of Witchcraft one of the four Great-Noble Spirits we dedicate with-to is the Lady. We address Her as Our Lady, Crescent-Crowned Goddess, Rosy Queen, She Who Arises, She Who Descends, Wolf Mother, Raven Queen, Mistress of the Wild Things, and by the Holy Name Written In Our Hearts. We come to Her as naked, vulnerable, messy, broken-open humans… we are remembered in Her Presence.

At the Holy Spring Rite when the Old God blasts open the Hollow Hill and rides the Wind with the Shining Ones, She rises and the Veil of White lifts so She may crown the Prince, King for a Day, spelling their death.

At the Holy Autumn Rite when the Grandfather thunders open the Faerie Mound and shakes the Wind Rattles with the Dark Ones, She comes to the Wolf’s Cave and the Veil of Black lifts so She may behold the Wolf and acknowledge His primordial power and indestructibility. But just as She is confronted by Them, so They are confronted by Her and Her Rage and Grief. Her Magic. She descends.

She is Love, Truth, and Wisdom. She blossoms as the terrible profundity of Beauty which may also be called Justice or Pleasure or Courage, witches in our Tradition name it variously!

If Grandmother Weaver is the vastness of things, the empty-raging-fullness of things, the fecund void of aliveness and beingness, the interconnectivity of all fate and beings and things…

If Grandfather Green, the Old One, is the face and form of the Weaver’s Mystery, bones of the earth, the law, the door, the breath, the death…

If the Master, Son of Art, Horned-Cloaked God, Prince of Paradise is the Shapechanging Trickster, the Adversarial Devil at the Gates of Initiation, the Crossroads Guardian who is our own deep longing and fears, and the ecstatic transformation made possible through sorcery…

Then Our Lady… She is our inner heart, the cathedral-groves of our precious-powerful, fierce-fragile four chambered hearts.

She is the the song of stars, She is the dreaming of power.

She is entirely specific and entirely Our Goddess, a Goddess who interacts not just with initiates and aspirants of the Wildwood Tradition, but who moves through the Worlds interacting with who She desires to.

It is said often by elders and teachers and initiates of the Craft that we honour the Gods behind the Gods of culture and civilisation, it is said that our Gods were old when the world was new.

In Wildwood Craft we call Them the Sacred Four and we invoke and honour Them at all our initiations and rites. They form the deep profound gravitas of who we are and what we do, who we are Becoming.

Our Lady is also the lover and beloved of St Brigid.

St Brigid or the Mystery we name Brigid stands between all worlds, witness to all realms and kin, and offers Herself as midwife to the Lady and foster-mother to the Young One when they are born. There are many mysteries wrapped up in this.

A Prayer to the Goddess of the Wildwood

Mother of Life!
Sister to Sorcery!
You who dance with the Knife who is pointed as Truth
Held and honoured by Love and Wisdom.
Beautiful and Terrible Secret.
Mysterious Rose blossoming in the darkness.
You who rise from the dreaming void of all creation as the Star of All Being!
You who humble us all by your fierce and profound loving presence.
Great Queen and Mother of Witches.
Initiator!
I come to you as Witch
I come to you in the name of St Brigid
I come to you in the name of the Grandmother of All
I come to you in the name of the Old God who is the Door and the Death
I come to you in the name of the Devil, the Prince, the Fallen-in-Love Holy Quickening.
I come to you as myself, desirous of Knowing you.
In my heart are lamps lit for you.
May I grow ever more Loving
May I grow ever more Truthful
May I grow ever more Wise.
May I blossom as the Beauty of the Tree.
Blessed is Your Holy Name.