“The body knows where to go from here”—
it always knew, but for a long time, I didn’t trust it.
I spent decades in my head, with a severed connection from the neck down—
a kind of disembodied deadness and discomfort in my own skin. This body is much smarter than my mind, which races from story to story at times, so I forget where I’ve laid things down in my spellbound slumber.
Now, I trust my body to take me where I need to be. I notice when the feet stop moving to unexpected places. There, I stand, scanning around for the misplaced item. The thing I am looking for generally reappears where the body has stopped, because the body remembers what the mind forgot.
Lately, I’ve been using my body as pendulum. First, I stand still and steady. Breathing deeply, consciously for a moment, connecting inwards. Next, I ask a closed question, one that has a ‘yes’, or ‘no’ answer. If true, the body sways forwards. If false, rocks backwards.
I am learning to trust these forward sways and rock backs for smaller things, such as:
‘Is there a poem in this book I’m holding that will feed my soul and be good to write to?’
Yes, forward. No, back. It never fails to deliver.
Yes, this is a “primal recognition”.
This animal body knows to sit under the full moon for hours, catching the rays in a jar of water. Later, using the moon juice to cleanse and clear the house, doorway, threshold.
~ by Angela, The Modern House Witch
Read: Victoria Erikson’s, ‘To the woman starting over’
(original poet’s lines in “italics”)
Leave a Reply