Last weekend the Sisterhood of the Silver Branch celebrated as two sisters became new priestesses — a happy occasion indeed! Amitofa performed her naming ceremony solo, and Rue came out to California from Minnesota for her ceremony. As part of the pre-ritual festivities, six of us treated ourselves to some mehndi, courtesy of henna artist Rica. I’ve had the pleasure of having Rica’s mud on me before, and it’s always a meaningful experience, at every stage of the process. First, she asked me what my intention was, what energy I would like to bring in or release with this mehndi. I knew I wanted something abstract and traditional in feel, rather than representational (some of the other women that night got such great images as datura blossoms and pomegranates). I asked that my left hand, the receptive hand, be about welcoming magic into my life.
My right hand design represented release of fears and other limitations that hold me back. There is grounding energy there too, in the symmetry of the four elements.
The images here show the work in progress — the final design had spirals and dots on every fingertip, and the whole thing was humming with energy! That night, after leaving the mud on to dry for several hours, I carefully scraped it off , revealing the delicate orange stain beneath. Now, here’s where henna is very mysterious indeed: it continues to “bloom” over a period of hours or days, so that when I woke the next morning, my hands were adorned with deep, rich terra cotta color artwork. I had never had mehndi on my palms before, only on the backs of my hands and on my feet, and the power I felt was indescribable. Magic flowing in, and everything that is no longer needed flowing out. (Here's a picture Julie took of me at brunch the next morning, fully henna-ed:)
Henna will last a long time on the skin if you take care, wear gloves, etc., but I’ve just been going about my usual activities and letting it fade. It feels curiously as if it is fading INTO my body, rather than lifting away. The magic and the release becoming part of me. It’s got me thinking now that I need to do this more often, not wait for a special ceremonial occasion. I’m also thinking more about tattoos — my next one will be to redo the rest of my left wristband (you can see the part that will be redone in the photo above), but then I’m feeling something large emerging on my back. A tree? A moon? A goddess? A moon goddess? A tree goddess with a moon? It’s shapeshifting in my head and tingling under the skin on my back. Getting a tattoo there will be something that is all for ME, all about energy and magic, for it’s unlikely that other people will see it, and even I won’t see it much! But as with the mehndi on my hands, I feel it will be significant, life-changing, in ways that I can’t even imagine now.
What have you done for yourself lately that enhances your magic?
I recently had the tattoo around my left wrist altered, as it had never felt quite right. The original intention was to have a raven in flight, but the artist — a woman I like and respect — couldn’t get it quite right for some reason. I lived with it for nearly two years, but finally stopped in at the local tattoo palace and was lucky enough to latch on to an artist there who immediately knew what needed to be done. “This bird has its wings clipped,” he said. “It’s not going anywhere.” In no time at all, it seemed, he not only gave my raven new wings, but also redid the medallion behind it, added some new swirlies, and generally made me fall in love all over again with the art on my arm. 
Recent Comments