Oh Goddess, where do I start?
For thirty-five years I’ve been away from Mardi Gras. I used to march the parades with my trumpet, used to ride the floats, but when I left the Deep South, the tradition died within me. This year marked my first two parades in all of that time. (I figured that for me it was all over, but this year I realized that my soul has craved the feelings and connections with my fellow New Orleanians of what this all means to us: this IS OURS, our way of dealing with the shit and garbage of Life, and it’s our way way of dealing with it all. The beingness of what we are, and our commonality.
Okay, we made KdV and Muses this year. Tomorrow night will add two more parades. I should have made them all, but my lifestyle excludes the day parades. I do the night as a Night Owl. This is all I know anymore. I live in the darkness, and I revel in that. The nightime is when the Spirits walk, and the time when our ancestors waft through the ether energizing their descendants to dance within the mists that are the medium for us all to communicate.
It is the time that surpasses Time, when we all commune together, the time we hold hands and all of Time is null.
Those of us here live with the ghosts. During this time of year, they dance with us. They remind us of our mortality and our permanence. There is no true death, only a time away from the fray for rest, and then we are plunged again into the maelstrom. It’s what the Goddess promises: there is no end, but only a learning process.
I know I’m pissing off the single lifers, but heck, I’ve been around for tens of thousands of years, it took me decades to realize these facts. (Intellectually I knew this, but it takes a subjective realization to understand and acceptance to get this one.)
As a Priestess, I do understand the movement of the ages.
Can you understand the feelings of a culture shrouded and consumed by 300 years of living? Can you understand the ghosts that live on each corner of the city? Can you get a culture that lives with this freakin’ reality?
If you can’t understand what I’m talking about, your time is limited. If the state of our condition isn’t corrected, the US has condemned itself. New Orleans is the spiritual basis of this country. We are what creates a new world. We here are what creates a Natural and equitable World. You can’t do it without us. We are the continual rememberence.
We are the ones.
We here in New Orleans stand for something, and it’s about the spirits of of our people to increase the Nation’s support of it’s folks’ desires. You know what? We are the proving ground, and fuck the Feds on this shit. Fuck the Feds and the Judeo-Cristian assholes on this one. (Personally I’d Nuke the Vatican and Jeruselem on this freakin’ score. I don’t care for Judeo/Christian/Islamic thought, I’m a witch, and the ruling paradigm sought the deaths of my ancestors, I’m just returning the favor to them.
We here in New Orleans are different creatures, and we are hospitable folks, unless you are dangerous folks, and then we will cleanse the earth of you jerks.
Intriguing post. I’ve been feeling the lack of mardi gras in my life this year too. For different reasons, but it is there nonetheless.
You have written some interesting ideas. Have you read The Mercy of Thin Air? It is by a relatively local gal and is a well-written “soul” story (I won’t say ghosts exactly).
Comment by saintseester — February 20, 2007 @ 5:05 pm
I haven’t read that book, but it might be interesting. (Goddess knows I need to read more than restoration and NOLA screw-up reports.)
I haven’t been able to even read my favorite books since the Flood. Maybe when the house is fixed I’l create a little reading corner.
Comment by Morwen Madrigal — March 6, 2007 @ 3:35 pm