I've taken to calling my gnosis based, relationship based spiritual path ancestral animism, and my reasons for that are multiple.

Mythic cyclic consciousness understands there is no end or beginning, no striving for some “perfect” inhabiting of a polarity, but the beautiful dance that is balance. My prayer is for the balance to be regained, on a micro level, and a macro, to be a part of the rhythm, to sing a soul song in the flow.

Who is the Bog Hag? This archetype, familiar to us, known in our bones, surfaced for me in late 2023 when I was skulking a thread about perimenopause that came up in my search results. A woman wrote something about embracing the Hag she was becoming, flipping the bird to expectations and taking up residence in her Hag hut. Yes. That will do, I thought, my heart opened and immediately wrote the poem that ends this letter.

What are the names of the spirits in your ancestral languages? What are the names of the spirits in the land where you live now? How does our relationship to place transform when we view it as relationship, necessitating respect and reciprocity?