Science Indistinguishable from Magic
(For Ann Elliott, on her 80th birthday)
1. Breaking
Three years
ago, the valley filled with white,
Science failed, the great oaks broke,
And with them our hearts, a veil torn in two.
The Shaman
passed through that veil;
But your journey took a different path,
A winding way: great pain, many places.
Knees, back,
foot: these had to be broken and restored,
These parts of us that must be strong and stand,
But whose real strength is bend and flex.
And you
yourself were strong,
And like the willow you willed yourself
To bend and flex in new ways.
2. Rite of Passage
For your rite
of passage, you became a pilgrim,
And wound your way among your children’s homes,
Until at last you came to Scotland.
There, you
took up the Shaman’s mantle
To heal the Borders, where modern, dark plantations
Cover the land, smother ancient war wounds.
Instead of
reiving, we rode from point to point
Of a great triangle, from a hill above Hawick,
To Wauchope Forest and Hermitage Castle.
In each place
we made Kaddish, praying
In remembrance, and for healing, laying
A crystal, leaving a sign of the Labyrinth.
3. Reintegration
Polarities shift, your science and his magic;
Old Yin becomes Yang.
You’ve
turned another corner on your
Winding way, had your house rebuilt,
Made the Shaman part of you.
In daily
dialog with him, you’ve found
Your voice, rebalanced yourself,
And grown to become the Shaman-Crone.
And as
you’ve journeyed these last three years,
You’ve found your Science has advanced enough
And is now indistinguishable from his Magic.
-10 April 2009, Good Friday