April - National Poetry Month and the magic of poetry

Over at The Wild Hunt blog today there is a guest blogger - Ruby Sara from the Pagan Godspell blog.  Here is what she has to say about poetry:

"Poetry’s role in the devotional and magical lives of the Pagani is manifold. It can be used in magical practice both in riddling (i.e. grokking a text for its deeper meaning), and in inducing trance (alliteration, rhyme, evocative word choice – all can assist the individual in Diving Deep and Surfacing). It can be used to communicate the ineffable in ways that are inaccessible through prose or didactic speech. It can bring people together in worship and in prayer. It can act as a channel between a people and their god. It can illuminate what was previously hidden, and make opaque things that require occultation. Poetry works the mind and the heart – it infiltrates the bones. Poetry works." ...(Cont.)...

Ruby is coming out with a new book - Datura: An Anthology of Esoteric Poesis.  Referring to this project she says:

"My goal in creating Datura was to highlight a collection of poems that speak to the hidden and rapturous nature of our work as Pagans and occultists as well as essays that explore various aspects of poetry in our communities, and in doing so provide inspiration to those seeking an understanding of the paths we walk as practitioners, to those who practice themselves as they deepen their study, to other writers and poets in these communities as they undertake the Work inherent in the writing process, and to those who simply grok Beauty in its myriad forms."

And here is one of her own poetic invocations:

"Kore! Maiden Savioress, Child of Hyacinths, Bringer of Rain – She! Sweet Abandon, Sister to Daylight, Lightning Woman! She who swallows the moon and the stars! She who calms Aegean pools and break Ionian shores! She who Rises Up from Hades’ throne and Leaps across the River Styx! She who Races past the snapping jaws of Cerberus and bursts forth from the Cave Mouth, bringing with her all the glories of Spring!—The Willow and the Honeybee, the Storm and the Sap!"
     -From Invocation of the Kore, by Ruby Sara and Johnny Rapture