Thursday 13 June 2013

The Thunder Gods


written during the Taurus Moon


Caught by the gods,
I am soaked, 
soaked through my skin
by the tingle of power
rippling aflame down my neural spine
and up again, wildfire in my mind
this thunder drums and drums
heartbeat thrown off kilter
a trance, pronouncement of doom, judgment come.

I crouch under the trees,
their bodies wracked by wind,
the sinew of their bark stretching, creaking, cracking
as my own body sinks to the ground, pleads, 
entreats in the soil and slime,
leaves now sewn to my skin by needles of light.

This dark light pierces me,
pours into my wells of knowing,
and the thunder keeps coming,
banging
earth shuddering as lightning hits,
a violent kiss.

In this storm, 
I do not stand tall, I do not greet the sky
or its thick tumbling clouds.
Instead I bow, pressed flat against the mud, 
limbs now tangled with roots and vines, 
splattered and dirty, impure.

I am but a creature of this earth,
a snake, belly all sinuous embrace of my utter chthonicity. 
I cannot look up, eyes filled with rain and lightning's terror.
Here in the storm, there is only blindness.

And then I feel a spark:
it rumbles, 
it shakes, 
it takes me,
until I call out to the thunder gods, 
Take me! Take me as your sacrifice! Make me into fire and flame. 

I dare now the lightning, stare it down from the sky,
its flashes destroying all illusions. 

There is a fierceness in me roaring,
rampant thunder bull with three electric eyes,

Body trembling, unfolding, muscles taut with will,
I am but string on the bow of heaven aimed at a distant peak--
The Mountain of Ten Thousand Thunders
they call it in their rumble speech,
those gods of the upper reaches,

no trees, no shelter, no place to hide,
only hail and wind, balefire and storm. 

Strip me down, I pray,
beat away this clay,
unveil the quartz-stone heart
until all that remains 
is a core conducting life's power
deep into Gaia's belly,
impregnating the planet anew.