Public spaces

The Mary statue in the yard is a very local Goddess. I received her as a house-warming gift from Siri when we lived in Beaver, and I have trucked her concrete self with me around Oregon a few times. I put her in our yard, just outside our fence on 20th street, hoping that she can become a public altar where people feel free to leave offerings if they would like. Sharon helped me plant roses on either side of her. One of my neighbors calls her “The Praying Lady”, and another had the urge to put flowers at her altar, but didn’t.
Mary is one of my many attempts to establish a public personal ritual space. I used to have my concrete statue of Aphrodite down in front of Tom’s bookstore. I would lay flowers around her and leave offerings, but no one seemed to notice, and the corner where she sat was a catch-all for organic detritus. It just didn’t work. I considered buying a house near downtown, living upstairs and turning the bottom floor into public ritual space, but that road remains untraveled. Living at the Temple in Nevada was my first experience being in a public ritual space. And it made me realize how needed these spaces are — spaces dedicated to contemplation, divine connection, personal ritual — whatever is needed.
So my hope is as always that Mary may be able to fill a role for someone, be a little space for a private prayer that is held by others. And that seems to me to be the power of these spaces, that our individual prayers are held, held and heard.
As I was getting ready for bed, I realized that I had prepared an offering of my moon blood, but had forgotten to offer it! So, a quick jet outside for a late night ritual was in order. I slipped on my shoes and a robe, and went to the statue of Mary in our yard. In my mind and my heart I held the faces of our friends here in Hood River, the trials and joys personal and public, the circle we weave. I poured my libation, offering my gifts to the gifts of the earth, locating myself in the grand cycle of birth, fertility, and death, and holding us in the arms of this sacred land at the feet of Mary.