Filling the Heart Vessel with Compassion for Others

Yesterday I briefly discussed vessels in the relationship unto words. Part of the paradigm of the Witch revolves around lore in regards to the sacred vessel. It is mythically the womb of our Lady. However, it is more than that. The cup and cauldron are central to ritual and as such represent the place of creation, potential, death, and the empty within the divine play that is existence. The vessel is one half of the whole that is the central point around which rotates the Mill of the Stars. This Mill is manifest as the earth about us, stretching into the four directions.

With each of the directions there is a chamber of the heart; which interestingly is divided into two halves. The heart is more than the physical mirror but is a vessel of the center of where the being of the selves conjoin. For some it symbolized by a flower or by a star.

In Druidry, it is a cauldron which is on its side at our birth. As we age is rotates and is filled with all of the experiences, actions, and trials of life. This Heart Vessel is akin to the vessel yesterday’s post. It can create and form beauty about us, if we allow it to sing.

Our statues are a conduit of focus whereby they are proxies of our Lady and our Lord, symbolically speaking. Likewise, the sacred Other is a conduit. This Other is simply the people whom we encounter in the course in our lives. Just as we are divine, so are they. It is the actions by which the Other is interacted with that feed our heart vessel. Our behavior and relations with other people and beings are the substance of our offerings unto the Gods through our own center; just as the offerings made to statues in ritual are sacred, so too are the offerings made to our fellows.

Depending upon which Deity is being worked with will determine what constitutes are a favorable and quality offering to make. The offerings made to the Other is also upon a spectrum of worth. By laying compassion, empathy, and goodwill at the feet of the Other are we making truly beautiful offerings.

Let us not confuse these actions with weakness. There is a time for severe interaction, especially if self-defense is warranted. In these times the action taken is not an offering unto the Gods via the Other but to the Gods via self-preservation. In the end, spiritual authority is derived neither from threats or subservience, but from wisdom. Learn when which offering is to be made and be mindful of the action in the doing, and the Heart Vessel will be filled to the brim of like quality brilliance.

Boidh se!

-Spanish Moss

"Lost in a thicket bare-footed upon a thorned path."