Pausing at the River of Lethe
September 4, 2004

Pausing at the River of Lethe, not stopping for a swim, I am just considering its mighty power. I see its ebbs and flows, and think of its significance to myself. Earlier today, I read a wise article about Lethe, the river of forgetting as metaphor for life truths. We fight against Lethe, or else life is just a sleep before the great sleep. Yet, Lethe can be a motivator in a different way, as well. "Lethe forces invention and progress in the visible world. We forget just how to do it, and then invent a better way." (Don Webb, who encourages his readers to share the ideas!)

I turned this contemplation to the creation of sacred space as a way to deal with forgetfulness, as Webb mentions the keeping of altars, journals, and other memory catching devices as useful tools. I went back in time mentally to the first time I took some favorite crystals and a couple of Goddess statues, one wielding two snakes, and placed them carefully on a shelf, declaring the space there 'sacred', set apart from the mundane world. It has always been a small space, but no less sacred for that. I remembered how it has evolved over the years, items going and coming as I've evolved.

Then I chanced hearing of someone else's adventures with their sacred space, and how many old items really did not fit him anymore and were a distraction. This re-affirmed the concept of forgetting being both a good thing and a bad thing. How to keep both?

Ordinarly, sacred space reconstruction only happens when I move. When dusting, I've always carefully placed each item so that it could be put exactly where it had been. But what if I didn't?

I didn't do that this time. I lovingly took each piece and gently set it down in a random fashion, then dusted the shelf. I took the first item that called out to me, cleansed it and placed it front and center. Then the large Set statue, then the trio of Egyptian Goddesses, then...

When I was done, there were many items left that didn't go back. I didn't need the porcelain card which reads 'Goddess'. It was an important symbol of first Left Hand Path embrace. I didn't need a silver pentacle with a moonstone there, it represented the past. Old Xeper was good in its day, but I need new Xeper. Now some past I kept. I kept the quartz piece with inner foresty growth, as it reminds me of my late Laura's encouragement of my interests, and that the crystal has its own magical little world going on in there. But each item got evaluated anew, and as I placed each on the shelf those chosen anew , I reaffirmed that items magical significance in my life. Now my sacred space has much more significance than it did yesterday. The remembrance of altars past are present in the declaration and perservation of this space, as well as the commitment to fresh Xeper.

This to me is the path of 'Aletheia', WISDOM.

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