Animating the Spirit of Democracy

Three wise women with deep ancestral roots in Washington D.C. will meet on January 19th to sweep away the malfeasance, deceit and partisanship of the last eight years. The visionary astrologer Caroline Casey is taking part in this act of magic, and the details are found at her Coyote Network News site.

As the inauguration nears, she invites us to see anew what that word means, and its symbolic potential. The augur would walk out into nature to divine the patterns indicating which human was deemed the most responsible steward of the Common Wealth, the well-being of all our relations. We invite you to contribute your medicine blessing to our collective brew, and toast our new President, with whom we vow to collaborate: Barack Hussein Obama! (whose name means means "Blessing/Lightning - Beloved of the Divine - the Good").

It's a symbolic act that merges powerfully, the strands of our national past, as they call on the power of the ancestors. The Ritual of Unity and Blessing is organized by a triumvirate of native Washingtonians, one of whom is the great-granddaughter of slaves, one the great-granddaughter of slave owners, and one the daughter of a populist New Deal Congressman. As a descendent of Lyman Hall, a signer of the Declaration of independence, as well as being an official Yankee Doodle Dandy (born on the 4th of July), I've often wondered, "What would Lyman do?" in these precarious times for the nation. These remarkable women are inspirations for what it takes to reach deep enough and authentically enough, to touch something real.

If you've worked with quartz crystals, you know they're magnifiers of what you're beaming into them. For this ritual, they'll be charging a crystal -- to represent the Washington Monument -- with the currents for unity and protection, and then casting it into the water, to flow out to the world via the Potomac River. It's a strong, clear intention of mutual good-will between a leader and the people, and the expectation that this integrity, and spirit of collaboration will be reflected back. So mote it be!

• Reclaiming Our Revolutionary Roots