I gots me a new tattoo.
Shortly after arriving at Free Spirit, I noticed a big pair of white geese hanging around just outside my cabin. Since the goose is my totem, this seemed like a good sign. (Ya think?)
Sacred Marks Sanctuary had set aside Friday for my clan. By which I mean, these two amazing guys tattooed a total of thirteen members of my extended family between 1 p.m. and 3 a.m. (With a dinner break.) All in ritual space. I went last.
Eighteen months ago, the clan had a ritual tattooing day planned for Imbolc (a day for sacred art, among other things). I had selected the eyes of Kali for the back of my neck. To prepare myself, I’d fasted and chanted and made ghee to offer to the fire. Seriously, lotta work there. And at the last minute, the tattoo artist got violently ill and couldn’t make it. Which made my brain hurt.
So the thing I’d written for part of the offering has been sitting on my altar all this time, and now, at last, I was getting my tattoo.
It’s about two in the morning. Roberta comes to wake me from my nap. I wash my face, put my hair up, get that piece of paper, walk to the tattooing tent. A lot of the clan has flagged and gone to bed (which is okay—we’re in our 13th hour of tattooing after all!). Daveed comes to drum for the ritual.
I read my statement of intent.
I acknowledge myself as a daughter of Kali. I place her eyes upon me. When I move forward, she watches behind. When I turn back, she looks ahead of me. She is with me always and I accept her embrace.
Om Shrim Kalyai Namah. Om.
We begin.
I ask for chanting. No one knows a Kali chant and I’m not in a space to teach, so they begin a freeform weaving of Her name. Daveed’s drum is like a leaping fire. I am the center of a vortex of chanting and drumming and energy. My neck is bent low for the tattoo, and I chant “Namostute, namostute” (I bow before you).
It’s over very quickly (an hour or less). I am just…flying. This was perfect. This was everything I imagined it would be. Abraham blots my tattoo and gets a perfect print of the three eyes in blood, which he hands to me and says “For the fire.”
Orien wants me to go to bed, but I’m too pumped. I take the blood-print and my statement of intent and go to the fire. I place both in the fire and then dance around.
When I go to sit with Cyndi, the geese arrive. People are really surprised, leading me to believe they haven’t been at the fire much before. They walk around the fire honking, and then park their honky selves right behind me. So. Yes.
While I don’t believe that Wicca is the only or even the best way to worship the Gods,I do believe we must have one of the most fun religions ever.
Fun. Tattoos. Geese. Sex. Fire. Drum. Gods.
What more does a religion need?
I think that laughter can be a great way to pray and that the Gods have a sense of humour.
Shit, you just gave me chills. PICTURES PLEASE???????
Sounds so amazing! What a wonderful experience.
That’s awesome! I’m a devotee of Kali and I’ve been wanting that very same tattoo for long time (but I’m totally chicken about the pain). By the way, Her mantra is AUM KRING KALIKAYE NAMAH AUM
Well, more than one mantra, y’know. 😉
Pictures when I get ’em. I got the geese…
I thought it was 14… (but I never ran a count).
[…] There are so many other things happening, I can’t go all the way into all of it. Much of Friday and part of Saturday I was also part of a tattooing ritual, in which 14 of my peeps received tattoos, and the rest of us would drum or chant or support energetically in any way necessary (including letting our hands be super-squoze). Pretty amazing stuff. […]
I thought it was 14… (but I never ran a count).
Counting Friday only, Gordon did 7 and Abraham did 6. I don’t know who tattooed Lenny on Thursday. Abe also tattooed Sharon on Saturday.
And now that I think of it, I don’t know if I was in the 13 or if I was the 14th, so there you go.
Damn the new math.
[…] So, here’s a picture of the new tattoo. […]
Cosette,
I checked. The mantra I actually use at home is OM KRIM KALYAI NAMAH.
The other mantra I use is OM HRIM SHRIM KRIM PARAMESHVARI KALIKE SVAHA.
So the Shrim from the 2nd one snuck into the 1st. Which is okay. Both are meaningful and make sense in the context. KRIM (or KRING) is dissolution and SHRIM is increase.
It was completely captivating experience. There was an energy working in the tattoo space that was thoroughly penetrating to my core.
Look at that…I put “Sacred Marks” in google to try to find some pics from Abe and Gordon, and I come up with you!! haha…well fyi…Abe did both Lenny and my tattoos. But that was truely the most amazing experience and there was an energy I can’t even begin to describe. I am only sorry that I was unable to be there for your eyes of Kali 🙁
Sharon, for goodness sake, you were sick! And you were there in spirit; that was the whole point of opening ritual; we were all there for all of it.
🙂 Yes, I was definitely there in spirit!! How are your eyes looking? I can’t see the pic on this site…it may be because I am at work. My fairy is looking pretty hot, I LOVE her!!
The eyes have been declared healed! Last night I ran into Joyce while shopping, so I asked her to check if it was really healed. Today for the first time I am wearing a necklace and it isn’t bothering me at all.
I can see the eyes in two mirrors, but not up close. They look great from a couple of feet away and I am very, very happy with them. I mean very. I really feel like the spiritual experience I had is stored inside my body.
I know EXACTLY what you mean!! I feel the same way about AmberMoon…I still feel the energy and the power that I felt then…along with lots of love and trust. It was and still is SO amazing. I guess I know what Orien meant by a ritual tattoo is very different than putting a picture on your body… I’m already thinking about the next one!!
I have to want the picture too. I get in a state where I love my tattoos; I love to look at them. I don’t want any new tattoos mucking up the view. I wouldn’t put anything more on either arm, for example. My arms are perfect the way they are. (In fact, before 9/11, the plan was to never ever tattoo my right arm, in order to showcase the left.)
At the moment, I’m in the opposite place, where I have an idea for a tattoo and its placement, but I have no reason to get it, except that I like tattoos and it would be pretty. And to go through that ritually just for pretty, well, not so much.
Yeah, I can’t imagine going through that for “pretty”…but your purpose will come, and then you can get pretty (prettier 😉 ). Ooo, this is so much fun to talk to you while I am here at work!! Takes me away to a better place!
HEY…I didn’tknow you wrote a book on James Bond!!
Well, “pretty” can be transformative. My arm was all about “pretty;” in the sense of allowing myself to be pretty. Because we struggle with that. So to adorn myself with flowers, that was very powerful. Now what I want is one huge flower, but I’m not sure how that’ll manifest.
Yeah, my tattoo really did transform my hip/thigh to be “pretty”. I always had trouble with that area and hated it…now, Lenny is cringing as I throw down my pants or lift up myskirt to show everyone my tattoo (haha, Free Spirit had a lasting impact). But in all seriousness, all of my sisters there have shown me that pretty comes in all different shapes and sizes and they are all beautiful! I had a hard time accepting that as it pertained to me; but my tattoo helped me realize that it applied to me too.
…and I am sure Lenny is thrilled cause I no longer even think twice about walking around the house in all my stunning beauty 😉
That’s so cool. That’s exactly what I’m talking about; having “pretty” be the thing over here, instead of the thing out there.
In fact, it was two-pronged for me. First were the fairies, which are SO beautiful. I have three. Then I got the flowers. The flowers were like, I am the fairy; no third party needed. The fairy who flits among flowers. Those are her surroundings. And that was so big. Not to need to have a picture of someone who is beautiful, but to be the someone.
The fairies had other meanings as well, but the flowers were entirely about becoming the fairy.
That’s beautiful Deborah!! …and I am glad to have shared that piece of my path with you 🙂
[…] We’ve talked before about the spirituality and meaning of tattooing, I thought this this was an exquisite and moving example of how we can transform ourselves with sacred marks. Here is a symbol that is both an expression of love and of commitment. My friend Steve will never be apart from his daughter, because he has chosen to place her on his arm. He carries her literally and figuratively. He shows the world that he is permanently changed by becoming a father. This is really everything that a tattoo can be. Filed under: Miscellany and Whatever — deblipp @ 1:23 pm […]
I would be very careful with those mantras. They are intended for initiated followers of Tantrika (not glorified sex as Westerners tend to believe). Tantrika and Mantras such as this are as a two edged sword with honey and the tip and must be followed with certain rituals and usually accompanied by a complex Yantra. All of this without the guidance of a Guru can cause health problems, spiritual problems, and even certain death. Kali Maa especially. Though she is a benevolent mother, she can be dangerous. She has been known for going on murderous and destructive rampages just for fun. It is all her divine Lila (divine play).
I would very much warn against worship of the ancient and terrible mothers of Tantrika without the guidance of an experienced, enlightened, and powerful Guru. It is not just something you can “feel out”. In the Tantrik scriptures it says that some of the mantras if uttered by one who is not an initiate can cause immediate and immense suffering and the plunging of a soul into a foul place of perdition.
These are no Wiccan Goddesses you are dealing with here, these are goddesses who live in the cremation ground and meditate on corpses, receiving offerings of flesh and blood from which she becomes drunk. Just keep that in mind.
Thank you for your concern. I have been worshipping Kali for 25 years and am Her chosen daughter. I have spoken at length with a Brahmin at a major mandir about my relationship with Kali and it was he who called me Her chosen. I am familiar with the danger of worshipping Her. I assure you I am not playing around, nor am I ignorant as you assume.
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