As the Sun burrows No.9

As the Sun burrows N0.9

Vigil No.8

Bear stood out in the garden as Possum sipped tea by the pond in a chair.

“Why don’t you sit with me and rest awhile?” She asked blowing steam off her cup and out into the night air.

Bear let out a Heavy sigh.

“You know what comes to this garden when the frost Glistens over all that once was vibrant and green”

Possum chuckled.

“Of course I do! I’ve been here almost as long as he has you know”

Here she Paused and took a sip of her tea.

“And Besides, We all go before Wolf at some point…”

At this Bear turned sharply to her and held up his paw.

“I’m aware of it all, it doesn’t make it any easier”

Possum nodded and then patted the chair near her.

“Come sit, The glow of my candle and yours together, a spot of tea and a blanket will help you feel more at ease, you can’t stand out here every night waiting for him.”

Bear did not face her again when he spoke.

“I have been waiting for what seems so long, He has haunted my every step.

I see him round doorways and from the back of closets…I can see him in my mirror when I cannot sleep at night, always just his muzzle, peeking out from behind something.”

Possums voice was full of cheer when she spoke again after a time.

“Come now Bear, you haven’t been waiting any longer than any other animal, and you know that once he comes, you can’t fight him or make demands or question him, that’s not the sort of animal he is…but you can speak with me, and we have a long while till the frost comes.”

Bear coughed, it took him a moment to speak again and when he answered Possum the anger and challenge had waned from his voice, replaced now by uncertainty and tiredness….and fear.

“Do you know if this frost will be my last? In certainty?”

Possum was silent for a moment.

“As many years as I have taken watch over this house and garden when the Badger burrows and the Wolf comes, I do not know when my own day shall come, and though I can see signs and help guide those who’s days are fast approaching…I do not know the time Bear, and you know this”

Bear clenched his huge clawed paws, fighting off another cough.

“Come sit please, I hate to watch you suffer in agitation”

Possum pleaded.

But Bear silently walked away from her into the shadows and returned into the house.

Possum remained in her chair by the pond and sang blessings over the burrow and the garden and house, she made tea and played cards and was quite content.

Inside the house, bear was chased and tormented by shadows, whispers and hosts of things that may or may not have been. He collapsed on his bed and at a terribly late hour, fell into an unrestful sleep.

SIGH No.9

Be Still

Where we can, let us rest

In company

Let us not gaze off into the long shadows

Where surely one day the end will come make itself known

Oh little animal

Fear will come

Oh Wolf, you shall come

You have loomed great and massive in the sky over all

Saturnine

But let the animals

Who’s time is limited

Not spend that blessed span gazing only at the eating ringed giant

Let them see far more of their Loves in the stars round him

Let our gaze be on the rose and moths and the moon

Let us hold our loves and friends in our hearts

And should all fail

May we have the strength to see ourselves in the mirror

And not look to what may lurk in unexpected corners

Look into your own eyes

And put the next paw forward

For every step to wolf we make

The distance to him will never be known fully.

But should we be still, in the hope that we not reach him.

He Will, in turn, take steps to us.

And so keep moving

Do not cease

Until you meet him there

For our movement is joy and light

But his movement to us

Is suffering and fears

As the Sun burrows No.8

As the Sun burrows No.8

Vigil No.7

As Rat finished tidying his vault that Raccoon had left so disheveled, he heard a faint thrumming on the curtains. Rat opened them to find Mouse standing a polite distance away smiling. “Did you get the tea from Rabbit?” Mouse asked Beaming. Rat looked at Mouses soft brown fur and bright eyes, and then down to the miserable clump of semi dried green tea in his own rough pink paw. For a moment Rat was lost, here was Mouse, youthful, spry, able and quite beautiful. And here he was, Caught between young and old, health and unhealth, alive and dead and he could feel Foxes mirror begin to swivel in his mind. A lump formed in his throat as he reached out his hand to Mouse. “What is it?” Mouse asked in a concerned way.

“Take them to Possum”, Rat said smiling but as his smile crested tears were forced out of his eyes and down his cheek.

Mouse held open his paw and took the leaves, a concerned look upon his face.

Without a word Rat hurried past him down the hallway, wiping his eyes and giving a huff. The fear and the sadness were here with him, why had Raccoons accident sent him into such a state? At one moment he was feeling bright and warm and comforted.. and now? Now he felt as though his chest would burst and his anger and misery would eat him from the inside.

Mouse watched him go and shook his head smiling, a knowing look that only a mouse face can quite make.

As Rat made his way to Badgers Vault he collected himself, stopped his crying and decided he would go and sit at the corner opening of the vault.

He could not enter it.

No animal could.

But he could at least be near him, the one so full of youth and power and warmth, the one who could protect him and drive away the dread, make him feel like the animal he was, not the one he was or could be. In Badger was the forgetting of loneliness and fear for Rat.

As Rat thought of Badger he felt a bit stronger and as he rounded the corner there coming down the hallway was Raccoon who stopped  and stood still immediately at hearing him coming…

Mouse who was now brewing a cup of tea in Rabbits vault with the leaves Rat had given him, blew steam off the cups rim and smiled, “I wish hed gone to Possum, but a lesson is learned in many ways”

“What?”

Asked Rabbit, one ear cocked, leaning back to look at Mouse. They were the only ones in the vault and Rabbit had clearly heard what Mouse said.

Mouse, looked down at his tea a moment and then held it out to Rabbit.

Rabbit looked at the cup puzzled.

“Would you put a bit more honey in this please?”

Mouse said playfully to Rabbit.

Rabbit took the cup from Mouse glaring at him.

:HMHCUTDS:

Rat stood for a moment, his anger immediate at Raccoons presence.

“Its me” Rat said flatly, “I’m not going out to meet Possum tonight, but Mouse will be, if you hurry you can catch him and go up together I’m sure”

Raccoon did not move or speak.

Rat Stared at him, he felt sticky and aggravated, like his fur was full of scabs and mites. He shook his head and walked past Raccoon quickly.

He had not made many steps past him when a strange understanding came to Rat.

Standing there very still, he knew something was wrong, but he could not quite tell what it was.

He turned on his heel to Raccoon to ask if he sensed something as well, but upon his turning he was met with the sight of an animal he did not expect.

There in what seemed to be an endless dark tunnel, stood a Rat, and this Rat looked much Like Rat himself. Rat looked Rat over and a creeping cold dizzying confusion began to wrap itself around the Rats head. “Who are you?” Rat called out, only to be answered by the same question, in the same tone and the same voice.

At hearing his own voice, Rats stomach lurched and he swayed as the walls and room began to waver.

Rat then began to slowly walk towards himself.

Rat straightened himself and staggered backward a few steps away from from his own approach.

As Rat drew Near to Rat he could see in his own eye for a brief moment, many arrows, so many that they pointed in every possible direction, Rat only glimpsed it in one eye before darting his eyes to the floor. All of his misgivings, anger, hate and confusion..all his unknowing’s and assumptions, all his possibilities came to him there in that dark tunnel, and were made plain for only the briefest of moments.

As Rat passed himself, all of himself came to a crescendo, and everything, for that split second about himself was known and everything he did not know was laid out. Rat did not look to himself as he passed by, he fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face and snot bubbling from his nose as he blindly gazed at the ceiling. Then came a yelp from some broken place in him, and the most horrible noise an animal could make , full of dread, no knowing and misery and knowing, knowing in pure contrast to unknowing, a wailing groan. The two forces passing one another so closely shattered Rat and he collapsed there. Watching through his tears as himself slowly walked into the shadows and was gone.

For almost an hour Rat lay in the dark tunnel, staring blankly down the void, until the darkness began to slowly receded and he could feel his body again.

Slowly, with great effort he sat up and hunched there, dazed, his fur matted and whiskers crooked, eyes puffy and red.

He sniffled and huffed a staccato breath in and then gingerly stood.

He looked this way and that for the self that had just passed him, he looked back towards Badgers vault, and back down the way he had come. He now wanted nothing more than to return to his own vault and drink herbs that would help him sleep and lie in purple light of his candle and be in the quiet.

As he held the arm he’d been lying on and slowly shuffled down the tunnel, something caught round his footpaw.

Startling him, he kicked it off his foot and hopped back a few steps.

There, lying on the ground, was a long black silk blindfold.

Rat looked at it bewildered for a moment, but when he tried to think of Raccoon, he felt dreadfully ill.

He staggered back and began walking briskly, almost trotting back to his vault.

He flung through the curtains and dove onto his cushions and wrapped himself in his blankets.

His eyes were wide there in the dark.

All was silent and then Rat let out a pained and unsteady sigh.

SIGH No.8

As we are unaware of the Other

We are unaware of the self

As we know

We do not know

In times when we cannot bear ourselves

And what we know is laid plain or so we think they are

May we

May we….

In all things we do not understand

In all things we do not know

We do not understand

We do not know

May there be mercy

May we give mercy and be given

For what a terror the knowing

And what a mercy the unknowing

And what a comfort the knowing

And what a horror the unknown.

BLACK NIMBUS

BLINDFOLD

Rosary of LSF

What sense are there in words here?

I DO NOT KNOW

As the Sun Burrows No.7

As the Sun Burrows no. 7

Vigil No.6

As Rat sat in his little vault waiting for the sun to set, he wondered what Possum might say about his dream, he hoped her words would dispel the dread and fear he had clustered inside him.

Rat, to distract himself got up and went and asked Rabbit, who was busy tidying and decorating, for some tea leaves and he happily obliged.

As Rat returned back to his own vault, he could hear thumping and bumping from within, quickening his steps he rounded the opening and found quite a sight.

His chair had been knocked over, several things he had hung up on the earthen walls now resided on the ground and a lamp that he had bought with badger sat smashed on the edge of his table. There, in the middle of all the mess, with his back to Rat, stood Raccoon, his blindfold of black silk hung down his back and parted at the junction of his tail.

Rat could feel anger and confusion welling up inside him. He could easily tidy the room but the lamp was special to him and now it was ruined.

“What do you think you are you doing!?”

Rat snapped at the Raccoon

Who turned his head towards Rats voice.

“I’ve broken something, and so I awaited your return so that you would know I had done it”

Rat clenched his jaw.

“What brought you into my vault in the first place?”

Raccoon shook his head.

“I came looking for you, I had heard you were going to see Possum this evening, I wanted to go with you”

Rat retorted quickly and bitterly.

“Why didn’t you simply call out? I would have answered you if I were in here.”

Rat began picking up the shattered pieces of the little football shaped lamp.

“I didn’t think of that”

Raccoon said plainly.

“Will you give me a moment Raccoon?” Rat said crossly, you’ve broken something rather special to me and I am angry”

Raccoon nodded and began to leave, but as he did he stepped on a small shard of the lamp that Rat had missed. The ceramic cut into Raccoons Footpaw and he stumbled, grasping, he pulled down the small curtains that served as a door to Rats vault.

Rat watched but did not move.

The Raccoon felt around his foot as he lay on the ground, as he came to the shard still in it he visibly winced in pain.

Rat remained still and silent, as blood dripped from the paw onto his shambled curtains.

Raccoon tried to get the piece out but could not find a hold, he did not ask for help or call out.

Rat stood angrily and strode over to him.

“HOLD YOURSELF STILL”

He said sternly and loudly and grabbed hold of the shard and pulled it from his paw quickly,

tossing it onto the table with the rest of the broken pieces.

He helped clean the spot and put a bandage on it and got Raccoon, who had gone very silent, to his feet.

“Perhaps you should consider removing that blindfold” Rat said in distaste, “things like this might not happen.”

Raccoon did not say anything, he simply began to wonder back down the burrows tunnels.

Rat watched him go a moment and then began hanging the curtains back up after some washing and silent swearing.

He felt little sharp pains in his chest and stomach and worried over them.

He sat down in a slump in the middle of the room, looking around at all of the chaos. And Sighed.

“SIGH” No.7

May your anger pass

May anger not find root in you

May anger be kept at bay

For in anger choice is made rapid

And in haste choice the harvest spoils

May you not be quick to anger

Or mistrust

Or misgivings

Patience and silence

Are better

Than an early reaping

And accusations

Let your decisions be born of ease and finality

That you may go on free of the burdens that anger plants.

Selah for Raccoon.

Raccoon came to the arch of the big burrow where Badger slept.

From inside the sounds of a large animal sleeping came.

Raccoon turned his head and faced down the tunnel, as if to look and see if anyone was there behind him, though he still wore his blindfold.

Facing the entrance to Badgers vault again,

which was little more than a huge arch filled with pitch black shadow, he reached behind his head.

(Now, here in Foxes mirror, what we are allowed to see, let it be known that there is no knowing what was seen save from behind Raccoon.)

Standing there just before the border of the vault, with his back to us, as we watch him do it, Raccoon removed his blindfold, it hung in his left hand there for a moment.

He stood and faced the vaults entrance for some time.

No sound was made, and no movements.

Just the sounds of Badger sleeping.

After a time he deftly tied the blindfold back around his eyes and turned to face us and walked, shambling back from the direction he came.

As the Sun burrows No.6

As the Sun burrows No.6

Wednesday, September 25th, 2024

Vigil No.5

Rat sat in a common burrow with several other animals, there was Rabbit and Mouse and a few others. Breakfast was being cooked in large Pots, oats in milk and cinnamon and honey simmered away, It smelled good enough, but Rat did not find himself particularly hungry after his unrestful sleep. He sat on cushions on the floor staring blankly at the foam that had bubbled up over the lid of pot of boiling milk.

“You don’t seem quite happy this morning” a familiar voice broke through his thoughts. Rat turned and found himself once again in the company of Mouse, the same one who had walked him back to his room after the dreadful nightmare he had had last night.

“Happy” Rat repeated and then shook his head out of its fogginess, he properly greeted Mouse with a good morning and thanked him for his kindness from the night before.

“I wont be false Mouse said, I know you had some sort of night terror, I don’t mean to pry, but do you remember much of it?”

Rat, thought for a moment, and then recounted the dream to Mouse in a simple and concise manner.

Mouse listened intently, and then, when the telling of it was done, they both sat silent, not looking at one another.

Worry began to paint Rats face.

Mouse, who was a cheerful and sprightly young fellow (as all mice seem to be) put a paw on Rats shoulder.

“Well,” he said, “the way I see it, you have two paths…”

Rat looked puzzled but curious.

“The first path, is to accept the not knowing and go forward in it, set the dream and worry aside and do not pick it back up to turn over and over again in your hand like some river rock or shining stone.”

Here Mouse paused.

“Or we can, while it is not yet come the cold dark, take with us this evening an earthen bowl and some tea, I’m sure Rabbit will share if we ask him, and take it to Possum when she is awake this night. Possum comes to the garden in the evenings and we may find her there and have her hear this dream of yours and read the leaves. If nothing else we get to see Possum and you get a cup of tea!”

Mouse giggled and squinted his bright small eyes.

Rat became aware that there were many roots veining the walls of this vault and that in some strange way, the tendrils of them all seemed to have slowly reached toward mouse ever so slightly as the two of them had been speaking, like a flower following the Sun. Rat agreed, “We will go to Possum then” he said. But no sooner had he said it than a doubt and a fear came to his chest. It felt like a small stone being dropped into an open well. And he sighed.

“SIGH” No.6

Choice is the crux of things

The highest point of the arch

May we give pause where choice must be made

As many thousands of choices lay before

As snaking paths or a plethora of seed

Consideration and thought are after all, as fertile soil and seed

But action, the doing of the thing

Is born of choice

just as the oat is born of the soil and its seed

Choose where you plant

When you plant

And what you plant

Carefully

For in it

Lies further and future choices

And so shall it be

Until the day wolf licks the candle flame out

As the Sun Burrows No. 5

SIGH No. 5

As we know so little

Let us not sink into despair

Let the unknowing be well with us

Let us rejoice in our collective uncertainty

Let it not divide us

As we rest in our burrows

May we be unburdened with proof

May we be light and free of needfulness

Let us do away with being correct

Put down the argument

The opinion may be left by the bedside

Bring The mercy of the unknowing

And the mysteries of Seeking to our hearth

As the Sun Burrows No.4

Vigil No.4

As all the animals nestled and bustled about the tunnels and burrows, Rat wandered the underground maze. Bedding and little blankets and knitted afghans and pillows littered the vaults where mice played games, hedgehogs watched screens and rabbits hung up bells and brewed teas. The smell of those teas and spices wafted through the underground space, scents of apples and pumpkin dominating above. Rat was not unhappy, he felt greatly comforted by the animals that greeted him and knew him, but his mind was veiled, here he felt there was no cool air, and no space to be separate. He could only think of Badger, where he was, how he was and how very much he wanted to be near him and his warmth. Just as he began to feel his fur prickle, he passed a large vault where quite a few animals were gathered. Inside they were loudly shouting at what the Rat could now see, as he entered the vault, was a football game, as he rounded the corner, there, sat among some cushions, awake but dozing as he watched the game, was Badger. A can of beer was impressively balanced on the round curve of his belly as he slumped there resting and enjoying himself. Rat came to his side and Badger lifted his paw and arm to welcome Rat underneath them, which Rat quickly and eagerly accepted. The size and heat of the Badger was overwhelming and before long among the echoing boom of broadcasted stadium music and cheers, the Rat fell into a deep and comfortable sleep.

Rats Dream:

(((The Garden was silent and dark, silver frost climbed every surface. Not a single green one was awake. The Pine that stood tall over the frozen pond was the one mighty enough to hold, though its needles were filled with white snow. Here from the bough that stretched out over the pond, hung Possum, the white candle she held was so brilliant it illuminated the entirety of the inner garden, she was full and silver and watched the scene unfolding below her with a knowing but strange smile. Across the ice below her, slivers and smears of blood lead a trail to Bear who was down on one knee on the frozen pond, bleeding profusely from his mouth, his wild eyes held firmly forward.

Rat followed his furious gaze, and from just beyond where possums light reached, something stirred.

From the darkness and swirling silver and white, wrapped in white cloth that swirled and rippled ethereal round him, stepped an animal that Rat did not immediately recognize.

Ice gripped the rodent as the animal stepped gently and silently forward, as the swirling cloths passed in front of his face this way and that, rat could make out the flashes of the faces of those gone before him, faces full of pain and fear. Rat was overwhelmed, he fell backward and like a child,scooted himself away from the scene beginning to gasp and cry. As Possums silver light illuminated the animal, there was no face to be seen, a bright empty and unknowable nimbus obscured its visage. it was bloodied and crooked and mangled but moved so gently and gracefully the rat could not discern it either as a deliverer of mercy or as a tormenting evil.

The specter moved ever closer to bear, who was trying desperately to stand.

As rat watched through his tears, he could just make out the dry black nose and slack, open jaws of an animal he knew, he could smell it: rain rotted flowers, spoiled meat and the smell of cold earth.

This Beast had come for her those many years ago and now in the garden once green he came for Bear.

Bear bellowed out a horse and weak roar as he finally stood.

Rat felt the embers of hope grow dim and cold, he felt as far away as one could from love and light and comfort.

His chest hurt and his breathing was rapid.

Bear was the tallest animal Rat had ever met yet here standing before Wolf, he seemed so small and frail.

Bear did not flee nor flinch. He stood defiant on the ice, as blood dribbled off his chin.

Wolf raised his massive and long arm and pointed to the sky, and at his pointing the stars above him dimmed leaving only pitch and empty.

Possum, who the Rat had forgotten hung just above them, Laughed….and it was a laugh as thunder or a scream.

The suddenness of it, startled him so horridly he kicked his feet out and….)))

And there he was, on the floor of the big burrow he had fallen asleep in. He sat and regained his bearings, his heart pounded and he reached for Badgers paw….but the Badger had gone.

A friendly mouse came to him and asked if he were alright.

They walked back to Rats vault together chatting about the strangeness of dreams.

Rat lingered outside his room a moment after bidding the mouse farewell and goodnight. Peering down the tunnel to the big Den where he knew Badger now slept, he sighed.

Sigh No. 4

May we find comfort

May we find rest

May we draw near to peace and ease

May our burrows be full

May your work be well and finished for the time

And may you be loved in light and cheer.

As the Sun Burrows No.3

Vigil No.3

Equinox day, autumn, September 22, 2024 11:14 a.m.

((((Back room of the house, all animals have gone, save Bear and Possum, Possum slumbers in the den and Bear stands silently in front of the three windows.)))

BEAR: “See here, out of these three great windows of the house of thought, go each animal, great and small, named and not, down into the Suns burrow. As the breeze lilts between fur and splays whiskers and cloth, each animal proceeds down, with their lanterns in paw. If I look out this window here, it is as a great festival parade, full of light and wonder and laughter. If I look out this window in the middle, it is more plain, some wear the countenance of joy and excitement, while others the mask of worry hangs heavily on downturned face. Finally if I gaze through the window on the end, the scene is dark as a funerary procession, all lights low and every step shaking and full of despair and worry and pain.”

WOLF: (standing behind bear, reflected in the window but silent, his face unable to be looked upon)

Bear addressing Wolf: “Your brother Fox has placed these windows here in great mercy, but what strange mercy perception is. Fox grants us the sight of paths. All Paths lead out of the mouth of your brother Coyote and end down your cavernous throat. What are we to do but spend a little time between those mouths and watch ourselves move along the path in glimpses shown in the mirror Fox hold? The seasons and all living things are born of the laughter of Coyote, those things are shown and reflected to each by the mirror Fox holds, that we may discover them by our own understanding for what is shown in foxes mirror is illuminated only by the light we hold up to it….. And then come thee, wolf, to collect all lights under your cold tongue as every possible thing ceaselessly carries itself in procession to pass through your fangs. You who are neither hungry nor satisfied.”

Here Bear began coughing, a rasping deep tearing cough, that rattled back into him in a snarling wheeze as he gasped. To one not watching, it would be as the sounds of snarls and roars and growls. As he slowly regained his breath he looked to his candle in its little green glass, now low and faint, with not much wax left…he stood bunched with his fanged jaws hung open and his breathing labored, as blood then trickled from the line center his tongue, out over his down curled lip to Pitter patter on the window sill in deep red spots. His eyes, wild and wide and green and bright as wild grass looked quickly from the candle to the window again, where Wolfs reflection still stood behind him, he fought to look beyond him, to the little animals hurrying down into their burrow and once his eyes adjusted and he could see the smiling and laughing, he sighed, and closed his muzzle. Wiping the blood up with a well cared for kerchief he produced from his vest pocket, he tidied himself and stood straight and silent again. His eyes closed. And there he stood for a time. When he opened his eyes again to look out the great middle window, they had become brown and golden, the color of amber tea and cinnamon.

SIGH No.3

Oh fears, flee thee before the lights we have been given. Oh pain, be put at bay by the burrows prepared for us.

May the sweet lessons, joy and kinship born of tender spring and fondest summer be reaped and stored here with us as we descend.

May this burrow be where the sun sleeps, where we gather in love and where all hard fought things and efforts be born as sustenance and comfort in the coming dark and cold.

Selah for Bear:

Pain and fear and the endings will come. there is no path that wolf does not walk, but along side him walk his brothers, and in your tears and aching and worry, may the laughter of coyote lift your thin limbs when you cannot, may the mirror of fox reflect those whom you have loved and who have loved thee and may you find the empty house with ease, for its masters finality is as just and earned as it was for all things in eternity that came before thee and that shall come after.

As the Sun Burrows No.2

Vigil No. 2

Sigh No.2

September 21st, 3:03 pm

Rat busied himself about the house, collecting bay leaves and cinnamon, wax and wick and all manor of comforts, both comforts to him and what he hoped would be comforts to others.

He Neatly packs them in boxes and he takes them, one by one, down into the hole in the garden.

The sun has not yet set.

Badger has dug deep enough that rat cannot see him from the vault he has chosen down the tunnels. He chose one very close to where Badger will be sleeping.

Needing a rest, Rat sat in the garden a moment and watched rows of little fluffy clouds pass rapidly over him, leaving brief darting moments of shade, then warmth and sun then blue hues and shade again. Today was the first day since the digging and preparation began, that actually felt as though the Autumn were arriving. It would be some time before the winter and the Wolf. And that worried and comforted him in odd ebbing ways.

He looked through the big windows at the back of the house where he had sat with the others the night before. Possum was nowhere to be seen, but Bear stood at the window. From where Rat rested he could not tell if Bear was looking at him and as the bear retreated into the shadows of the house, it gave him no clearer a sign.

The work was done for the day, there was to be a celebration before the going into the underground.

Washing up and readying himself to greet the animals, Rat wondered if Badger might at least join them for a while and hoped he would.

As the evening turned golden, the animals came.

First the Mice then Moths, all a clamber and giggles. Then haphazardly and not without incedent came in the blindfolded Raccoon, who handed Rat his umbrella and began to bump about the house.

Then came Bear from the back room, who sat quietly in the kitchen, in a chair whose back was against a wall.

Possum still slept but was present in her own ways.

And finally with a great thud, the door was closed by Badger, whose presence made the Rat overflow with comfort and happiness.

Tonight was a celebration!

All the animals would attend, those known and those unknown and when the celebration ended, the descent would begin.

There were no speeches, or specific feasts, just animals milling about, eating and drinking as they liked, speaking about the “down there” and what they planned to do with the time spent in it.

Rat sat quietly next to Badger, who was visibly tired and nodded off here and there. The warmth of him was like wine and mead and hot tea and baths to him.

It left the Rat satisfied and un-worrisome.

And at a time of celebration, what more than satisfied and unworried can one hope to be?

“Here we are all gathered, the known and the unknown, the future is unknown, the self is hardly known and the “other” known even less, but in this season we ask for unity and warm kinship, that as we huddle together and share our stories and lights, we may come away from it all back into the sun, a little more of each other than before. As the seasons change may we change in promise, in the same promise that what sleeps shall return, what was once green and quiets into fire and gold and then silver and sleep, will be green once again in time. May we come back fuller and wiser and more able, may badger dreams be full of peace and laughter, and may he rise again in might!”

As the Sun burrows No.1

As the sun burrows

First Vigil. Six hours and thirty four minuets before the fall equinox.

Here now, is a small brick house, ornate in its own way, but still simple.

This house is surrounded on all sides by a wonderfully large and diverse garden.

From the center of that garden, a faint flickering glow and the sounds of paws digging.

Now, inside the house.

There are three large windows that look out onto the back garden. Here in the back room of the house, sat in front of those three windows we find Opossum.

Behind Opossum thee three windows loomed, black and pitch….void. Night had fallen and the Sun was burrowing.

Expectedly, the small white door of the house pushed open, the cluster of bells hung from it chimed in clatter.

Through the door came a tall and rather thin bear, after closing the door behind him he silently hung his scarf and knit cap on the wrack. Slowly, he made his way through the dim house, to the back room where Possum sat and took his seat at the small round table. From the kitchen came clattering and shuffling but Bear and Possum remained silent.

And there they sat….for quite some time.

Rat entered the back room with three cups, two coffee cups clattered by their handles in one paw and a slim wine glass was held by the stem in the other.

The mugs were placed on the table and one was slid gently to Possum, who grabbed it up and held it close, the steam curling round their whiskers. The other mug remained with rat and the glass of deep dark wine was gently placed in front of Bear.

Bear slowly slid his long clawed digits between the stem of the glass, but kept his palm face down so that it covered the base of the stem, and there his hand remained, rested on the table as if to acknowledge that he had received the wine though he did not drink it.

“Well” said Rat as he sat at the third chair at the table leaving only an empty fourth, “Our friend is busy at work out there in the Garden, this is no easy task for him, he works ceaselessly.”

Possum drew a shawl around them and picked their foot paws up off the floor to hold them closer up under them, looking over the bridge of their snout (which made their eyes a bit crossed) they peered at something over Rats shoulder.

Rat followed their gaze to a small clock sat on a decorative table in the corner of the room. He sighed.

Bear reached into his worn but well cared for vest and produced a small green glass which contained a candle, Possum from somewhere in their shawl wrangled out a white glass which contained a candle, and rat, who seemed reluctant reached into his pants pocket and produced a purple glass which held in it a candle.

“It’s time then I suppose he said”

But all was silent. Possum, had borrowed three matches from the badger, who was still audibly digging in the night outside  they struck them suddenly and precisely. All three were lit.

She passed one to bear who lit his green candle and shook the match out.

She passed one to Rat who held it in his paws a moment, protective and precious, then he lit his own purple candle and snuffed the match out by placing it in his now empty coffee mug.

Finally, Possum lit her own candle, the radiance of white cast each of their countenances upon the darkened glass of the windows in strange faint colors.

“Now is the time that the Badger digs, That the Sun sets, and rest will be needed, though without His might and Light, we cannot stay here in the garden where the frost will assemble and the end will be laid plain. He goes now to prepare a place for us, and I come to watch this house, As I am he who wakes when the Flame sleeps. For a moment, Rat thought that Badger had come to peer into one of the large windows and he meant to wave to him, to bid him come in….but as his eyes adjusted it became clear he was seeing only Possums reflection and he wondered how he could have ever confused the two.

“When the digging is done, we will go under, and there we will stay until his waking, when the warmth and the green returns!"

Bears candle flickered and his shadow seemed to dance and grasp at every corner.

Rat looked at him but bear made no sign to him.

Possum continued "There is still some time left, what you have learned and what you have made and stored up, gather these things unto you, take you candles, and blankets and mirrors and paper and paints and pens and the food for yourself and the food for him and his great feast, take you silver bells and water, take you spices and tea, take you bedding and pillows and books, leave not a single animal out, allow any that come to shelter and, most importantly” Possum said as he held up his candle that shown brilliantly, "Take you the light that the Badger has given, let it be warmth and comfort to you and a sign of his return." and here Possum paused.

"Take you also incense and the oils of flower, and medicines and bandage, take you your auger and dried flowers,  and silence, and silence….for as he rests, as the chill and dark seep, the Wolf walks the garden."

Rats mind went to funerary tidings and rain rotted flowers and he shook his head and stood and Possum was silent.

"Then I will gather the others and we will begin our work" rat said and he left the room.

as Rat passed the Den, he turned on every light and the television which was broadcasting a football game, he paused at this, and smiled.

In the back room Possum and Bear still remained, Possum gradually stood and set his candle in the window sill, looking out into the garden, the flickering light from down in the badger hole had gone out and all was silent.

Bear sat very still, he looked down into the deep dark purple wine in his glass and there reflected in it, standing just to his left was a dashing and adorned fox, who upon being viewed shifted the gaze of his fiery eyes and made eye contact with Bear.  Bear moved his hand back and turning his wrist upward, lifted the bulb of the glass to his purple lips and drank every drop in one motion without a sound.

SIGH: No.1

“Oh badger, as your work continues and grows closer to its seasonal end, may the solar warmth we have cherished be brought bright with us in our little fires. May passions glow and be shared, candle to candle deep into the nights. May warmth be in every burrow, may light be in every tunnel, that these be happy times, stored up and spared from the cold and frost, cradled in the loving rooms prepared for us by your paws.

Oh Wolf! Oh Badger! Should the fires go out, may the scent of resinous incense and the oils of flowers dress our bodies here in these immaculate vaults, that we be returned to the earth as seeds and brought back anew in the spring by our own bodies and joy, or by the bodies of the new and their joy, Oh Sun, as you burrow, stay true and strong that at the end of your toiling the work be done, Rest in easy slumber with every need met, by those who you have so greatly provided for.”