Praying the path back to miracle
An animist visit from St. Patrick & Wonder Club starts Monday!
An animist visitation from Patrick
Dear friends,
Here’s a wild, if modest, testament to the way that spirits respond when you engage with them: after preparing the story I will share tomorrow in a class on St. Patrick to start off Wonder Club, I set out to record the video below. When I opened the gate to a meadow where I thought I’d sit under a tree and record, I spied a young buck standing watchful in the grass.
Those who know some St. Patrick lore might recall that one of the miracles connected with him is the story of how he and his companions appeared to would-be attackers on the path as a herd of deer, followed by a fawn.
I took the appearance of this young deer as a visit from the spirit of St Patrick (if I may be so bold) or at least the aspect of the deer that he illuminates in the world — which could be understood to be the clarity and gentleness of spirit that lends itself to the grace of divinity.
One of the things that makes saints’ legends so valuable is that these stories belong to a time when prophecies and sacred callings and destinies and miracles were very real and sometimes seen as the beating heart, the sap of life. And maybe that’s idealism but we need ideals and dreams today more than ever.
Tomorrow (St Patrick’s day) my course on saints for non-Christians, Wonder Club, begins. I teach this course as a pagan and a medievalist who wants to reclaim the wonder innate in these tales from the ways it’s been sequestered by institutional religion. I invite anyone who feels called to join me on this journey of recovering these ancestral wonder tales for our real lives, now.
Wonder Club saints course is for you if:
You want to learn stories, hymns and songs for land-connection and seasonal ritual
You are non-Christian, “lapsed” Christian, or pagan but open to receiving inspiration from the Christian field on your own terms
You’re interested in the different worldviews of the Middle Ages, with their emphasis on belief, miracle, enchantment, and wonder
You want to engage more with devotion and prayer, drawing on the historical record for inspiration
You’ve been interested in engaging with Christian saints, but haven’t trusted the framing of them offered by institutional Christianity
You want to reclaim traditions of your Christian ancestors with a careful awareness of how they may have been shaped by logics of domination and control
You feel curious to approach the saints from a new yet reverent perspective!
If this is you, click here to join us in Wonder Club.
Wishing you wonder today and always,
Danica