A few words on Tradition

This is from talented colleague Miel Rose of Flame and Honeycomb. Look up her amazing work!

“Traditions are living, breathing, evolving creatures; they are not stagnant.  They are defined by and meant to meet the people’s needs.  Traditions are recognized by colonizers as an essential part of a people’s spirit, and are therefore immediately under attack.  Colonization and genocide have a way of interrupting tradition and freezing it in the moment, destroying its continuity and evolution and making it a static thing of the past.  It is important to remember that while traditions draw on past knowledge and practices, they are meant to serve the needs of today. For white people coming from various European pagan heritages, our traditions were largely destroyed a very long time ago.  We grasp at the fragments that have survived, or pilfer from more recently colonized peoples to fill the gaping hole in our spirits.  The latter is, more often than not, hugely disrespectful and appropriative and salt in the wounds of peoples who were not only most likely colonized by our biological ancestors but whose cultures are still under attack today. We all have ancestors that practiced earth based spirituality at one point.  We need to remember that all traditions find their source in spirit, that traditions evolve out of an active relationship with spirit, and because the spirit source is always there for us to access, no knowledge is ever truly lost.”

Zell Maude Crews was my maternal great grandmother. My name, Anne Louise, comes from my two grandmothers: Anne Shaw Richardson, and Louise Baker Lineberry. My work is for and from them.