Frances Billinghurst is a prolific writer with an interest in folklore, mythology, and ancient cultures. Her articles have appeared in various publications including Llewellyn’s Witch’s Calendar, The Cauldron, Unto Herself: A Devotional Anthology to Independent Goddesses, A Mantle of Stars: A Devotional to the Queen of Heaven, Naming the Goddess, Witchcraft Today: 60 Years On and The Faerie Queens. She is the author of Dancing the Sacred Wheel: A Journey through the Southern Sabbats and In Her Sacred Name: Writings on the Divine Feminine, and the editor of Call of the God: An Anthology Exploring the Divine Masculine within Modern Paganism. When she is not writing, Frances is attempting to replicate the Hanging Gardens of Babylon on her patch of Australian dirt, beading, and journeying between the worlds. More information about Frances can be found on her blog and at the Temple of the Dark Moon
The following poem can be found in her book, Encountering the Dark Goddess: A Journey into the Shadow Realms, published by Moon Books, 2021
Hail to the Dark Goddess
Hail to the Silent One
Who was here before time began
The one whose breath is felt upon the wind
Reminding us of her ever-reaching grip on our life
Spinning the fated wheel of life and death
And all which goes beyond.
Hail to the Dark One
Whose withered grasp brings disease and death
The shadow lurker of our nightmares
Reminding us of our fragile mortality
The cause of which is our birth
The cure is our demise.
Hail to the Terrible One
Forcing us to face reality
Who squashes our unrealistic dreams
Ignoring the spine chilling screams we make
As we realise our grasp is to be loosened
On this falsehood of reality.
Hail to the Wise One
Encouraging us to embrace pain and lick our wounds
Waiting for us to accept the true emotion
To realise that nothing is perfect and shit happens
But it is this that makes us stronger, that tests us.
The whirlwind of change that stalks us
From the shadows.
Hail to the Strong One
Who demands us to stand on our own feet
To reclaim our power and our truth
Even if we feel alone – but we are never this.
She is always watching, waiting.
The darkness from which light emerges
The comforting shadow when we feel all is lost
She is the embrace that takes us home.
Hail the Ungracious One
Who speaks her mind and releases her feelings
Instead of swallowing the pain
She is our anger and our outrage
Demanding that we embrace the power
Bubbling from deep within our core.
Gracious Mother of the Darkness
Whose fear we experience is the fear of our ignorance
Reminding us of the hidden truth of the true self
Laying it before us – naked and bare
The peace revealed when we finally understand
She is not separate from us.
She is us.
We are one.
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