Those Who Sang Before

First Connection

Last summer I was preparing to lead a Litha ritual, and I found a poem called “Wild Woman” in my files. I didn’t remember seeing or hearing it in the past, but it seemed perfect for the summer solstice celebration we would be holding in an oak grove. The page said it was by Foxfire and recorded by Diana Earthmission.

I am a wild woman
I am a wild woman
I live in the sands and I walk in the sun
I am a wild woman
I am a wild woman
I sleep on the earth, I dance in the trees
I live in the sands and I fly on the breeze
I walk in the sun and I drink with the bees
I sing with the rocks and I do as I please
I am a wild woman
I am a wild woman

“Wild Woman” by Leslie Foxfire Stange, recorded by Diana Earthmission on “Songs of Spirit”

I found the Diana Earthmission website and ordered the CD right after deciding to use “Wild Woman” in my ritual. You can hear a clip of the song here. On the CD it begins with a crow cawing! We chanted these words at our ritual in the oak grove, and all in our circle remarked on how those words touched them. Little did I know that I soon would be working with another song from that CD!

Second Connection

A few weeks later, as I prepared to join Tara Creauweaumonn in presenting a chant workshop for the Ardantane learning community, I started to research the chants we Crow Women traditionally use that I would be teaching. This was a gateway to finding sources of inspiration: womyn’s pagan choirs who came before and lighted our way to becoming the Crow Women choir.

Both of these experiences led me to Diana Earthmission’s website.

DEM (Diana Earthmission)

In 1985, thirteen women joined together and spent one moon cycle in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. This is in the same area where the Ardantane campus is located! Out of that amazing experience came “Inner Voice: Songs of Spirit,” recorded and released originally in 1985, and on CD in 2012.

The song I was going to teach in the chant workshop was “Hold Me,” a song Crow Women have sung for years. It was also on the Inner Voice Album!

Hold me, hold me, never let me go
Hold me like the leaves at the ends of the branches
And when I die, let me fly, let me fly
Through the air like the leaves when they’re falling

Hold me, hold me, never let me go
Hold me like stars in the sky high above me
And when I die, let me fly, let me fly
Through the air like the stars when they’re falling

“Hold Me” by Izetta Smith recorded by Diana Earthmission on “Songs of Spirit”

The recording of this song on “Inner Voice” is beautiful and full of power. You can buy or download the CD here. Crow Women have used this song several times in ceremony for our loved ones as they pass to the next world and at Samhain rituals. I shared it with a friend when we created a ceremony for her mother after she departed this life.

I began to explore the Diana Earthmission website, and I loved learning about what the thirteen women did in 1985, a time when I knew next to nothing of pagan worship, Wicca, or even the Goddess! The proceeds from all sales of their songs go to The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, who include shamans, healers and wise women from around the world. They have created the Grandmother’s Wisdom project, to share knowledge in support of those who are reclaiming their connection to Mother Earth. I am inspired by this connection between the women of Diana Earthmission and the Thirteen Grandmothers and I feel they are all my grandmothers.

The other song I was teaching at the chant workshop was The Healing Circle Song, which Crow Women recorded on Crow Goddess. It turns out this song was also recorded by, you guessed it, Diana Earthmission! They listed it as being written by Adele Getty, and the title as “I Am a Circle.”

I am a circle, I am healing you
You are a circle, you are healing me
Unite us, be one
Unite us, be as one

by Adele Getty, recorded by Diana Earthmission on “Songs of Spirit”

We recently used this powerful song to close the circle at our Crowymmin 30-year reunion. The feeling of our circle continuing to unite us is strong, and so is our connection to those who sang before.

Reaching Out

With all of these connections coming up in quick succession, I knew I had to reach out to Diana Earthmission. I sent an email and within a week I was in touch with Anna and with Foxfire herself!

Anna (Laughing Tree) wrote to tell of how the groundwork for DEM was laid by summer weekends they called “Women’s Ritual Gatherings.” Foxfire had invited womyn to join these gatherings, and when Laughing Tree first showed up, she says that Foxfire saw her enter the room and knew right away that she would be the one to help her move the vision forward. On the last night of the ritual gathering there was a full moon, and Anna had the idea that they would all stay up and watch the moon make her journey across the sky. They sang, drummed and began to imagine what it might be like if they did this for longer than one night.

Leslie (Foxfire) graciously agreed to speak on the phone with me. She told me she had been living in the Maine woods, off the grid, in the 70’s and 80’s, spending a year at a time alone. Spirit woke her up, and she could hear a voice directing her. She had a vision about 13 women in the wilderness for a mooncycle. She was a feminist, studying Wiccan ways, and she sent word about this vision out to the womyn she knew from the ritual gatherings. Without the Internet, she found a group of womyn who were up for the challenge: to take a leaderless circle into the wilderness for a month and see what happens!

After Foxfire’s vision about DEM, the group met and talked about the plan for a year; they were all living in the Northeast United States at the time. When it came to selecting a place to go for this circle, they each spun a globe without looking and stopped it with a finger pointing to a spot in the world. Every womin pointed to either Hawaii or New Mexico! They decided on New Mexico because they didn’t have the wherewithal to travel to Hawaii. One of the womyn had a friend in the Santa Fe area, and knew of a place they could go.

They spent a year fundraising for the journey. They sang for the Boston dance community, made and sold t-shirts, and prepared to bring about the vision of a circle of womyn doing ceremony, singing and rites of passage work in the wilderness.

Finding Inspiration

Much of the story of their time together can be found on their website, and their magickal influence lives on in the songs they shared on the album they recorded about a year after they returned. Foxfire told me she was once sitting in a hot spring in Oregon, and heard a group of womyn singing her Wild Woman song in the next pool!

I dedicate this post to those brave womyn who followed the call of Spirit almost 40 years ago, and shared the beauty of their music with all of us. I thank Foxfire and Laughing Tree for their openness in corresponding with me about this post.  May we all heed the words in the song, created by Rosie Heidkamp, from DEM’s album: “I Will Not Be Afraid” when we are blessed to be called upon by Spirit:

I will not be afraid to feel all my fears anymore (2x)
I will not be afraid, I will not be afraid

I will not be afraid to say what I know anymore (2x)
I will not be afraid, I will not be afraid

I will not be afraid to dance all my dreams anymore
I will not be afraid, I will not be afraid

I will not be afraid to say who I love anymore (2x)
I will not be afraid, I will not be afraid

I will not be afraid to wonder and weep anymore (2x)
I will not be afraid, I will not be afraid

Composed by Rosie, recorded by Diana Earthmission on “Songs of Spirit”