This may seem like a strange place to start, but bear with me.
When I was a kid I used to fall asleep listening to Greek mythology. As I grew up, I found a true connection -not just in Greek mythology but in the stories and practices of any authentic pagan practice I could find. One of the things that truly connected deeply was the concept of enchantment from the practices of my ancestors in Ireland.
This isn’t a unique concept. The idea is that when a deep connection to the spirit is combined with deep and powerful imagery, it is possible to invoke a greater power and use that power, the power of the divine to weave a prayer far greater than any spoken word or thought. In the Irish tradition as I understand it, it is as much about the sacrifice, the time and the intention put into the prayer as about the image. In this way, it is the spell that makes the image and not the image that makes the spell. Long after the symbol has faded away, the spell will be left behind; its power was in the laying not the holding.
I begin here because for me this tattoo is an enchantment. It is one placed on my body and whose power was in the laying down of the image itself. What is left behind is not what stays with me, though it is what I carry around. If this image washed out tomorrow, I would already have what I needed from it. That’s not to say I wouldn’t be crushed at the loss.
It’s impossible for me to describe the full breath of the experience I had getting this tattoo.
Almost immediately when the tattoo gun hit my skin, I fell into a strange meditative haze. As the tattoo gun drew across my skin, it felt as if the image was being seared into my skin, being dug out somehow -etched not drawn.
The artist was fabulous incredibly focused and dedicated to the art in front of him. His focus and my intensity met to create one of the most intense spiritual experiences of my life. It was the pain that focused me into the careful work of a honed artist and created this space for the spell to be woven. Just like in the belief systems of the ancient druids, for me it was the process that mattered and not the image left behind. It was the sacrifice in many ways that sealed the spell. The physical pain, the time and focus of the artist, the part of my body that I’m dedicating to this spell -all these things and more contributed.
The image is a symbol of what was woven on my body. It is a marker, a denotation for those who might not know otherwise. Well, there is no history of the druidic people using tattoos. I feel the force of years behind this practice and I feel a connection through it to a practice I can’t understand.
I still hold the Christian faith. This tattoo is an emblem of the tension that exists in me -tension in my theology between pagan and Christian, the tension between my call to look forward and my resonance with what is behind us. But it is also an emblem of the peace and strength that I found in that tension, in walking those lines and in holding these often chaotic relationships.