ABOUT THIS RITUAL

The timber rattlesnake was first proposed as a symbol for the United States by Benjamin Franklin in 1751. During the lead-up to war, Franklin imagined the thirteen colonies as segments of a venomous serpent, small but deadly. A fitting image for the American spirit, he thought. 

Franklin was right.

There was poison inside of us.

During that first war, the symbol morphed – Franklin’s segments were replaced with one coiled rattler under the warning DON'T TREAD ON ME. The image in black and yellow was the personal flag of Continental Colonel Christopher Gadsden from the slave state of South Carolina. 

We the People drove out the British Empire. 

We the People slaughtered Indigenous communities. 

We the People kept the Black population enslaved. 

We did not treat the poison.

One hundred years later, when the racism enshrined in our constitution boiled over into outright civil war – we did not treat the poison. 

When new industries reshaped our economic landscape -- 

When civil rights movements pushed across the twentieth century in search of equality --  

When the earth rattled and burned and shook us for its attention -- 

We did not treat the poison.

With each boiling over, we have responded with reform… but never enough. What comes of poison that goes untreated? In 2009, in response to our nation’s first Black president, the Tea Party birthed itself, claiming Gadsden’s flag as their symbol. In 2014, two shooters in Las Vegas laid the same flag and a swastika over their victim’s bodies. On January 6th, 2021, the white supremacists who attacked the Capitol Building waved the same yellow snake through broken windows during the siege. 

Over the last four years, so many things have boiled over. 

It is time to treat the poison.

PREPARATION

Gather your ritual items in the space you wish to do your ritual. Put the items to your left and clear a small space in front of you.

When you are ready, light the candle and say aloud:

I welcome Earth from the North to ground me. 

I welcome Fire from the South to transform me.

I welcome Water from the West to cleanse me.

I welcome Air from the East to carry me.

You are ready to begin.

STEP 1

Take one piece of paper and write a list of the poisons the last four years have brought to the surface. 

What are the ills of this country that you wish to purge? 

What have you borne witness to that you wish to heal? 

What poisons have bubbled up inside you that you wish to transform?

STEP 2

Take a sip from the glass of water. Feel the cleansing sensation, preparing your body for the medicine to come.

Place the water directly in front of you.

Read aloud the list of poisons. 

When you are done, tear the paper into small pieces. Place the pieces in the glass of water. 

Take the knife and stir the water four times, one for each year of the last administration. 

After you finish stirring, say aloud three times:

We expel you.

We dissolve you.

We release you.

STEP 3

Antivenom is created from the poison of the snake it cures. Our body creates antibodies when exposed to a virus. The shadow can only be transformed through integration with the whole. 

Unfold the hand towel and place it on the table in front of you to catch any water that may spill in this step.

Pour all the water from the full glass into the empty one, using the knife to strain out the papers so they do not come into the new glass.

Drink three sips from the glass of new water. Feel it trickling down to your roots. 

Which of the poisons will you work to neutralize as the new era dawns? 

What could your antivenom heal?

Close your eyes and consider these questions until one particular poison -- the one you most wish to transform -- bubbles to the surface.

Open your eyes. 

Take the second piece of paper and write down the poison you wish to transform. Write it as follows: I am the antivenom for ______.

STEP 4

Take the glass of water with one hand; cup your free hand facing up. Pour a little of the water from the glass into your open hand. Using that water, wash your hands together.

A snake sheds its skin when it is time to grow. With each pass of your palm across the other, imagine releasing the rot of the last era and birthing your next Self, strong from experience, fueled by collective power.

When you are done washing, place your still-wet hands on your torso -- one over your heart, one below your belly button. Say aloud: 

Like the snake eating its own tail

I move through the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. 

I consume my own shadow so that light may emerge.

I baptize myself into who I am becoming.

I shed my skin and move into a new era

Transformed by fire and ready to transform others.

Dry your hands. 

STEP 5

Welcome to the world, mystic warrior. You are ready to spread your antivenom.

Take the piece of paper you wrote it on and fold it twice. 

Draw a snake on the outside, however you wish to represent it.

Place the paper on a shrine or in a spot you consider magical, somewhere you will see it every day. Let it remind you of who you have been and are becoming, of the nation you’ve lived in and the one you are founding right now, of where your power lies, and what you are fighting for

When you are done, come back to your candle and say aloud:

Thank you, Air.

Thank you, Water.

Thank you, Fire.

Thank you, Earth.

Snuff out the candle with the tip of your knife.

The ritual is complete.

Ritual by Lauren Ludwig and Mason Flink

* * *

* We mean “LEGAL“ in the sense that the 2020 election was conducted to the current standards of all state and federal governments and the results are decisive. But we must also own that the 1) the United States is a colonial power who stole this land from the indigenous people who lived here and 2) the United States has engaged in systematic voter suppression for centuries.

Read about the communal version of this ritual performed on 1/19/21 here.