Supported in our rage
Anger can teach us our part in the divine project of justice
On Tuesday, I had the privilege of speaking and song leading at a Rage Ritual for Women’s History Month at the State Capitol in Denver, Colorado.
What is a Rage Ritual?
I’m glad you asked!
A rage ritual is an opportunity to express rage and to alchemize it into creative action. This particular rage ritual was curated by the phenomenal women of Brick by Brick Collective. This interspiritual group of leaders created a space for:
Honoring ancestors who raged against injustice;
Naming aloud what angers us (folks named things like deportation, anti-LGBTQ policies, patriarchy, gaslighting, and genocide);
Somatic release of that anger (we sang and let loose a collective scream!)
And creative channeling of anger into art (we painted bricks with messages of resistance and hope).
It was a truly liberating and connective experience, and one I am looking forward to participating in again (for those local to Denver, there will be an event on April 29!)
My contribution was to bring a song I recently wrote which emerged from a moment of channeled rage. These are my speech notes (the spoken version is much more fleshed out, and you can watch my speech and hear the song here).
Divine support in our rage
I wonder: Have you ever been made to feel like you are overreacting for feeling so angry? How many of you have been told your anger is too much? That your rage is out of place in your families or workplaces or schools or friendships? I wonder how many of you have felt lonely or alone in your rage?
I invite you: Look around and see: so many people who feel this rage too. Anger can isolate and separate us. But it can also draw us into connection and collaboration with one another. This is because we can choose to relate to rage as a teacher. Rage has much to teach us about our interconnectedness — our common thirst for justice, our common hunger for liberation. Because righteous rage is rooted in love. When we let our rage move us, propelling us to seek divine support, as well as the support of our community, it can be alchemized into a force for love.
A Story: On a recent day of much anger, disappointment and despair, as I was facing these systems that harm and oppress, I chose to channel my rage into a yoga practice.
I practice yoga in front of a wall of icons. These are holy portals, pictures of people of courage. There is a visual of love — a Black Madonna holding a toddler Christ — that has long reminded me that I am supported.
But on this particular day, it also served to remind me that I am part of the divine project of support. That all of us are supporting the divine work of justice.
And so out of this practice — this embodied, visual prayer – came a song. I want to teach it to you today.
(Note: The butterfly rhythm I tap out with hands crossed over my chest is a bilateral embodied practice that simultaneously helps calm the body as it stimulates both sides of the brain. This tapping method is often used in trauma therapy to help the brain create new neural pathways).
A Song:
I am supported
I am held
I am carried
Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
You are supported
You are held
You are carried
Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
We are supported
We are held
We are carried
Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
Dear Soulful Revolutionary, liberation is inevitable because it is divinely inspired and supported. You are part of the web of support that holds together this cosmic work of justice. My prayer for you today is that you would know your rage, and that your rage would lead you into the loving awareness that you are supported:
You are supported by your ancestors who raged against injustice.
You are supported by the collective with whom you strive for justice today.
You are supported by the Divine Love that fuels your righteous rage in the first place.
You are never alone.
We are in this together.
Love goes before you, ahead of you, and is on your side.
Amen.
Thank you for this 🌬️🦋