My hands dance across the spiderwebs of fate
My eyes see inside, above and below
They see into now, never, before and beyond
My hands paint the pictures of possibility
They unfold the stories that no other knows

A possible future
A distant past
A painful present

My, I see it all within your palm
With my cards, my stones and with my pendulum
I know all as I read
The leaves, the bones, the flames and smoke

I have all these tools at my disposal
To uncover mysteries far beyond my mortal sight
And yet somehow I never see
What is standing right in front of me

As a child I was told to never speak about my faith
I felt such fear and shame when my mother said those words
Will they truly burn me at the stake?
My mind was trapped in innocent confusion

I went to church with my grandmother as a child too
They told me my soul would be ****** to hell if I don't bow my head and pray
They said trust in the Lord for I am his child, or sin like Lucifer and be punished in purgatory
With such threats what was I to think?
My love of the moon, kindness to the spirits and adoration for the Earth-
Will it truly make me a sinner, will I really rot in hell?

I bit my tongue and closed my eyes
When I was asked if I believed in God
For I could never say I did
And I feared saying I did not
It felt like I'd be killed on the spot
All because I believed what they did not

As I grew up my fear remained
It felt like a secret, my soul felt tainted
But as time passed on that fear subsided
If it is my belief then why must I hide?
When that thought emerged I felt relief
If my pentacle means safety and protection to me
Why must I hide it from the ones who wear the crosses which mean the same?

My religion is not wrong
My belief is mine and mine alone
It took so long to understand these things that should be common sense
Because since early on I was told that I was wrong
But I removed the veil of lies that covered my eyes
I broke free from the chains of doubt and fear
And I ran from the expectations of society that bound me

I dwelled there for so long, suffocating in my 'sins'
As a child I had to feel like a criminal
When all I wanted to be
Was a child of the Goddess,
wrapped in her loving light

To my moon-kissed brothers and sisters
Hold yourself high with confidence
We are the strongest force known to mankind
For we've walked through fires just to be heard
We've raced through shadows and sung under stars
So we could be free

Come dance with me under the moon
As we manifest our dreams
Our intentions true
Our spells be carried through
If it is our will, so mote it be

And when their flames embrace our bones
as they vilify our souls and condemn our bodies,
we will hum our songs of virtue and light
for we walk the path of honest faith with no room for doubt

As they light us up like fireflies upon their pyres,
Let us smile to our Lord and Lady, our Gods and Goddesses
We will show no fear as they stare holes into our hearts
for we have magic in our blood and mystery in our eyes
We who dance with demons and fancy the fae
Spare no time to those with ill intent and hateful minds

With no fear or worry we are the awakened ones
aware to the world beyond and within our own
We stand hand in hand with mother nature, with Lady Gaia herself
With glory we travel to Valhalla, the Elysian Plains and the Fields of Aaru

They can light their fires to satisfy their hunger for our blood
But brave children of the moon,
they can never have our valiant courage nor our souls
they can never taste our magic or see the astral
because we allow ourselves to soar above what can be seen
above what we are told is intangible
We climb the towers of our minds
and rise to our higher selves

We chant our songs like sirens blessed by Apollo
We won't bend or break because they call us sinners
Sinners in who's eyes? I refuse to kneel to a bloodied faith
We will not shatter with their looks of disgust
We will not crumble under their evil eye
We will kiss the hands of fate and spit in their naïve eyes

We are the blessed ones who tower above the wicked
For we are the sons and daughters of the witches they could not bind or banish
We are the children of the moon who bow to none
We are the ones who will rise like a phoenix from their fires
For we are the witches who refuse to burn

He's married to misfortune
bewitched by the pain
those cruel and unwelcoming eyes
tore him limb from limb
his trust disposed of
like a used and worn down crutch
crumbled down so small
till it could be carried away on the wind
he dissolved until
all he had left to call his own
was a shriveled piece of hope
caught inside a spiderweb
of fear and deception

I tore through the silk of insecurities
I fought through all the lies
till my arms were numb and heavy
I carried his hope
cradled in my arms
like a newborn baby
and when I found him
laying in his chasm of dispair
he turned from the light
but I stood my ground
I held him without a sound
I held onto his withered form
in my weary auspicious arms
until he turned around and
at last embraced himself in forgiveness
and reclaimed his hope once more

But I've been wed to 'almost'
a sly hex placed on me
where I almost get to cherish him
I almost get to erase his burdens
where I almost take his worries in my hands
and bury them in my own
I almost have the right to ease his mind
I almost get to be more
than a healing hand
a refracted beacon of light
where I almost get to hold him
where I almost get to stay by his side
till the stars become one with the Earth
I almost get to sheild him from loneliness
I almost get to protect him
and guard his traumatized heart

A curse so fowl and deep
that he is always almost within my reach
yet our hands can never seem to touch
where I almost get to dry his tears
where I almost help him see his worth
I almost get to save him
from all those unkind words
that slip from his mind and out his mouth
that leave those marks across his heart
I almost stop those cruel voices
full of betrayal and envy
But worst of all I must live with the everyday
realization that had I been
just a little more selfish...
He was almost mine

I'm not good with hello's or goodbyes
because when you are someone as invisible
as a whisper on the wind
as the atoms in our skin
or a melody trapped within
there's no one waiting to greet you
and no one there to leave you

I'm just a cellophane wrapped scream
waiting to be heard,
waiting to be seen

If letting go was an easy thing
Then like balloons we'd all be mindlessly drifting
With no hand to hold us, to ground us
We'd soar higher and higher
With no thought of ever coming down

Who'd ever want to come back down to Earth once they've lived among the stars anyway?

They say in love you go by personal tastes
Love can taste sweet like strawberries and honey
Or bitter like a freshly cut lemon on your tongue

What flavor was our love, do you think?
I think it was like apple slices and nutella
Healthy, but a little too sweet to be sure

Or maybe it was mint chocolate-chip ice cream
Fresh and sweet, the outcast that so few love
I'm not sure quite what it was, but I still crave that taste