meghan's Page

For My Sisters and the Moon

As to the woman in the Revelation of Saint John, chapter 12, who fled into the wilderness, and the great wonder appearing in the heavens -- that woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet: what is meant by the woman is the Law of God. For according to the terminology of the Holy Books, this reference is to the Law, the woman being its symbol here. And the two luminaries, the sun and the moon, are the two thrones, the Turkish and the Persian, these two being under the rule of the Law of God. The sun is the symbol of the Persian Empire, and the moon, that is, the crescent, of the Turkish.

[1 The Báb, cf. Some Answered Questions, chap. XIII.]

O thou handmaid afire with the love of God! I have considered thine excellent letter, and thanked God for thy safe arrival in that great city. I beg of Him, through His unfailing aid, to cause this return of thine to exert a powerful effect. Such a thing can only come about if thou dost divest thyself of all attachment to this world, and dost put on the vesture of holiness; if thou dost limit all thy thoughts and all thy words to the remembrance of God and His praise; to spreading His sweet savours abroad, and performing righteous acts; and if thou dost devote thyself to awakening the heedless and restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, and through the power of the spirit, giving life to the dead.

For even as Christ said of them in the Gospel, the people are blind, they are deaf, they are dumb; and He said: 'I will heal them.'


(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 171)

Tonight I stood barefoot in my garden.

My feet were firm and grounded, dew wet beneath them.

I looked up longingly at the moon, thinking of another cycle, another month in which wisdom grows and my children await creation, await a father.

Tonight I stood barefoot in the moonlight of the largest moon of the year.
I held it in my desirous gaze, caressing it with my eyes, grateful for its effect on my soul, grateful to be a Bahá’í woman in this age.

Tonight I said prayers for my sisters in the light of the January moon, a winter moon in this Northern hemisphere.

Tonight I feel the strength of my sisters in my beating heart.

You see, I do not need shoes, I prefer to go barefoot because my Bahá’í sisters are part of a beautiful carpet that I carry with me always.

We are like deep burgundy, honey, and caramel strands of thick wool, with flecks of light reflecting off of us. We are woven together, and when united “in times of tests”, “we arise”, we journey onward, “we go forward” as one.

These sisters wrap themselves around me, their words give me a gentle power that encourages me to serve humanity.

Their strong, compassionate biceps twist around my own and embracing me, they tell me I am not alone.

Their sweet songs fill my heart with hope.

Their chocolate and tea warms my stomach and reminds me that our sisterhood is beyond all time and space.

You see, I stood barefoot in my own garden, prayers for protection coupled with gratitude in my heart, and moonlight on my skin…
And I feel the spirits of my female ancestors around me and the strength of my sisters in my toes, up through my veins and into my beating heart.

I stand and I know, I do not walk, I not breath-
I do not live alone…
Despite my solitude.