Marriage shifts Powers.

"Marriage shifts powers. Shifting powers is the purpose of marriage outside of the obvious economic contract, and the state contract a couple makes in the United States.

There is the bond, the union and the power of two, now one. "One can chase a thousand, two can chase ten thousand" to borrow from the Old Testament story of King David is the math to become aware of a new way of being one. Not prepared for the power shifts of matrimony between a man and a woman is to underestimate the creation of Life as it ebbs and flows within and around us without stop, or reflection.

Powers don't need to reflect. Water reflects, but does not need to reflect. She just is. The forces of Thunder and the terrifying shifts of Earth moving and quaking the slumber and abuse off of her does not reflect. Earth, our Mother responds, decides to move, makes gradual and sudden changes without so much as a pause to consider how other life forces feel. What the elements do is move within their relationships with all of Life understanding without reflection who they are, why they are, and what moves between all of Life.

In marriage, these are possible states of being, and are subsequent actions to emulate because reflection is fundamental to human existence, basic to marriage and without reflection we are borrowing from the wrong concept of being alive and in a close league with Death, and chaos.

Sex is a language. Everything can be said in bed. A man's deep plunge into his woman's body is her pulling him into her mysterious happenings necessary to keep the soul afloat in tumultuous currents, to maintain the balance of elements, and to also maintain the equilibrium of the physical body and the body of emotions the intellect needs to check its reason. The language of sex is the spiritual aspect of the terrestrial forces holding one's spirit in the body. Sexual energies need to keep a soul alive and present, and the intent as sharp as the will is purpose driven to keep us alive. In addition, the language of sex is a deep pleasure. It is fun and adventurous play, which is important for the union of marriage.

Sex takes two back to the one period of our time as babies, and small children when there were only four things to do after birth: eat, sleep, play and grow. All of life was, and is within those four for that stage of Life. We needed those conditions after birth, and for the sacredness of sex and marriage those four essentials return. What protected us within that circle after as children after our birth is not the same protection marriage needs between a man and his wife. There are high spirits working a craft organized by what created the world, breathed life into the body, and stimulates growth continually in the stream of life-death-resurrection. Learning how they function is our adult task.

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
Dec. 19, 2016

"A woman astride her man is in a wonderful position of power. It is a great benefit for her husband's sense of being a man, a husband because he is left 'overstanding' the purpose of being her husband without words." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories Dec. 19, 2016

Black American bride and groom.

Young Black women returning to their ancestral roots. Illustration by Grace Wilson