This song has been haunting me ever since I came home from retreat. On Friday night, we held a Poetry Slam in honor of Brigid (Goddess of Poetry, among many other things!). We went around the circle and each woman read a poem that she had written, or one she loved written by someone else.
One of the elder women read a long passage from Daughters of Copper Woman
There are women everywhere with fragments
gather fragments
weave and mend
When we learn to come together we are
whole
. . .
Old Woman is watching
watching over you
with her bones become a loom
she is weaving
watching over us
weave and mend
golden circle
weave and mend
sacred sisters
weave and mend
As I listened to Ali read these lines, a tune came to mind. I found myself humming it. I remembered fragments of the chorus (“sacred sisters, weave and mend”). I came home, searched for the song, and found it — where else? — on YouTube. I learned it again, all of it.
Now the song comes to me, unbidden, between dreams, between one breath and another, on the edge of daylight and dawn.
Weave and mend, weave and mend.
This is my task. This is our task. To weave and mend the sacred circle.
Old Woman Herself is our ally.
How shall we do it, sacred sisters?
Which part of the web is yours to weave and mend?
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
This song is exquisitely tender and embracing. Thank you for making the effort to share it with us. I immediately ordered the album and look forward to having this treasure. Looking forward to reading Anne Cameron’s words. What a wonderful community you’ve built and I’m blessed to be part of it in the small ways that I can. Thank you!
Thank you Pam. I’m so glad you are part of this community! Hugs & Blessings.
Love it, sister Joanna, and am going over to iTunes to buy it. I so wish I had been at your retreat – am feeling the need for one and unable to get away for a number of reasons. Thank you for sharing yours!
So glad you love the song, Sister Cate Mermaid. There will be retreats in Sept 2013, March 2014, and Sept 2014, Goddess willing and the creek don’t rise. How lovely it would be, to have you at one of them!
This is beautiful, Joanna. I seem to remember this song also, and this is an exquisite voice to sing it. I can “hear” how it would get into your blood and come out here and there. Songs are like that when they are really good!
I think so too, Cari! And I believe that you are weaving and mending with your luscious artwork and calligraphy.
One of my all time favorite songs- it still brings chills… Here are the full lyrics to it:
Weave & Mend
Old woman is watching, watching over you
In the darkness of the storm, she is watching
She is weaving, mending, gathering the colours
She is watching over you
So weave and mend
weave and mend
Gather the fragments safe
And win the sacred circle sisters
Weave and mend, weave and mend,
Oh women, weave and mend
Old woman is weaving, gathering the threads
Her bones become the loom she is weaving,
She is watching, weaving, gathering the colours
She is watching over you
So weave and mend
weave and mend
Gather the fragments safe
And win the sacred circle sisters
Weave and mend, weave and mend,
Oh women, weave and mend
For years I’ve been watching, waiting for old woman
Feeling lost and so alone, I’ve been watching.
Now I find her weaving, gathering the colours
Now I find her in myself
So weave and mend
weave and mend
Gather the fragments safe
And win the sacred circle sisters
Weave and mend, weave and mend,
Oh women, weave and mend
Thank you for posting the lyrics, Nicole. I appreciate it!
I think the singer on this album got one part of the lyric wrong, though. I think the line should be:
“Gather the fragments safe
Within the sacred circle”
not
“And win the sacred circle”
It makes more sense, don’t you think?
It does make more sense !
I LOVE this song- thank you
http://www.earthspirit.org/twnls.html has these lyrics under the song title Old Woman and the phrase “within the sacred circle” is used here. Thanks.
Perfect!
Loved listening to this song this morning. I once had a very powerful dream of an old woman weaving on a loom and showing me how the warp and woof came together and made beautiful colors. I didn’t know there was a song to go with it! I think I need to get this, too. Thank you, Joanna.
Oh beautiful, Stephanie. I think it’s an archeytpe that lives deep within our collective unconscious. Beautiful.
Oh Joanna I sit here with my knitting in my lap and tears in my eyes. This song reminds me of why I started knitting in the first place. It was my way of weaving myself back to wholeness after my mother’s death. Thank you for touching my heart today.
Reaching out to hug you, Dionne. Blessed, blessed be.
Just found another version of this song recorded by the group MotherTongue, on their album “This Winter’s Night”. You can buy the song for 99 cents on CD Baby:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mothertonguemusic2
The snippet I heard is lovely.
I was unable to find this CD at iTunes, but I found what seems to be the same version on an earlier Black Family album called “Time for Touching Home”. I am bout to purchase it. but wonder if the electronic version might be available as paid version from “This Love Will Carry” somewhere else. I just must have this song!
Cate, I downloaded the one you mention on iTunes, from the album “Time for Touching Home.” It seems to be the same version as the one in the video.
I also found it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Weave-And-Mend/dp/B000VKYS52/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361395230&s=dmusic&sr=1-1
So beautiful, so resonant. I’m a fiber artist and weaving is part of my joy in working with fiber. Recently, I did a journey and met one of my guides. She is an aspect of my Muse apparently and calls herself The Boss. She is most often sitting at a loom, is very old. Most of the time, she points to me sternly and says, “Get to work!” but her directive rides on an ocean of love.
This song is a lullaby. Thank you so much for creating this post and sharing the song!