Woke to the devastating news that my friend and magical teacher / mentor / healer / guide Gordon White had passed from this life into the next. I’ve been fielding calls and messages all morning as well as reaching out… it’s overwhelming. I was thinking about everything that I’ve gained from knowing Gordon and it was a long, long list.
I wanted to take a moment and honor him by sharing some of his good works, some you may not have known about:
- Long before the Rune Soup premium membership, Gordon corresponded with me about project management and magic.
- He encouraged me to start blogging and was kind enough to share my blog with his readership.
- His first premium member course, the Sigil Course, greatly improved my planning and magic and was the first seed data that eventually became my planner.
- He invited me on his podcast when I was basically a nobody.
- He was endlessly encouraging and supportive behind the scenes, sharing resources and advice.
- Without Gordon, Circle Thrice would not exist.
- During As Above, his event with Austin Coppock here in Portland, I reached out and offered to help. This is where I met the lovely Coppocks, and connected deeply with local magicians in my own community.
- Later I hosted a party of local RSPM in my home, people who I now count among my dearest friends.
- Just about every person I currently know is RSPM or RSPM adjacent.
- Without Gordon, my beneficial network would not exist.
- When I got my diagnosis, Gordon was the first person I told outside of my immediate family. Gordon knew I had cancer before my own parents/sister did.
- He immediately mobilized the RSPM into a series of intention / prayer groups, across time zones… a hundred people all intending and praying for my healing.
- Through my network of RSPM, I received healing waters, angel blessings, talismans, and so many prayers.
- He also made himself available for shamanic healing, rearranging his schedule for me.
- Without Gordon, I might not exist.
Four years ago I wrote a blog post about my mother’s death and Gordon reached out unprompted and told me it was beautiful. I’ve excerpt and lightly edited a portion of it here in tribute to him…
Families are created out of nested and chained and interlocking collections. They are (to quote Gordon and Austin at As Above and many times since) rhizomatic — sprouts from the same root network. For example, I have my little family in the Pacific Northwest (my husband, my son). We are rooted together. There was also my family in New Mexico and we too, shared roots. And there is my Rune Soup family, rooted together by the work of one amazing man.
Gordon was the taproot of this particular rhizome. Being the taproot is a difficult and demanding job. So much good magic and so many blessed fruits, sometimes without thanks and under trying circumstances.
When root bunches are separated as when you divide a plant into several clusters (or when I move across the country with my own family) connection can be maintained through the mycelium. Mycelia are more fragile than roots, more ethereal, but they are everywhere. I find that both sad (so easily broken) and uplifting.
The mycelium carries messages at the root and allows communication across boundaries. It shares its fruit as a lesson in connection and communication. The common chanterelle carries within it the whispers of the whole forest (does the wood ear listen to the trees?). There are other fruits that allow you to communicate even further afield. Some bring healing, others death… but the mycelium transcends death.
We’re all part of networks and families. My husband and son, my close friends, my Souper friends – both local and distributed – my overlapping families. We don’t always get to choose all our networks of course. Some are of birth and circumstance, some highly cultivated. But we are all connected.
The interactivity of roots and the mycelium is called Mycorrhiza. This is a symbiosis where: “The plants provide the fungi with sugars (produced through photosynthesis) while the fungi get nutrients and water from the soil and pass them on to the plants. Mycorrhiza fungi can also protect the plants from pathogens which can cause disease. The mycelium, the network of fungal threads or hyphae, can cover and enormous area and so increase the range of the partner plant.” (Artis Mycropia)
We feed the network and it nourishes us. The network protects us. It increases our range so we can reach further … the mycelium transcends death.
I’m not sure I ever expressed to Gordon how much he meant to me and my life. I hope he knows though, through the network that runs both under the skin of the world, and under our own skins. The network that touches our roots.