The zoom chat box explodes with people virtually shouting my name, calling to me “Banditi!!!!!” “we want to help you, give us your info!” “Banditi!!!!! answer us!” the calls of my kindred, beckoning me, welcoming me, supporting me, birthing me.

It is 2020 and our lives have changed forever. Corona virus has swept the world and I find myself in need of sisterhood, of connection, of circle. Fear is hot to the touch and trauma responses run rampant. I find myself isolated and quarantined. What is a witch without her circle? It is 2020 and the internet is real. Virtual reality is safe, viruses of the respiratory affiliation cannot be spread through a screen and so I sit in the camper breathing with womyn in community, virtual circle.

Each year at Brigid in my mismatched tradition, I and the womyn in real life circle beside me choose a spirit name to work with for the coming year or cycle of seasons. This particular tradition is adopted from Ffiona Morgan. If one does not feel complete with her name from the previous year, she can choose to keep working with the medicine of her previous chosen name, to me, the ritual is really about empowerment and devotion to mystery.

I love my given name Kennedy and all the tender nicknames that stem from it, but this year a new name found me and wow, has it rocked my world already!

I am sitting in the Matriarch Collective virtual village shocked because I was sipping my tea not raising my hand and the universe is speaking through Katya, a magical sistar, and pushing buttons for me and my name is being invoked into this sacred circle of femmes, near and far and I am shaking and tearing up. I have on my favorite mustard yellow crop top that falls from my shoulders, exposing my collar bones and heart space.

Katya encourages me, “well would you like to share Banditi?” I just began working with this name and so to hear it called forth from Katya during community circle was the first time it had been uttered aloud by a sister.

The medicine of a chosen name reaches deep into the psyche and tugs at the corners of what perceived reality could be. For me Banditi is a guide, a protector and a healer. She lives in me and is me. She is a version of me that seeks to mirror and support the work of my heart. Her calling is divination and magic and she stands firmly in being vulnerable and open to the nature of Earth.

I stutter through a response to Katya's inquiry, “I am so grateful to be here, I feel safe and held. I have been reading Tarot to save up to join the Matriarch Collective.” She says, “we got you.” The women book readings and show me what support feels like, what my value is, and how to show up for myself.

I don't know the limits of this new identity yet, I do know this project Banditi Bliss, and this need to share readings and healing space for the kindred was her idea and I plan to steward this dream until it feels complete. Maybe Banditi will be more than just a chosen name, maybe I will continue to work with her at the next Brigid naming ritual. I know she was born in 2020 to a changing world and a loving mother and gifted me the confidence and power to put forth my work in the world and for that I will forever be grateful.

Xo,

Kennedy aka Banditi