Lu and I went to Shell Beach. It is an heavily impacted area given over to shrimp and oil production. It is also an inlet of the Gulf. Its waters are high right now, from the full moon. The waves hit the bricks piled against the shore with anger, and the wind is stiff. I walked out onto a spit of rock that was hit by the waves the hardest.
I had brought the mantras of a Red Tara, a White Tara, a Black Tara, and Mahakala with me. I also brought fresh water, beer, a trio of white flowers and found a dead catfish for meat...the Wrathful Protectors like meat, beer, strong tea, extreme things...I chanted Him first. Invocation came naturally, and I realized I was crouching in one of his positions. My focus was to try to keep oil out of Lake Borgne, which once was a lake unto itself until Katrina.
This, I realize, is a Water Katrina.
My beads have been used both for the Wrathful and for the Buddhas. The beads trailed down in my hand as I counted them off, and the end of it fell into the water I as crouched in. I worked to create a kind of psychic fence between it and the rest of the Gulf. I thought, if we had magickans each giving themselves over to a little bit of the coastline, we would have a stronger fence....
Mainly, my concern is for the birds. who are nesting right now right at the coastline. All of them. Every pelican, every snowy egret.
But my concern was not a part of the rite. My ritual is about protecting the living in the face of an entire sea of oil.

I threw out the alcohol at various periods during the chant, into the sea I threw out the fish. When I was done, I went back into the land, somewhat, rather than remain in the encroaching tide.
I chanted the Taras....there was a kindness and compassion for all the living things that will die from this, and the thought came that they will be reborn, too, like ourselves. That behind this was a warning about the dangers of the increasing oil rigs that Obama had been touting. Something no one could ignore. It is a sorrow that humans must learn things this way. My bead still trailed in the unpolluted water. The people whom I love here, the generations of fishers, who will have to go elsewhere to practice their craft, are out right now, getting whatever they can possibly get before their livelihood White Tara, Red Tara, they were most concerned about the people....Black Tara is wrathful and has a Mahakala-like atmosphere to her.
While the mantras ran on, I put myself in the postion in which she is often seen-one leg under her, one leg out, to pound the earth with her foot. HA HA HE HE,HO HO! Yes, this is part of Black Taras mantra. Pound with the feet! Speak to the earth!
This is a technique that is often seen in Tibetan Buddhist ritual dances...this pounding.of the earth. BAM BAM! part of Red Taras mantra, hit the earth! Stamp your foot and make it listen! Let the will of the Goddess and your personal Will become one, let the Earth become one with Us.