Heretical Anthem

The conservative agenda in the U.S. seems to be increasingly preoccupied with restricting our somatic (by this I mean health care, food consumption, reproduction, etc.) & religious freedoms. I love the following song. Written over two decades ago by Catherine Madsen, it speaks as if it was written just this week -- a perfect anthem to freedom -- ah, but how the pursuit of liberty is ceaseless.

Heretic Heart

I am a bold and a Pagan soul a-rattlin' through this land.
I judge the world by my own lights and I come by my own hand;
And if you ask me where I learned to live so recklessly,
My skin, my bones, my heretic heart are my authority.


My mother was a spinner of tales, my father a dreaming man.
And I have swung on the Dragon's Tongue and danced on holy land.
I have sung the seed up out of the ground and the bird down from the tree;
My skin, my bones, my heretic heart are my authority.


Once I was found but now I'm gone away from the faithful fold
The ones who preach that holiness is to do as you are told.
Though law and scripture, priest and prayer have all instructed me,
My skin, my bones, my heretic heart are my authority.


They tell me Jesus loves me, but I think he loves in vain;
He must go unrequited, on me he has no claim.
For the man who would commend me must wear the horns and let me be
(Alt: My healer is the Lady Moon whose tides run deep in me)
My skin, my bones, my heretic heart are my authority.


So while I breathe this glorious air, an outlaw I'll remain;
My body will not be subdued and I will not be saved.
And if I cannot shout aloud, I'll sing it secretly,
My skin, my bones, my heretic heart are my authority!