Earth Wisdom

A magical stolen moment
Posted on February 8, 2011 by forfedha
Took a break from taking care of convalescing daughter to walk across the hills to the sea. What a treat! Blue skies, sunshine-coloured gorse buds, skylarks, sunlight on white cliffs, flocks of oyster-catchers with their penny-whistle cries, the rolling, sensual downs. The Gorse is Onn in Ogham, signifying sunshine and joy. Its spiky leaves and fierce thorns protect small birds and insects while brightening our day with its beautiful blossoms.
Days such as this are gifts of promise from The Earth Goddess. Our hearts are uplifted, and we walk as one with Nature.
More please!

xxx

Imbolc is here!

The festival of Brighid (pronounced Bree-id), the Maiden aspect of the triple Goddess. The Goddess returns to the land after her sojourn in the Underworld, recovering from the birth of her son at Yule.

With her return the land slowly reawakens, we see new shoots pushing their way through the cold Earth, birds begin to sing again, and we rejoice as the days grow longer. The legend says that with every step the maiden Goddess takes her footsteps warm the Earth, and snowdrops appear. She is a powerful Goddess, the champion of smiths, who can magically perform the elusive act of alchemy. She is also Goddess of healing, poetry and the protectress of women and children. Imbolc is a Fire festival, one of four Fire festivals in the Celtic wheel of the year. Brighid is honoured at Sacred springs and wells, where we can leave little gifts, or clooties in her name.

You may like to perform a ceremony to honour this important festival. It represents the inevitability of the turning wheel of the year, the return of Spring after winter, therefore light in the darkness. If you have been having a difficult time in your life, Imbolc reminds us that nothing ever stays the same, that there is always a pinprick of light in the darkness. Focus on that little star of hope, and it will grow brighter as your trust in it grows stronger.

I encourage you to look at what Imbolc and Brighid mean to you, and create your own ceremony around this time. You may wish to light a white candle and contemplate on bringing joy into your life. Or you may wish to celebrate with friends. Wrap up warm and go outside, bringing in your own awareness of your footstep upon the Earth, following in the footsteps of the ancestors. Open up your senses: feel the Earth beneath your feet, smell the freshness of the Air, hear the piping of the birds, see the new shoots striving bravely to continue their own cycle of life, death and rebirth. You may wish to trace a spiral as you walk, that ancient symbol of the continuance of life. Sharing food with friends after a ceremony or a walk is an act of Love. Little cakes or bread, elderflower cordial or sparkling wine are all appropriate. Sharing stories around a fire, taking a walk, giving a dear friend, mother or daughter a spontaneous hug bind us together as women at this time. Men too, of course can honour the Goddess as a true representation of womanhood in all her phases. Well-beloved are the men who truly respect and honour women as equals, while acknowledging and celebrating the differences between the sexes.

Joyous Imbolc!

xxxxxx

I haven’t written my blog for some time.
This is partly because of Christmas, but mostly because whilst I was away with family in Cheshire, the pipes in my house froze and burst, resulting in two overflowing water tanks which flooded through the ceilings and turned my lounge, kitchen and bedroom into lakes.
Anyone who has been flooded will remember the chaos, and the smell of soaked carpets and furnishings.
My neighbours were fantastic, as was the plumber, who luckily only lives along the lane, and very kindly interrupted his Christmas week off to sort my problem out.
The most damaged things were my hand-woven antique Persian rugs. The red dye had run into the cream. I also had to throw away a lot of personal things, the most heart-breaking being cards and paintings by the children. My feather-filled sofa was squelching, my bed was wet, and the water soaked mostly everything in the chest of drawers.

However, the healing room was saved, along with my drum and laptop – and the cat, who was found sitting high on top of a cupboard.

My devastation has been turned around, however, by a Shamanic journey to the Spirit of Oat. Oats give their seeds willingly for the good of the people and animals, then at Lughnasadh offers itself for sacrifice, and the goodness goes back into the Earth. I was shown the image of The Hanged Man in the Tarot, signifying sacrifice to achieve enlightenment, and to have a different view of things. I was then reminded of Odin, who hung himself upside-down on Yggdrasil, the World Tree in order to gain wisdom and ancient knowledge.

The message I received with all this imagery was that if we don’t clear away the old we remain stuck, and perhaps a little stagnant. The drum beat spelled out “Ancient Wisdom, Ancient Wisdom”, so this period of chaos will allow things to shift, so I have a clearer channel to receive the wisdom of the Ancient Ones.

Now I am approaching the clearing up with a different attitude, and optimism. I am now also honouring Oat by eating more porridge!

Love and Blessings
xxxx

Historical Celestial AlignmentPosted on December 22, 2010 by forfedha

Before I begin to talk about the above, my blog is available on the website from now on: www.earthwisdom.co.uk. This will make it easier for you to remember the log-in details, and also access other information.

Now! This is the most important celestial alignment that has happened within living memory (and for most of us – ancestral memory)

On Tuesday 21st December we celebrated the Winter Solstice. This happened to be on a Full Moon. Not only this, but we had a Lunar Eclipse and the Galactic Centre Point lined up with the Sun, Earth and Lunar eclipse all at the same time at just past 8am (In England).

The Galactic Centre Point is a massive black hole at the centre of our galaxy around which the stars of the milky way revolve. (For more scientific info please visit Dave Molz on www.onbrightsky.co.uk )

So we had the Galaxy’s plane, the Sun’s plane, the Earth Plane, and the Moon’s plane all in alignment on the Winter Solstice Moonset and Sunrise.

At 5-30am on a freezing and snow-covered Tuesday morning your brave and intrepid friends Polly, Sara and myself met in Firle car park with the intent of driving up to Firle Beacon to witness this historical event. Polly has a 4-wheel drive, but despite her heroic efforts her car could not negotiate the icy bends of The Bostal road. Of course the weather had predicted thick fog and cloud (to be honest I very seldom actually SEE Winter Solstice sunrises because it is almost always like this weatherwise), but not to be outdone we made our way to Seaford Head and to a high point where we could at least see the Seven Sisters when it got a little lighter.

At the time of the Moon’s setting we may have been able to see it turning bright red (I have seen this at lunar eclipses), but unfortunately we saw nothing. As the horizon got gradually lighter, even though we couldn’t see the sun itself, there was a beautiful magical misty illumination around us, and a quiet stillness, except for the sound of the sea, and the awakening birds.

At around 8am,
when we began our ceremony we were joined by two crows who sat on their perches observing us intently. We honoured the guardians of the four directions, Mother Earth, the Spiritual realms, ourselves and each other, and put our wishes for the new year out to the Universe.

I think we all felt very blessed to be part of this on the wild downland, with the sea, the sky, the earth, the white cliffs and the wheeling birds. For me it was a truly magical moment, and I was actually glad we didn’t make Firle Beacon.

We then walked back across the hill past Hope Gap, one of my favourite places, with it’s caves and rock pools, and its little pocket of myriad flora on the hillside. It is one of the rare places you can still see the Clouded Yellow butterfly in Summer.

So back to mine for scrambled eggs and hot tea before continuing our everyday lives.

I do hope your Solstice was as memorable as ours will be.

Love and Blessings

xxxxx

When you visit the lavatory in Tokyo you have choices of a heated seat, music, flowing water to save you embarassment, and a front or back wash for your bits!

I do LOVE the sound of cat teeth on mouse bones in the morning. Or rather in the middle of the night. This was my welcome home present from Princess Purdy.

A much better journey home on KLM airlines. The cabin was cool, and the food was Japanese. They also kept the water and juice flowing. Jason was waiting at Heathrow with a sign showing my name! Film star status at last!

I said I wasn’t going to make any noise when we arrived to see what Puss-cat would do, but when we were home and I got out of the car I wanted to praise the star-lit skies and the smell of trees and Nature. Didn’t though, and I crept up the stairs where Purdy was sitting on the window-box. Her eyes went as big as saucers, and she couldn’t move for a few seconds, then she ran over miaowing with her tail held high. We played ball, hide and seek, and catching fingers through the bannisters, then went downstairs where she paced up and down the table, purring and curling her whiskers.

My lovely neighbour, Fran had brought round bread, eggs, milk and flowers, and when I eventually got into bed she had even put a hot-water-bottle in it!

Jason and I drank Japanese green tea, ate dark chocolate and got to bed about 1am, so I had been awake for 26 hours.

I got up about 6-45 the next day, made a cup of tea, and stood on the porch with P.P. sniffing the air and looking across the fields. Later, when I took Jason to work I popped into to NHR where Lucinda works. She moved to Firle a few months ago, and said that Firle is like Mother – she holds you. I thought that was lovely. By the way, NHR essential oils are by far the best I have come across.

I have now opened all my mail, paid my credit card bill and unpacked. Polly says she thinks it will take me a while to process all that has happened in the last month, so when the jetlag has dispersed, and the essential Christmas shopping done, there is Rose’s birthday party this weekend which I am praying I will get to as it is in Kent, and more snow is forecast. Then it will be Solstice. Time for reflection and putting out wishes for the year ahead. The birth of a new sun and a new year. Aahh, Ceremonies and stone circles! Back to normal!

Joyous blessings to you all.

xxxx

I am now in a lovely hotel 15 minutes by shuttlebus to the airport.

It is 5-25pm here, so will be 8-25am in England on Sunday 12th. The flight leaves at 3pm tomorrow, and should take 11hrs 35minutes to Amsterdam, then the flight for Heathrow leaves at 8-20pm Dutch time, takes 1hr 30mins, and arrives approx 8-50pm London time – but it will still be Monday! Why on earth do we have to keep changing the clocks back and forth? Why can’t we just be the same as the rest of Europe? I am totally confused now!

My estimation is that it will take me 15 hours to get from Tokyo to Heathrow allowing for 2 hours in Amsterdam. Is that right? Anyway, whatever it is I am going to be suffering from jetlag for days!

The scenery on the 2 hour trip to the airport was like something from a futuristic film. The skyscrapers are incredible, but there are also tiny humble little dwellings made from wood with washing hanging on the verandah. Suddenly amongst all this was Disneyland with its fairy castle rising high into the sky! It was like one of those mixed-up dreams  where nothing seems real.

Going to brave the restaurant in this very posh hotel then an early night.

Love and blessings

xxxx