I HAVE JUST HEARD A CUCKOO!!!!
Oh frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!!
It isn’t even April yet!!
These birds are becoming rarer, and I hope it keeps away from my brave little robin’s nest with its tiny early inhabitants, but these are the things which make my heart sing more than anything else.
Tomorrow, 20th March 2015 I will be in my stone circle at 9am preparing to use the unique triple energies of the Solar Eclipse, New Moon and Vernal Equinox for sending distant healing to my Japanese students.
As you can imagine it will be a very powerful session, and I will be combining these energies with specific trees which were sacred to the Druids.
All trees, shrubs and flowers have wonderful healing properties, as discovered by Dr. Bach, who used them for his plant remedies.
I will be focusing on the ancient symbols for Silver Birch – new beginnings, and sweeping away what is no longer needed; Willow – connection to the Moon, intuition and perceptive skills; Elder – connection to the Triple Goddess, or Wyrd Sisters who govern the phases of all life and the Moon, and the Sacred Grove – community and shared wisdom.
If anyone would like me to add their name to the list please let me know and I will include you in this very powerful healing session.
Blessings and Love
Tomorrow, 20th March 2015 we will be part of a very rare event. It is the Spring Equinox, when day and night are equal. This is a time of balance, harmony, equilibrium.
We also have a solar eclipse, which, if the skies are clear we in the UK will be able to witness from 8-25 until 10-40am. Even if we cannot see it due to cloud the atmosphere will be tangible. Just release the constant brain chatter and open your third eye in the centre of your forehead.
It is also a New Moon – a time for new beginnings, for releasing old, outmoded thought processes and for growth.
I will be in my stone circle preparing to send distant healing to my Japanese students at
9-00am. I will be calling on the energies of Silver Birch for new beginnings, Willow for Moon connection, awakening intuition and perceptive qualities, Elder for the Eclipse – representing the Wyrd Sisters, or Triple Goddess, The Sacred Grove for community and shared wisdom.
If you would like me to add your name to the list please let me know.
Weaving the Willow
The Face of Woman Beneath the Veil
Really looking forward to co-facilitating this workshop.
Topics for discussion will include:
The Faces of Wo-Moon – The deep relationship between the phases of the Moon and our personal cycles.
Women and the Wheel of the Year – Reawakening our connection to the Earth as nurturing and destructive mother.
Honouring ourselves throughout all stages of our life journey with empathy and humour.
Re-establishing our ancestral heritage as the sisterhood who weaves the web of life.
There are three places remaining on this workshop. If you are interested, but can’t make this one please contact me. We may be running it again.
The Dawn Chorus – almost deafening in its magnificence.
Why do I almost want to put my hands over my ears and cry “Too much; too beautiful”?
WEAVING THE WILLOW
The Face of Woman Beneath the Veil
with
Susan Hall and Lorna Drake
Sunday 22nd March 2015 – 10am-5pm
Cost £45-00
An introductory workshop offering women an opportunity to share experiences as we journey through the labyrinth of life, and the three stages of Maiden, Mother and Wise Woman.
This gathering, or moot will honour the spiritual laws of confidentiality and respect towards each individual as we explore our personal connection to the Universal Web which all women weave.
Main topics for discussion will include:
1) The faces of Wo-Moon – the deep relationship between the phases of the Moon and our personal cycles.
2) Women and the Wheel of the Year – reawakening our connection to the Earth as nurturing and destructive Mother.
3) Re-establishing our ancestral heritage as the sisterhood who weave the Web of Life.
4) Honouring ourselves throughout all stages of our life journey with empathy and humour.
Venue: Stamford Buildings, Firle, East Sussex.
For further information please contact:
Susan Hall at [email protected]
07986 105865
Lorna Drake at [email protected]
07837 124024
Further to my last entry I have decided to hold a Calm amidst Chaos day on Sunday 14th December.
The plan is to invite anyone who would like to come and share some quiet time amidst the chaos, panic and stress leading up to Christmas.
Our ancestors, as with the rest of Nature honoured the time between Samhainn on 1st November and Yule on 21st December as a chance to withdraw from the struggle to survive, knowing that food was stocked up, animals sheltered and homesteads were secured against the bitter Winter months ahead. This was the time for appreciating the gifts from Earth and Universe. Around the fires personal experiences were shared, music played and tales were told.
Nowadays, instead of withdrawing into a quiet time, humanity seeks the chaos of bustling shops, eating and drinking to excess, spending above our income, exhaustion, worry and stress. No wonder more families break up after Christmas than at any other time. The Samaritans organisation are also at their busiest at this time.
Let me know if you are interested in joining me on Sunday 14th. I will send details privately.
I am astounded to realise that it will be December in a week’s time!
I never think about Christmas until December, as I want to honour the beautiful, changeable Autumn months for as long as possible.
That dreadful manic phase before December 25th is anathema to me, and yet out of a sense of duty I go along with it – racking my brain for ideas for presents, joining in the claustrophobic mass of shoppers, organising cat (familiar)-sitters for family visits, Christmas parties spent talking to strangers who aren’t interested in anything I have to say (counterbalanced, I have to admit with my Scorpio-like natural glee, by the look on their faces when I tell them what I do for a living!), spending money on ridiculous things which I know will be discarded without any thought, too much drinking and eating etc. etc.
What I would LOVE to do instead is to gather TRULY beloved ones around me in a simple act of honouring the gifts we give each other on a daily basis; gifts such as love, support, acceptance, respect; sharing a little food made with love; fireside stories of lives lived, struggles overcome, experiences shared; not only listening, but hearing; empathising; encouraging; honouring.
The rest of Nature, between Samhainn around November 1st until the Solstice around December 21st quietens down, becoming soft and silent while leaves gently fall from the trees, sap rises slowly, animals hibernate and plants withdraw into their roots. What a relief it would be, wouldn’t it, if we did the same?
Who is up for that? I am not suggesting instead of, but as well as the normal chaos.
Much love
xxx
For those who are interested, this is the poem by Thomas Hardy:
I leant upon a coppice gate
When frost was spectre-grey
and Winter’s dregs made desolate
the weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
like strings of broken lyres,
and all mankind that haunted nigh
had sought their household fires
The land’s sharp features seemed to be
the century’s corpse outleant;
his crypt the cloudy canopy;
the wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
was shrunken hard and dry,
and every spirit upon Earth
seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
the bleak twigs overhead
in a full-hearted evensong
of joy unlimited.
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small
in blast-beruffled plume
had chosen thus to fling his soul
upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
of such ecstatic sound
was written on terrestrial things
afar and nigh around,
that I could think there trembled through
his happy, goodnight air
some blessed hope, whereof he knew
and I was unaware.
Standing on my doorstep this morning just before daybreak I heard the faint sound of a Songthrush in the distance.
These birds, along with their cousins the Blackbirds do not usually become fully vocal until after the winter Solstice, so I can only presume the mild autumn has encouraged his beautiful, wistful voice to be heard at this time.
It reminded me of one of my favourite poems, The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy. In it Hardy tells of a bleak, cold, mid-winter day, just before sunset, when all is quiet and still. Suddenly ” a voice arose among the bleak twigs overhead in a full-hearted evensong of joy unlimited.” It is a frail, small old thrush trilling his voice into the gloom and frosty air.
A reminder perhaps of this life’s impermanence, and the importance of doing all we can to sing our own personal song in a world which can often appear gloomy and soulless. It is the people who stand outside of the crowd and think alone who make the differences to society. Thinking isn’t enough to create change, however. It is speaking out, and actions which influence shifts in consciousness.
Unfortunately, most people still like to belong to the majority of the mob. By joining together and speaking up against injustice to all life on this planet WE can become that majority. For far too long healers, psychics, free-thinkers, conservationists etc. have been suppressed, mostly by the power and control of the majority mob – politicians, religious societies, corrupt and ruthless money-makers. All these organisations know that ridicule, oppression and bullying through fear are very powerful tools.
There ARE heroes who speak out, of course. We can all be a hero in our personal small society by singing our heartsong. Having the courage to do so will almost certainly create discomfort in some way, but if we just change one person’s perception isn’t it worth it?
