Imbolc Feb 2nd

Imbolc is the feast of the Goddess Brigid to whom this site is dedicated. It is at Imbolc that we celebrate the return of the goddess in her maiden aspect; renewed and reborn after the winter dark. In Irish legend, Brighid was a triple fire goddess whose name means 'fiery arrow'. Hers are the three fiery arrows of inspiration, healing and the hearth fire or forge. She is the muse of poets, the goddess of healing wells and the patroness of the crafts person or smith, transforming base metals into beautiful and useful tools. Brighid is generally seen as dressed in white like the snow drops and snow which still threatens to cloak the land at this time of year.Her bird is the swan also white and graceful. The swan is believed to only sing once - when it is dying. Its song is associated with prophesy, music and poetry.Swans skin and feathers are said to have made the cloak of a celtic poet.In some literature swans were said to sing mortals to sleep...your swan song is your last song of course.

Now is the time of regeneration; the first buds appearing on branches, the sounds of birds in the morning welcoming the return of the light;green shoots in the hedgerows and fields; streams and wells flowing with her purifying waters. Now the earth is reawakening and we can really sense the promise of longer, warmer days stretching ahead.Now life is stirring again after its deep hibernation and we can dream of the year to come. Now we can plant the seeds of hope; wishes for the year to come. Now is a time to make wishes at wells and to feel the inner spark of the flame of creativity. Imbolc was reclaimed by the Christian church as Candlemass and the old tradition of lighting candles to celebrate the returning light is marked by this festival.

I visited Madron well on Sunday to begin my Imbolc celebratio,my favourite festival even though it is bitterly cold and the earth is clogged with mud. I could definitely feel the sap in the greenery which emerged along the path to Madron Well with its Celtic Baptistry dedicated to St Maddern and reknowned for its healing properties with the hawthorns around the well spring bedecked in 'clouties' strips of rag and ribbon as prayers for healing.St Maddern may be a masculine saint but earlier asscoiations with Madron may link it to the idea of Madrona or Mother..there is more to say about this which I will discuss later.

The earth is starting to thaw and there was a delicate snowdrop at the foot of the tree outside the chapel. The sky was fierce blue and just as my friend and I began calling in the directions and the goddess, the sky turned dark grey and the wind howled; next we were pummelled and literally 'hailed' by a storm of hail stones and suddenly the chapel was transformed in seconds from granite to white. It was as if Brigid herself had decided to join us in the chapel and clothe it in her virgin mantle. Just after we had completed the calling in, the sun emerged bright from behind the clouds and the chapel was strewn with shafts of silver, white, twinkling light. The sky returned to sharp blue. It was a very powerful moment and struck us both with its magical quality. We had made a small hearth for Brigid on the altar of the chapel out of moss and gorse buds and were welcoming her return to bless the place and our lives with healing inspiration.My friend made a cross of twigs and bound it with white ribbon. We placed the cross on the altar, lit candles to honour the waxing light and also said prayers for healing at the well.Now is a time of beginning and individuation when the seeds begin to stir and we are initiated into a sense of our own light. It is a time of becoming uniquely ourselves and sharing the light of inspiration that will grow with the waxing year. Focus on what inspires you and what you wish to create.

Brigid has blessed me already with her inspiration as I have had my first poem 'St Marys Church, Cadgwith' published in 'Scryfa'Vol 12 - a book celebrating the best of contemporary Cornish writing!

Blessed Be xxx

Winter Solstice - Yule

Winter Solstice this year took place at 17.46 on Monday 21st December and marked the shortest day and longest night of the year. This time of year is for rest and renewel, reflection, dreaming and contemplation as we weave webs for the coming year ahead symbolised by the growing strength of the light from this time onward. With the going into the dark, there is a re-emergence into light and a celebration of its hope giving joy as we welcome the first promise of sun which will reach its climax at Midsummer Solstice on 21st of June. The Goddess is returning from the Croning of Samhain into the light and is reborn! Now is a time for hope and new beginnings; for letting go of what you no longer need and for making new wishes, new intentions and resolutions...re-solutions...maybe new solutions to old issues and a new resolve to move forward into your own power.

The spark of hopeful light is ever present at this time in the myriad of stars in the night's canopy; the crescent moon soon to reach a lunar eclipse on Thurs 31st with full moon in Cancer; candles flickering in windows and on altars; winter fires to protect against the cold; and in the magical displays of electric lights decorating harbours, towns and villages throughout the world. I am still awed by the lights here where I live in Mousehole as they welcome all with their wonderful evocation of childhood, the ocean, carols and Christmas. I feel blessed to be able to walk out of my door and wander the streets dancing with coloured lanterns hung from gables and telegraph posts; to enjoy the rainbow spectrums flickering in the ocean meeting the embrace of nature's own display above. On December 23, Mousehole celebrated Tom Bawcock's Eve with a parade of children carrying white home-made lanterns and the famous Starry Gazey Pie...I only smelt this as I was greeted by the happy band of children and parents at my front door and joined the procession through the narrow streets of the village to the beach where the tide was going out and the children let little paper lantern crowns float out to sea.There was a band of drummers and pipers on the beach, as well as a group from the famous male voice choir singing carols (the Cornish versions of course) which took me right back to childhood and the voices of Christmas in my local Methodist chapel....that sound reminds me of a deep yearning call from the depths, the bass calling us into the ocean under the sea or into the mines' deep shafts echoing underground and I am reminded once more of my ancestry of Cornish miners and fishermen, the importance of these carols and songs, of music making and unity in the face of poverty and hardship. This time of year is so much about a spirit of love,peace and friendship. It is a time for healing rifts and celebrating community. Like the tribes of old we gather around the fireside, the hearth of home and tell stories, share news, sing songs and enjoy food. The lights, community, starry gazey pie and carolling by the ocean at my door all reminded me of these simple rituals which are too often lost today.It is also so much a time for celebrating the wonder of childhood. Children ran down the street to see the lights and the imagination of adults and children is sparked into new life by the magical harbour displays.The new light is that light of hope, wonder, warmth and it is a guide for us to hold by before the first real buds of snowdrops appear through the hard earth at Imbolc.

Evergreens like Holly, Ivy and Yew are also symbols for us of that hope held in nature for constant renewel and rejuvenation. They offer protection. Evergreens are dressed with lights to attract back the sun and open the door to rebirth and new life. Hence the symbology of the continuing cycle of rebirth and change in nature.In the Irish Gaelic Ogham Holly is translated as tinne or 'fire'. In ancient times charcoal used from Holly wood was used to forge swords and axe heads. Again the Holly with its red berries is connected to fire and magical protection so it explains the wreaths on the door.Robert Graves in 'The White Goddess' mentions a tradition of a Holly and Oak king fighting over a maiden or goddess saying that this was the time when the Oak king overcame the Holly King...this is refuted by goddess centred critics for its Eurocentric approach and male centred gaze. It is felt to lack academic stringency and to be misleading.There is no factual substantiation for Graves' view and yet books on Trees and folklore associated with it mention it. The idea of Oak and Holly kings is also used in mixed sex pagan rituals. It is obviously up to the individual what they wish to believe but it is interesting to have already come across this debate in my own writing of the blog where I stand corrected for at first reading about a pagan traditions in books on Tree Lore and not realising their neo pagan origins.

Mistletoe is also a sacred palnt of the Druids and its wood is a protective talisman for love and healing.

The sun is now in the sign of Capricorn. Capricorn is Cardinal Earth and the sign is asking us to dig deep into the collective consciousness to find a worthy dream and then do the work necessary to take it to the mountain tops. It's time to refocus on the connections that ground us and root us to our past and to re focus our resolution to climb up toward the light. Make sure you have a worthy mountain to climb and that as well as having the kindness, integrity,organisation, wisdom and leadership to make the climb, you also give yourself permission to stop and savour the view every once in a while.

Full moon in the opposite sign of Cancer recinects us to our inner depths,the oceans of emotion and can make us homesick for our idealised home. We can either get sick and defensive or find home within ourselves, get cosy, nurture ourselves and reconnect with our true feelings. A cancer moon is a deep watery moon, it is a healing time, a time to bathe, self nurture and heal...take a bath, connect with the ocean, feel the tides ebbing and flowing in your womb.


Enjoy your own Solstice season and welcome the Lunar Eclipse on Dec 31st!

Blessed Bexxxx

More thoughts for the day

'Imagination is more important than knowledge' Albert Einstein

Today feels very still; the rain drips slowly from the gutter and down the pipes into the small road to the quay. The boats are drawn up high in the wake of last week's waves and the setting up of the harbour lights. The sea is a mossy green and the sky snow grey.The sand in the small harbour is swathed in coils of leathery brown weed intertwined with lashings of rope. Last night, the moon appeared through a halo of gauze..slightly out of focus. I came home to find a small live mouse with beady bright brown eyes sitting on my sofa; a small, soft mouse with trembling whiskers. My cat sat in the window unphased by this new arrival; her new friend I assumed. I was touched at this strange pairing as if she had brought in the mouse for company out of the cold and there it sat on the sofa while she sat in the window. I was oddly proud of her for not killing it or playing with it unnecessarily causing it more fear. I scooped up the wee thing in a tee towel and took it out into the hedge where it scuttled into a spiderwebbed hole soft and dry from damp. I live here in Mousehole and here were mouse and cat waiting for me to come home.I love my cat she is always here for me waiting and she is so gentle and aware. She even comes for walks along the harbour and the beach.There was a real sense of strange alliance in that pairing of predator and prey....a moment of being where they shared the space oddly together.

I felt so touched by that sight; it is difficult to explain why, but it was such a small little mouse; so vulnerable yet so alive and brave.I guess I felt it had been enjoying the warm too. I have had a real intense feeling of the importance of hearth and home; warmth, comfort and the fire as a symbol of all that. The goddess Hestia was Greek goddess of hearth and home; home is not just an exterior shell where we keep possessions and which we own; it's a feeling deep inside; a warmth within; a place where we feel we belong in our own skin. It is the soul hoe where the flame of our being is kept alive and nurtured by positive, loving and inspirational moments. It is our sense of groundedness; we need to grow strong roots and light our own inner fire when times are hard and it is cold and forbidding our of doors. I am aware that now with the closing in of the days and the longer nights I keep my fire burning. Lighting that fire is not always easy; the sticks are damp from sea salt, I need to build it gradually not smother it too fast by piling on big logs or large coals. It needs to be slowly and gradually nurtured into life and warmth and is easily quenched. I have to persevere and have patience while the whisps of grey eddy and unfurl into flames. Maybe an hour later I am rewarded for my efforts with a steady glow of flames and then it is just a matter of keeping that fire stocked with coal and logs. I brush the hearth in the morning of cinders and clear the grate, letting in the air again so that tomorrow's fire has a good base from which to grow...simple stuff really, the stuff of every day but how important is that fire at the centre; it has been there from the beginning; it is the flame of inspiration, community, love, healing and light.It is comfort and food; self nurturing warmth. We need to remember the need to keep that flame alive in our hearts and share that hearth with others so that they too can feel its glow.

Prayer to Hestia

Goddess of the hearth, of home life and family, sister of Demeter.
Grant that my household shall always be a home -- a nurturing, safe, and creative environment for me; that my family and friends shall share this domestic part of me; and that the inner flame of life shall burn within my home and my soul.

Allow that my gardens will be nourished and prosperous, and that my endeavours at home be successful and fulfilling.


Hestia was Greek Goddess of the Hearth and the first born of Chronus and Rhea. She was sister of Demeter and was a virgin goddess. In Rome she is known as Vesta and was keeper of the sacred hearth fire in each home and in the temple where she was worshipped by the Vestal virgins.


Blessed Bexxx

Quote for the Day

The name Hopi is a shortened form of Hopituh Shi-nu-mu,
"The Peaceful People"
or "Peaceful Little Ones"
... Here is a message from the Hopi Elders about 2012 ...

You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is The Hour.
Here are the things that must be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know our garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.

This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel like they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off toward the middle of
the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.
See who is there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all
ourselves ! For the moment we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.
The time of the lonely wolf is over.
Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for

The Elders, Oraibi, Arizona Hopi Nation

This was sent to me by a dear sister Priestess and it really spoke to me of these times we are living in I feel as if lately I have been forced to give up some security and push into mid stream. I am interested in who I know is beside me and who has clung to the bank. It feels as if I am attracting new influences and being seen rather than feeling powerless and invisible. Every day brings new feelings in a rush which I have to sit with and process rather than act on or rebel against. I am floating in the centre of the stream I have just got to have faith in the flow.

Here is another poem which I recently found in a collection of Rumi's poetry given to me by a dear friend on my birthday:

The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.


-- Jelaluddin Rumi,
translation by Coleman Barks

I am your moon and your moonlight too

I am your flower garden and your water too.

I have come all this way eager for you,

without shoes or shawl.

I want you to laugh, to kill all your worries, to love you, to nourish you.

Oh sweet bitterness, I will soothe you and heal you.

I will bring you roses. I too have been covered with thorns.

Rumi

I have also found a great website www.enlightenedbeings.com

Blessed Bexxx

Samhain Energies

Samhain is the end of the old Celtic year and the beginning of the new. It is the dark time; the time of the Crone, the Cailleach, the wise woman or witch. Now as night draws her cowl closer and the cold starts to seep into our bones we feel the creeping of memory deep within. We are called inside, into the womb, the cauldron of our deep knowing and asked to listen to guidance from spirit and soul. Samhain is traditonally the Great Fire festival and we celebrate it with bonfires and candles. The fire symbolises the burning away of the old year, the release of its attachments and memories, a purification into the new. Now the veil between the worlds of our worldly reality and the realms of the ancestors is at its thinnest. It is a time to honour the past and our heritage. We light a candle for those we have lost and for whom we mourn;they are with us at this dark time:we carry their love and wisdom in our bones. This tradition of contacting the dead was probably adopted by Christians in the festival of All Souls Day on Nov 2 and has its echoes in Mexico's Day of the Dead.

This is a magical time when we can slip more easily between waking and dreams and where time literally and metaphorically stands still for a moment; the clocks go back giving us in the UK an extra hour of sleep and with the onset of cold we are really happy to go inwards, curl beside a fire or in the blankets and hibernate as winter's
winds rattle the panes and the silhouettes of trees loom like hags outside. Now we can rest and pause, gather our resources, strengthen our roots in the earth. Take time to remember where you have come from, your past and gain wisdom from what you have learnt; the happiness and the sorrow, joy and pain of the last year. Now is a chance to reflect and listen to your soul calling; whispering to you; reminding you of who you are and why you are here. Now is time to develop greater awareness and to gain an understanding of what has come to pass. It is also a time to dream dreams and divine visions of your future. Tarot cards, scrying, psychic mediumship all transport us into the other realm of spirit and soul..but stay grounded and protected as the danger here is that you are at more risk now at this dark time.Spirits walk abroad remember.

Take any guidance that comes at this potent and powerful time for it is a time for healing and rebirth; for preparation for the new opportunities ahead and the possibilities within you for growth and regeneration.

This month's full moon was in Taurus, sign of stability and fixed earth. Moon in Taurus offers calm stability and a feeling of being unhurried, sensuous, secure and earthed. It can also make you feel possessive, stubborn and overly concerned with material possessions and security. Again I watched the moon appear for a moment between grey, shadowy clouds over the harbour where I now live. She was watching over me and I waited in anticipation for her to bless me with her gaze as the stormy clouds and rain threatened her loss. I was given a moment or two with her and again felt fortunate to be here by the sea with the surge of the waves and the call of memory.

I have spent much of my month so far in contemplation of the past year; for me it has been full of lessons; much personal loss; home, relationship and health for a brief period. I have found it hard to put the pieces together and to see a wider picture. I feel I have been stripped bare again and asked to endure; I have returned to the past and refelt its pain and its love. I have tried to hold on to what is dear to me and in many cases my holding on has been too hard and it has slipped from my hands; with Venus in cancer in the 12th house of my chart conjunct with Mars, I feel things deeply at a soul level. I have returned to West Penwith partly out of necessity, partly out of a deep soul calling. Out of tears and heart ache have come soul. I have found the latter half of the year a truly creative time; I have paused and grown my roots, rediscovered my self expression and a sense of identity I was in danger of losing.I have found true sisterhood in fellow priestess trainees and a way of being in tune with teh rhythms of the year that I have enjoyed and followed with ritual and ceremony. I have started to find my true voice and mediums for self expression like this page where I can mediate between words, photography and literature with an aim toward personal growth and healing. I have now enrolled on a Creative Therapy and Playtherapy course of training in Devon which will take me on a new stage of my journey.I have brought greater healing into my job and into my life by taking time
to reflect and 'be'. I am able to wait and see what life offers and from the mute carcas of my old self I can feel a new, brighter and stronger self emerging. I know that this time in the dark will bear fruit if I am prepared to wait, be patient, listen to the call of my soul and give my heart time to heal.

Blessed Bexxx

Lunar Samhain takes place on teh New Moon which is the 16th November. The New Moon is in Scorpio adn at a T square with Mars and Jupiter.'Earth Pathways' says it all...


No matter how many controls you try and place on your feelings, your love, your being and thinking, in the face of the intensity, with the threat of pain, each one is suddenly stripped to its central spirital core and you could just let that happen for now.

Lucille Valentine

Samhain

Samhain

The sea churns and spews
Her leather tongue
Licks hollows
Weed heaves a stink and
Sticks scatter like bones
This clawing of tides
Gnaws night’s womb
Weeping widow of the west
You shadow my stride uphill
Cocooned in your seal hide veil

Rooks fall and glide
I reach the top
Stragglings of memory scratch
In spare blackthorn
A mildew of blackberries
Spills its cach of flies
Upon a stile

The sun’s weak and dribbling eye
Strains grey brows seaward
Fields are furrowed mud
The cow’s eye bodes blood
This stile path stalls in green slurry
A block of wintering barns
Shorn bleak
Calves chomp dry straw

I am at standstill
No map
Hedging my bets
The track winds through
Paul with its tower
A falling crown
Crucified figures in crosses
A solitary sunflower
In a cabbage field

The cores of apples
Strewn on the path
Your ghost in the last seeds
Fading with the brittle petals of hydrangeas.

Saturday, 31 October 2009

Quote for the Day - The Soul Bird by Michal Snunit

''Deep down,

inside our bodies,

lives the soul.

No one has ever seen it,

but we all know it is there.

Not only do we know it's there,

we know what's in it, too.

Inside the soul,

right in the very middle of it,

there's a bird standing on one foot.

This is the soul bird.

It feels everything we feel.......''

Michal Snunit

This is a beautiful little book about the soul and its desire to express itself, be heard and most importantly, listened to......can you hear yours calling?

Blessed Bexxx