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

Links with Literature

The most obvious literary link with Avalon is the tale of King Arthur. Arthur and Guinevere are reputedly buried in the Abbey and a grave is centrally located to mark this spot. The most famous text is Sir Thomas Malory's (1405-1471)'Le Morte D'Arthur' - the death of Arthur, 1485.

Other links include Alfred Lord Tennyson's epic poem' The Idylls of the King' ( 1856-1885) and 'The Lady of Shallot' with its famous curse upon the woman in the tower who espies Sir Lancelot through her mirror:

'Out flew the web and floated wide-
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.'

Another source is the Welsh 'Mabinogion', collated from medieval manuscripts in eleven stories and translated in English in the mid 19th century by Lady Charlotte Guest - a 'foreigner' from Uffington, Lincolnshire who lived in Wales, learnt the language and helped revive Welsh culture.

John Keats too immortalised the romantic ideal of the lost and wandering knight in search of the elusive, faery child - temptress (Goddess perhaps) in 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' - The beautiful woman without mercy. Here the knight loses his soul to her and is destined to wander the Lake for eternity. The atmosphere and setting of this poem dramatically evoke the 'sedge'that 'hath withered on the lake' of Glastonbury and the Grail quest for eternal life through woman/ love/ goddess.

More recently is the feminist reading of the grail legend with the protagonist as thePriestess of Avalon, Morgaine, traditionally depicted as a witch or sorceress determined to bring about the demise of Arthur but now rewritten by Marion Bradley as a strong and powerful Priestess. As a young woman reading this book for the first time, I was mesmerised by this tale of a woman's initiation into the secrets of the Goddess and the ancient lore. All female characters are given a powerful, real voice and at last the very patriarchal, Christian legend is retold in a way that revives a sense of the power and magic of the mysteries of Avalon, home of the goddess. An evocative, intense and life transforming book this book completely changed my perspective and my view of myself as a young woman, I cannot recommend it enough. The language alone is spell binding..and like my journey it begins by the ocean in Cornwall and ends at the Isle of Avalon.

'Behind her, as she took up the bronze mirror again, she saw her sister in the door. Viviane had taken off the breeches she wore for riding, and put on a loose gown of undyed wool; her hair hung down, soft and dark as the wool of a black sheep. She looked small and fragile and aging, and her eyes were the eyes of a priestess in the cave of initation, years away and in another world... Igraine cut off the thought, impatiently.' pg.19

''She turned her face toward the guesthouse. Should she go there and breakfast with the nuns, speak perhaps of the old days at Camelot? Morgaine smiled gently. No. She was filled with the same tenderness for them as for the budding apple tree, but that time was passed. She turned her back on the convent, and walked down to the Lake, along the old path by the shore. Here was a place where the veil lying between the worlds was thin. She needed no longer to summon the barge- she need only step through the mists here, and be in Avalon. Her work was done.'' pg.876

Enjoy xx

Pilgrimage to Glastonbury - Part 2

Wearyall Hill can be viewed prominantly from the Tor and it is to this spot that I walked next, following the path down the Tor past the White spring and Chalice Well gardens. Wearyall Hill is a spectacular spot with views toward the levels and the Tor as well as down upon the town of Street, now known for Clarkes Shoes. Upon the hill is the famous Glastonbury Thorn, according to legend sprung from the staff of Joseph of Arithmathea who visited Glastonbury in 63AD in an attempt to bring Christianity to Britain.( The idea of the sprouting staff has links with Shamanism and also lends itself to the imagery of the Ace of Wands in the Tarot). The thorn is said to bloom at Christmas and in Spring and is reknowned for its possible associations with Christ's crown of thorns and also Joseph's bringing of the Chalice or Holy Grail to Glastonbury. The original Hawthorn tree was cut down and destroyed by the Roundheads, but not before cuttings were taken and these planted around the town including in the Abbey Gardens. Whatever the truth of this legend today, it stands alone on brow of the hill blown and blasted by winds and decked completely with ribbons and healing votive gifts. I left my own ribbon as an offering and breathed in the special atmosphere of this wonderful natural spot. It certainly is magical with its direct view toward the Tor behind. This hill was once an island on the pilgrimage route to the Tor when sea levels were higher and the levels were wet and marshy. The idea of this sacred pilgrimage by boat up the River Brue around Wearyall Hill on the south side really captivated my imagination and increased my vision of the mystical nature of this place as the Isle of Avalon.

Upon the crown of the hill, I came face to face with a wild rabbit about to escape into the bushes but in time for me to get very close and feel a sense again of how strange it is that on these journeys one always has moments with animals or birds. I spent over five minutes very close to the rabbit who didn't seem bothered by my presence. Rabbit is a burrowning creature and in our Priestess of Kernow Wheel would most likely be associated with Earth in the North, but also has obvious associations with Easter.

''Rabbit (Coinean) and Hare (Gèarr) are symbols of fertility, intuition, rebirth, promise, fulfillment, and balance. He is the Goddess’ creature and represents the Moon, night and dawn. is also associated with abundance, rebirth and release and is symbolic of the ‘tween times, dawn and dusk. Their motions were used for divination. They’re also associated with transformation, receiving esoteric knowledge and intuitive messages.Read more: http://paganismwicca.suite101.com/article.cfm/rabbithare_tricksterfear_caller#ixzz0V3q3sjSS

I continued my walk down hill, through a copse of Horse Chestnut and Beech with shiny conkers and copper leaves strewn across the path, towards the river Brue across the main road through some of what is now an industrial estate to Bride's Mound. A wooden gate announced it had been erected by the Irish 'Friends of Bride' and here at last I felt a deep connection with Goddess and my own muse, Brigid. Bride's Mound is very unassuming and really now only a mound of long grass, bramble and bracken, but here I could again feel that direct association with an older landscape where this was once an island used by pilgrims from Wales and Ireland as a stopover vigil retreat before passing along the processional 'Perilous Way' or oak causeway to Avalon. It is a very peaceful spot, meditative and still, apart from the sound of birdsong. The site is dedicated to Bride, St Brigid, Brighde, who stayed here at the oratory of Mary Magdalene in 488AD. Two stone chapels were built and dedicated to her here.Legend also says that a community of women lived on Bride's Mound after the visit of St Brigid and a perpetual fire was kept there. In 2004 the flame from the perpetual fire at Kildare was brought back to Glastonbury, where it is kept alive today awaiting the restoration of Bride's Mound. A stone marks the site of the well and I was aware not only of the amount of hawthorn trees in the area, but also of one bedecked in clouties leaning over a small stream.There was an original holy well here, but it has since been lost and all that really marks the spot is the tree and a stone some distance away in the field. I spent a while there in my own reflective meditation thanking the goddess for guiding me to this special place and imagining myself as a pilgrim in vigil here in ancient times gazing toward the Tor beyond. There were a number of feathers on the top of the mound in a circle showing how well visited this site is and how rituals are often performed here. It felt like a special journey and I had not visited here before...now my relationship with goddess and landscape was really starting to create a web of links and synchronicites.

Blessed bexx