Visiting

Last nights dreaming was just divine.
So much escaped me
as soon as I opened my eyes.
Most but not the feeling,
the residual after knowing.
The house,
so vast and old.
The people,
potent, electric and alluring.
And the veils hung from upon the beds
the windows and walls….
I look forward to more revealing itself
as my day unfolds

Feast of the Dead

Tis not the way man chooses to live a life that shows what lays beneath… but how he faces his death that shows us what he is truly made off.

Our deaths define the very lives we have lived

In the Southern Hemisphere, Samhain is almost upon us. The weather outside, is finally reflecting the turn of the Wheel. With darkening skies and multicoloured tree line streets… Ive been inspired to decorate the witches house and finally open my box of dark and delightful things. This week I will be treating myself to that which feeds my soul. There will be dark circles with sisters, catch up with honey bee to discuss all things astrology… drinks with the black magician, at naked for satan of course… mushroom foraging with my favourite Dutch girl… and crafting all manner of things with my circle sister Verity… it is the time I indulge myself in things which hold, honour and heal me… for my departed beloved are not too far…and this is how I best prepare for the bitter sweet journey ahead.

Samhain is a time when offerings of food can be left on altars and doorsteps for the wandering spirits. You may choose to light a single candle beside your window to guide the spirits of loved ones home. There origins of Jack O Lanterns no doubt. A dummy supper where you had a place for your beloved dead at the dinner table or near the hearth to honour and make them welcome. You would normally cook their favourite meal, making sure it was never consumed by the living instead surrendering it to the night. Apples were left along roadsides to provide for the spirits who had no loved ones to provide for them.

Death, Descent, Winter and Purity

As the god dances around the wheel it is his journey our mortal coil follows. As the Great Hunter dies, we too will one day face the Great Mother. Everything will be surrendered to her as we return to the belly of the earth…. At Mabon we began to journey to the underworld. The goddess in her loving grief opens the gateway between the worlds, the veil thins and we can communicate with our beloved dead.  At Samhain we now enter the Underworld and dance with the God of Death.  This is our opportunity to release all that no longer serves us.  To release that which holds us back.  Death is a series of release and surrender till ultimately all that is left is the spirit.   Seasonally as our qi descends deeper into our bodies, and eventually into the deepest organs and meridian pathways, we have the chance to let go of habits, people, even adopted belief systems that may have never belonged to us to begin with.

And as we approach Samhain and upcoming winter, this Sabbat is a reminder that Winter is potentially deeply restorative, a time of contemplation and meditation. Cleansing helps us prepare for this time, potentially preventing our energy from being misguided or misspent.

We are coming up to a unique seasonal opportunity, on both sides of the hemisphere. As the wheel is about to turn into winter/summer, we have three weeks of a unique energetic phase. This is the time for deep cleansing and for clearing. Now is the time to give yourself the opportunity to reset. Reset your body by fasting and preparing it for different seasonal foods. Reset your mind and your heart by asking yourself what old hurts and resentments you need to free yourself from. Emotionally, cleanse out the old baggage. Question the belief systems you have adopted that don’t belong to you. Ask yourself what really belongs to you and what you wish to let go off during the next couple of weeks? This cleansing helps the concious cultivation of purity in our lives.

 

In Shadow and Light

M

Star People

We have some very significant astral events this year. Tonight is the lunar eclipse in Scorpio, May the 9th we have a solar eclipse in Taurus, May the 25th we have a lunar eclipse in Sagittarius, Oct the 18th a lunar eclipse in Aries and and a solar eclipse in Scorpio Nov the 3rd.

So many ways to play with the fabric. Here’s a couple of thoughts on how I will be approaching tonight’s lunar eclipse, but also how to begin work on the up coming Scorpio and Taurus solar eclipses.

A lunar and solar eclipse in Scorpio gives us the opportunity to really see what lays within our emotional waters. One where our conciousness lights up the shadow, the other where the shadow steps into the light. A yin and yang of internal diagnostics so to speak.

Scorpio also gives us a strong personal defence against others and the shadows they wish to project upon us. Its strong armour shields us from such toxicity. Not forgetting the tail and sting that also protects us against such nasties. You can harness this protective aspect of this sign, shielding your internal watery feelings but also the strength it takes to protect yourself if you are cornered or provoked.

We can also pair up the lunar eclipse of Scorpio with the solar eclipse of Taurus. The polarity of these signs can be entrenched and unyielding. Issues here are often around resources and ownership, values and possessions, both personal and shared. These eclipses can be harnessed in changing outlook, perception, or overall thinking in these areas in your life, within and without.

There are so many ways you can weave the planetary energies to work upon yourself. Im certainly not an astrologer, just a dabbler who often picks the brain of a very close friend who happens to be an astrologer. Let me know your thoughts and any astrologers that can shed some light are most welcome.

In Shadow and Light

M

Things a-brewing

There’s exciting things steeping in jars at Cath’s house… Some very magickal herbs – dittany, mugwort, hemlock – waiting for us to decant them at Samhain. Ointments and ritual soap are some of the things we have planned for our infused oils. I can’t wait to get started.

I’m also very excited about the range of chakra balancing blends we are coming up with… We already have our basic range of gem tinctures in the shop of course – but I am so thrilled to be coming up with some more complex, healing mixtures that you can use for pathworking meditations, bathing and anointing yourself.

These will contain herbs chosen to nurture and balance the energy of each chakra, steeped in alcohol to create a tincture and then blended and bottled with the addition of essential oils and gem or flower essences. The first three or four have worked themselves out pretty clearly in my head, so now it’s just a matter of getting hold of the raw ingredients and setting them to infuse. In particular I’m already dreaming of how good the blend for the sacral chakra will smell and feel – sandalwood, gardenia, ylang ylang, rose geranium, how delicious!

I haven’t worked with chakras much in the past, I have to say, and it’s only recently that I’ve felt particularly drawn to focus on them, but I’m glad I’m working with them now! Yesterday – a particularly difficult, nasty day with me and my little boy rubbing each other totally up the wrong way, with much screaming and tears from both of us I’m sorry to say – in an attempt to ground and settle myself I took quite a few doses of hematite and carnelian (for the root and sacral chakra) essence and they worked amazingly well… I felt more grounded, more centred and calm, it was as if a huge ball of tension and blocked energy unravelled itself from inside me. Today, thankfully, has been much calmer all round.

Unexpected

We set out this morning with plans to attend a market, but those plans went awry. They led, however, to other exciting plans, and to trees ~~ trees that we’d been talking about earlier on this very early morning while everything was still dark ~~ trees that were right there in front of us by the time the sun rose enough to give us light to see by:

Hawthorn, full of the reddest berries and not too many thorns:

Willow, a real great grandmother of a tree, all cracked bark and dangling leaves:

We came home shivering with the damp cold but laden with gifts from the tree people, and filled with inspiration… as well as the determination not to go anywhere without our secateurs again, because you never know what might be about to turn up!

Nearly Samhain

It’s not long until Southern Hemisphere Samhain which will be on April 30. So I’m thinking about things to do with pumpkins, especially since I have these beauties sitting on my kitchen table.

The yellow one is my last spaghetti squash from the garden, and the other two were kindly acquired for me by Cath when she went on a trip to an heirloom pumpkin farmer (wouldn’t that be a fun job) in Bacchus Marsh. For no clear reason I seem able to grow squash and zucchini, but not pumpkins?? Oh well, I’ll try again next year.

But lots of people manage to grow pumpkins even if I can’t! And it’s the perfect time if year to do yummy things with them. One of my favourites is this recipe for Pumpkin Jam, from Sally Wise’s book A Year in a Bottle – a really handy book for anyone who likes making their own preserves, I highly recommend it!

Pumpkin Jam
1kg diced deep orange pumpkin
Water
Zest & juice of 2 lemons
1kg sugar

Cook pumpkin in a little water until very soft. Drain, then mash until smooth. Add the lemon zest and juice and sugar. Bring to the boil slowly, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Continue to cook for 20 minutes or until thick.

Spoon into sterilised jars and cap tightly. Store in the fridge once opened. Makes about 1.5kg.

There’s no pectin in pumpkins obviously, so it’s not exactly a jammy texture, but it spreads very nicely and us great on toast or with scones and cream (and a pot of tea, of course).

Blessings )O(
Verity

goddess

We all hold within us a sacred spark…

a connection to the divine.

One day we shall return to the source of that spark

and everything will be revealed within that awesome beauty.

For now lets treat each other and every day as sacred.

We answered a call to return and our spirit craves to be here,

to be made of sky and earth,

stars and clay,

and to experience the shadow and light our world contains.

Image: http://www.ideafixa.com/voce-nao-desenha-nada-roberto-ferrini