Swan Past Life Story - The Vow to Carry On Alone

Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth, 1948

Today I share Rebecca's Swan Past Life Story. I met Rebecca when she was co-presenting an ecoprinting workshop - a workshop that fascinated me as it involved cooking up in a cauldron recycled items like old keys, pieces of metal, wood and leaves and flowers to create natural dyes for silk. I loved the transformation of items regarded as waste or rubbish into incredible beauty.

Rebecca's story is of a young girl who on her mother's death-bed promised to carry on in life alone. To survive without the love and assistance of any members of her Feminine Matriarchal line. As with many of these Soul Promises made in past lives, the energy and binding of these oaths are carried by our spirit with us into the present. It is a beautiful remembering of a life endured with quiet strength and in the release of the binding comes the release from that word 'endure'. How many of us have endured our lives? For so many lifetimes we have had to 'make do' in hard times. I am so happy to see that we are now remembering ancient ways of creating communities through creativity and motherhood and sacred medicine. If we are without elders in this lifetime we can seek them out in community and this is why the Red Tent movement of creating sacred space for women is so important. As are the sacred spaces being created by our brothers for men to meet and share and receive the guidance that may not be available to them in their birth families.

The painting you see above, 'Christina's World' by Andrew Wyeth was chosen by Rebecca to accompany her Swan Story and I am always so fascinated to see the threads of art symbolism woven into the words of story.  When I looked into the story behind this painting I discovered that the model for it was Wyeth's neighbour, Christina, who had polio and had lost the use of her legs. This painting had been inspired when he'd seen her pulling herself across the field to her home with strength of her arms alone. It is poignant to me that when parts of our spirits are bound by past life vows, in soul loss, our present lives can often feel like this - as if mobility and movement is somehow limited by energy beyond our control. The gift of this impediment is that we are often forced to develop new skills and ways of finding nourishment beyond the normal constraints of culture and society. This is why, I believe, we are seeing a rise in the shamanic approach to spirit - regardless of the fact that western society has become so urbanised and materialistic. Our spirits are wise and we remember the truth - that we are all one, that our mothers and fathers are many, and the greatest source of Feminine Love is always available to us when we connect to the Earth.

Deep in the heart of Mother Mountain, in the home of the Crone, who has a name I can’t remember, I looked into the Well of Memory. She emerged, a young girl with red hair, wearing a dress with an old-fashioned collar. She stretched out a hand, and we met, palm to palm. I joined her in a country field, wheat waving golden in the afternoon light. We walked towards a farmhouse, and her sadness, grief and loneliness were tangible within me. 

The girl led me into the empty house, upstairs, to a bedroom. The bed was smoothly made, a sense of timelessness in the air. Without words, I understood that her mother had died here, and in the last moments of her life, she’d compelled her daughter to make her a promise: to live, to survive, to carry on, despite the painful lack of any feminine energy. No mother, no grandmother to hold her. 

The girl was stoic and sad. She had to hold herself, and it was a very lonely path. 

I felt grief, tears, and the familiarity of her pain deep within me. The resonance of making do without loving feminine energy around me. Nowhere to receive a deep hug, or older wisdom and nurture. I felt all that, and how I live that, and I also felt how this no longer serves me in this lifetime. I felt how it is shifting. I have survived that painful absence of Mother, and now I can soften and seek out the love and support of the feminine all around me. 

Crow came and led me out of the mountain, flying from tree to tree. I felt her energy of watchfulness and waiting, a companion high up in the branches. I felt the holding all around me. There is enough. I am safe and loved. And I can offer safety and love to my daughter and all those around me.  Rebecca, 2013

Thank you Rebecca for sharing your beautiful story and helping us all to remember that we are not alone. Rebecca is embracing her medicine as Artisan and this is one of the many ways to express the limitless power of the Feminine. You can read her inspiring words at her website: Healing Tools - I visited yesterday and spent a couple of hours immersed in her nourishing stories and wisdom. And you can also see the stunning ecoprinting creation and take part in workshops with the Oracle Textile Collective here. Love to you beautiful Artisan x

The Burning Times - Dark Moon Wisdom

This documentary is in 6 parts, the second is here.

It is a long weekend here in Australia and so I am winding down for dreaming in the forest. Here is a very good documentary, The Burning Times, giving an in-depth look at the witch-hunts that are still held within our collective memory as Wise Women. In our Swan Blessing Past Life ceremonies it is my greatest love and gift to be threshold guardian to the many women who are coming this year to clear past life memory of these times.

And so for those of you who live too far to come for personal Swan Blessing sessions and those who wish to understand more of the historical path of the Medicine Woman, I hope that this film gives you a deep understanding. Do not hold on to the wound. Instead use this wisdom and remembering to create the intention at New Moon on Sunday - a Moon in Gemini perfect for breaking old beliefs and ideas that no longer serve - to release any past life bindings on your own Wise Medicine.

I leave you with the beautiful Swan Story of my dear sister Bec 'Rainbowalker' who was one of the first women to ever experience the Swan Blessing and opened my eyes to path of my work with Swan Medicine. I will be forever thankful to Bec for showing us all the beauty and freedom of Fearless Love.

Blessings on all of your bright wishes for New Moon and we will return from our dreaming soon.

FEAR OF PERSECUTION - A WITCH'S SWAN BLESSING STORY

Another beautiful Swan Blessing story to share with you today from our book in creation: 'Releasing the Ties That Bind'. Thank you Bec for your sharing as I read it, I felt the healing for us all again. With your telling you are helping so many who are feeling the bindings and very real fear of persecution of the Wise Woman again in our time. This Swan journey is so amazingly empowering, I honour you sister and the return of your great gifts in fearless love.

I was in a small cottage in the woods, surrounded by small children , an elderly lady was crying as I  kissed them goodbye.  I knew they were coming for me. I knew I was a wise woman and they feared me. I actually felt at peace. I told the elderly woman it would be alright. I was quite young with beautiful long hair.

My next thought was to get away from cottage as I could see the torches in the distance.  I started running through the woods. They caught me about 500 meters from my cottage. My thought then was are my family are safe as I looked back towards the cottage? They had me on my knees with my head pulled back by my hair. I was surrounded by men and could feel the fear in their heart. I was taken under the cover of darkness. It was a lynch mob. A powerful man with the authority was behind the scenes. Orchestrating the outcome. I felt he was scared of my inner power.  

The very next thing I saw was a vision of her standing on a pyre. It quite surreal as I stepped out as myself from the future to see my past self on the pyre. I could see a sea of what looked like Pilgrim hats, and a town square. She was searching frantically for someone or something in the faces before her; she knew this was going to happen. There was no hatred in her body, only sadness and compassion, for the people doing this to her. I watched as the tears streamed down my face. I stepped forward and her eyes locked onto to mine. She smiled at me and said with her eyes:  ah good you are here! I have been waiting. My soul felt like it exploded in to a million pieces, it was such a deep and profound connection. Her words to me were: You are free, Have no fear. They cannot come for you in this lifetime. Your family are safe. Be true to your soul and path. With that she closed her eyes and tilted her head skywards. And whispered 'I am ready” to the Heavens.   As they lit the pyre. I saw a bright white light come down from above. She was enfolded by light and I could see two beings beside her. The flames had only reached her feet. But she was already free.  

Julia and Tony I thank you for releasing my fear/binding, in this life as a healer/witch/ wise woman. I hadn’t realised that this fear of judgement and persecution had been holding me back. Also my intense dislike of authority makes sense. My past self had no fear; No anger, she accepted it, in perilous times of who she was.  Her message to me was the gift of Freedom, acceptance and walking the path of self truth. No more Hiding.   

With Love, Bec 2012

I urge you all to experience the potent and healing medicine of Bec Rainbowwalker. For years Bec worked as a nurse and in palliative care had many experiences of the divine crossing over of the soul. I am so happy to say that she is honouring her wise gifts and is now offering incredible sessions of energetic and intuitive healing here in Melbourne. She offers such beauty and grace to all especially those recovering from grief and loss after death as she is a beautiful 'midwife of the soul' and has such a deep understanding of the journey of the soul from this life to the next. After experiencing Bec's healing work personally, I can not recommend her transformative sessions highly enough - so needed in this Wave of Change. 

Love your way, Sister www.rainbowalker.com

Past Life Remembered

A young boy remembers a past life on the Isle of Bara in the Outer Hebrides - you can see the following 4 parts of this story here.

Release from the Vow of Silence

Le Silence - Lucien Levy-Dhurmer

The DJ and the Vow of Silence - Kylie's Swan Blessing story.

The Doll Enchantress - Nicole Ahava

Bridge Between Worlds Medicine Doll - Nicole Ahava

When I think back to where my journey with Spirit Dolls began, I can see that as a child I had many. I made them from all kinds of things and I turned what looked like very mundane items into spirit dolls just by focussing my love into them and speaking to them daily. I had forgotten all about this until last year when I received a Dream Doll as a gift from doll enchantress, Nicole Ahava. Nicole is so much more than doll-maker. Through her work at Dream Empire she imbues sacred objects such as spirit and medicine dolls with healing energy, strong intention and love. Nicole is also a Plant Medicine Woman and has great wisdom and knowing of the sacred plants and often places leaves and flowers of plant medicine from sacred sites around the world inside her creations. 

When I was gifted my doll - Little Girl for Healing the Inner Child, from Nicole I was searching for our new home in the forest and it had not been an easy search. In fact, I was starting to wonder if the messages telling us to move to Sherbrooke Forest had been right - we had seen so many houses over the months but none had ever come up in Sherbrooke itself. When I first picked up this wee doll, I could feel the soft energy of peace radiating from her body. I became attached to her very quickly - keeping her inside my wooden Tarot box with my beloved cards. I was amazed at the affection I felt for her and the support I felt her giving to me. And I remembered this connection with my dolls as a child. Within 2 weeks of working with my Dream Doll, of telling her my woes and my dreams and talking with her daily, we found our home in Sherbrooke. I was so glad to meet Nicole in person this year at Autumn Equinox and thank her in person.

Mother with Child - Custom Doll

Brigid Celtic Goddess of Fire - Nicole Ahava

Nicole was also sharing her medicine at Seven Sisters Festival this year and teaching her Spirit Doll workshops. When I came to the workshop on Saturday morning it was a after a night of deep visioning and no sleep. I was in a very strange state indeed after spending most of my night being visited by the Ancestral Grandmothers. With Nicole's gentle guidance and very little words really, just her energy alone, we all created the most amazing dolls within a short space of time. I made for myself a Grandmother to honour my vision and also to represent the grandmothers I had never met in this life as they had passed before I was born. 

I began to understand the significance of having something real to hold when focussing our love and intention and I could see that many of the spirit dolls were representations of the Dreamer within us all. I also felt the deep shamanic practice of doll-making and how the quiet focus of crafting gave us a clear channel to receive messages for ourself and for others and to imbue sacred objects with power and intention. And so I have asked Nicole to take part in the next Swan Blessing workshop - Enchanting the Dreamer at Winter Solstice. In this workshop not only will we clear Past Life bindings from our Dreaming Self - the magical and intuitive sister or brother who lives in the Otherworld, we will now also be able to hold them in a doll created in their essence to help us create a strong connection with our intuitive self at all times. 

I asked Nicole how did she come to her craft?

"When I was a child I was incredibly empathetic (I still am) it would cause me so much pain to see any person or animal suffering. I would cry for the homeless old man in the park and plead with my family to take him home with us. I would hear of an illness in the family and that night I would lay awake and send them healing. The next day a family member would call and tell my mother that the person was better. I would do little rituals to wash away the pain of starving children in Africa while I washed up the dishes for my mother. Find little stones and feathers and build altars in the playground. I trusted my feelings and I trusted my medicine. But it all stopped as I was walking home from school in grade 5 after I had received my Rubella vaccine. I was thinking my knowing was telling me the vaccine was wrong but all these people were saying it was right so I must be wrong.

A few years ago I was attuned in Reiki and it has all started coming back. I started making dolls for my girls. Intention is very important for me in all aspects of my life especially in creative action. It was very natural for me to put intention into these dolls. A lot of the time as I am making the dolls, other medicine will come up and I allow that to flow into the doll. Putting sacred objects into the dolls intensifies their power.

I have only ever made myself one doll and that was after my Swan Blessing."

I believe it is a beautiful gift and medicine that Nicole holds in her gentle soul. When she came for her Swan Blessing I saw that Nicole is a powerful healer and one of her strongest gifts is creating Medicine Dolls for sick children - beautiful comforting dolls for them to take into hospital when they are feeling afraid and to become dear friends to them in the long weeks of recovery at home. If you are facing such a time with your child I cannot recommend Nicole's healing dolls highly enough. I encourage you to seek her out to create a custom doll for your child and for the inner child within yourself. You will be amazed at the circle of love that you feel.

To join our spirit doll circles you do not need to have any experience - your spirit has gifts beyond time. You Remember This.

Swan Blessing Story - Spirit Doll of the Sacred Artist

Lakota Doll by Rhonda Holy Bear

Tonight I share Katy's Swan Blessing story of a past life remembered as a young Native American girl carrying the wisdom of the sacred artist. When faced with the loss of her tribal lands, she made a Vow to Never Submit to the materialistic ways of the modern world. In this lifetime Katy is an artist again and to carry such a binding from the past into this new time was creating many obstacles. Many of us are carrying vows and laws that still forbid us from creating wealth in our present lifetimes and the reasons for these promises were very valid for the times they were made in but do not serve us now. For Katy it was the release of this vow that gave her understanding that she now had permission to create wealth in her life without guilt.  When we imbue our work with sacred energy, which is simply love and intention with the action of making the art itself,  our creations have great worth in our world. In fact, it is very needed at this time. As artisans we must see our craft as a worthy channel for abundance - just as needed as any other role or service. To create with the intention of healing and service and then to charge accordingly for this work is something that is important for us to learn. At the same time we can be discerning and make sure that our work is not being abused, disrespected or copied. We do not need to sell our services to everyone but we can choose who we wish to worth with and for. To accept our own ability to create sacred art again is important because it helps us to also open our minds and hearts to the sacred art of indigenous artists and give it the great honour it deserves. Our sacred art is not a commodity but a gift that creates a circle of abundance that includes the recipient as well as the artist. We can make our whole life a practice of sacred art.

When I met Katy I felt such a bond of sisterhood with her instantly but I had no idea of the way her story was going to ripple out and flow through my own life and through the lives of the women who have also heard her story. When I retold Katy's Swan Story at a recent workshop it was not shocking to them to hear of a woman who intended to burn a town down for taking away her tribal lands, but a cry moved through the crowd as I told of her spirit doll being thrown onto the fire. As I heard and felt the unrest of the women I realised we all still carried a strong collective memory of carrying our magic in dolls. And that these dolls were not merely toys but living sacred objects, more like little sisters or guardians. I began to remember lifetimes of making Medicine Dolls, Witch Dolls, and Spirit Dolls and how sacred they were to us women in times when we were connected to our ancestral medicine and wise ways.

Amazingly, I had chosen the image of this beautiful and proud doll you see above created by Rhonda Holy Bear because I could feel the sacred essence that it carried and it reminded me of Katy's Vow. Only tonight did I read the story of how Rhonda came to her artisan craft of doll making. If you click on the image you will go to her website and read the story about how her grandmother's spirit doll was given away to wealthy tourists - yet another echo of Katy's story rippling and awakening us to the need to learn to honour sacred craft and indigenous art and a call to us to learn to create our own sacred art and spirit dolls again.

"I didn't know what to expect from the Swan Blessing. I just had a very clear and direct inner impulse to participate. I have funny problems understanding basic societal constructs like money, so the "vow of poverty" idea really rang a bell for me. I fully expected to see in my past life (if I saw anything at all) a medieval nun, living quietly, disengaged from the world, expecting nothing, with nothing expected of her but simple labour and the contemplation of the divine. That's not quite how it worked out. It may be that the life I expected to see is there in my secret soul, but it's certainly not the one that sprang forth and demanded my attention.

A young Native American woman came forward and took my hand. She showed me the ashes of a campfire. In the fire were the remains of a simple handmade doll. The woman with me was now a little girl, and the doll had been made by her, and thrown into the fire by her brother (who was much older, and an important person in her tribe), to teach her a lesson. I felt her child's anger and confusion, and also her brother's deep, wild, implacable rage. As I looked around, I saw that her camp, the home of her people, had been burnt to the ground by white men on horses. There was ruin and destruction everywhere, and everything of value was ash. The lesson her raging brother was teaching her by throwing her doll in the fire is that their life as they knew it was finished, that there would be nothing spare for foolishness. 

The next thing I saw was the woman, no longer a child, but still young, lighting a fire.  

This part of the story unravelled backwards: She was lighting a fire. She was lighting a fire at the back of a building. Oh! She's setting the building on fire. The building is a pub, in a small, still-being-constructed mountain town. She's so angry. So fucking angry. Why is she so angry? They killed her brother. Who did? The same men. They caught him and killed him, shamefully, publicly, because they were trying to build this town, and he kept attacking them and disrupting their work. So. She sets the town on fire. It burns, and her fury burns, she is utterly consumed and immobile with rage. She is arrested and imprisoned for the rest of her brief time on earth. And the burning vow of her whole life is the rageful shriek that she will never, ever submit. 

She comes to me again, calm now, and shows me how I still carry this vow as big heavy rocks in my hands. Together we smash the rocks into pieces and they crumble away. She hands me her gift, and I see it's the little doll that her brother threw into the fire, now unburnt. It represents the power I have to make magical objects, and to make objects magical; to weave together disparate and inanimate things and breathe into them life and intelligence and meaning.  

* * * 

I'm an artist, and I've always had a very fraught relationship with money. It just doesn't make sense to me, particularly in relationship with art-making. When I make artwork, it's always something that can't really be  bought or sold. It's films, or crazy installations that fall apart if you touch them, or giant inflatable whatchamacallits; for me, their very purpose is to be not-of-this-world. If they fit neatly into somebody's everyday life then they're not doing their jobs as other-worldly triggers. They're sacred objects. They don't get turned into a commodity. But then, on the other hand,  when I try to figure out how to make money, it's ALWAYS some kind of making-something-that-is-most-emphatically-NOT-the-sacred-object kinda thing. And I always feel weird about it, and I'm really stingy with my attention. And it always feels unfocused and wrong, and it's always this big inner conflict, and it's always a struggle. And I sort of hate the thing I'm making. And the enterprise usually collapses and I'm secretly relieved. 

At the moment I make these embroidered patches and sell them in my shop, and to other shops. They're definitely NOT art, but people like them and they sell quite well. I've been having my usual funny struggles with it; weird panics at markets, the urge to sabotage the business. The weekend after the Swan Blessing, my husband and I hosted a big party in the forest, for about a hundred people. It started looking like it was going to be really big, and we didn't really know what to expect, and we were a bit nervous. We arrived a day early to set up, so in the morning before people were due to arrive, I put on the poncho I had made out of blankets, made a sign, and set out another blanket on the ground, put all my patches out on display, sat down and waited. 

I suddenly felt very, very, very weird. Like all of this was incredibly familiar. I have never in my whole life experienced Deja Vu until this moment. And then, just to drive the point home, somebody wandered past and said "Wow, you look exactly like an American Indian selling crafts by the side of the road!"  I couldn't even answer them, because everything was just thrumming and humming and glowing and feeling so weird. And it was just like it all fell into place. I know now why money is so uncomfortable for me, and why this is being triggered so hard at this point in my life. I think this conflict is HER conflict. Like, her inborn magic was to make sacred objects, but then her tribe's way of life got destroyed, and then, traumatised, she had to find new ways of living and fitting into the foreign currency structure that had been imposed on her, and her magic got degraded and and turned into crappy commodity-trinket-making. And that felt like submission, and that felt terrible and wrong. 

*** 

The animal companion that was given to me by Tony at the Swan Blessing was the chipmunk. At first this seemed a bit incongruous; this cheeky, busy, funny, lighthearted creature didn't seem to sit comfortably with this giant vision of rage and burning that I'd just experienced. But the next day a couple of things struck me: One, that this was a creature I used to see a lot in my childhood in Colorado. (My vision absolutely and unequivocally occurred in Colorado as well. Funny.) The other thing is that this is a creature who knows how to prepare for winter, but doesn't make a big deal about it, or agonise over it; it just goes about it's cheeky life, and trusts its own ability to take care of its own business... it just follows its instincts, stuffing nuts in its chubby cheeks all summer, and then has a big pile of nuts to sleep on through the winter. Maybe the feeling I keep having in my life, that I don't understand these basic laws about how the material world works, how to make and keep money, how to connect effort with reward, things that everybody else seems to intuitively understand and be able to work with, come from being tied to this past life of chaos and desperation and imprisonment. Maybe some of the fallout in this life has been my feeling like a foreigner when it comes to these basic self-determining and self-care strategies. So maybe it's not as complicated and mysterious as I think, and if I just channel that little stripy guy, the state of Usefulness and Plenty will just happen as a natural side effect of my instinctive life, rather rather than something I try to consciously build through the force of my will."   

Katy 2013

Thank you Katy for opening your heart and sharing your Swan Blessing story. By releasing her Vow to Never Submit, Katy has opened up a channel to abundance and understands that this channel will be of her own making. In this lifetime we are free to share our deepest and most sacred art again without fear and under our own authority. The gift of release teaches us that we are allowed to create and share in abundance and that possessions do not need to be void of sacred energy but instead can be beautiful vessels of magic and love - Art with Soul. With intention, belief and love we turn the mundane into the sacred. I am very excited to see the magical and sacred art that Katy creates now that she has released the bindings of that lifetime.

You can see some of the beautiful community building that Katy is involved in through her shop Desire Books in Manly, Sydney. Just have a look at the creative projects she offers to children, musicians, writers... If you are in Desire's neck of the woods pop in and enjoy!

Thank you Katy for opening up this sacred pathway to the Dreamer for myself and for many, many other women.

Past Lives - only the costumes change...

ca. 1848-54, [daguerreotype portrait of Fulton, an early San Francisco actor]

ca. 1856-1910, [tintype portrait of a smiling and sharply dressed young lady]

I am often struck by the similarities between past and present. We are living in mythic times, we are walking in the histories of our ancestors and at the same time being guided by them into the future. You might want to have a look at the fascinating Historical Indulgences website featuring photographs from America in the mid-1800s. When I look at these faces I see such modern expressions and eyes full of stories looking back at me.

The soul lives forever, only the costumes change... 

ca. 1852, [daguerreotype portrait of an Iroquois man, probably Seneca, with applied hand-gilt detail]

ca. 1870-80’s, [tintype portrait of two women admiring cabinet cards

ca. 1860’s, ambrotype portrait of a Confederate soldier

ca. 1860-80’s, [tintype portrait of a woman in unusual costume, possibly for a Wild West show]

ca. 1860, [tintype portrait of a mother and her child]

ca. 1859, [daguerreotype portrait of a bespectacled gentleman,

Swan Blessing - Retrieval of the Dreamer

Drumming the Moon - Lucy Pierce

This morning I received a most treasured gift - a poem written by artist, Lucy Pierce after her experience journeying with the Swan Blessing at Seven Sisters Festival. I too felt the presence of Horse at the festival and I was so glad to see that this totem of the Spirit had also come to assist Lucy as she journeyed back to Retrieve the Dreamer. Since Seven Sisters Lucy has visited me in the forest to take a personal journey with the Swan again and I am very excited to see the art that births from Lucy and her Dreamer in the coming months ahead.

In past lifetimes, many of us have bound our wisdom of sacred art and her symbols. These esoteric teachings are our birthright and in this lifetime we are free to share them with fearless love again. I am always honoured to assist artists and musicians to clear past life contracts binding free self-expression. It is often the voice of the artist that sings to the world from the crest of the Wave of Change, they are the Seers of the future.

You can see the full beauty of Lucy's creations here and purchase your very own prints and sculptures at her Etsy store.

Thank you dear Lucy for sharing this potent poem - your vision, your purpose, your authority, your love... I could hear the quickening like a drumbeat of Horse Hoof on the Earth as I read it.

She Meets Herself

She - Lucy Pierce

Retrieval

Like an unsung song I have always known,

I have experienced myself to be riddled

with incomplete spaces

and unlived places within.

As though essential clues were still buried,

deep inside the body,

indecipherable codes and locks and holds,

camouflaged and obscure,

deflecting light and attention and love.

And now like an awakened crusade,

I have mounted my stead and bare-breasted I ride,

powerful and fierce and exquisitely soft inside,

into the darkness of my history,

back through the gateways

of my deaths and my births,

eyes piercing the shadows,

anchored within the womb,

my vigilant sentry,

ancient seer, awakened.

The rhythmic stride of my mount unrelenting,

senses strained to their full,

I am retrieving myself piece by piece,

unbinding the vows of my past,

reclaiming the power held captive

beyond the reach of my memory.

I am calling her home to me

She who carries her medicine,

She who hungers to be seen,

She who knows the heart-seed of her purpose,

the unfolding mystery of being home

in the throne-room of her soul.

From between the plump, sticky folds of my motherhood,

my Huntress awakens,

sleek and honed

and dark as the night.

She is retrieving the Dreamer

to the heart of life,

searching for She who sees the vision

and holds within her,

clear and true and easefull

the capacity to respond.

The heavy compass of authority

swinging from the outer to within.

It is time and there is no other path

but this focused reclamation of myself ,

of my vision, my purpose,

my dream, my response,

my authority,

my love.

Lucy Pierce

Swan Blessing Workshop - Winter Solstice in the Forest

Past Life Dreaming Remembered

Union soldier Frances Louisa Clayton, who dressed as a man to enlist

with her husband in 1861 via