She is walking out of the fires...Mishele's Swan Story

She is walking out of the fires. Her staff which connects her to the land below her and the skies above, reminds her of her Medicine. She wears a conch shell to remind her she is Woman. She carries her basket to collect medicine wherever she goes. She is Medicine Woman. She looks out at the world through the quartz crystal heart she swallowed... Seeing all with Love and Clarity. She holds the ancient sacred herb Desert Sage in her belly, connecting her to All that Was, All that Is and All that Will Be. She is taking Me out of hiding my Medicine. She is whispering into my heart, singing to my feet, calling my memories to awaken. Giving me strength to remember She is I and I am She. We walk into the world sharing our Medicine again. We walk into the world sharing our Medicine again. Dear Julia, After spending the weekend with you and all the sisters in the circle, I feel I Am AWAKE! How can one merely say Thank You for the gift you have given! For the Swan Blessing, the unbinding of Vows that have held me back in this life, introducing me to the Daughters Of The Well. The words Thank You cannot display the deep gratitude I feel, for Teaching me the Medicine of making my own Medicine Doll. For holding the space with so much Love, Compassion, Joy, Wisdom, and your Beautiful Voice to guide us to where we needed to go. For gathering together a circle of Medicine Women, making connections, sharing stories, releasing past life pain, and bringing us back to the present with our Medicine that we may have been hiding due to ancient fears. Julia, my way to honour You and all that you have awakened in me, is to Walk, Dance, Love, Forgive, Laugh, Be the Medicine Woman I Am and Walk that path in Truth and Beauty, sharing with All, as you have shared with All 

What an amazing weekend I had! On the misty Mt Tambourine a circle of women gathered together, and under the gentle Guidance of Julia from Sacred Familiar we journeyed deep into ourselves and our past. Through her Swan Blessings, we released and healed Vows and Bindings we made in a past life, that was stopping us from our full potential in this life. We released our Grandmothers, Mothers, Daughters. We reunited with each other again. We shared our stories in the safe circle that Julia created in a magic place called Grail Haven, sharing in the Blessed Water from the sacred well. I encourage you to look into Grail Haven, it truly is a healing experience. Julia taught us the lost art of making Spirit/Medicine Dolls! Wow!! Having already been gifted one, I knew the power of their medicine, and to make my own was and is a life changing experience! I have learnt so much of myself during this process, and will continue to do so with all the others I will create! Yes! I am addicted! I met Such beautiful women, making connections that are ancient and now present ♥ We drummed and sang (thank you Vicki for teaching us the songs, I sang all the way home on the train) We had fun at the markets, meeting the friendly locals and spreading joy with our open hearts and Dolly's (who came with us sharing their magic to the young and the old, men and women) So many magical experiences, I think I could write a whole book about this one weekend ;-) Oh and I was taken back to when I was a child born from a Gypsy mother and towns man father. I ended up living on my own, in the forest, rejected for who I was, yet still consulted by the villagers for medicine and healing (in secret of course) I bring back with me my essence of the Wild Gypsy Woman, this time, I walk proudly into the world, with my Medicine, I will speak the truth and beauty to all ~ For All ♥ Thank You so much dear Julia and to all the women in the circle Bless You ♥

Mishele, Femmina Unbound on Mt Tamborine, 2013

The Tarot Weavers - Seer's Return

The Seer by Tammy Mae Moon

This weekend will hold a Swan Blessing circle for the return of the Art of Seership and unbinding of beliefs and vows blocking access to Oracular Divination. In my family, the ability to See is strong but has not always been believed to be a gift. My intention in holding this circle is that we come to know the natural beauty and wisdom of our spirit when it acts as Oracle. As Oracle we will journey back into the past to clear any obstructing beliefs or fears before opening ourselves to create a Medicine Weaver Tarot reading as a way to quest towards our medicine. We will learn ways to release the past and receive assistance in holding and sharing our own unique ancestral wisdom. We will read both for ourselves and for each other. 

This circle is open to all sisters. You do not need to have any experience of the Tarot, we will be journeying and reading purely from our intuition and open heart.

Please let me know if you wish to join us, you will need to bring your own Tarot deck of choice. 

The two decks I will be sharing are The Gaian Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert and 

The Wild Unknown Tarot by Kim Krans

Femmina Unbound - Return of the Medicine WOmen travels to QLD

 

Swan Blessing - Releasing the Vow of the Outcast

Sylvia Ji - Shapeshifters

On this Full Blue Moon morning I share again with you Kristan's Swan Blessing Story of the Outcast. In her past life, Kristan belonged to a tribe that could not accept the powerful medicine that she carried. In her tribe this medicine was seen as taboo for woman to hold. She was asked to obey or to leave. She chose to say NO to the tribe so that she could say YES to her spirit.

Many of us have experienced similar stories in past lives and in our present lives. We have felt that to truly be ourselves, we must journey alone. Or we have put up with behaviour that hurts us just to stay a part of the tribe whether that tribe is family, society, peers. In this time of the rise of the Divine Feminine we are being called out of the shadows to embrace all of our natural gifts and to release the fear of being rejected and cast out by those who do not understand or accept us. Saying NO when it is right for us is a practice of honouring ourselves. When we release the belief that there was ever anything 'wrong' with us we remember that we are all creatures of the earth - as individual as every animal and plant and an integral part in the wheel of life.

Looking into the waters of the crystal ball of consciousness, I stared and I waited and I imagined I would not see anything. And I saw nothing for what felt like such a long, long time, I was beginning to feel I would not see, that my mind was too strong to allow my soul to show me what I needed and wanted to see

I stayed with prayer, asking and pleading at one moment to see, please let me see  . . .  and then the mists began to clear and I could see a clearing in the mountains, green pine all around, the smell of freshness and soil, and a teepee 

And horses, many horses And then I saw HER, myself in another time By the teepee, the wild life of the mountains surrounding HER  Ah, she was alone, living an isolated life, no tribe, a sadness surrounded herI could also sense an understanding, acceptance of her situation as the best possible outcome for her at that time and place We saw each other, she smiledI could see her deer skin clothing, her turquoise choker with red beads HER long, long braids of dark black hair I could feel HER and I felt a relief that we had met, that the veils had parted and that we could meet I began to track why she was alone in the woods, her only communication with the forest life; the birds, woodland creatures, trees, the natural world who heard her and loved her 

A new vision appeared
I found myself within a tribe of teepees A fire A Father, a Chief at the door of his teepeeAnd a Mother and more children (my siblings) sitting at the door of her teepee I stood by my Father, the Chief as he asked me again if I would do what was expected of me
and again, the 12 year old HER (me) said NO
I would NOT 

I was banished from my tribe 

For being who I was For speaking who I was For saying NO to what was not true for me I caught the eye of my mother and she caught mine sadness but understanding i saw there
and in my father too, not as cheif, but as my father a sadness and again an understanding
And away SHE went, alone, to live a life of isolation, to be herself
Again, I find myself back at HER teepee This time we connect, we stand in a pool of water, a water fall, falling behind us The vines from below come up, writhing and cover her, strangle her, snake like she is bound I connect with HER, I cut with my teeth the binding reedy vines I free HER She smiles at me, she becomes as of light and as a shooting star Returns  

The wounding: I will be rejected, cast out, banished from my tribe if I am myself, authentic and truth speaking, if I say NO to what does not feel right I release this binding, this wounding as I bite and free the vines of that lifetime  

The blessing: authentic, true and free, I express myself fully, I am my actualized self, accepted, loved and cherished by my tribe, now and for eternity

Thank you Kristan Read, for sharing your beauty, strength and truth. Kristan is a Shamanic Midwife, Teacher and crafting creatrix extraordinaire! You can experience Kristan's inspiring medicine for yourself through her work at www.atmypractice.comand www.thecrafthive.com

Swan Blessing in Sydney

Dear Sydney friends, we will be in your neck of the woods next week and we are so excited to meet the artists, musicians, healers and all round wise folk who have booked in already for their Swan Blessing sessions. If you would like to book a personal Swan Blessing ceremony we have just 3 more sessions available. Please let us know as soon as you can if you would like to take one of these last places.

Our only workshop in Sydney will be held at Desire Books on Imbolc, 1st August : Swan Blessing Spirit Doll Workshop - The Art of Enchantment. In this workshop we will be clearing past life vows and contracts binding the Artisan and creativity and creating our own Spirit Doll Dreamer. Please contact Katy at Desire if you would like to take part: desire@desirebooks.

Oceans of love and see you all soon!

Past Life Remembered - Poverty Consciousness

I have been fascinated by the photographs of Jacob Riis for many years. Riis was an anti-poverty campaigner and journalist whose photos are full of emotion and story. At the turn of the century he documented the appalling living conditions in New York City in the hope that they would move people to do something about creating better conditions and alleviate suffering. 

Many of us are carrying past life memories of these kinds of lifetimes and also blood memories - carried in the DNA from our ancestors. If it is strong, or you have made past life vows in relation to creating wealth, it can develop into poverty consciousness - a constant and nagging fear that all will taken away from us again. It does not matter how abundant or rich our lives appear, when we carry this binding fear, it is as if we remember these times like they happened yesterday and like hungry wolves, they wait to engulf us again.

It is important to acknowledge and FEEL the wealth of our current lives. There are many, many people in the world still living in these types of conditions and worse. To fear poverty creates a barrier between us, it makes us want to turn from or push away what frightens us. It limits or crushes completely our creative impulse and trust in our dreams. And worst of all it binds us tighter into the whole obsolete belief of a class system. A system devised to separate us through fear - as if our living circumstances or education were a measure of our worth.

Instead of fearing poverty, we can:
Dedicate ourselves to living simply and frugally while at the same time feeling real gratitude for what we have
Spend long periods in nature and let ourselves remember how to know her intimately again and grow our own food
Enjoy developing self-reliance and making by hand what we need
Supporting our local community with conscious spending and buying locally
Share in times of plenty

We are remembering again what we used to be.

Kings Daughters Tenement Chapter, Kindergarten Games 1897

School 1890s

Baxter Street Court

Winter Solstice Swan Blessing Workshop - Wise Medicine from Plant Teachers

I am preparing for our Winter Solstice Workshop - Enchantment of the Dreamer by walking in the forest daily and looking around for fallen leaves, branches, berries and other plant medicine. I am loving seeing the world from a miniature point of view - a twig that doubles as a staff, a leaf as a cape - endless possibilities. During this workshop we will be journeying with plant wisdom from sacred herbs such as Blue and White Lotus, and the Passion Flower. At present I am placing these ancient medicinal and dreaming herbs inside the spirit dolls. It is a wonderful feeling when a doll tells you what it needs to carry. 

Deep inside our hearts, where the Dreamer resides, we remember the ancient shamanic and witch practice of doll-making and enchantment and we have ancestral memory of Plant Medicine. At Winter Solstice we will clear past life vows, oaths and sacred contracts binding the Artisan, from full expression of Intuition and Creativity before engaging in this sacred craft again. If you wish to join us in this deep dreaming pool as remember how to make all that we touch sacred, I have 2 last places, please get in touch by Friday morning if you would like to take one of them.

Spirit Sister Plant Medicine Dolls available for purchase here.

 

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.