Preparing for Black Moon Lilith

Fever Ray

Aleah - Water and Wine
Today I am preparing the Natal birthcharts for all of the women attending the Black Moon Lilith Workshop on Monday night. So beautiful and wild is our dark sister, Lilith, she has so much to teach us about the orphaned parts of ourselves. With every Black Moon Lilith workshop I hold I learn even more about my own shadow and how to welcome her home. In this week of deepest Winter we are also in the time of the Dark Moon, a perfect time for meditation and going within.

I have just recently discovered Aleah a songwriter from Sweden - there is so much incredible art coming from the Scandinavian worlds at the moment. As far as I can tell these are demo tracks as she has no album as yet. In 'Sacrifice' are the perfect Lilith lyrics: 'Shaken I rise from the ashes of myself. I am alive despite all the storms that have run by'. Warmest wishes for the phoenix rising from the ashes of yourself at this Dark Moon.

Winter Solstice Encaustic - Oracle Writing Workshop

Hello art lovers, our next encaustic workshop will be held at the ancient Celtic Festival of Winter Solstice on Saturday, 23rd June. This workshop will focus not only on creating and painting your beautiful oracle cards with beeswax but also on the art of writing. We will take time at this Yule festival, a time when we feel the quiet and deepest point of the year to become still enough to listen to the voice of your oracle and channel it's message. Winter Solstice is a beautiful time of reflection and dreaming and also of giving gratitude. It is very much associated with remembering those who have helped us along the path: ancestors and the spirits of loved ones. What messages do your ancestors have to share with you to help lighten the load, to put a seed of joy in your heart for the journey ahead? What will the seed blossom into in Springtime when the new dream is ready to be birthed? 
This workshop is limited to 8 places - all materials are supplied. Please bring along a photograph of an ancestor or loved one and join us at this time of deepening. In the cauldron of Winter we may glimpse our radiant future. 
Below is a piece called Crone's Message at the Well - like all of my encaustic pieces she was not drawn or planned but merely moved up through the hot wax when she was ready to speak. 

Standing In The Way Of Control - Beth Ditto

The glorious Beth Ditto - Neptunian Beauty
I love that M.A.C have chosen Beth Ditto of Gossip as the inspiration for their new makeup line. I adore her. For years she has been a loud and proud warrior for Neptunian beauty. I have been calling this era of Neptune in Pisces the rise of the Beautiful Freak - and here is someone who helped open that door. Beth Ditto is pure joy, colour and magic. In this behind the scenes shoot she invited her mother along to be made up and is adorned with polka dots applied with a potato no less! 
It's time for us to take off the old glasses, the blinders, the filters that forced us to see beauty in only one way - let your eyes see beauty everywhere. Just have a look at wild nature to see just how strange and creative the world really is. For those finding it hard to come out of hiding and show the true self, just listen to Standing in the Way of Control and let Beth fire you up. Remember who you are - a child of nature - and that is perfection!

Do You See What I See - In the Eyes of Venus

lavandula: frida gustavsson for british vogue
Frida Gustavsson for British Vogue via Sisterwolf

On Monday night we will experience the Full Moon Eclipse. The Moon is in fiery Sagittarius and just days away from the Venus Occultation when we will see Venus making a visible path across the Sun on 6th June. And so this week we will feel the mighty power of the Divine Feminine expressed through Venus, the Goddess of Beauty, Abundance and Love. Like a dancer, she will move across the face of the Sun unveiled, exposed and radiant. 

Astrologically there has been a lot of energy available to us in the last month to begin embracing our shadow, to bring all of the orphaned parts of ourselves into the light. When we do this we realise what we thought was unacceptable or unloveable is strangely beautiful. In these changing times we are being asked more and more: who are you and what is it that you truly want? To truly understand and feel the answer we must be able to look ourselves in the eye and see the incredible amount of potential and beauty that is innate, within us all, just waiting to be unleashed. Do not reject what is strange about yourself, but display it with love, this is your unique gift and this is what Venus can help us to see with our own eyes this week. 
Vali Myers diary inscription Paris, 1956   
www.valimyers.com
Someone who taught me more about true beauty and fearless love was Australian artist, Vali Myers. Here is a photograph and inscription from her earliest surviving diary written in Paris in 1956-57. I love that she dedicates this diary to herself, simply 'My Book'. These inspiring diaries and Vali's paintings will be published in September in an exquisite book called Night Flower by Outre Press. I have read Vali's diaries many times but each time I pick them up I find new inspiration, an invitation to fall in love with your own spirit. On the day that Vali's diaries arrived at my home 2 weeks ago, I took a walk to Williamstown Beach with my friend Sarah and this is what we found waiting on the shore. A faerie house! A beautiful silver mystery waiting on the threshold between the worlds of land and sea. One of Vali's gifts was to teach us to look beyond the mask, the mundane, the ordinary to see the spirit within. May you be inspired this week to see yourself with the eyes of Venus, to look deeply into the mirror and glimpse your spirit. Welcome this spirit like a beautiful creature emerging from the forest, a creature that has never been named or classified because there has never been another like it before. Be YOU! 
Wild Full Moon love to you all x

Faerie House found at Williamstown

Frank C Pape - Dreaming in Black and White

Honouring the art of illustrator Frank C. Pape (1878 - 1972) and the Golden Age of Illustration today as we feel the build up to the Full Moon Eclipse. This month of eclipses has brought me back to the intricate worlds of fine illustration, reading and writing by hand. I am remembering my original and true way of communicating. What natural traits and gifts are the eclipses illuminating for you this weekend?

When the Dream is Real

Fingal's Cave on Staffa Island, Hebrides

Yesterday I awoke early and instead of getting up began to meditate and fell back into a state of half-dreaming that I find to be very potent for receiving messages, symbols and visions. In this dream/vision I found myself at the most beautiful cove protected by huge volcanic towering columns of stone. It was full moon and the sea was flowing in, around the shore were skulls on staffs. When I woke up I knew that I had seen those cliffs before and remembered a trip to the spiritual island of Iona in Scotland. From Iona you can see an island in the distance. I knew instantly this island known as Staffa was the home of the cove that had appeared in my dream.

In the mouth of the cave looking out to the Isle of Iona

Staffa was named from the Old Norse for staff or staves, a pillar island whose volcanic basalt columns reminded the Vikings of log staffs. As I began to look at images of Staffa i was drawn to photographs of the island's main sea cave, Fingal's Cave as they captured the energy or essence of the dream. The dream's message was about recognising the beauty and majesty of the natural world in comparison to our addiction to being indoors or looking for 'magic' in man-made tools or items. The original gaelic name for Fingal's Cave is An Uamh Bhin - 'the melodious cave'. In 1832, composer Felix Mendelssohn was so inspired by the sound of the waves in the cathedral-like cave that he wrote Hebrides Overture opus.

I am still working with the message of this powerful dream, a vision sent to me by my Scottish ancestors - no doubt symbolised by the skulls, the bones of my ancestors on the staffs (Staffa - hinting at the name so that I could find it quickly) on the shore. Make time for your dreams, they are very special, potent and helpful.

May your dreams tonight lead to you to the wild places of own heart and blood.

Oceans of Love, Julia

The Weekly Familiar - Koala

The Weekly Familiar - an Animal Message from Tony


This week's Familiar is KOALA.


Koala: The koala has come in this week with it's message about relaxation. Koala is one of my totems and has taught me about the importance of relaxing and just taking it easy. This message is reminding us to set aside time to do nothing and let the world go by for a change. The koala helps us to de-stress as stress can often be a major cause of illness. How much time are you giving to stressing about the tiny details of your day? Is your mind racing constantly? Are you taking time for yourself? What is it that relaxes you the most and can you make time to do this more? The irony is we are more productive when we are relaxed. So make time to embrace the energy of the koala today and let go, relax and be. The Koala.
Be Wild!
Tony
These are the beautiful koalas at The Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter - you can sponsor a koala for just $40 and they need our love and help. Here is a link  to sponsor a koala.