Solstice Tarot spread and Spirit Doll Giveaway to our Subscribers

Last readings today for the year of 2013 Year of the Witch what a journey with the Water Snake it has been. On Sunday I will be sending out a newly created Tarot spread to integrate the lessons & gifts of the year to all our subscribers here at our website and for all new subscribers over this Solstice weekend. I will also be giving away a Solstice spirit doll to one of our beautiful subscribers. You can subscribe by adding your email to the box at the top right corner of this page  x

Animal Spirits: Patricia Ariel

Animal Spirits: Deer Patricia Ariel

 Our dear sister Patricia Ariel has been creating these beautiful Animal Spirit paintings over the last month. Patricia has created so many of the artworks you see in our healing space and in our Swan Blessing including our mandala. She is available for commission work and you can see more of her beauty here. You can see the full series of Animal Spirits and what she still has for sale at her StorEnvy site too. Love you Patty! You always inspire me xx

Animal Spirits: Hummingbird

Animal Spirits: Cat

Animal Spirits: Dragonfly

Animal Spirits: Crow

Jane's Unbinding of the Wise Woman

Recently I had the honour of holding a Swan Blessing dreaming well at the Deepening Retreat for the sisters of the School of Shamanic Midwifery. What a powerful dreaming on the sacred land of Jane Hardwicke Collings, the founder and creatrix of school. Jane's dream of birthing the new shamanic sisterhood left a deep impression on me, her energy is beautiful - without judgement and full of encouragement. If you are looking for a guide to step into your own shamanic practice I can recommend no-one more highly. I first met Jane in person when she came for her Swan Blessing just over a year ago and since this time we seemed to have journeyed so closely in our medicine and wishes for this new Golden Age. 

We will be holding the last Swan Blessing sessions for the year next week at the Summer Solstice, if Swan is calling to you please get in touch it is such a beautiful point of the wheel right now to be creating more freedom in your life. Many of the seekers who take part in a Swan Blessing are also sending us their journeys for a book in creation: Swan Blessing - Releasing the Ties That Bind. They are so very potent and beautiful. Here is Jane's memory of her journey with the Swan. 

I saw her, old, long scraggly hair, wrapped in tanned animal hide for protection, by the river, in the forest, alone, very alone, sad, resigned, quiet. She'd been banished from the village, or maybe she'd run away and been hiding, either way it was because she'd been found out or would have been and that meant she'd had to leave or die.   

I saw her, young, she was writing furiously, long feather quill, hiding somewhere in a corner of the attic of the dwelling, in the dark, a lone taper burning. She was scared, fearful of being seen, yet she wrote and she wrote, pausing only to hear more to write.The words were coming to her from others, words she couldn't see who spoke, yet the words came and she wrote them.The Grandmother who lived in her hut in the forest had told her that the voices and their words that she heard were important and that she must write them down and give them to her. She taught her to write and read and told her to keep it a secret, not to tell anyone and to keep on doing it. 

On the Grandmother's death bed, she made her promise, make a vow, to never let anyone else know about the words she heard and to not let anyone see her writing, otherwise she would be killed. She wrote and wrote and the words soothed her soul. She shared them with her mother and her sisters because the words spoke of a different way, a way where they would be honoured and respected, it was so different to how it was for them.... The vow she made to the Grandmother kept her scared, scared of being seen, scared of being found out and scared of what would happen should she be discovered and the vow kept the words secret, but the words wanted to be shared and read.....   

The vow she made stayed with her until another lifetime when she went to the Blacksmith's cottage and met a Witch who flew with Swan. The Witch helped her find a way to cut away the web that was the vow, that had stuck to her, that was stuck in and around and all over her. And Black Panther came then, to be with her, to protect her and guard her. She was safe now, the vow was released and the words could come freely and be shared.    

Jane, Sydney 2012

Thank you Jane for sharing your story and sharing your love and vision with us all. How lucky we are to have you back with us again.

New Spirit Sister Medicine Dolls

The Gingko Witch Ancestral Medicine Doll See more here

The Wayfarer Spirit Doll - Frankincense and Mountain Ash resin staff Your body is your gypsy caravan, your heart is your home

Bear Clan Medicine Doll She is a big cuddly doll filled with Marigolds 'Weaving the Community Together'

for all the Decorated Ones...

Vali Myers by Marco Bakker

Some inspiration for all the Decorated Ones. Medicine Women come in all Colours - we are all intricate threads of the Great Weaving. Here is my beloved friend and teacher of the Wild, Vali Myers at the age of 71. 

Vali told me to decorate ourselves is the most natural thing in the world. I believe when we adorn ourselves we are romancing our own Spirit, playfully calling to the Other Self in the Dreamworld. This kind of adornment is not to hide or change or disguise but to call forward, illuminate and honour the temple of our bodies. Why so serious? Let's play!

One of Vali's favourite poems: 

If I make the lashes dark
And the eyes more bright
And the lips more scarlet,
Or ask if all be right
From mirror after mirror,
No vanity's displayed:
I'm looking for the face I had
Before the world was made.

Before the World Was Made

William Butler Yeats 

Passions by Vali Myers

A Spirit Sister for Summer Solstice

Custom Spirit Dolls for Summer Solstice - I am taking the last orders now for dolls to be made handcrafted for you or a loved one in time for solstice or christmas. These dolls are made with your intentions, animal totems and plant medicine - they come with a reading from your Spirit Sister. 

$100 including postage - send me a message to place your order. 

Water from the Mountain

Yesterday Tony and I returned to the underground Spring at the top of Mt Donna Buang to draw water for ceremony this weekend. It makes me happy to know that after all their hard work, the members of this beautiful circle will be drinking such pure water - gift of life. My intention this weekend will be sending love to all of those who feel alone at this time of the year. This month I have been focussed on healing the lineage of suicide in my family. It is a line of pain that has marked both sides of my family tree and I have been working to make sure those souls are at rest and know they are loved and were always loved and to know that they were never truly alone. Today I will be building an altar outside to remember the branches of my family tree that were stopped short, for the hearts too sensitive to weather the storm. 

I believe that talking about suicide is healing for us all, so many of us have been touched by it and when we share our stories we help remove the bindings of shame and taboo. If this time of year is difficult for you, reach out to a friend, gather your dear animals around you. Speak to someone about how you are feeling and remember, you are never alone.  We all have gentle hearts and I hope we can remember that in our meetings with each other this month. 

To draw water from this crystal clear spring here is a map from the great site Find a Spring. 

 

Firebirds are Birthing

Firebirds Sacred Familiar encaustic oracle

Legacy of the Burning Times

Curenderos at a Healing Conference in Mexico this year

'We are the granddaughters of the witches you were never able to burn'

Tomorrow I will journey to NSW to sit in circle and ceremony with my beautiful sisters of the School of the Shamanic Midwifery. Together we will hold sacred space for The Deepening for a Swan Blessing that will carry over 3 days, a 3-day spell-unbinding to assist them to answer the call of the Grandmothers and bring their wise medicine to the mothers and sisters and babies of our world again. I will hold this dreaming with my sister, shamanic astrologer and medicine woman, Mikailah and I am filled with deep honour at the energy already moving through me this week leading in. 

My main intention and fiery arrow of purpose in bringing the Wild Swan to the midwives is to clear the name of Witch and release the memories and past life binding of the Burning Times from their medicine so that they can hold their beautiful sacred birthing spaces and shamanic ritual with fearless love, even in places that may be hostile. For in the past and yes, still, even now, to simply be Midwife was sometimes to be called Witch. In fact, any woman carrying strong medicine was known as Witch.

Witch is a word that still affects us deeply. It is a name that frightens us, confuses us and intrigues. For myself the name Witch is one of honour and beauty. A medicine woman chosen by the Trees. I feel we have become entangled in the binding lies created around this name in the medieval period when women of magic and healing were hunted and murdered in a period that become known as The Burning Times. Without realising it, we are still carrying ancestral memories of this time and the binding beliefs created by those events stop us from daring to meet the medicine of Witch. I see this as a great wound to women that we still fear our own birthright gifts of magic, mystery and healing.

It does not matter whether you are called to name yourself as Witch, I believe it is important however, to clear her noble name and to know the truth. What was done to the Witch was done to all WOmen - just like the Sacred Feminine she was either demonised or trivialised. But the Witch is no demon and she is no cartoon. She is a Medicine Woman, Wise Woman, and Healer. And She like other Ancestral Medicine Women is returning to assist the Earth and Her people and animals and forests again.  

Here is a link to an incredible article written by Ruby Hamad and published yesterday that gave me such confirmation and encouragement for this coming weekend. I thank my dear friend Sadie, for sending it to me and I look forward to swimming in the Deep with the Mermaid Midwives. 

Maria a Polish healer and visionary from WOmen of Power Project

Somnium - Patricia Ariel

Somnium, Graphite and coloured pencil on bristol

Patricia Ariel 2013

Original available here

This is the latest offering from our beautiful sister Patricia Ariel, may it bring gracious flow to your week's dawning.