I’ve been loving my winter retreat and, with the new moon, have just begun to peek out a little - but there’s no hurry.
After the Winter Solstice I stepped away from the outer world and into the warm, quiet, restfulness of my hearth. The webshop was closed and I took a break from communicating ‘outwards’.
I had no desire to emerge until the new moon a few days ago - and that emergence is still very slow. Close to home, my focus has been on warm food and firewood, on hot water bottles and early nights, on reading and listening to stories, on family and close friends, and on sunny days I’ve been enjoying looking at the bare trees and the beautiful patterns their branches and twigs make against the clear skies. On dark, windy, wet days I’ve stayed in my nightie all day, with woolly socks and warm cardigans and crocheted blankets - dreaming the things that will emerge as the wheel turns.
In common with many people, I used to say that I didn’t like Winter. Winter was a time to ‘get through’. So what changed? Well several years ago I made a conscious choice to align my energy more with the energy of Mother Earth as she travels around the Sun. What I learned was a complete revelation, and as more years have turned and I allow myself to ‘go with the flow’ even more, I find that love all the seasons of the year and life gets better and better and more filled with a sense of profound connection and wonder.
My personal favourite time of year is still early May. I don’t think that will ever change and I’m absolutely certain that there’s nowhere on Earth more beautiful than the Tamar Valley in May, but nowadays I no longer crave spring and dread the descent towards winter.
Long before I understood this process, I realised that any project that wasn’t well under way by the May half-term wouldn’t happen. I knew this was so, but I didn’t understand why, and it was much later when I had an Aha! moment. Now I plan my life to align with and use the available natural energies. It makes everything so much easier and creates more space and opportunities for joy and gratitude.
The year begins in late Autumn. The harvest of the year has been completed, the leaves are falling, days are short and nights are long and it’s time to move away from the outer world to the inner. In our modern. western world, we place so much focus on the outer world - brightness, busyness, activity, noise, stimulation - and forget that life begins in the darkness. Each and every one of us began our journeys in the dark of the womb. Seeds first rest in the dark soil. All that is manifest begins in the dreaming.
In the depths of Winter it is time to rest; to recoup energies spent in the busy, active, social time that is Summer. In this dreaming time we sow the seeds of our future - both personal and collective. As the light returns and the soil warms, the first shoots appear, and that’s the time to begin to bring our dreamseeds out into the world.
By my hearthfire, I’ve been writing and preparing new courses - to be delivered online soon. Over the past year I’ve learned so much about what can be done to help us communicate when we are unable to be together. I’m not quite ready to emerge fully, but they will soon be ready to bring to you.
Crystal Course
Interactive webinar over a series of weeks
More information coming soon.
For now, please express your interest by writing to me
Wheel of the Year course
I am also inspired to offer a course, with my dear friend Lu Wray, to work with the cycle of the year. It will begin in September 2021 and end in September 2022, moving through the 8 ceremonies that mark the Earth’s movement around the Sun.
Again, please write to me to express an interest
