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The Wild Scots Have 3 New Year’s Messages for You

3/1/2015

The Scots, those untamed, blue-painted, kilted warriors, pipers, and lovers, have a wild and wooly New Year’s celebration that you may not want to try at home; it is Hogmanay (usually pronounced hog-ma-NAY). This incredible street party does have, however, three suitable messages for all of us to integrate into our own celebration as we enter a brand new year.

The Scots did not really have a Christmas holiday to celebrate from about the end of the 17 century until the 1950s due to the Protestant Reformation and Christmas being seen as “a popish feast” by the English Crown, at least when it was banned in the 1600s. Scots growing up in the 1940s confirm that Christmas was not a part of their family’s custom. Their midwinter celebration became the wild and raucous Hogmanay, December 31st to January 1st or 2nd.

Fire Invites the Sun to Return

As with many European winter ritual customs, fire plays a big part in celebrating Hogmanay. Our ancestors used enormous bonfires on festival days throughout the year to honor the sun or call it back in mid-winter. Today at Hogmanay, in addition to bonfires, huge pyrotechnic shows, fireworks, spinning fireballs, and torched tar barrels are part of the festivities in various town and cities in Scotland.

In our own lives, using fire at this time of the year to call forth the light and passion within each of us to come forth in new expressions in the New Year is so satisfying. A candle or a fire in the fireplace with some spoken commitments links us to our ancestors in the New Year.

Remember Our Natural Generosity of Spirit

Hogmanay became the Scots gift-giving holiday, in place of Christmas. Families and neighbors gave and received gifts at this time of year. Much visiting of homes with food and spirits offered within is, and has been, a companionable custom of Hogmanay. Singing of Auld Lang Syne with a complex linking of arms happens after the fire revelry.

Never do I sing, nor witness the singing of Auld Lang Syne, without seeing most folks weeping. This song, sung in a language we do not understand, by people who may or may not have Scottish blood in their veins, tugs at a heart space within us that loves friendship and longs to serve it. In this cold season, let yourself be warmed by the love of friends.

The First Thing to Enter Your Life
Signals the Year’s Pattern

First footing is also a custom of Hogmanay. The belief is that if a tall, dark, handsome stranger comes to your door the first thing after midnight of the New Year, that you will have good luck. This probably has something to do with the anticipated bad fortune if a blond man comes to your door because in the past he was undoubtedly a marauding Viking.

The idea of first footing is that the first person who comes through your door indicates the character of your New Year. We could enlarge this idea and consciously choose what we admit through the front door with a little personal ritual. Think about what you want to admit to your home this year. Is it love, prosperity, beauty? Go to the front door and with great intention – call it in!
All of life’s gifts are right there on your threshold. Happy New Year, everyone!

Travel with Me to This Wild and Joyous Land
This Spring

Scotland in the Spring, May 23 to June 1, 2015

Here is some of what you will experience:
·      Edinburgh Castle, Grassmarket, Rosslyn Chapel
·      Glasgow, Melrose Abbey, witchy East Lothian and the Borders
·      St. Andrews and the east coast with puffin colonies
·      Blair Castle and stories of Bonnie Prince Charley, the Jacobites and Culloden
·      Ancient loch dwellings and stone circles
·      Storytelling at its finest within a small group of travelers

BOOK HERE

INFORMATION ON OTHER TRIPS

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Three Lessons from the Green Man

1/12/2014

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The Green Man is an ancient archetype encompassing the wildness and the life force of nature, and the human connection to the natural world. This nature deity appears in many pantheons of old: Osiris in Egypt, Pan in Greece, Jack-in-the-Green and Robin Hood in old British lore, to name a few. Most commonly he is depicted as a human face emerging from a sea of branches with greenery sprouting from his mouth, nose and ears. Numerous carvings in stone and wood can be seen in churches and chapels throughout Europe. This beautiful example is one of 103 such carvings in Rosslyn Chapel in Edinburgh, Scotland. What does the Green Man hold for us today?

We are Connected to the Natural World

The depictions of the Green Man are so varied, showing humor, fierceness, anger, joy, and every emotion in between. It would seem that our ancestors actually saw him in the woods. He invites us to look for him, to get out into nature and relate to the playfulness and wisdom in the natural world. Sometimes, when I have been walking in woods, a movement flickers in the corner of my eye and I know that something or someone has slipped from tree to tree, daring me to catch an actual glimpse. I love this hide and seek of forest creatures, be they Green Men, wee folk, or fairies, and it makes me want to feel into their world. Can you see the faces in this wooded scene?

We Draw Strength from the Seasons of the Year

There is a tradition in Ireland about the Green Man and the yearly cycle of growing. At Samhain (October 31), when the growing cycle is over and all goes dormant on the land, the Green Man descends into the underworld to rejuvenate in stillness. During his months in the earth his roots grow down into Mother Earth and his antlers grow up. Both outcroppings serve the same function –to connect him to the power and wisdom of earth energy. He stays in the underworld until Beltane (May 1), when he explodes onto the land as the god, Cernunnos – virile, strong, antlered and ready to participate in the fertility of the entire natural world. He pursues and mates with the Queen of the May and a new cycle of growth begins. Now, in December, he is in deep meditation in the underworld. We can use this time of the calendar, quiet wintertime, to also go deep within to gain strength for our own next creation.

We Can Encourage Our Wild Side

The Green Man is the bridge between wild nature and the face of humanity, with quite a bit of his energy on the wild side. In stories from antiquity he is related to wine, brewing of spirits, sexual excess, and other physical pleasures. This is not a civilized archetype. In our world of jobs, internet, traffic snarls, and schedules, most of us long for a bit more wildness. The Green Man tells us to risk a bit more, be outrageous a bit more, go for a dream a bit more, let yourself enjoy physical pleasure a bit more. Go ahead and let yourself dip into your primal nature, along with the Green Man, and enjoy your life on earth, with all its deliciousness. This life lasts for a countable number of precious seasons, and the Green Man encourages us to enjoy all that earthly life and our physical bodies have to offer our soul. I agree!

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3 Reasons to Return to World Travel Destinations

2/11/2014

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For the past seven years I have led sacred journeys to ancient sites in Great Britain and Europe. As I invite people to come on these life-changing journeys, I sometimes get the comment, “Oh, I’ve already done that trip,” or “I’ve been there.” While I do understand a travel-loving person’s desire to see many different places, there is a specialness to returning to favorite spots that resembles paying homage to a holy shrine or temple. It fills me with joy. Let me share how this is for me in exploring three reasons one should return to a favorite destination.

1. Activating Special Memories Tenderizes Us

In 2007 my sweet mother and I went on a cruise of the Irish Sea, zigzagging from Ireland to Wales and Scotland. It was the last big trip she took and it was so very special for both of us. We actually took her wheelchair with us because she did not walk distances at that time in her life, aged 89. However, with the increased activity she became stronger and took to wheeling her wheelchair in front of her on flat surfaces, which I found adorable. Above is a photo of her at Carnarvon Castle in Northern Wales. This last summer I returned to Wales and Carnarvon Castle. It was so poignant to see that same patch of lawn where Mom had been the last time I was there; the photo of the empty grass is above. I had anticipated this moment and was prepared with a few of Mom’s ashes, which I sprinkled right where she had walked. The overflowing gratitude in my heart for Mom, for our time together, and my ability to still travel burst forth. This was a very special return to what is, for me, a sacred spot.

2. Familiarity Deepens the Experience

I actually have lost track of how many times I have been to Stonehenge, each time coming close among the stones, due to special scheduling with the Historical Society. Our group is always less than 25, which I believe is their limit for a private visit. Each time the weather is different and the light is different and so the stones are very different. (See the photos above.) Each time I visit, I deepen my experience of this amazing site and have a deeper connection with those who built it. It is so much a part of my life, and that of my daughter, who is pictured above on a rainy Stonehenge visit, that I texted her just this week about some major dentistry for me, texting, “Big dental thingy now…the surgery to plant the post, (Sounds like Stonehenge construction.)” To which she immediately responded, “Yeah! Channel the ancestors.” Obviously, Stonehenge lives in both of us now.

3. Feeling the Divine Presence Can Take Repeated Visits

A sacred site often looks very ordinary: a mound of earth, a pile of rocks, a piece of ruined church, a working well, where village people come to take water. The idea that one will receive a mystical experience at such a place seems farfetched. There is, however, the notion of “the spirit of a place,” which, in my experience, reveals itself more and more as we return. It is as if we create a relationship with the spirit of the place and we receive the benefits of that relationship as we participate in “getting together.” This photo of the Bell Tower on Glastonbury Tor was taken during my fourth visit to that site. There had been a quick ferocious rainstorm that swept through. Too many of us sought shelter in the Bell Tower, which was useless since the top is open to the sky. As the rain and wind pelted us a fellow with a penny whistle began to play. The sweet music mingled with the magic of the site to create a luminous moment that deepened my relationship to that site forevermore. I felt the sacred in that rain storm as surely as an angel hovering over me.

So, my Dears, I hope you think about returning to those sacred places that you love and I hope you return with me. Trips for spring and summer 2015 are on the Tours Page.

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Mab, My Familiar

22/4/2014

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A witch's familiar is an animal with a deep, loving, and useful connection to a person of the craft. In times of old, as well as in the neo-pagan community, a familiar looks like a pet, often a cat or a bird. However, the true familiar is more than a companion; it helps with healing and magical efforts. I am told that a familiar usually "finds" the person to whom it is bound in service.

When I was in Cornwall in 1999, I met Cassandra Latham-Jones, Village Wise Woman, and her familiar, a gray cat named Mab. Back at home the following winter, a black infant kitten found its way to my front door and I knew "my Mab" had found me. Yes, I named her after the witch's familiar. She is now the matron of my home and watches over three other cats and three adult women. We understand that all six of us are her kittens.

Her portrait in the spring garden, on this page, was taken by Amanda Kreglow, one of her charges. In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mab is the queen of the fairies, so I especially love this photo with the fairy paying her homage.

Mab runs the household and does not tolerate misbehavior. She is always present when any of the two or four-leggeds is in distress and simply remains near them, exuding peace and well being. Recently, another of my cats had an operation and was confined for a week. Mab was just on the other side of the door for most of the week, certainly through each night. We have also noticed that Mab stays up and watchful at night until all of her two-legged kittens are home and in bed.

The archetype of the familiar is found in a long line of powerful animal healing spirits, spanning the ages from the animal gods of the Egyptian pantheon all the way through to seeing eye dogs and hospital angel dogs today. Why not give your four legged or winged one more responsibility in your family or work and see what happens?

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The Easter Snake

11/4/2014

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As I was creating my spring altar at home, a large stuffed snake declared that she wanted to be the centerpiece of my sacred altar for Ostara. When I was finished, my entire dining room was exploding with decorative eggs, flowers, bunnies, and three snakes. I posted the photo on the left to facebook and entitled it "The Easter Snake." I was surprised when several people wanted to know the story.

I had no story. I began to think about spring holidays and spring symbols and St. Patrick came into my awareness - then I knew the story of the Easter Snake and why this lovely animal is important at this time of year. St. Patrick forcefully Christianized Ireland in the 4th century AD and part of the story of this aggressive, although much loved, priest was that he drove the snakes out of Ireland. That aspect of the story has been taken to mean that the native Celtic and Druid culture was violently suppressed. Spiritual suppression is a common story in the history of religion; all religions are an amalgamation of the beliefs of the invaders and the native population. Ireland still has much of its pagan roots very much in evidence.

So, why not encourage that earthy side of Celtic spirituality and celebrate "All Snakes Day" sometime in spring? It is the time of year that the little and big crawlers slither out of their dens and bask on a warm rock in the spring sunshine. "All Snakes Day" is actually the idea of Archdruid Isaac Bonewits, and I, for one, support it. Let's bring back the love for one of the divine goddess's familiars: the snake that is at home above and in the earth. Let your own out grown skin fall away this spring and transform with the celebration of "All Snakes Day!"

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April is the Month of "Opening"

4/4/2014

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The name of this month, April, comes from the early French and means "to open." How appropriate! It is in this month that so many flowers open; the trees leaf out in most places in the Northern Hemisphere, and we have the experience that spring has surely arrived. It feels like life is opening to a new beginning from the rebirth that was the Winter Solstice.

It is in April that birds nests and eggs appear. What an amazing blessing for our ancestors, who had endured a cold winter and had eaten all or most of their stored food, to find these delicious little packages of protein. No wonder that Ostara's hare was inspired to decorate eggs for his beautiful goddess. After all, the world was already ablaze with colored flowers, so a bouquet would not stand out as a special gift. The little hare carefully decorated eggs for Ostara, and that is how bunnies and eggs got all mixed up with the resurrection.

Isn't it all about opening at this time of year? Opening to fresh breezes. Opening to beauty. Opening to love. Opening to new beginnings. Even the eggs open with the little pecks from the chicks on the inside, if not found and eaten or painted.

I am opening to new expressions and new possibilities, myself. This website and blog are my new expressions this spring and I hope you like both. I encourage you to do the same. Perhaps you already have an idea of what wants to happen through you this spring season. All it takes is a "Yes, Life! I am willing to open!" And you will; I promise. Use the energy of the rising sap and the opening flowers to begin something new.

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Forward>>

The Wild Scots Have 3 New Year’s Messages for You

Three Lessons from the Green Man

3 Reasons to Return to World Travel Destinations

Mab, My Familiar

The Easter Snake

April is the Month of "Opening"

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