Rediscovery....

What a beautiful week I've had! I managed to take a couple of days annual leave Thursday and Friday to enjoy the sunshine with Mark as he was off before heading west to Glastonbury on Saturday with my circle sisters and a chilled family day today - just what I needed to refresh and soothe my heart and soul. Thursday was spent literally snoozing in the sun in our garden,watching the clouds- picking out all sorts of shapes and listening to the birds singing and watching the amorous male wood pigeons puffing up their breast feathers and dancing precariously along the apex of the roofs trying to court their Hens, who looked remarkably unimpressed  - reminding me that the Beltane energy is ever present.

On Friday we visited Wild Wood a conservation trust

at Herne Common in Kent that provides a home in ancient woodland for native British wildlife. It's one of my favourite places. I particularly love to visit the colony of wolves there, they have successfully hand reared some of them since they were orphaned as cubs, so we were heading round to sit a while with them when we saw this very wary young stag - another link to Beltane, before he ran off to hide amongst the green trees - I wonder if they'd thought to call him Herne?

Perfect for meditation?

On the way round to the wolves, I saw this beautiful bower that is obviously a work in progress. I've seen them fully built before but it didn't occur to me that this is how you form them - hmm another project for either the allotment or the garden, a meditation bower - now that sounds good... I may have the perfect corner! 
When we got round to the Wolf Enclosure there were none to be seen, it was probably too hot for them and they were most likely cooling off in the shade of the undergrowth. However we were lucky enough to see the new arrivals, 2 beautiful Brown Bears that had been rescued by the trust last year from a disused bear breeding station in Bulgaria - who knew such  grim places existed? As expected they are not used to space and people after 14 years of lonely captivity in a disgracefully small pen, but are

slowly becoming rehabilitated to their new surroundings - this beautiful bear came and had a peep and a sniff of us. I offered up a silent prayer that such beautiful creatures had been rescued but equally felt saddened that they had been reduced to this in the first place - how apt and timely their brief appearance would become when I arrived in Glastonbury the next day!

Early on Saturday morning  I drove down to Glastonbury for our much anticipated Discovery Day - a chance for all the lovely and fabulous Ladies who have started their individual journeys with Goddess through Michelle's Discovery Workshops (really life changing - if you are thinking about doing one and are not sure - Do It!!) to spend a day together in her beautiful garden to catch up, indulge in a few workshops and just generally "enjoy".  

Our Beautiful Setting

We were greeted by the sight of the an inviting Bell tent, complete with carpet and a delightful tea shack! After 4 original circles had blended a little more, a wonderful group of Ladies, all at different stages on their journey with Goddess, some on Priestess training, some looking forward to starting one soon, others waiting to see where their journey will take them and of course some writing blogs, came together as a circle,  grounded ourselves and called Goddess in before learning and  performing a danced prayer before being treated to workshops by three wonderful Priestesses- Katie, Angie and Weeza. Thank You Ladies x x 

In the morning we were taken on a short meditation journey by Katie through moonlit woodland to connect with Goddesses of Fire, particularly in the Crone aspect - my experience was of owls, wolves and a wizened toothless wise woman who laughed and seemed to say "you'll see!" before coming back to the present and making some jewellery for ourselves based on our journey - apologies that my photo isn't very clear but I used golden leaves and fire colours to reflect the woodland and the fire the Wise Woman was sat by. Whilst I was threading the beads I felt a pang of longing for my beautiful and wise late Nan, (who for the record wasn't a toothless wrinkled crone !) who kept tins of ceramic and glass beads that had belonged originally to her Mother and Grandmother, that she allowed my brother and I to play with as children and we used to pretend the bright beads were rubies, diamonds and other precious jewels! 

The next workshop was a healing massage session in the shade of the bell tent, just what we needed after sitting in the warm Avalonian sun. After reconnecting with the earth and feeling the healing power stir in our wombs - which  I really wasn't expecting to feel so strongly, but there it was shouting at me loud and clear, we identified which parts of our bodies that ached. Angie then got us to think on why these aches and pains were there, we reflected on how they were indicative

Avalonian Bees

of states of mind and situations in our lives - which were very accurate! We took in turns to share some healing with each other and thank you to the lovely Michaela, my "naughty" shoulder is still fine this morning!

After a lunch fit for a Queen, we were lucky enough to be able  to walk to the orchard with Angie to see the bee hives that she has introduced and watched the bees repeatedly fly over the to Somerset levels to collect the pollen to make their honey.

The Beautiful Star

For the final session of the day, Weeza spoke to us of her journey to reclaim the the ancient path of the Bear Priestess and her travels in the wilds of Scotland to visit the Bone Caves of Assynt where the ancient  bones of bears, Arctic foxes, reindeer and wolves from many thousands of years ago have been found. I've had a google of these caves and they are seriously remote and high up! I'd love to visit, but it really does look like a complete and total mission to get there and back in one piece.
We talked about the concept of bears being humanised to suit our purposes in teddy bears,models, films and their voices being more often portrayed wrongly as roars rather than grunts and barks and I thought of the parallel with those poor bears at Wild Wood that had effectively been treated inhumanely and then being rescued from humans by more enlightened Humans. Another timely synchronicity for me to consider.

A massive thank you to everyone who was involved in making this wonderful day happen, either by organising it, holding a workshop or by simply coming and being you, that of course includes the beautiful Star, Michelle's gentle, kind and amazing dog x x x

All week I have been calling Goddess Ker in as Kerah and am still finding high and passionate energies are surrounding me, it's a fierce but specific energy that leaves my heart pounding and my blood rushing. It needs purpose and focus, so that it isn't channelled in the wrong direction -  something else that I need to work on and with over the coming weeks, honestly I won't have time for work at this rate! It did occur to me as I was writing this that I already make regular financial contributions to conservation and environmental charities both locally and internationally and that I have always been more than happy to support what I feel are worthwhile causes, not just by putting my hand in my pocket but by actually getting involved and trying to make a difference - Kerah must have been calling to me for a lot longer than I realised.......

Watching the Bees

What a wonderful long weekend I've had, topped off today by a lovely family barbecue, great company, scrummy food and  lots of laughter.


            Have a truly blessed week x x x 





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