Making Sense

Greetings from a beautiful sunny Kent! 

I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of days this week hands on as staff as opposed to being stuck in my office as the boss, which meant I got to spend time with some of the amazing 'service users' (- I don't like that term, personally I prefer to say clients - as we work for them, but that's not the PC buzz word!) and to share a chilled picnic with them under this tree whilst watching a fountain spray from the middle of the pond at Goudhurst, just a couple of miles from where we work. It never fails to ground me and remind me why I do my job. 

I also attended a seminar on Safeguarding and the new Care Act this week, which had me wondering mid power point, how I had managed to overlook the fact that most of my work is based around protection and looking out for people's rights when I was struggling to interpret the energy of warrior and protector I have been feeling from my daily practice and conversations with  Kerah - no wonder I felt that energy so strongly! Talk about the truth being right under my nose. Finally, after another hectic week, tying up loose ends, I am now off for a whole glorious week...

I read a post on Facebook this week by a lady who is part of our ever growing Discovery circle whom I have yet to meet, but her chance 

post about feeling strangely connected to particular areas and places some due to  her family history  and others apparently randomly resonated strongly within me and made me reconsider my own favourite places and question what makes them so important to me - thank you 'S'. Since I was a little girl  I have always wanted to live in a windmill- not really surprising for a daughter of a Corn Goddess! I even wrote a piece of creative writing about the museum of my life (which was the theme of that particular class - not my ego!) called Windmill Cottage.  Also my own personal journey with Goddess and in particular with Ker has gained momentum over the last few years - not surprising when I see this road sign every morning as I arrive at work and drive past fields full of the fruits of the Goddess nearly everyday of my life .

Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, where my husband took this photo of me on our honeymoon has to be one of my favourite places ever. We were there for hours, and I mean hours - good job he loves me! I have no known connection at all but felt as though I knew it with all my heart and didn't want to leave. Apart form the obvious sounding name Cornwall or Kernow as it is known locally which apparently has no recorded connection with Ker or any Grain/Corn/Wheat/Oat even harvest Goddess that I have been able to find as yet. However the original tribes of Cornwall according to Roman historians were called (by them at least) the Cornovii - it's Latin translation being 'the people of the horn' which could relate to a peninsula - which it is, a cornucopia - quite possibly Goddess like or relating to Cerunnous the Horned God - so I haven't given up researching yet!

Cornwall 2011

I have been calling Kerah in nearly every morning, lighting my candles and incense (currently I am using white sage which curiously somehow reminds me of the smell of the sea!) on my kitchen window altar complete with shells and a fabulous starfish shaped blue glass dish I found in a local charity shop, all to represent the bounty and harvest of the sea to celebrate Litha as I work through the Goddess Wheel of the year. Afternoon devotions still have a different feel to them for me, more vivid maybe. We're off to the Norfolk coast tomorrow for a few days and instead of taking my altar things with me,I am going to make a small altar based on what I find at the beach or out and about, as well as making a few offerings.

This morning when I woke up and the rain was pouring, after a split second of irritation, my thought was 'YES!' the allotment would have the water it so badly needs - there's hope for me being a farmer yet! I decided to try to mediate with the sound of the rain instead of the rays of the sun or the moonlight which have proved so effective previously. I reasoned that as I had asked Ker to bless my  land with Sun and Rain, it  must also apply to me  too - a 'Goddessing Blessing' as we have come to know it in our house!  To my amazement I was quickly in a deep meditation journey and was once again in the cottage with a fire raging, pot or cauldron steaming whilst 'we' made pots and bottles from clay and ground plants in a pestle and mortar. Comfrey and lavender came to mind from nowhere as well as a 'wort' of some kind - bladder? rag? - I couldn't catch the full name. Again, I had the curious feeling of watching myself whilst people came and went bringing a basket of apples and a bottle of something- possibly mead, then 'we' worked up a poultice for an infected leg wound before I felt myself leaving it all beneath me as I drifted up and opened my eyes to find my  faithful old George at my side, purring and watching me intently. Any  ideas on herbs and poultices anyone? 

I did Google these plants - Lavender has antiseptic powers and Comfrey was used to fight infections..... Ragwort can be poisonous but has been used for wounds as has Bladderwort - not that I recommend this concoction to anyone for anything! Logic tells me that I could have easily read about any of these plants and poultices in the many historical novels I have read over the years, but it was pretty specific. It looks like yet again, I'm being pointed in the direction of herbs and healing, even if just to learn a little more.

So, I'm off to Norfolk in the morning with the family, it will be interesting to see what Goddess has for me to discover there!

                                       Have a Blessed Week x x