Solstice Dawnings

Happy, Happy Summer Solstice Everyone! 

Summer Sunwheel

Blessings of love to you all!
What a wonderful week I have had celebrating and spending time with some of my favourite people doing things I love.
When I last wrote, Summer Camp beckoned - an annual treat at the nearby Kits Coty Glamping Site a few minutes walking from the remains of our local long barrow that I love so much. Arriving on what felt like the hottest day ever, I was greeted like an old friend by the lovely Steve, the very same first person I had spoken to last year. Expertly setting up my home for the nest two nights, all was going well until a brief electric pump disaster where my batteries somehow got wedged in, then it wouldn't turn off and was getting hotter and hotter before we finally managed to prise them out with a kitchen knife (don't try this at home Girls and Boys) which left me with a half inflated mattress and a surrounding aura of chaos... 'I'm here everyone!' 

Sunset Over Camp

Next to arrive was my beautiful friend Remi who was the other person to come straight up to me last year when I knew no one. Hot on the tale of my minor pump incident we launched straight into her major 'tent gate' - different tent, no instructions and 'stupid' poles in the wrong place - not what you need when it's super hot but we got there, her tent finally up, another pump borrowed that didn't go nuts, a fully inflated mattress and a cheeky trip to the local shop for some ahem liquid refreshment for later. Bring on the Solstice!

Everyone took a part in creating the beautiful sun wheel, weaving flowers into the greenery with whispered prayers to the Goddess and the Gods and tied on little scrolls that held our requests safe before it was cast onto the fire at the end of our sundown ritual. Tent dramas forgotten, as the wind started to pick up we all chatted round the fire, new friendships being forged, tales and experiences being told and shared as well as discussing the activities for the next day. A wonderful and eclectic list of topics that babbled and flowed around my delighted ears included healing, ghosts, angels, children, the countryside and of course sex!

Beautiful Lilac and Purple Poppies

On the menu after the 4.40 am Sunrise ritual were solstice craft activities, an open healing tent, meditation, hopefully sleep at some point and a walk up to the stones complete with a talk by yours truly. I'd rehearsed it so well that even the cats knew it to be honest but that didn't stop me worrying I can tell you!
After just 4 hours sleep, yawning and bleary eyed we gathered the following morning to watch the sun come up and welcome the longest day in with a simple ritual. I found a couple of quiet moments to ground myself, to call in my Goddess and generally ask for a bit of help with my talk which was getting ever nearer. Heading off to the stones before it got too hot, it was 24 degrees at 10 o'clock, that's pretty damn tropical in Kent, surrounded by children running and jumping through the flower filled meadow and adults already wiping their faces and huffing and puffing! 
On the way up I spotted this beautiful

An Offering To The Ancestors

poppy all lilacs and purples and when we arrived there was a solitary red poppy proudly standing amongst the stones. Feeling a sudden rush of inspiration and confidence flow through me, I started on my tale of this ancient tomb - the how, when, why and who with a bit of folklore and legend thrown in. No one actually keeled over with boredom so it must have been ok, even if we did have to hide in the track way in the blissful dark shade and peep out at the object of our interest! 
I've included  this link - the full notes I typed up on Kits Coty and also posted it as another the walkingwithmygoddess post - I know the lovely Neene at work was asking bless her. It will help you sleep if nothing else....
Before we left for the lower stones further down the track, I asked the children to give the remainder of the unused flowers from the sunwheel to the ancestors as an offering, a link between the past, the present and the future which felt important and also natural.
Back at the camp and after several thanks

Ribbons On The Wishing Tree

and compliments for my  talk and my history knowledge, which left me ridiculously buzzing, some of us thankfully indulged in a group meditation which left more than one of us snoozing and snoring (well it had been an early start) I managed to wake myself up with a snort at the end - stay Classy! 
Sat in the craft area blending our incenses, making woollen sunwheels and weaving prayers and magick into ribbons to hang in the wishing tree that we started last year and the owners loved so much they have kept and added to, mine was pink, blue and white and represented love and healing for the world, talk turned to the healing tent and who was happy to offer what. I sat listening in awe of the abundance of peoples skills and all this fabulousness around me, asked what healing I did, I confessed my sorry state of nothing, laughing that words and writing were more my style. The fabulous Carmel who I had been regaling of my paranormal adventures earlier, looked up at me and said I bet you could, laughing I said it would probably be dangerous, when Remi joined in and agreed, both of them agreeing that with all the energy coming

The Crystals I Used

from me when I work with my medium friend on a paranormal investigations and in general they both reckoned I could. Carmel then suggested that she do a healing treatment on me with crystals showing me what to do and then I have 'a go' on her. 
It must have been the sun or the lack of sleep that made me say yes. Either way a few hours later I found myself standing over the very brave Carmel, who I had joked should sign a disclaimer in case I put her in hospital, sweating through heat, stress and concentration grounding myself, calling on my ancestors to help me work with Carmel, thinking if I'm honest that it had disaster written all over it. Doing as I had been shown, I scanned her body with my hands, with amazement I felt a huge difference over her knees,  all I can describe it as is a hot

Green Aventurine
For Heart Rhythms

ripple and rummaging in the bowl of crystals found pretty red ones that I liked the look of and placed them on her knees. Feeling bolder I did the same elsewhere on her until I felt I had done, taking a photo for reference. Removing the crystals, we went back to the communal area with Carmel's crystal bible, me awaiting a 'yep you were right, I'm worse than when we started' I was amazed when she calmly said that I had identified nearly all the parts of her body that she had trouble with. Beginners luck surely. Looking up the various stones that I placed  on her, it soon became clear that they all had a relevance even if the physical benefits can work on several parts of the body,  this green aventurine I had 'randomly' placed near her heart - well guess which someone happens to have a heart murmur. Wow just wow, don't worry I'm not planning to set up shop tomorrow as a sudden crystal healing guru but definitely something else to look into. 
If I lived to be 150 I'm never going to explore everything around me.
An awesome camp was topped off with another fabulous evening round the fire, full of love and laughter, everything and anything discussed, new words created, new meanings for some too and so many you-had-to-be-there in jokes to make us giggle for years, new friendships well and truly forged. What a beautiful way to celebrate.

Have a Blessed Week x x