It seems only the other day that the days were short and chill. And now it's August and the first harvests are already being reaped. As the Starks say, winter is coming... you can feel it in the air at night, and it won't be long until you can taste it in the air, smell wood fires and start wearing coats again. Summer arrives with the housemartins nesting and ends when they fly back to South Africa. Cycle of life measured by the creatures around us and the land as it is reborn, blooms, fruits, dies and then is reborn again. This is a poem I wrote ages ago. I can't think of anything else to share, so here's the poem.
Naked trees Bare blue skies Last years leaves Litter the ground Cold winds blow A mighty chill Rain turns to snow The sun climbs higher Daffodils and crocus Snowdrops and catkins Life has burst thru The cold hard earth Life is imminent It's waiting to bloom Green shoots and colours Birds return home Colder weather will come Life still breaks thru Defying frozen death Under frost and snow New life breaks thru Winters death begins to wane Sunny days and blue skies Wake us up within New life in Springtime The lambing season not far Cold winds may blow Spring has been announced
Spring is also the time that my brother died. He had cancer, he was told he had 2 weeks left in November, so we all went and said goodbye.... and then he didn't die. He seemed to be getting better! He wanted to last til Christmas. He did. He kept setting targets and shocked all the doctors by still living. He wanted to see the daffodils that he'd planted in the garden, and he did. Then he died. It was March 23rd 2013.
Animal and human spirit guides come and go depending on where you are on your journey through life and what you need at that time. One of the animals that seems to be working with me at the moment is owl, specifically Barn Owls. When you are drawn to something over and over again, you have to stop and wonder why. So I dug out my *medicine cards and read up on Owl.
Owl is 'deception'. Associated with clairvoyance, astral projection and magic (dark/light), owl sees what is really there and cannot be deceived. A deadly hunter that flies silently, thanks to it's amazing feathers that literally absorb sound. Their prey really don't know what's coming until it hits them.
Owl has always been associated with wisdom and you must remember the little clockwork owl in Clash of the Titans. Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom and her owl is said to have revealed unseen truths to her and lit up her dark side so she could truly see all around. You know about their impressive head rotation, they really do see all the way around. If you can see it all, you can be furnished with the whole truth and speak the whole truth. This scares people apparently as you can see through people's ulterior motives and call them out on them.
The card says that* "if you've pulled the Owl card, you are being asked to use your powers of keen, silent observation to intuit some life situation. Owl is befriending you and aiding you in seeing the total truth. Owl can bring you messages in the night through dreams or meditation. Pay attention to the signals and omens. The Truth always brings further enlightenment." Going on my current situation, I can certainly see why Owl is around.
Interestingly, Native American stories, which these Medicine cards are based on, have contradicting views on Owls. Owl is a harrbringer of death, so to see or hear one means there will be a death. So I had a look into this a bit more and found a really interesting article on it. America is a big place and there were many Indian nations, most share the same viewpoint about owls - they were either feared or embraced.
Read this great article by someone who's gleamed this knowledge from many tribal elders over the years.
I found the remains of a barn owl in 2010 in the woods. I have two wings and a foot that I have been storing, ready to turn into a smudge fan and other craft tools, for my use. Maybe Owl is reminding me to get a move on with it, four years is long enough to dry out.
Kyle is an amazing wildlife photographer, check his website out
Just wow! Raw, savage, scary as hell but so beautiful
MOTHER NATURE
Everyone's mum. I wonder when our natural world around us, was given this name. There is a story about mother nature in pretty much every culture throughout the world. In the UK, we were a pagan nation, as in 'of the land'. After we settled and farmed the land, our gods and goddesses reflected the harvest and the time of the year related to growth, harvest, death and rebirth. This is apparent the world over by the many gods and goddesses that do the same job but are known by different names. It's wrong to say that Ares and Mars are the same god of war, they are not. They are two separate entities, from two different cultures and time that represent war etc. Pigeon holing gods/goddesses is not wise, they don't have a sense of humour lol.
The mother grows, bares and nurtures. Our sabbats and festivals reflect the turning of the year, the seasons, when things die, grow, harvested and are reborn. It is a cycle of all things. This is true in paganism and many other religions, it's the one denominator, I think, that unites the many cultures.
Demeter - The Empress
I have been doing the mythic tarot for 20 years, it's based on Greek mythology. It's not that I have any leanings towards their deities but I like the cards and the mythology. The story of Demeter and Persephone is as good a story as any, to explain our seasons. Demeter is the Empress, Persephone is the High Priestess in the major arcana. Demeter was considered the goddess of the harvest, Persephone is the goddess of spring.
In Demeter, Greek mythology had its caretaker and mother figure. This was a very important role that other goddesses sometimes played a part of, but none as fully as Demeter. Her grandmother, Gaia, was said to be the living Earth, though Demeter's name literally translates as "mother earth". This is probably because she was so actively involved in the growth and harvest of the food grown from the earth. Though vital, it was easy for some to take the harvest goddess's role for granted. It wasn't until she stopped doing her job that both the gods and humanity realized how important to human life Demeter really was.
Hades stole Persephone and took her to the underworld (it was Zesus' fault, he's a bit of a git). Demeter, not knowing where her daughter was, turned away from nurturing the earth. Crops failed and people starved whilst Demeter searched for her daughter. Persephone was told that if she ate anything in the underworld she would have to stay there forever, she had only eaten three seeds of the pomegranate the whole time she was there. A compromise was made and she was allowed to return to the earth but had to return to the underworld three months of the year to be Hades' queen. When Persephone walked above, spring returned, life was renewed and the world was reborn. The crops grew to harvest and then she had to return to the underworld. The world dies during this time as the nurturing mother becomes the mourning mother, dark and destructive until her child is reborn in the spring. Everything has a dark and light side. Ignore that at your peril, this has been discussed in previous blogs.
Lightning can form in ANY weather. Tornado and lightning, mother nature reminding us how small we really are.
You've heard people say about the power of mother nature, it's destructive forces at play - earthquakes, storms, floods, some call them acts of God. You've seen the beautiful sunsets, the stunning scenery, the awe inspiring sights of our world - that is mother nature too. Gaia may be the earth but Demeter IS mother nature.. well in Greek mythology she is. EVERY culture has a name for her. Romans called her Tellus; then there's Hertha, Erda, Jord, Fjorgyn and Hiodyn - all worshiped as goddesses. In Iroquois folklore, she is known as Etenoha. The Lakota indians worshiped her as Ina Maka. There's loads of info out there.. here's a good link.
This could be a statue of me. In ancient times, I would have been a super model
Note to all you people who called our earth Gaia: that's the Greek pantheon. Why pick one name out of the air and use it to name our living world, yet give no consideration to the rest of the Greek deities? You aren't Greek, you aren't in ancient times, you don't follow those gods and goddesses, so why? New agers, pfft! It's all very well having a varied path, finding pieces of many threads to weave your own path but come on! If you're going to make things up, why not call Her Sheila or another name lol? Or how about just Mum?
Whatever you call her, there is some stunning imagery created in her honour. May your creative juices flow, don't become stagnant and destructive in your mourning, nurture and yield many good harvests, whatever they may be.
It is a subject that has kept cropping up this last week and last night, a beautiful old lady died at the age of 110. Maybe my blog was late because I needed her words to inspire me. Who knows.
The one thing certain in life is that you are going to die. Morbid? Not really, it is a reality. I have found this last year, I have been very conscious of my own mortality and are times when I constantly think about me dying and what I'm leaving behind. It's not constructive or healthy but it is natural considering I am going through the grieving process.
I lost my estranged brother to cancer last March. I also lost my ex-best friend Lorna to a heart attack. I lost a brother Knight Ghyll to cancer. I lost a friend and colleague Gail to a bike crash. The one year old boy called Ryan who I'd been sending healing to, died of the same cancer my brother did and another biker mate Tom died of pneumonia. All within a couple of months. By July, I was a total mess. I was laying on the table at my osteopaths (he is also a reiki master and acupuncturist and clairvoyant) and he was sorting out my knees with acupuncture and talking about why I was upset. He asked me why it was that I believed in the after life and spirit contact but was upset about death. I replied that it wasn't the dying, it was what I left behind that upset me. What would happen to my son, my home, my possessions, my cats... what would people say at the funeral, to my son, who'd raise him, would me cats be put in homes .... you get the idea. The thought of all of this ate me up inside.
As time has gone on, this fear has eased off but it's still there. Depression amplifies this fear and I'm up and down with that due to my current physical state. I'm due to have general anaesthetic next month for an operation on my knees. I have been sedated before but not totally under, that deep sleep could be a wonderful thing where I travel or it could be the death of me. I think it's the thought of the needles that's doing me in the most and the loss of control over my body. So now getting my Will in order and going to do a video telling people what I want/don't want at my funeral. In a non-morbid way, I've been planning my funeral music for years... music is such a big part of my life and when I've been to others funerals, the music played at them represented who they were.
I think it would be a good idea to make sure your family and friends know what you want to happen with your remains, the sort of funeral you want and what you represent. I've been to too many where the funeral was the last thing that person would have wanted and it was more what their family wanted. That's not right.
Yesterday the oldest survivor of the concentration camps died aged 110. You may have seen her on documentaries about people living active lifestyles well past their 100th year. Alice was the lady who played the piano. Her music kept the spirits up in those retched places and gave some hope to those who had none. She continued to play until the day she died. It will be easier for me to copy and paste the news article about her life. It's worth sharing.
"I think I am in my last days but it does not really matter because I have had such a beautiful life.
"And life is beautiful, love is beautiful, nature and music are beautiful. Everything we experience is a gift, a present we should cherish and pass on to those we love."
Ms Herz-Sommer recalled "always laughing" during her time in Terezin, where she and other inmates put on occasional concerts.
She said the joy of making music had kept their spirits up.
"These concerts, the people are sitting there, old people, desolate and ill, and they came to the concerts and this music was for them our food. Music was our food. Through making music we were kept alive."
Life IS beautiful. Love IS beautiful. Nature and music ARE beautiful. She never lost sight of this and this resonates with me hugely. I see the beauty in everything around me... even when I'm low. So thank you Alice for reminding me that inspite of the horrors you face, life can be good. What an inspirational, beautiful person. Rest in peace, you've earned it x
Naked trees
Bare blue skies
Last years leaves
Litter the ground
Cold winds blow
A mighty chill
Rain turns to snow
The sun climbs higher
Daffodils and crocus
Snowdrops and catkins
Life has burst thru
The cold hard earth
Life is imminent
It's waiting to bloom
Green shoots and colours
Birds return home
Colder weather will come
Life still breaks thru
Defying frozen death
Under frost and snow
New life breaks thru
Winters death begins to wane
Sunny days and blue skies
Wake us up within
New life in Springtime
The lambing season not far
Cold winds may blow
Spring has been announced
written by me =o))
Edited to add that, life is about death. As a pagan, you observe the season changes.. when the world is reborn (spring), when it feeds us (summer) when we harvest (autumn) and when the world dies (winter). It's all about life and death cycles. For some, death is just the next big adventure. Every culture, faith and religion in all corners of the world has their own version of what happens when you die, where you go and what you do. As a medium, I know spirit goes on... death is only a transition. But by gods, it's a painful one, especially for those left behind. As a healer, I try to make the transition as peaceful as possible but that's another story. Thanks for reading x
