More snow ahead

We're walking in a winter wonderland, or so the song goes. On Sunday I did venture out for a short stroll over the fields. It turned into a four mile walk on a fresh sunny day. Lovely to come home to beef stew from the aga. However, services are being affected by the snowfall and living so far out does have some disadvantages. The situation so far:

Temperature: minus 8

carbon footprint: drastically increasing

Last human sighting: Thursday...starting to go stir crazy

Family situation: irritable...but mainly because school is open and we can get there

Cooking: stew being served on a daily basis but curry powder arriving tonight

All that and I have to put up with ridicule about my cold weather fashion sense, i.e layers of clothing and a camouflage hat with ear flaps that makes me look like Trapper John. Do I care? No, because at least I'm warm.

Aah...it's snowing

Well this is most unexpected. Snow before the festive season. It's certainly making me feel more in the mood for it. Yule that is, last year we had a large downpour just after Xmas and were snowed in for a few days having to walk to the nearest shop for supplies. Not that we minded as we all had great fun in the snow, sledging down the mountains. The neighbouring village even set up ramps for the keen snowboarders. We made hot soups and stews that went on for days.

The suns out too so I'll take a walk later on. It's a lovely crispy day. The birds are enjoying the feeder and there's red kite up above looking for carrion. I'm feeling the presence of Yuletide approaching. That still moment at the winter solstice when time seems to stand still, the cold icy wind, the changeover in light time and the seasons. The time where the Goddess lies deep within the dormant earth sleeping. This is the Caillaechs time, she rules the barren land with her rod of power until Imbolc, when hope and life is reborn to the land.

Right now I feel like hibernating with the Goddess, it's very cold here! Time to light the fire perhaps.

Roots

I'm certainly more in a spiritual mindset at the moment, I feel I need to attend to this by getting out onto the Land, doing a bit of walking, visiting some sacred sites and perhaps a bit of dowsing along the path. This is something that I haven't done for sometime. But the weather both here and throughout the UK has been very stormy with winds of up to 60 mph in places. You can hardly get out of the front door never mind visiting any stone circles!

This weekend my daughter is back from uni. Its great to be a family once more. I think this is a great way for us to reconnect, its another way to celebrate Earth too. The family being the heart of all things to me. We've spent some time catching up and I can't get over how mature she has become. She's done a grand job of looking after herself. I'm very proud of her indeed.

Earth and The Wren

Time has passed and yet I still see the changes around and within me. Drawing the pentacles cards seems to be showing me that there is some connection to work and materialism. I found the three of pentacles on a chair only today. Yes things are changing. I very rarely need to work in the north. Perhaps I should do so more often. I find that I'm drawn to fire and water elements. So I've decided to honour Earth through ritual and general awareness.

Also, regards the path of the Moon card. At first I thought that this was due to changing from the bardic course to the otherworldly ovate course. This is true of course but it seems to be related to a work issue. I feel the need to pursue a career path or study in some way. This week one door seemed to close at work, I thought that I would gain a permanent position there. This is not the case and I see the opportunity to move forward in a different direction, although the details seem to elude me as yet. Perhaps things will be clearer in time. I think that I need to work on this direction.

I'm still on the creative writing course. It's giving me great pleasure and my head is buzzing full of creativity and artistry so I'm still honouring the bard within. I'm sure some projects and friendships will be forged, this seems like the right path to take.

And also, I've had various encounters with the wren of late. I take this to mean that self realisation lies in humility, gentleness and subtlety. Small is beautiful and its those little changes that I should acknowledge and work with. One step at a time, gradually along the path. So now the wren joins the dog and wolf as my new totem animals for this part of lifes journey.

Onwards and upwards, then

The Moon

I don't usually draw a tarot spread but last Sunday, I felt inclined to do so. It's a rare occurrence as I prefer to work with other methods of divination. I use the Druidcraft tarot by Phillip Carr Gomm as the illustrations are beautiful and resonate with my thinking and path.

I prefer not to ask any questions but to draw intuitively, especially at Samhain, when the veils are thin and I feel more open and receptive to the otherworld. After such an eventful and rushed day, I found it difficult to get into the right frame of mind for ritual. There was a lot of activity in the house, of the terrestial sort, but eventually things calmed down and I drew The Moon as my central card, followed by the Two of Pentacles and the Four of Pentacles, reversed.

Taking The Moon to be my main card, it depicts a gateway (of fear) with guardians (of the threshold) a wolf and a dog, baying at a waxing crescent moon. I won't go into a deep analysis here, but suffice to say that this represents a difficult path through life, a path that needs to be walked through the threshold to enter further into the Mysteries. There is a connection to psychic awakening, dreams, imagination and revelation. The two pentacle cards relate to balance, trust, letting go and materialism. So quite a lot to be going on with altogether.

Instead of delving in too deeply, I like to leave things awhile, just see what happens. I've no clues from the dreams, however there has been a repeated theme of dogs, wolves and foxes. I found some fox droppings in the garden earlier on today. Could these be my new allies?

I feel that I'm about to embark on something new. I've completed the Bardic grade and am now between the worlds, taking some time out for contemplation before starting the Ovate course. This will certainly include Mystery work and although I had done some of this type of thing before I think it's time to pick up the wand again so to speak. I need to touch base firmly again. I've had a break from it, life happenings etc So I guess the lesson to be learned is to continue along the path with courage, with allies for support along what is, for many of us a difficult route. There will be challenges along the way but hopefully I will emerge all the richer for the experience.

Samhain - Part One

Now here's the thing, you expect life to go one way and whoops! Goddess has other plans. It all started off last Saturday when I was reminded of a fly comment that I had made earlier on in the autumn. Yes I promised a trip to a rollercoaster park for my sins. It was half term holiday and the teenage son being bored witless, I was soon reminded and held to task over my earlier comment.

Yes we would go, yes he could take a friend, yes they could stay up late-ish watching horror films and the like. So any way off we all set, fairly early considering that the clocks had moved an hour, down to Pembrokeshire for the day yesterday. It was Samhain and I soon dismissed any thoughts of Pagan activities as I realised that we would be back late and we'd be fairly tired by then.

The park itself was lovely and I enjoyed walking around the grounds and admiring the large and ancient oak trees there. At one point a flock of birds, probably geese, flew west in a 'v' formation. There was definitely a feeling of the thinning of the veils between the worlds. In a way I spun my own circles as I was coaxed onto the rollercoaster, although I was moving rapidly with my eyes shut, clinging onto hubby. I'm a bit of a woos when it comes to these things. Still I did a lot better than the previous time, when I screamed so much that I inhaled a fly on my way around. We left the park at about four, the new dusk time and then realised that we had lost the keys of the car! But panic over, they were soon retrieved and we got home in a reasonable time. Tired but exhilerated by the activity.

It was still early enough to do something for Samhain so I set aside some time for myself in the evening. I still feel that there is a lot of Samhain energy around, it's more of a process than an event so I will write some more about Samhain later on this week when things have consolidated and are clearer.