Easter

Also known as Oestre or Ostara this is a special festival as far as I am concerned. Then again aren't they all? I think its special to me as it is the true beginning of spring. The birds are nesting and the Land is becoming more fertile by the minute. Next thing we know and it will be Beltaine , my favourite festival.

Still no Easter egg hunt this year, at 19 and 14 the children are too old to do it anymore. That's old as in mature , or so they tell me. In their minds perhaps, but to me they will always be children.

And Persephone has returned from the underworld, well she's back for Easter with her head full of essays and a bag full of laundry

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.