May Eve - Beltane Rite / Merry Moon April 30th
The REAL New Year is NOT on January 1st? Is it?
Surely the real New Year, nature's new year, starts when the cycle of life begins again with a NEW GROWTH and new blossoms, blossoms is another story, one of DMT and chemical reactions, nature's way of waking us up and producing that spring in our steps.
You can’t begin something new in the dead of winter, this is why so many people break their New Year’s resolutions in one to six weeks after making them! This is because Winter is not the right time to set goals; Spring is?
After talking to a good friend, if only we could trace back the deep roots of our old calendars, we may find that the new year was birthed on the 1st of April, ironically it's now known as April Fools day, once again a distorted inversion... As if they are laughing in our faces!!
In fact, 11 cultures don’t celebrate New Year on January 1st! Interestingly enough, our ancestors celebrated the New Year in Spring!
Once it was lunar-based and ten moons long.
The beginning of a new year started the calendar afresh and signalled to farmers to sow spring wheat. An auspicious first day of the new year.
The Romans alongside the church eventually transitioned away from a lunar to a solar calendar.. That for me is a clear sea change, bringing about the great forgetting.... It's not by chance , it was by design, that we were led away from the care, mystical nature and nurture of the Divine Feminine.. From the Moon, and her ways..
Yet the earth is releasing her stories, so we may remember, for she is ushering us into a cycle of return, we are being woven back into the centre, as we continue to move from harm to healing!!
Happy New Year Beautiful People, here is to reclaiming the real and true new year..
Tonight we feast, share stories, weave music.. And celebrate the great mystery!! the remembering of the non physical/ human world to ring out, loud and clear once more.. To journey to the edge of the world and bring back its songs..
My thoughts as we welcome May Eve Merry Moon
Let's bring back apprenticeships, and community led learning, from elders and wisdom keepers, this is the pathway now, honouring the lineage , preserving and embodying the teachings!!
This is our path!!
We feel the power of keeping the rites and rituals relevant in a modern world, which doesn’t lie in changing their meaning, diluting, distilling them into contemporary purposes, but in finding how their layers of meaning still apply to everyday life, in the here and now.
Our path is one of doing. A living tradition practiced and evolved yet rooted in thousands of years of wisdom and direct experience , developed from relationships with the local Spirits of the Land, The Gods and Goddesses that dwell there and our Ancestors, our Bone Kin.
Our intention each May / Merry Moon is to "Sit Out" for a little time within our rite, out on the land that we have been called to hold our rites for our community, to seek permission for these rites and bless the boundaries.
For the Land It's full of story myths and folklore of our ancestors, coming from the fabric of the very land we stand on.. For the blood and bone of those very ancestors, become a part of the land ,they become a part of the Story..
Healing is not for the faint of heart, which is why few wish to even begin. Immense courage is needed to be disturbed, shaken, made to wake from a long slumber; to question who we think we are and what we know to be true; to risk norms, roles, relationships, beliefs for the wild, unpredictable seas of our more instinctive, mythic nature. A brave heart is required to participate in the slow, disarming process of feeling into the hidden ailments that have shaped our personal story and the time-worn human story we are inextricably linked to.
All things seek balance, its the natural order of things!! All the chaos we see in the world is the Symptoms of a sick world, if the world is sick how can we be truly healthy? The two strands are tied together are they not? it's an essential process of healing!! It will either heal or die, transform and be reborn..
To move from Harm to Healing it will take Strong Hearts and Iron Will!.. As I light the candle on our family's altar, I sense Brigid and Freya, they once more whisper, radical responsibility, radical truth, and radical compassion are the path!!
At Ostara we gathered gently at the Nook, With heavy rain and water logged land, yet with a beautifully tightly woven group we gathered at the “Nook” and sat around “ The Weavers Chair “
Jo led us into a sublime and very otherworldly drum journey , where we spiralled deep into ourselves, deep into the forest, deep within the land, where we met Brigid.
From here on in we step beyond the Dreaming of Autumn and Winter , into The Awakening of Spring!!
Here in the liminal, we humbly sat with Brigid, and asked heartfelt questions, collectively and individually, and our questions were answered, through thought and feeling!! and In the most profoundest of ways.
We shared our experiences, the talking stick moved amongst us, tears and laughter, and beautiful realisations arose, they were birthed from that safe, nourishing space of sharing together, we shared the medicine pieces for each other.. It was humbling, beautiful and profound..
Oracle cards were pulled from a mandala that sat on the table, being watched over by the Bindrunes of our family's path!! These cards represent the allies and teachers that will guide us from here to Autumn Equinox..
Prayer Arrows were then crafted, anchoring our intent, gently holding our questions and answers!!
That come Beltane our May rite they will be lovingly driven into the earth around our Clan / Tribal Fire, where we rightfully, playfully , yet with great conviction and reverence claim who we are and what has awakened within us!!
Once again " Who are You? " and " What is Awakening in You? "
Questions that are essential for our times!! for these questions hold great medicine!!
Questions I once carried across the Scottish Mountains alone!! For I entered those mountains as one person and come out of them as another, in fact it was more that I had met myself, with raw, courageous truth, it was here I took the first steps along The Long Road Home!!
For all our beautiful members of Beyond the Hedge who were unable to join us, in the coming weeks we will have a bespoke Drum Journey for you!!
For all Beyond The Hedge community that intend to join us for Beltane, we will be gathering at the Woodland Gate for 11.30/45 am for a 12 Noon start April 30th... Details and booking registration is Beyond The Hedge / Events and Journeys..
Whilst our rites are a gift to our community, a cash donation to Dad for hosting us is greatly appreciated... Gentle Reminder
We recently took the decision to ask for registration and booking, this allows us to prepare and plan the craft aspect of the journey and as we move into Spring and Summer, it allows us to manage numbers. So please booking is essential...
Sounds have a healing power. That is why we bring you songs, hoping that they will fill your hearts with love, peace and gratitude for your life. These are songs of our ancestors, where the ancient vibration is enchanted, releasing from fear and bringing harmony to the spirit. They are also songs born from our intuition, from a joyful space. Let us unite in one melody, one song for the whole World, for all living beings." - Laboratorium Pieśni