Lammas 2016

Lammas is the first harvest festival of the year when fresh Earth produce is coming in thick and fast and my kitchen is overflowing with vegetables, berries, colours, smells and textures.It is during this time I say thanks to the God and the Goddess for providing and nurturing my family and sending the joy of harvesting into my soul.

  
It is a special feeling to pick ripe vegetables and smell them and then eat it. The cycle of life becomes present for me at this turn of the wheel. When I hold a ripe cucumber or a beetroot in my hand I remember when those were only minute seeds on my palm ready to be planted. I always thought of it as a bit of a miracle to see such abundance manifesting from a few tiny seeds. I feel very blessed and grateful during this time of year.

It is also about eating and cooking for me before and during Lammas. Produce is fresh and ready for using in cooking and making pickles. This week I prepared courgette and cucumber pickles. Jams will be next made of raspberries and currents.
I also make salads, soups, stews and it is an utter joy.

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My Scottish Highlands trip 2016

My spiritual home gifted me with a few lessons of practical, personal, Earthly type of nature. My trip this year was a learning experience more than my usual spiritual one, but, oh so needed and so useful. 

We don’t always get what we want but we sure get what we need. This has been true for me again.

Feeling grateful and humbled. 

Enjoy the pictures. Places featured

Northern Scotland beaches

Highlands rivers 

Ben Nevis, near Fort William

Glencoe mountains

Lake Laggan and others (Mornach of the Glen film estate)

Caignorms National Park
   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 

Wedding to the Land

As I came up to the sixth gate of the underworld I had a sudden and unexpected, yet very clear, pull to take my wedding ring off. This was not planned. I took it off without hesitation and gave it away to the guard. I remember struggling to take it off, as my hand wouldn’t give. I had to be hard with it, as the purpose was way stronger than anything I wore on my body.

As I continued to the last gate preparing to un-robe I felt liberated, pure, uncluttered and in total surrender to death, to nothingness, to complete darkness where nothing and no one existed. I felt no fear, I knew I was meant to be there, I knew my purpose. It was to sacrifice my glowing heart to the Dark Goddess, so she could be touched to the depth of her soul. As she ripped my heart out of my chest and I crashed to the floor, she wept over the heart. I laid on the stone cold floor with my wolf Lizeal against my bare body. Silence, darkness, nothingness.

I spent all my dreaming night walking in my white robe through lands, using various means of transport to get somewhere. My husband, as my companion or rather a witness, remained silent and patient throughout. I dug my hands into the cool sand and wailed bowing to the ground as if saying good bye to myself. I was moaning the loss of the old, which is a stage not worth by-passing, it is all part of the initiation into new. Acknowledging your sorrow and vulnerability is part of the process and one must go with its mournful flow.

The next day, as I came back to life and was walking up to the world, at the sixth gate I picked up the ring, but it did not go back on my finger. I followed my intuition closely and the air was filled with strong intention. There was no choice in this, I was not in control, things were going to unfold and I was to go with it trusting and knowing of the higher purpose of this. I continued my journey up the stairs and back to the world and at the last gate where on my descent I surrendered my connection with the Land, I was again reunited with it and I wept with joy. Our connection was reaffirmed and solidified in marriage of souls and spirit. The ring I gave up on the way down went on my wedding finger and it felt just right. Light and pure and purposeful. The happiness that spread through me was immense and with tears of joy I bowed to the Earth that was to be my purpose, my soul, my spiritual partner for life.

I emerged from the underworld yesterday married to the land, to my life purpose, to my soul.

“I belong to the Land
I belong to the Earth
to the Moon and the stars
to lakes and mountains and mossy hills.
Let the Sun rise over the new dawn of wisdom and power
Let my voice be heard and my feet gently touch the ground
All come together as one whole
As Above, so is Below”