Creativity, Covid, Community and Beltane!

Happy Magickal, Marvelous, Magnificent, Merry, Musical, Manifesting Monday! How are you?  How are you feeling?  Did you give yourself time to celebrate the New Moon last week, filled with all the glorious Earth energies of Taurus and Earth Day?  Are you managing to get outside and into nature at all?  I feel that April has whizzed by and May is just a few days away, holy hannah, how did that happen?

I have been listening to a great book by Pam Grout called Art and Soul Reloaded.  Wowzer!  Firstly, I have loved all her books as they are real, honest and blunt – there are no ridiculous platitudes telling you to gaze at your navel for hours on end.  Instead amazing suggestions about things to try, do, play at (and if you know me I love to play!)

Pam invites you to look at what the Universe wants to say through you, and then kicks your arse to just play and try things out (remember perfection is an illusion).  As I’ve been listening to this book it’s inspired me to get creative (hence the sardine, pear, aspargus sushi – which were delicious) and has reminded me that there is no box.  With Covid in play, all bets are off – there is no “normal”, so let’s create a new normal!  A fun normal!  A creative, nourishing, aligned new normal!

I’ve been seeing signs that thousands of people are getting on the creativity and play boat.  

People who have never written a word are trying Haiku, poems chalked on the sidewalks, crocheted tree wraps (in case the tree gets cold).  All sorts of music, garden patterns, funky face masks, art, paintings and the list goes on.  People are being bold enough to use this time to create, to play, to try something new and the results are positively amazing, inspiring and make me grin from ear to ear.

Why?  Because it’s an amazing voyage of self discovery.  People are taking this time to explore the wee corners of their minds and play, on a level that hasn’t been seen before!  And the most awesome part is they are sharing it.  As they stay home, stay safe, they are digging into the corners, playing, creating and sharing it and creating community with their shares. Remember when you were a small kid and there was that Show and Tell day?  We need to share who we are and what we have created. 

As Dee Hock says – Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.

For me, when I play with creativity (whether it is in the kitchen, writing, outside, trying a new medium), it nourishes and feeds my intuition and gives a tangible means of expressing that deep inner voice.  When that happens, it’s like liquid gold.  I feel like a conduit.

What are you willing to try out this week as we head into Beltane?  Paper airplanes, sewing, dancing…… There are so many ways to express yourself.  And please SHARE it!

Beltane is this Friday on May 1st.  Now you may be saying – Jenn, um, WTF is Beltane?  Ahhh, grasshopper let me explain.  

Beltane or Beltain is the Gaelic May Day festival. Most commonly it is held on 1 May, or about halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice.

Okay let’s take a little dip into what the heck Beltane is and whether you should pay attention to it or not.  Beltane was thought to be one of the more important festivals of the Gaelic calendar.  Beltane is a Fire Festival. The word ‘Beltane’ originates from the Celtic God ‘Bel’, meaning ‘the bright one’ and the Gaelic word ‘teine’ meaning fire. Together they make ‘Bright Fire’, or ‘Goodly Fire’ and traditionally bonfires were lit to honour the Sun and encourage the support of Bel and the Sun’s light to nurture the emerging future harvest and protect the community.

Beltane celebrates the height of Spring and the flowering of life. Earth energies are at their strongest and most active.  All of life is bursting with potent fertility, look at the trees around you – (if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere), they are bursting forth with bright green leaves and the little sparrows are back as well as the robins.  Abundant fertility, on all levels, is the central theme.  Here are fields of Camas lilies, Rhododendrons are in bloom, Sea breeze is bobbing their little pink heads, the Iris’s are up and there are carpets galore of bluebells.  Spring is here!  Which is no surprise as Beltane is the festival that heralds in the fertility and growth of Spring. This is the time of unity between the Goddess and the God and massive celebration.  For those of you who are on the email list there will be more information on Beltane on Wednesday and a couple of super simple (we like simple) rituals to mark this fantabulous day.  The colours of Beltane are red, green, white or silver and the ritual trees of this celebration are Birch, Hawthorn (which I planted two of) and of course Rowan.  Speaking of Rowan, when my fourth child was born I had a ring made of Celtic knot work with Rowan leaves on it to celebrate his arrival. (Love Rowan trees, as do the birds).  

Okay, I have chuntered on enough.  When I went to the cards and the crystals and asked who wanted to guide and support this week I clapped my hands in glee!  As the glorious Faery Forest Oracle were adamant!  Perfect!  

Now if these guides are new to you, please let me introduce them (as it would be rude not to.)

“Let us enter the wild green world together, friend, the faery forests where the great trees speak with us, the moss soft underfoot, the light pure and gentle.  The homes of the once Sacred groves of the Celts, the Saxons, and the Vikings…and to the people who were here long before we had names with which to call them to us – the faerie people.  May the wild green world and the wondrous beings of this Faery Forest heal us, inspire us and urge us all to become more who we truly are meant to be.” 

Note the last line of the introduction – urge us all to become more who we truly are meant to be………….

The crystals that were most insistent are:-  Chrysocolla, K2 and Malachite.  Oh and some of the gorgeous Camas lilies that are carpeting the meadows. 

Okay, take a moment.  Just breathe gorgeous one, that’s it.  Just breathe.  As you breathe I invite you to see in your mind’s eye the whisper of creativity and play.  No attachment to it, just let it dance there for a while and when you are ready pick the card, or cards that tug at you.

Did you remember to pick?

Shall we go look?

AWEN

“Awen” translates to “divine inspiration” or “flowing breath”.  It is a mystical force that offers us a moment where there is a sudden surge in newfound knowledge, inspired thought, the ability to awaken our dormant talents and a sense that before we were given the gift of Awen , we were like sleepwalkers.  

Awen is a moment where life is forever changed, and once we drink of Awen, or feel it as a beam of divine light entering us and changing us, we can never return to who we were, and the world is never the same again.  So having experienced what has taken place, you cannot pretend life can ever be the same.  You have lifted the veil and you have seen the face of the Divine.  You have drunk the elixir of the gods, and the faeries have offered you their greatest gift.  

Awen does not stay – but the knowledge of what we have experienced in that moment changes us forever.  So, now that you have had this life-changing experience and been given this incredible moment of inspiration, you can either pretend to yourself that life is without magick, or you can continue to embrace the magick in the enchantment of every moment.  Now if you choose, you can become more fully alive – and while this is no easy path, it is one that is full of deep, joyful moments, true connections, and poetic, blindingly beautiful experiences.  

Awen will come, from time to time, and you are so blessed for having had this most sublime and life-changing of all mystical experiences.  

SHE WHO LAUGHS

There is within your life now a great heaviness, an earnestness, and a sense of great gravity to nearly every situation unfolding.  Yes, this is of great importance, and yes, there are consequences to consider.  

However, She Who Laughs wishes for you to receive the healing power of luagher, the power that lifts the darkness and releases energy that is stagnant, cold, and heavy from our energy field, indeed from our limbs and cells and hearts.  For you, this laughter is as necessary as surgery at the moment, as it will shake loose the cords strapping you tightly to burdens you no longer need to carry.

Let the light break through, and laugh – as without laughter, there can be no perspective, withought laughter, there can be no movement forward, without laughter, there can be a sense of deep abiding resentment.  Lift this!

Let She Who Laughs begin to help you seek out moments, people, and situations that stir the sense of the ridiculousness within you, and let the healing and the release of laughter roll through you and lift away the pain at the centre of your being.  Its time is passing.  It will melt away with tears of laughter that fall and cleanse and free you from the past……

For now, the sun breaks through, and your eyes shine once again, with mirth and joy.

Welcome back to the world of delight, friend.  It is time

THE SOLITARY

Within, within you go.  When the Solitary visits, you are about to go within, to withdraw, and retreat from the world for a time.  This can be a response to an event from outside – a trauma, sadness or betrayal – and the withdrawing inwards, which appears to be depression, is actually a way of respecting the soul’s shadow, investigating it, understanding it, and mastering it.  This card indicates a time when you will go it alone – walk your own path, choosing to carve a way forward that you can be sure remains true to the deep self.  There will be a time of learning away from the mainstream, and there may be times when you feel isolated and somewhat worried about how your new path will be perceived. 

It can also indicate that in a past life, you have suffered for your gifts and spirituality.  You may have experienced a past life as a healer, seer, witch, wyzard, or medicine man, in which a new order decreed your power to be invalid and dark.  This fear still pursues you when you connect with the power of your gift – resulting in fears surrounding intuition and your natural talents.

By going within we learn more about our soul.  It is not a part of the journey that we necessarily look forward to, but it is a time of great development on the spiritual path and is imperative to growth.  Before we can shine our light in the world, we must ignite our inner spark.  This going inward is actually the sacred task of tending your own sacred flame and learning from it, before turning to matters of the world again.  

Oh my gosh!  Seriously!  I so love the cards that my guides picked for you, perfect messages for this week as we close up April, welcome in Beltane and play with creativity in all her guises.  Sending you massive love and light and humongous hugs and squeezes.  Remember to play, to laugh, to go within and ask your soul what it wants to create.  See you next week.

So there you have it delicious lovely.  A lot to do with magick (which is intrinsically part of who we are, we have just forgotten sometimes), and really celebrating the changes and our gifts.