Post by KittyLane on Jan 24, 2007 12:04:59 GMT -5
Most of us known as Pagans understand the need to be in touch with nature and Mother Earth. Let’s face it; we all get busy with life, whether that is careers, children, activities, or just the everyday hustle and bustle of living in this modern world. As women and especially Pagan women, we forget the deep need we have to connect not only with Mother Earth but our fellow women of all ages.
I have just experienced first-hand how much we need the contact with all our mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters, friends and any other woman in your life as well as our Mother Earth.
Having grown up in rural Ohio, I had the perfect area to be in touch with nature and Mother Earth. While my family didn’t allow us “girls” to go camping with the “boys”, we were permitted to run around in the wooded areas that surrounded our home. I ran around for about 10 years in my bare feet in the summer months enjoying this carefree lifestyle. I was very in tune with nature and Mother Earth as well as myself and the Divine. It felt empowering, healing, relaxing and invigorating all at the same time.
Suddenly life got in the way, I was a newly married mother. Young and carefree, taking my toddler sons into the woods with me, teaching them respect for Mother Earth, how to garden, and most of all how to learn to be a happy carefree little boys with dirty bare feet and happy grins.
Years passed, they grew to be more interested in sports than in the time playing in the woods with mom, so I went out less and less by myself to connect with Mother Earth and spent more and more time sitting in bleachers routing for my sons teams.
Ten days ago I had a wonderful experience that caused me to re-evaluate my relationship with the Divine and myself. It was the most amazing experience of my adult life since I had my sons! I was invited to visit a friend, who lives about 400 miles from my home in Savannah. She called to invite me down to stay, to attend a Healing Woman’s Circle and also her local Pagan group’s Full Moon ritual. Most of all, to be with other women, to relax, play, pray, learn and to be our selves without artifice.
I jumped at the chance to get away and be with my sister in the craft, while learning about myself, my craft, and my lost connection with Mother Earth.
Up until that time, I hadn’t realized just how much of my connection with Mother Earth had been lost. I had missed the planting season due to illness this year, and hadn’t been out in the flower and herb garden much. I had figured that going down to the beach a lot would have kept me grounded and connected.
As I prepared to leave for the week, I kept going over the things that we had planned to do and became as excited as a child over the prospect of meeting new women, new Pagans, and getting to go to a special campsite and just play in nature and with other sisters in the craft.
The trip down went smoothly except for a broken belt on my car about a hundred miles plus from my sister’s home. It was the anticipation of the events planned and actually getting to meet my sister in person for the first time that just filled me with a kind of humming energy that even the broken down car couldn’t dim. This lovely woman drove over 120 miles to pick me up and take me to her home! I loved her on first sight, which just grew with each day I spent with her. We got the car dealt with and all settled by the evening of the next day. Then we started planning what we would do.
The healing circle was first, followed by the Full Moon Ritual; both events were newer experiences for me with joining a public circle. I do everything on my own as a solitary witch. I had only been to a few public gatherings in the past but only one circle that had been part of a festival. So this was all new for me and I couldn’t wait for the time to go to each.
The Healing Woman’s Circle is so unique; you have to experience to get the full effect of what happens there. Of course it is women only, gathered from different Paths for the sole purpose of healing themselves and each other. The energy that is created and released was just astounding.
While I cannot go in to details on this private event, I can say that I can’t wait to go back in November and so wish that I could attend every month’s gathering. Everyone was so welcoming and inviting that I instantly felt right at home. This was to be a major theme in my visit, as I soon found out.
The very next night was the Full Moon for August. I created a beautiful necklace and earrings for my sister as a thank you. It gave me such joy to see how much she loved them. I used amethyst and jade along with a large silver Goddess pendant for the focal point. They looked wonderful on her going well with her coloring.
We drove down to the beach where the local Pagan group had their meeting, which was something that I am very familiar with, since that is where I hold most of my Full Moon Rituals myself. Here again, I was welcomed with open arms by everyone I met. It was a meditative Ritual that was done imaginatively and creatively. After the Ritual, we sat around the circle drumming and chanting.
It turned out to be a great way to end the evening. My friend and I had enjoyed several days of worshipping and praying. We were feeling wonderful for having shared that time together as sisters. I can truly say that I do feel she is much more than a friend, she is truly my sister.
I have been blessed with many sisters in the craft. Each and every one of them is special to me and has a special spot in my heart. I have learned a great deal from each of them as I hope they have also learned from me. I found out in the following days, that this sister had a great deal more to teach me as it turned out.
We stayed home the day after Full Moon, both us tired and we did not feel like moving very fast. We talked about things, discussed tarot, runes, herbs, etiquette of gatherings, as well as studied on the Mabon Sabbat coming up in September. My new sister taught me to make sausage biscuit gravy that would have your mouth watering.
We just enjoyed being there together and sharing with each other. We went over many things that I had questions about. My sister has many more years of being in the craft than I do, so she shared a great wealth of information. There were certainly many questions answered, as there were many more questions formed.
Friday rolled around, bright, sunny and full of promise. I have been studying with my sister for 9 months for Reiki. I was now ready for my second level attunement. A friend and another student of my sister called to see if she could come over and spend the day with us. We women packed up and drove out to this secluded campsite. The area was like a fairy tale, at least to my nature-starved eyes.
The trees were all so wonderfully different from each other, some of them pine, some oak, some magnolia and a few others I didn’t know from Florida. There was a lot of plant life covering the ground, and all kinds of birds singing loudly. It was the kind of place where you expected to see the Fae.
There were all different kinds of mushrooms making circles here and there, along with the perquisite bugs crawling around. It took me a moment to stop staring around me and to start to help unload all the things that we brought to play with. The three of us had things unpacked and arranged in no time. After that I just stared awe struck, we had set up next to the clearest creek I had seen in a long, long time.
The sun sparkled off the water, glistening like diamonds scattered over the surface. It was so clear you could see to the bottom of it. There were little movements of currents flowing down stream and some that moved in a spiral where artesian springs flowed into the standing water. The fish were plentiful darting back and forth along the sides of the creek with the largest sitting facing upstream in the sunniest parts. Across from us was an area where the hillside had been washed away by high waters. It left behind a lot of unusual tree stumps, some were here or there, but there was one grouping that looked like the triple Goddess, it was the first thing that popped into my mind, and when my friend and sister pointed them out and said we call that one the triple Goddess, I knew I had come home.
In that same spot later, I caught my first view of the Fae. We all got ready and blew up our floaties before going into the water. We had a blast floating down that stream watching the sun shimmer through the branches and watching the dragonflies flutter around like flying jewels as they darted from the green leaves to the sparkling water. We laughed and giggled like little girls, sharing our secrets and special things we love as we floated downstream. We even went skinny dipping for a while.
The water was very healing to me, it always is. It had been so long since I had played like a child and just connected with Mother Earth and all her aspects that I had forgotten what it felt like to be that free. We finally got out of the water and had some lunch. We laughed and talked and sang and played the afternoon away.
Just being there, I could feel my connection with Mother Earth strengthening and growing along with a greater understanding of my own craft and beliefs. So many pieces of so many things seemed to fall right into place; there were no longer any doubts of my own capabilities, my own beliefs and my own creativity. I also had the strangest sensation of my crown chakra opening up. Later I found out that my sister had picked that same time to send me my second level Reiki attunement.
We were lucky to find some fossils, some quartz stones, and I found a stone that looked like the Green man, actually I also found a smaller version after finding the large stone. I had not given the Green man much thought as to being my God; I had felt the call of Manannan. He had been so subtle in his calling of me, now I see him everywhere.
It has made me feel a lot more connected with nature and the Divine itself. As we sat along the creek drumming and chanting, I felt incredibly at peace, at home in this special spot by the creek. It had been a very long time since I had felt that way. Now that I have that feeling back, that connection with not only the Divine but also myself, I intend to do all I can to keep from losing it again. It is a much too precious thing to lose by being inattentive.
We women, and more importantly as Pagan women, need to keep ourselves connected with Mother Earth, each other and ourselves at all times. We have so much to learn from each other. From little mundane things like making sausage biscuit gravy to the big things like getting our second level Reiki attunements, which has opened another whole new part of my world for me, and doing Rituals together enriches our lives and spirituality.
I have kept in touch daily with my sister and have learned a great deal from her, and cannot wait until late October when I head back down to her place for Samhain and the November Healing Woman’s Circle. I have come home a different woman than when I left. I have noticed the change in myself from the very first day; have been amazed at what opened inside me, how I can intuitively see and know, what deepened within myself a new richer spirituality as it daily grows and ripens with my craft.
Our spirituality is very important, a part of a gift we give our children, a gift we give our sisters, mothers, grandmothers, friends, and everyone we meet. Most importantly it is a gift we give ourselves. It is our very essence, that spirituality that is the Divine within us. We can nurture it, and help it grow, or we can ignore it and let it stagnate, never growing or maturing into the true gift it is.
If we nurture our spirituality, we also give back to the Pagan community and can help the community grow to be a strong supporting part of our lives. We wish our children to grow spiritually, what better way, than to show them how to do so, instead of telling them one thing and acting a different way. We share the responsibility of showing new Pagans, children and others, what our spirituality means to us.
Not by standing on a soap box and yelling it out to the crowd but by living our everyday lives the way they connect daily with the divine and Mother Earth and show respect for each other and the divine.
©Dawning Grace August 24, 2006 Revised August 26, 2006
www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usfl&c=earth&id=11103
I have just experienced first-hand how much we need the contact with all our mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters, friends and any other woman in your life as well as our Mother Earth.
Having grown up in rural Ohio, I had the perfect area to be in touch with nature and Mother Earth. While my family didn’t allow us “girls” to go camping with the “boys”, we were permitted to run around in the wooded areas that surrounded our home. I ran around for about 10 years in my bare feet in the summer months enjoying this carefree lifestyle. I was very in tune with nature and Mother Earth as well as myself and the Divine. It felt empowering, healing, relaxing and invigorating all at the same time.
Suddenly life got in the way, I was a newly married mother. Young and carefree, taking my toddler sons into the woods with me, teaching them respect for Mother Earth, how to garden, and most of all how to learn to be a happy carefree little boys with dirty bare feet and happy grins.
Years passed, they grew to be more interested in sports than in the time playing in the woods with mom, so I went out less and less by myself to connect with Mother Earth and spent more and more time sitting in bleachers routing for my sons teams.
Ten days ago I had a wonderful experience that caused me to re-evaluate my relationship with the Divine and myself. It was the most amazing experience of my adult life since I had my sons! I was invited to visit a friend, who lives about 400 miles from my home in Savannah. She called to invite me down to stay, to attend a Healing Woman’s Circle and also her local Pagan group’s Full Moon ritual. Most of all, to be with other women, to relax, play, pray, learn and to be our selves without artifice.
I jumped at the chance to get away and be with my sister in the craft, while learning about myself, my craft, and my lost connection with Mother Earth.
Up until that time, I hadn’t realized just how much of my connection with Mother Earth had been lost. I had missed the planting season due to illness this year, and hadn’t been out in the flower and herb garden much. I had figured that going down to the beach a lot would have kept me grounded and connected.
As I prepared to leave for the week, I kept going over the things that we had planned to do and became as excited as a child over the prospect of meeting new women, new Pagans, and getting to go to a special campsite and just play in nature and with other sisters in the craft.
The trip down went smoothly except for a broken belt on my car about a hundred miles plus from my sister’s home. It was the anticipation of the events planned and actually getting to meet my sister in person for the first time that just filled me with a kind of humming energy that even the broken down car couldn’t dim. This lovely woman drove over 120 miles to pick me up and take me to her home! I loved her on first sight, which just grew with each day I spent with her. We got the car dealt with and all settled by the evening of the next day. Then we started planning what we would do.
The healing circle was first, followed by the Full Moon Ritual; both events were newer experiences for me with joining a public circle. I do everything on my own as a solitary witch. I had only been to a few public gatherings in the past but only one circle that had been part of a festival. So this was all new for me and I couldn’t wait for the time to go to each.
The Healing Woman’s Circle is so unique; you have to experience to get the full effect of what happens there. Of course it is women only, gathered from different Paths for the sole purpose of healing themselves and each other. The energy that is created and released was just astounding.
While I cannot go in to details on this private event, I can say that I can’t wait to go back in November and so wish that I could attend every month’s gathering. Everyone was so welcoming and inviting that I instantly felt right at home. This was to be a major theme in my visit, as I soon found out.
The very next night was the Full Moon for August. I created a beautiful necklace and earrings for my sister as a thank you. It gave me such joy to see how much she loved them. I used amethyst and jade along with a large silver Goddess pendant for the focal point. They looked wonderful on her going well with her coloring.
We drove down to the beach where the local Pagan group had their meeting, which was something that I am very familiar with, since that is where I hold most of my Full Moon Rituals myself. Here again, I was welcomed with open arms by everyone I met. It was a meditative Ritual that was done imaginatively and creatively. After the Ritual, we sat around the circle drumming and chanting.
It turned out to be a great way to end the evening. My friend and I had enjoyed several days of worshipping and praying. We were feeling wonderful for having shared that time together as sisters. I can truly say that I do feel she is much more than a friend, she is truly my sister.
I have been blessed with many sisters in the craft. Each and every one of them is special to me and has a special spot in my heart. I have learned a great deal from each of them as I hope they have also learned from me. I found out in the following days, that this sister had a great deal more to teach me as it turned out.
We stayed home the day after Full Moon, both us tired and we did not feel like moving very fast. We talked about things, discussed tarot, runes, herbs, etiquette of gatherings, as well as studied on the Mabon Sabbat coming up in September. My new sister taught me to make sausage biscuit gravy that would have your mouth watering.
We just enjoyed being there together and sharing with each other. We went over many things that I had questions about. My sister has many more years of being in the craft than I do, so she shared a great wealth of information. There were certainly many questions answered, as there were many more questions formed.
Friday rolled around, bright, sunny and full of promise. I have been studying with my sister for 9 months for Reiki. I was now ready for my second level attunement. A friend and another student of my sister called to see if she could come over and spend the day with us. We women packed up and drove out to this secluded campsite. The area was like a fairy tale, at least to my nature-starved eyes.
The trees were all so wonderfully different from each other, some of them pine, some oak, some magnolia and a few others I didn’t know from Florida. There was a lot of plant life covering the ground, and all kinds of birds singing loudly. It was the kind of place where you expected to see the Fae.
There were all different kinds of mushrooms making circles here and there, along with the perquisite bugs crawling around. It took me a moment to stop staring around me and to start to help unload all the things that we brought to play with. The three of us had things unpacked and arranged in no time. After that I just stared awe struck, we had set up next to the clearest creek I had seen in a long, long time.
The sun sparkled off the water, glistening like diamonds scattered over the surface. It was so clear you could see to the bottom of it. There were little movements of currents flowing down stream and some that moved in a spiral where artesian springs flowed into the standing water. The fish were plentiful darting back and forth along the sides of the creek with the largest sitting facing upstream in the sunniest parts. Across from us was an area where the hillside had been washed away by high waters. It left behind a lot of unusual tree stumps, some were here or there, but there was one grouping that looked like the triple Goddess, it was the first thing that popped into my mind, and when my friend and sister pointed them out and said we call that one the triple Goddess, I knew I had come home.
In that same spot later, I caught my first view of the Fae. We all got ready and blew up our floaties before going into the water. We had a blast floating down that stream watching the sun shimmer through the branches and watching the dragonflies flutter around like flying jewels as they darted from the green leaves to the sparkling water. We laughed and giggled like little girls, sharing our secrets and special things we love as we floated downstream. We even went skinny dipping for a while.
The water was very healing to me, it always is. It had been so long since I had played like a child and just connected with Mother Earth and all her aspects that I had forgotten what it felt like to be that free. We finally got out of the water and had some lunch. We laughed and talked and sang and played the afternoon away.
Just being there, I could feel my connection with Mother Earth strengthening and growing along with a greater understanding of my own craft and beliefs. So many pieces of so many things seemed to fall right into place; there were no longer any doubts of my own capabilities, my own beliefs and my own creativity. I also had the strangest sensation of my crown chakra opening up. Later I found out that my sister had picked that same time to send me my second level Reiki attunement.
We were lucky to find some fossils, some quartz stones, and I found a stone that looked like the Green man, actually I also found a smaller version after finding the large stone. I had not given the Green man much thought as to being my God; I had felt the call of Manannan. He had been so subtle in his calling of me, now I see him everywhere.
It has made me feel a lot more connected with nature and the Divine itself. As we sat along the creek drumming and chanting, I felt incredibly at peace, at home in this special spot by the creek. It had been a very long time since I had felt that way. Now that I have that feeling back, that connection with not only the Divine but also myself, I intend to do all I can to keep from losing it again. It is a much too precious thing to lose by being inattentive.
We women, and more importantly as Pagan women, need to keep ourselves connected with Mother Earth, each other and ourselves at all times. We have so much to learn from each other. From little mundane things like making sausage biscuit gravy to the big things like getting our second level Reiki attunements, which has opened another whole new part of my world for me, and doing Rituals together enriches our lives and spirituality.
I have kept in touch daily with my sister and have learned a great deal from her, and cannot wait until late October when I head back down to her place for Samhain and the November Healing Woman’s Circle. I have come home a different woman than when I left. I have noticed the change in myself from the very first day; have been amazed at what opened inside me, how I can intuitively see and know, what deepened within myself a new richer spirituality as it daily grows and ripens with my craft.
Our spirituality is very important, a part of a gift we give our children, a gift we give our sisters, mothers, grandmothers, friends, and everyone we meet. Most importantly it is a gift we give ourselves. It is our very essence, that spirituality that is the Divine within us. We can nurture it, and help it grow, or we can ignore it and let it stagnate, never growing or maturing into the true gift it is.
If we nurture our spirituality, we also give back to the Pagan community and can help the community grow to be a strong supporting part of our lives. We wish our children to grow spiritually, what better way, than to show them how to do so, instead of telling them one thing and acting a different way. We share the responsibility of showing new Pagans, children and others, what our spirituality means to us.
Not by standing on a soap box and yelling it out to the crowd but by living our everyday lives the way they connect daily with the divine and Mother Earth and show respect for each other and the divine.
©Dawning Grace August 24, 2006 Revised August 26, 2006
www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usfl&c=earth&id=11103
