Glastonbury in January

For the first time ever I drove to Glastonbury in January. One of those crazy things I occasionally find myself doing. Five hours down the motorways with the temperature hovering between -4ºC and -2ºC. An overnight stay in a motel and five hours back. Now I must confess that I hate driving on our overcrowded motorways so I have to have a really good reason for such madness. This was an invitation from the Goddess Temple to a supporters' day and an opportunity to visit the recently purchased Goddess Hall. 

I arrived in Glastonbury in ample time to spend a while in quiet meditation in the Temple. It is such a beautiful space filled with love and abundant atmosphere. A place where prayer and meditation come naturally. A place to light a candle for my daughter with a prayer that her unborn daughter may arrive safely and grow in love, wisdom, creativity and magic. I then walked up to another favourite place, Chalice Well Gardens, arriving late in the afternoon with the setting sun low in the sky. I have never seen the Gardens in the light of a January sunset. They looked utterly magical bathed in a golden red. As I sat taking in the sheer beauty of it all a robin flew down and landed just in front of me. I noticed a plate of seeds had been set ready on the ground by my side and wondered whether to gently get up and move away so that the robin could feed. However, it looked me in the eye for a moment and then came right up to feed.

The following day was spent in the new Goddess Hall which now provides much needed space for ceremonies and functions. Over the last few months a very great deal of work, love and sheer artistry has been put in to make it a place of beauty and honour for the Goddess. I am sure it will be a place of blessing. I certainly came away feeling abundantly blessed and glad to have been able to renew fond acquaintances.

Stories around the fire

A little while ago some of the newspapers ran stories about the kind of questions candidates for Oxford and Cambridge universities are asked at interview. One of the cited questions was, "Why is the sea salty?" It struck me that all the model answers, whilst true, were rather dry and practical. If I was sitting in a don's study in Oxford I think I may have answered like this.

"In the time before written history all the seas were pure and the waters sweet to drink. Men and women left offerings to the Goddesses of the seas and asked permission of the spirits of the sea entertaining them with dance before they set out to fish. When they returned with the sweet fruits of the sea the young women would dance wildly in thanksgiving. Then men began to covet the riches of the sea and called upon the one God of the sky to help them conquer all they beheld. Lords declared that it was wrong to leave offerings and ask permission. They asked the teachers to tell the children that the Goddesses of the sea were mere myth. That all worship and honour was due to the one God and the earthly Lords who worshipped him. And so the offerings and dances ended, the seas were raped of their bounty and the Goddesses of the sea forgotten. But in their homes beneath the sea the Goddesses began to cry for all that had been lost and lament the foolishness of men. They cried and they cried and their tears began to turn the once sweet sea salty so that today no man can drink of the sea's waters."

Would this get me a place at Oxford? I don't know but I do know that it is just as true as the model, dry practical answers given in the papers.

It is almost Samhain and we enter the dark time of the year when we sit by the fire, tell stories, enter our hearts, and touch ancient wisdom. May I wish you every blessing for the season and leave you with my own re-telling of the first part of the old Scottish story of Bride and the Cailleach Bheara. I promise to re-tell the second part of this story come Imbolc.

At the end of October the Cailleach Bheara took captive a beautiful young woman called Bride and locked her in a room in her palace deep below the Cairngorm Mountains. She was jealous of Bride’s beauty which brought warmth and joy to the earth. The Cailleach gave Bride old torn clothing to wear and put her to menial tasks like clearing the ashes from the palace fires. The Cailleach scolded Bride and found constant fault with everything she did. Poor Bride, her life was made wretched. As she wept the trees lost the last of their leaves, flowers died, and the sun lost heart and refused to climb to the heights of the sky.

One day the Cailleach brought a filthy brown fleece to Bride and ordered her to wash it until it was as white as the snow that now covered all the dying land. All day long Bride washed and washed, her hands becoming chapped and sore. But when night fell the Cailleach scolded the girl saying, “You are foolish and incompetent, look the fleece is as dirty and as brown as when I gave it to you. In the morning you will wash it again and you will go on washing it every day until it is white.”

This made Bride even more sorrowful for it seemed as if she would be washing until the Moon no longer had the strength to complete its monthly cycle. As she grew ever more sorrowful all light was ebbing away from the world above.

Then one morning whilst Bride was washing a grey-haired old woman came to her and said, “I am Grandmother Winter, if you give me the fleece I shall wash it whiter than the snow for you.” Bride gave Grandmother Winter the fleece and she shook it to the North, to the East, to the South and to the West calling upon all the ancient grandmothers. When she had finished the fleece was as white as newly fallen snow.

Bride was filled with joy and she gave thanks to Grandmother Winter and all the ancient grandmothers. At that moment Bride’s joy and thanksgiving shook the whole world above and the sun regained heart and began her slow climb back to the heights of the sky.

Grandmother Winter then told Bride that she would return towards the end of January with a special present for Bride. True to her word, several weeks later, she came to Bride whilst she was smooring the ashes and said, “Take what I hold in my hand.” Bride reached out and took a bunch of pure white flowers. Bride’s eyes lit with happiness as she beheld their beauty. Then Grandmother Winter spoke to Bride, “If the Cailleach scolds you show her these flowers.”

Sure enough at the close of that day the Cailleach scolded Bride saying, “Will you never learn how to smoor the ashes you stupid young woman.” Then Bride showed the snow white flowers to the Cailleach. The Cailleach’s face turned grey and in anger and frustration she asked, “Where did you get these flowers?” Bride replied, “The snowdrops are now growing in the woods and the adders are beginning to stir from their long sleep.” “Bad news!” the Cailleach shouted and stormed out of the kitchen. But a new profound joy had entered Bride’s heart.

Summer Solstice

A blessed Summer Solstice to all friends in the North and a blessed Winter Solstice to all in the South.

Today the sun shines in a clear bright blue sky and it will still grace us until almost 10 p.m. tonight. The days are long and everything is strangely energised. Hawthorn has given way to Elderflower and St. John's Wort is just beginning to bloom. The further north you go the later there is light. In the far north of Brighid's Isles they speak of the "summer dim" a gentle light all through the night.

To celebrate an abundance of light I thought I would post a photograph I took at the Calanais Stones on Lewis as the sun set one Summer Solstice eve and the stones picked up the reddening light.

Present in the present

February has definitely been a month of changes. The temperature has risen as high as 17C and has fallen as low as -9C. There have been sunny days with bright blue skies and barely a breeze. There have been days when thick dark cloud has rushed along the skies as if they expected no tomorrow. There have been times of incredible beauty; especially after several days of sub-zero temperatures. Days when every tree and bush was adorned in sparkling white array. Every day there has been some new sign of life. An earlier sunrise. A later sunset. Crocuses and daffodils and the first signs of green.

To be alive is to be open to change. To live with the Goddess is to be utterly present to change. To be aware of the changing patterns of the moon and the planets, the hours and the seasons, cold and heat, light and colour is to delight in Her. To be conscious of the effects of these changes - small and large, change within change, in a myriad complex patterns - on my own body is to honour Her in my very self.

Some speak of past paradise. Some speak of future heaven. But we are present in the present which is the gift of the Goddess. The present is full of wonder and beauty and magic. It is ever changing, ever unfolding. It is utterly sacred to Her. It is Her present to us and She expects us to delight in it. To align my spiritual practice with the cycles of nature, life and my own body is completely natural. It feels absolutely right. It uplifts the spirit and makes me want to savour every single moment; to dance in joy and thanksgiving.