The Gift of Presence

Yet one of the most meaningful gifts we can offer, to ourselves and to another, is the gift of presence. Not more physical presents and buying more stuff and clutter usually for the sake of it, but our mental, physical and spiritual presence; our company, our attention, fully and whole-heartedly.

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Samhain: Nature’s teaching on transformation and rebirth

Because death is still very much a taboo in the western world, we can miss some of the significance of Samhain and therefore miss the opportunity to explore our own fears, feelings, emotions and concepts around death. When we talk of the ‘veil thinning’ and ancestral worship, we think of those who have gone before us, but we don’t tend to use it as an opportunity for contemplating our own mortality, the cycle of life or to learn the mysteries by examining natures displays.

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Honouring the Waning: The Sense of Loss at Summer’s Peak

Since the summer solstice, I’ve noticed a quiet pull inside me, what could be called a kind of seasonal sadness. If we were in the depths of winter, I might have called this Seasonal Affective Disorder but I realise, this isn’t a ‘disorder’ at all. To feel a sense of sadness or even what you might call a subtle grief, at the turning of the wheel of the year, feels right, appropriate and perfectly natural. If we tune in closely enough, remembering we are the Earth, the elements and the seasons, we might feel as if part of us is turning with the Earth, waning like the Sun, pulling away, already slowly letting go.

The Oak & Holly Queens: A Reimagining of a Summer Solstice Offering Ritual

This is a reimagining of the traditional tale of the battle of the Oak and Holly Kings. In British folklore, particularly neo-pagan mythology, the Oak King and Holly King are symbolic figures who rule over the waxing and waning halves of the year. Even though the ‘battle’ between the kings is obviously symbolic and both are interconnected, I felt the symbolism of battling Kings, given the currently climate and world events, no longer resonated, so I decided to reimagine the tale as a meeting of two sister Queens.