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Showing posts with label Paganways. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paganways. Show all posts

Monday, 10 December 2012

Another year older...

Last Friday (7th Dec) was my birthday. Soon the 20s will be behind me but I do not lament! I am going to enjoy being this side of 30 as much as possible in the next year. 
I thought I would show you what lovely gifts I received this year.

This lovely original ACEO of Elen of the Ways by the talented Esther Remmington. The leather frame was made by Martin Winkles of EBG Leather. (oh and some red polka dot slipper socks)

Esther also took a photo which shows the colours more true to life.


I also got these amazing studded Creepers. I have wanted a pair for ages.

And these lovely red boots too. I do love my footwear!

I also got some Hotel Chocolat Chocolate; yum! And a chunky knit cardigan with reindeer's on as well as other goodies.

Tuesday, 2 October 2012

Drum birthing and the Goddess


The last couple of days have been truly exceptional in term of unforgettable experiences.
On Friday 28th September I went to Caer Corhrain Shaminic Center to birth my very own shamanic drum.
It was a wonderful day and I met some lovely people. It was all carried out in ritual and we were all there to do the same thing regardless of the reason why.
Lynn, Jonathan and Bruce were excellent tutors, everything was at a perfect pace and my early nervousness soon evaporated.
         My drum is made from deer hide which I chose to represent and honour my lady Elen of the ways. My hide even carries the bullet hole from where the animal of course was shot. Some people might not like to be reminded that the hide was killed in such a manner but as I was making the drum and working with the hide I asked for the deers love and forgiveness and promised that her death was not in vain.
In the afternoon we were then blessed by a visit from a beautiful golden Eagle. When he flapped his wings in this picture....
A tiny part of feather got caught in my hair which I then placed in the beater head I was making. So deer and Eagle, two animals I have strong connection with coming together.
I can't recommend birthing your own drum enough. To have a tool that I have created with my own hands, that I have now got such a deep connection with does not beat (excuse the pun) buying a drum off the Internet.
    More about the shamanic development centre and Touch the Earth band and events http://www.touchtheearthuk.com/

The drum birthing group and our drums. Look how happy we are. Any one spot the orb?


Photos courtesy of Lisa Hill.

On Saturday 29th at the Mabon Celtic Moon moot I held a introduction talk about my patron Goddess Elen. You can read more about the Goddess in this blog post http://therockabillypagan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/elen-of-ways.html
My talk was a deeply personal account of how I became aware of Elen and how she has helped transform me as a Pagan.
I then took the members of the circle on a drum journey, deep into the forest to meet with Elen and in turn blessing my own newly birthed drum. I couldn't play my drum as It was still drying at home and I have to wait a week before I can play it and get to learn it's tone and voice.
This talk turned out to be extremely emotional for me which took me completely by surprise. Before I discovered My Lady I was very lost on my path. In fact I was very close to not calling myself Pagan!
At the end of the talk I had the other members of Celtic Moon say how much they enjoyed my talk and that made it all worth it.

Photo by fellow Celtic Moon member Esther show my little altar I set up, including her lovely portrait of Elen.



Tuesday, 17 July 2012

A Druid Handfasting

On Saturday the 14th I took part I a very important ceremony. My friends and co-founders of the Celtic Moon pagan group, Vandrake and Breaca had their Druid Handfasting.
For those not in the know, a Handfasting is a pagan wedding ceremony where traditionally the bride and groom wed for a year and a day, they have their hands binded together in a ritual cord symbolising the couple binding them selves together, in this world and the next. It is also traditional for the wedded couple to jump over a besom (broom) to complete the transition of leaving one life and starting a new one together.

The ceremony was at The Fighting Cocks pub in Horton Kirby. My other half Leon was the photographer and I was to be part of the circle invoking the quarters.
We arrived at 12 o'clock to help set up the cakes, flowers, napkins and anything else I could find to help with the organisation.
The pub soon got busy as friends and family members of the bride and groom arrived and so did the rain!
It was touch and go if the ceremony would go ahead outside as planned but the decision was made and we ventured ahead and we were lucky that the rain lessen and then stopped during the ritual.
The members of the Celtic Moon circle were all dressed in fleece cloaks with hoods up and when the guests were seated we walked in single file down the aisle to the drum beat provided by the Pentacle Drummers.
Waiting for the go ahead

The Celtic Moon march
Pentacle drummers

We fanned out to make a semi circle besides the gazebo where the altar and the celebrants stood to conduct the service.

The ritual was beautiful. The vows were heartfelt and touching and it was very difficult not to shed a tear.
After the vows and rings were exchanged the couple held hands and were tied together with a handfasting cord.



Here is me in the role of giving thanks to the south quarter. I hope I said the words correctly!
Leaping over the broom.


Celtic Moon <3

The gorgeous cake by Anna of ANe Cakes
The wonderful portrait of the couple painted by he very talented Esther Remmington

Gift giving! Mine was a hand knitted blanket, more about this in my next blog post.

After that there wasn't much else to do but party!

It was a wonderful day and one I will treasure for many years.

Congratulations to Vandrake and Breaca!


Photographs courtesy of LJS Digital photography: https://www.facebook.com/LJSDigiPhoto

More information on Handfasting can be found here: http://handfasting.org/

Thursday, 5 July 2012

Cornwall holiday

Gosh I can't believe we are in July already!
Last month was very busy for me as I had a 2 week break in beautiful Cornwall. I feel that it is the home of my soul and I love visiting and we try to go there every year. This year me and my other half decided to make a long break of it and left on 11th of June and didn't come back till the 21st!
We camped on Bodmin moor and the weather got a bit hairy on more then one occasion. One night our tent started leaking so we had to visit a camping store for some waterproofing spray.
My main aim for this holiday was to visit some of the many ancient sites that can be found in the landscape. We managed some but there are many left to find next year!
Now on to photos:
Yes, all that did come out of that Smart car!




 The camp site kitties who made themselves at home in out tent.

This is the standing stone just a short distance from our camp site, the day of this photo we had done a lovely walk around the farm through some lovely wooded areas with a lovely clear running river.

We found The Stone circles called the hurlers and up from them the Cheesewring, a natural formation of the granite. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesewring
While we were here we walked to an amazing disused quarry. I didn't take any photos here but if any one visits the Hurlers then I recommend walking across to the quarry. The deep turquoise water and the sense of calm I felt here was amazing.  While were walking back to the car I realised that my phone was no longer in my pocket. I panicked and couldn't remember if I had my phone with me or not so we drove all the way back to the camp site to see if it was there, finding it wasn't we woke early next morning to find it. It was a foggy wet morning but luckily we found my phone who was no worse off from the cold night alone.

We also visited Mevagissey which is a lovely coastal town with an amazing alternative pagan shop called Lavender Pillow (see links at the end of post) and a great pirate shop too.

A beautiful area we found near St Agnes called the Blue Hills.

Scratch the Smart car enjoying the view



Saturday was 3 Wishes Faery fest day! I had a really great time and I was sad that we only went for the one day instead of all 3 but I managed to do a lot in that time. Here is the inspirational Brian and Wendy Froud speaking about their new projects. The lovely Troll in the middle is Mother Leap.

The Lovely faerie artist Linda Ravenscroft had a drawing workshop which I participated in. She told us to look around and be inspired by the things we find in nature. We each picked up a few objects to use as reference for a drawing. I found a tiny little conker, a lichen covered stick and a spiky conker casing. This is what I came up with:

All dressed up to take part in the word record attempt of largest gathering of faeries in one place. Requirement: Wings, a wand and a Tutu.
World record participators. We smashed the record with over 200 tutu clad faeries!
Evening entertainment provided by Frenchy and the Punk.
And The Dolmen!

On the Sunday we headed to Falmouth to see what the Sea Shanty Festival was all about. groups singing sea shanties, lovely ;)

On Monday we visited Padstow, where our friends Esther and Martin were camping for the week. we walked along the beach and came across some strange standing stones...
and balanced stones
On the next day we all went to Tintagel to see if you could not find the infamous labrinths carved near the rocky road on the route between Tintagel and Boscastle. Armed with a map and a book about ancient historical spots in Cornwall we set off and...


We found them!!

From there we made our way to the beautiful and magical St Nectan's Glen.

Cloutie tree

Our last full day in Cornwall had us seeking out Trevethy Quoit. A beautiful portal dolmen.


From the Quoit we saw signs on the map to Golitha falls so we decided to pop and have a look and I am so glad we did because it was the most beautiful area I have been too.


Only thing while we were there I got something in my eye and I wouldn't stop rubbing it and as a result I ended up get conjunctivitis in my right eye so my walk through the myriad of twisting paths was rather ruined. A trip to the harbour town of Looe and seeing the pharmacist meant I had to take eye drops every 2 hours. We ended the evening in Port Isaac and had a lovely meal in The Golden Lion Pub.

Thursday morning was the 21st and the Summer solstice. I woke up just before sunrise but the moor was coved in a thick mist, so after sorting out my gunky eye I went back to bed.
We managed to get a cooked breakfast before it started raining but we had to pack the tent away in the wet.

By then I was in serious withdrawl of a sturdy roof and a mattress!

More photos of the holiday on my Facebook: 
3 wishes photos:


Links to places we visited/ Shops
Camp site: http://www.southpenquite.co.uk/ Our 3rd year camping here and it gets better all the time. Actual camp fires allowed! (No Caravans)
Lavender pillow shop: http://www.lavenderpillow.co.uk
Vintage/ retro clothing: http://www.enjoyclothing.co.uk/ amazing shop in Truro. Lots of vintage finds from as little as £10!
Willow Moon pagan shop in Tintagel: http://willowmoontintagel.com/