Avalon Blessings

Book Review

2012-01-27T10:51:00.002Z

Kind of cheating a wee bit on this week's PagBloPro post. We're still working with the letter B. There are a myriad of things I could post about, but I'm going for B for Book Review as I haven't done a book review in a while.

Last year, a friend had a big duffle bag filled with books she was looking to give away so I trawled through and helped myself to a whole big stash of books. One of them was The Complete Guide to Magic and Ritual by Cassandra Eason.

Cassandra is extremely well known in the UK. I presume that fame spreads throughout the world, but I don't rightly know. For those not familiar with her work, she's a witch and probably a whole host of other things (psychic, healer, occultist, take your pick, there are many!) who has written loads of books on various subjects from angels, divination techniques and crystals to magic, spells and Paganism. Probably her most well known book (or one of her most well known books) is Every Woman is a Witch, a book I remember being recommended over and over when it came out in the 90's.

So it was that I was quite happy to find one of Cassandra's books in my hands and I immediately skimmed through it when I first got it. It was only recently though that I sat down to have a more thorough read of it.

For the amateur magician who wishes to learn magic, this is a terrific book. It covers all the basics and then some to get one started. Noticeably absent is what one might term the "spiritual side" of things. She touches a bit on varying traditions, mostly Wicca/Witchcraft. However, the book itself is bare bones, right to the core magic and ritual. The rituals are in the familiar Wiccan style, but one could argue that the Wiccan style of ritual draws upon magical traditions far older. I leave it for the arm chair historians to debate. The fact is, the point I'm trying to make is it's a fabulous book for beginner's of magic and spellwork.

For the seasoned practitioner, this is a terrific resource for ideas and reminders of how to do things without having to scan through pages and pages of text. Everything is laid out very clearly so that one can easily find what she's looking for by simply looking in the Table of Contents. If not, the index at the back helps too, but so far, I've yet to need to look there.

If you're one for magic and ritual, then this is a book you'll want permanently on your bookshelf as you will likely find yourself referring back to it regularly. Unfortunately, I think it's out of print, but used copies can be found via Amazon (link below). And if any of the topics in the book pique your interest and you want to know more, Cassandra has a load of different online courses (her site linked above), some which cover the things in this book, and they're all pleasantly priced for the budget conscious witch (sorry to sound like an advert - but they really are!).

Next week, I believe we move on to the C's....wonder what I'll cook up for that one....

B is for...(Part I)

2012-01-20T11:40:00.000Z

Another week of the PagBloPro comes along and, hey, I'm actually on time for once!

This week sees us focusing on something starting with the letter B. I anticipate many will write about the Goddess Brigit in some manner. I seriously considered doing so myself, but thought better of it. So this week, there is SOME focus on Brigit, but rather than discuss the Goddess, I'm discussing one of Her sacred sites, namely....

Bride's Mound in Glastonbury.

This is a place near and dear to my heart. Bride's Mound is a small mound on the outskirts of western Glastonbury next to the River Brue. There are plenty of other sites which detail the history of the mound better than I could here. My first port of call would have been the Friend's of Bride's Mound website, but unfortunately, their site says "account suspended", so I refer you to the Glastonbury Pilgrim Reception Centre's page about Bride's Mound, which is good or the Isle of Avalon website's page, which is also good. These sites will give you a more detailed history.

A nutshell version for those feeling lazy, Bride's Mound was once the site of a small church in ancient times, said to be tended solely by women and was visited by St. Bride Herself who left gifts that remained at the church until its destruction. The site was a place for pilgrims to rest for the night before travelling in to Glastonbury.

But my post isn't about detailing the history of this site as I feel there are other sites out there that do a much better job than I ever could. No, my post is about my own pilgrimage journey to Bride's Mound.

The first time I went to Bride's Mound, I never actually found it. One could wonder how this is possible when it's a mound and should be obvious, but I did. I believe it was during a week that my husband and I spent in Glastonbury on holiday. It was summer. I hadn't ever been and wanted to go. Armed with a crude map and thinking it would be obvious to find given there is still a stone marker at the site of what used to be St. Bride's Well, I figured we would find it.

What we didn't realise is that the mound and the land surrounding it are on an industrial site. I had heard that it was close to an industrial site but I guess I still had a vision of a nice field and an obvious mound.

We walked down the long road of the industrial site, with me feeling sure this was the way, but not feeling quite sure if I was on the right path or not. We passed old buildings, a derelict looking skate park, which I'm sure breeds its own brand of derelicts at certain times of the day (or night). But then eventually the road we walked on ended and went up to the main road going towards the next town. We found the river and some fields, but no obvious mounds anywhere. We walked along the river (in what I later learned was the wrong direction) and found nothing but I did find stinging nettles (ouch!). We walked along the river in the other direction (in what I later learned was the right direction), but it required going over a gate and it felt like we'd be trespassing so we didn't. I later learned had we gone over the gate, we would have found the stone marker and the mound. We headed back to our flat feeling disappointed and tired.

Subsequent to my failed attempts to find Bride's Mound, some of the land next to the mound, to include the site of the well and the stone marker, was bought by the Friends of Bride's Mound who have mowed the grass and taken good care of the land since that date. The site of the mound still belongs to an industrial company, and Friends of Bride's Mound have been attempting for years now to find a way to buy the land that contains the mound. I understand they long to do things such as plant trees and whatnot and re-store the sense of the sacred for that land. They have, to a great degree, already done so.

It was only at Imbolc 2007 when we walked to Bride's Mound during a priestess training weekend that I realised how close my husband and I were to finding it before. We had, in fact, found it, just didn't see it. We were there, had gone around it, but just didn't know it. I had created too idealised a vision in my imagination. The mound itself was surrounded by brambles and old industrial equipment and fencing. It didn't look sacred at all. We climbed the fence and went up to the mound anyway and spent some time there and felt Bridie's energy. And She was there, even if others had forgotten Her.

I think the site has received a bit more care since then. The Friends continue to do their utmost to protect the mound and care for the land which they own. I haven't been there in a while. I sense I will need to change this at some point this year and spend some time in that place and on that land.

If you find yourself in Glastonbury, Bride's Mound is worth having on the list of sacred sites to visit while there. I hope the Friends' website will come back up. I just received my annual newsletter from them yesterday. It seems it's been a quiet year this past year, with the only main land management news being about the widespread call to cull badgers in the area. I do encourage supporting the Friends of Bride's Mound. As their website isn't working, I can at least give their email address which is friendsofbridesmound@yahoo.com. Their annual membership fee is really very reasonable and it's a terrific way to support the work they're doing to protect this land.

A is for... (Part III)

2012-01-16T17:00:00.001Z

Gee, I think this is a record - three posts in one day? Unheard of! Well, I hadn't planned to do my second PagBloPro today, but as I was contemplating my afternoon snack, I couldn't resist taking a picture of it - a beautiful juicy apple.

My yummy apple

As I was already talking about Avalon, it's only appropriate to talk about one of its most potent symbols - the apple.

Avalon is said to come from the old Welsh word abal, although the modern Welsh word for apple is afal. There is some debate that the name Avalon is also derived from other ancient Celtic languages or even Gaulish. I leave that to the scholarly folks to debate, but there is some agreement that the name Avalon means "isle of apples".

Whether because the stories and legends are true, or because they're cashing in on the stories and legends, I can say that there are quite a few apple orchards in and around Glastonbury and throughout its county of Somerset. In fact, Somerset is famous for its apples. Head to any of the local pubs in town and cider tends to be the drink of choice. Apple cider, apple vinegar, apple wine, apple juice - apples, apples, apples - they're everywhere ala Dr. Suess!

It does seem, however, that apples, all on their own, carry their own special magic. The Norse goddess Idun gave apples to the gods so they may be forever young and youthful. Apples feature in Greek myths of Atalanta and my beloved Aphrodite (who, of course, got Her apple!) There is suggestion that apples were associated with the dead and the underworld when the phrase Apples of Hel turned up in an ancient poem. They were the forbidden fruit that Eve offered to Adam (or so some say). Apples turn up in fairy tales a lot as well (always magical in some way).

More often, though, the apple is considered a potent symbol of fertility and love. Certainly this is how we work with the apple in the Avalon tradition I follow. We feast on apples from the autumn equinox time when they become ripe and are harvested. We bob for apples at Samhain (a game said to be associated with the Roman goddess Pomona) and then cut the apples through the middle to reveal the five pointed star within. After eating, we plant the seeds as our seeds of intention for the coming year. As the seeds grow and blossom, so do our intentions.

I can't say that apples are my favourite fruit, but I cannot deny their special symbolism and association with Avalon, so when the mood takes me, I imbibe and enjoy. Which is exactly what I did the moment after taking the above picture, and it was as yummy and juicy as it looked!

A is for... (Part II)

2012-01-16T12:11:00.001Z

Ah! There we are! Fresh post! A new blank page to start!

When I thought about the first two weeks of posts focusing on the letter A, I immediately formulated ideas as to what my posts would be about.

Ha!

This morning, as I thought about making my first PagBloPro post, the Lady whispered in my ear, "Post about this instead."

We make plans - Goddess laughs.

So my first A post is about (*duh duh duh*) - Avalon.

Perhaps an obvious first post, and one I didn't intend to make, but it makes sense to discuss this given that I am a Priestess of Avalon.

Avalon is a place that seems to call to people. It either really draws you in and you totally get it, or it remains shrouded in the mists of mystery that you just don't feel the need to part or penetrate.

But the questions that largely come from any discussion about Avalon is - what is it and where is it?

Neither question is easy to answer. There are many differing views on the subject, all with very convincing arguments. Some have studied ancient texts very deeply and done much research and feel very strongly about their conclusions. I cannot say I've taken that road, preferring experiences to guide me, but I shall share a bit of my own journey with Avalon and my own thoughts on it.

The funny thing about Avalon for me is, I don't actually remember when I first learned about it. It feels as though I've always known it. It's just been there, simmering away in the background of my DNA like some primordial stew, thickening and maturing until it came time to remember it and taste it.

The mythical and fictional accounts of Avalon never held much sway for me. I'd read books about Merlin and King Arthur and seen films about them as well, but the Avalon portrayed in them, if they were at all, held little to no fascination for me. When it began to come to the forefront of my memory again, it meant being completely drawn to Glastonbury, a place I knew I would have to visit one day. This was solidified even further when I saw the film version of The Mists of Avalon. Although a wonderful film in its way, I knew it wasn't telling the real story and that reality was far different - better, actually.

When I moved to the UK, Avalon drew me in. Shortly after I moved here, I found a small advert in a Pagan magazine for the Priestess of Avalon training in Glastonbury and something deep within my soul said, "This is for you."

It would be a couple years before I visited Glastonbury though and four years before I undertook the training I saw advertised. When I did visit Glastonbury, it was a very emotional experience. As we drove in the back of a taxi en route from Castle Cary to Glastonbury, the energy of the land touched me deeply. And eventually, the Tor rose up in the scenery, statuesque and majestic, and I cried tears of joy at the sight, knowing I was home.

I'm not unique in this experience. Not by a long shot. I've heard similar accounts from other people who have had emotional first visits. My time in Glastonbury then, and every time since, is a homecoming, where I rest in the arms of the Lady, feel my connection with Her, and experience Her awesomeness.

All of this is well and good and very warm fuzzy like, but Avalon isn't always that way for me.

It was during my first year of priestess training that I had a crisis of faith. "What IS Avalon? What IS this place? How does one define it???"

Yes.... not easy questions to answer. Also fuelling the fires of doubt were the other accounts that the physical location of Avalon is actually somewhere else. Now, where that is remains a topic of great debate. I've read that Avalon is actually St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall. I've read it's in north Wales. I've read that it may potentially be in Sicily or the Canary Islands, or, perhaps most convincingly, Avalon, a little town which is in Burgundy, France. There is convincing argument that the Glastonbury Abbey's claim that King Arthur's body was found buried in their grounds was merely propaganda meant to draw tourists to Glastonbury and the church.

So what is the truth? The conclusion I eventually came to is Avalon is in all of them. Avalon is a mystical place that exists in the heart, the soul, the imagination, in dreams, a place of magic, an astral place that we find in that liminal state between sleeping and waking, life and death, in the spirit world and beyond it in ways we cannot comprehend until we move on from this life. Avalon is the cosmic mirror that reveals to us who we are, shows us our shadows, our bright sparks and leads us to ourselves. Avalon is within us and around us.

As to physical location, it's a matter of personal preference. Where do we feel the strongest connection with Avalon? For me, and for many, that strong connection is felt in Glastonbury. However, this does not mean that I do not feel that strong connection with Avalon in other places. I most certainly do. And I acknowledge and honour that for others, the physical locale of Avalon is elsewhere and they feel very strongly about. My feelings on it are less rigid. Avalon is all of them and hopefully, one day, I'll visit all of them. I'd quite like to.

With defining Avalon as this ethereal place, yet also a place that can be experienced energetically in the physical landscape, it begs one to define what it means to be a Priestess/Priest of Avalon. I reckon one might get many different definitions from as many different priestesses and priests. What we all can probably agree on is that we all serve the Divine Feminine energy that we all feel is a part of Avalon; She that created it and permeates that place, that land.

Being Her priestess, to me, means being a channel for Her energy. As a priestess, I create those spaces where others can get to know Her and experience Her, and Avalon, for themselves. I'm a cosmic telephone operator - I help connect you, but also give you the number so you can connect for yourself later. It's a simplistic way of looking at it, I suppose, but then I like keeping things simple.

I don't know that there's much more I can say on the subject, so I'll end my first A post here! It would be lovely to hear from others who are drawn to Avalon. I hope to go read some of the wonderful posts that others have written. If I continue my motivational streak, maybe I'll eek out a second A post before Friday, so I'll be ready for the B's! Until then -

Bendithion o Afalon i bob! Blessings of Avalon to everyone!

A is for...

2012-01-16T09:26:00.000Z

Well, it looks like the slowness of winter time is still with me. Here it is, mid-January, and two weeks in to the Pagan Blog Project and I've yet to make my first post!

Elle & Avalonia, the Longstone & the Sun

I've had some good excuses though. The first being that the first day of the project, I was going away on a "second" honeymoon. As mentioned in my previous post, it was my anniversary with my husband, so we went away to the magical Isle of Wight for a long weekend where we got to see some stunning coastal scenery, meet with friends and walk the land to include visiting the Isle's neolithic Longstone. What a magical place that is, and so filled with the spirits of the ancestors there! Loved it and I'm collaborating on future plans for a series of pilgrimage walks on the Isle. So watch this space for more info on that! Anyway, I had planned to have my first post already written and scheduled to post on the day, but that just didn't happen.

Isle of Wight Longstone

When I got home, my cold came back. It's the same weird virus that has been plaguing me since before Solstice, only this time it's come back with a vengeance and is showing no signs of leaving any time soon.

Despite the cold, I had business to take care of during the week. My brother Priest of Avalon, David Spofforth and I recorded our first Thamesis Hour show to include a wonderful interview with a fabulous priestess in London. I'm very excited about the show and as soon as I know when it will be broadcast, I will be posting about it!!

During those moments of downtime, I've been resting, dreaming up 2012 and catching up with the world. So unfortunately, blogging for the project fell by the wayside.

But now, here I am! A new week! Nothing major in the diary and the blessing of further dreamy cave time, which is just what I'm needing right now.

And I was going to make my first Pagan Blog Project post in this post, but I've whittered on quite a bit, so I'm going to make a separate post for my first entry into PagBloPro. It deserves a post of its own. So, next!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-04T12:06:00.003Z

I'm a little slow in saying so here, but - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

This is such a hotly anticipated year, it really feels like anything and everything could happen. The world is massively changing and so are we and our personal worlds.

The Tribe of Avalon Winter Solstice ceremony was lovely and if you have me on Facebook, you no doubt saw me gushing about it the next day. It was such an honour to hold that space for everyone.

The holiday time passed quietly, with the usual visit to family, and then ringing in the New Year by celebrating my 10th handfasting anniversary with my husband. What a special time!

New Year's Eve saw me signing up for the Pagan Blog Project, facilitated by Rowan Pendragon. I'm not 100% sure what I'll type about but I'm sure I will find something since I seemed to think it was a great idea to do it! Actually, it is. It'll be a terrific way to reflect on one's path and maybe research other practises and ideas that we don't know as much about. Judging from the list of participating blogs, it looks to be a very popular blogging project and it will be interesting to read the contributions!

In the meantime, I'm spending my time dreaming, plotting, reading, drinking hot chocolate and re-teaching myself to crochet. The blessings of cave time!

Announcements!

2011-12-21T21:12:00.000Z

Hello beautiful Avalonians!

It's the longest night of the year and tomorrow morning (the 22nd December) at about 5:30 AM GMT the winter solstice will happen as the Earth does her slow, graceful journey towards the light half of the year. Or at least in the Northern hemisphere. Of course, it's summer solstice down under!

I've been sitting on lots of yummy newsy type things, a few which I've let out on Facebook, but haven't fully divulged about here. So without further ado, here's what's going on!

Tomorrow! The Tribe of Avalon is facilitating the Pagan Federation London Open Ritual for Yule tomorrow night, 22nd December 2011. Full details of the time, place and cost is available on the PF London site at www.pflondon.org. I've taken the lead in coordinating this ritual, and I'm hoping it will be wonderful for all who come. If you can be there, do come along!

Seasonal Ceremonies

My brother Priest of Avalon, David Spofforth, and I are making a concerted effort to re-establish the Tribe of Avalon seasonal ceremonies. If you like to plan ahead, the Tribe of Avalon Imbolc ceremony will be on the 7th February 2012 at 7 PM at Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, London. £5 donation to help cover room hire.

Tribe of Avalon's website is now officially up and running after many months of being under construction. Check it out at www.tribeofavalon.co.uk and see what lovely goodies are there and keep up with the news!

2012 Workshops

David and I are also hosting a series of four workshops next year exploring the Goddess energies of London. Details are up on the Tribe of Avalon website and also listed in my Events section, but for posterity, the dates are:-

3 March 2012 - The Wheel of Ana

12 April 2012 - Exploring Britannia

2 June 2012 - Goddess in London

14 July - The Many Faces of Goddess

Do check the Tribe of Avalon website for further details and contact us to book a place!

The Thamesis Hour

David and I are also joining forces to host a new radio show, The Thamesis Hour - News and Events Winding Through London. This show will air on the new Internet radio station, Pagan Radio.co.uk and will focus on Goddess in London. The show will feature interviews, music and guided meditations. We're both very excited about this new venture and look forward to recording our first show next month! Pagan Radio will go live from the 2nd of February, so do check their website for details on that and what other goodies they will have on air. In the meantime, The Thamesis Hour has a page on Facebook where you can keep up with what's forthcoming with the show, so do give us a like! The Thamesis Hour Facebook page.

Do you think I'm a bit busy? It's all good and I'm not done! Hopefully at the first of the year I'll have some more juicy bits to offer, but for now, I'm excited with what's been planned so far and I'm so looking forward to it all!

In the meantime, I wish you all a beautiful Winter Solstice season in whatever way that you're celebrating or honouring this time. May the deep peace of the season be yours.

Bendithion o Afallon!

Elle

Perceptions

2011-12-06T15:39:00.001Z

Hello my fellow Avalonians!

Mercury will go direct tomorrow after being retrograde for the past few weeks. Yay!

One thing I do try to take time out for and do during Mercury retrogrades is contemplate what's happening in my life and what lessons might be moving through my life. And this time I got to thinking about perceptions of priestesses.

When I was little, it seemed to me that deeply spiritual people were so cool and calm, so together, so patient, so loving and kind and I could think of nothing more than wanting to be just like that. At the time, in my childhood, these people I encountered were largely Christian. But then as I grew older and encountered people from other faiths, it all seemed the same. Deeply spiritual people = cool, calm, patient, loving, kind. In short - having your shit together.

When I came in to Paganism, I guess I thought I would eventually achieve those qualities within myself, especially when I stepped onto the winding priestess path. I had such an idealised view of what being a priestess meant and how a priestesses behaved- thanks to perceptions formed throughout childhood and early adulthood of those who are spiritually inclined.

HA! I eventually learned it's not necessarily always like that. In fact, more often than not, priestesses and priests have the same problems and issues the rest of us do. Who'duv thunk! And they rage and cry and scream just the same as anyone else might in certain situations. Wow! Geeze, one might think they're actually, I don't know, HUMAN!

Priestess training was an eye opening experience in letting go of priestess perceptions and ideology. We're all "in process". We all have our flaws, our issues, our insecurities. I also learned that actually, that's A-ok. It's not my job to be a saint or a perfect paradigm of whatever - humanity, priestesshood, insert-term-of-choice.

I discussed these things with a sister priestess last night and we agreed - as priestesses, we can be wonderfully cool, calm, collected, together, etc. It's because we are channelling our archetypal priestess selves that we are. We're in a different head and heart space. And there's a part of that that is always with us. It's always there coming through. But....

Personally, more often than not, I'm no where close to having my shit together. I'm notoriously indecisive. I'm impatient. I range from a little insecure to deeply insecure (depending upon the situation). I get angry and upset. I can be unreasonable and childish. Sometimes, I just screw things up no matter how hard I try not to.

I'm no where close to being pious and saintly and perfect. And you know? I feel a great freedom in admitting that. I am a spiritual being having a human experience and I throw open my arms to it and say, "Ok, bring it on. Give me life, give me pain, give me myself again ala Tori Amos please!"

Unfortunately, though, this doesn't stop others from projecting their own ideas and perceptions of what they think a priestess should be onto those who dare to stand up and call themselves Priestess. It doesn't stop some from using those ideas and perceptions as a figurative rod for a priestess' back when the priestess says or does something they believe to be out of character for what a priestess should be. "How can you call yourself a priestess when you say this or do that?"

I have seen this happen many times to sister priestesses, brother priests and it's happened to me. When it does, I can't help but wonder what is REALLY happening in the heart and mind of the accuser. What has led them to have such a rigid perception of what a priestess should be or say or do? Or I sometimes wonder if it's just a convenient way to take a cheap shot to bring someone down. Entirely possible, I suppose.

When these situations come about, we can only hold our heads up and say, "I am a priestess AND a human being. Here I am - flawed and imperfect. Take me as I am for I will never be anything less than that and it is not my job to live up to your expectations."

And after having to let go of my own perceptions and ideas about these things, I find I can only ask Goddess to grant me patience while others learn to heal and let go of theirs, and/or grant them healing for their own wounding. Can't promise I'll be perfectly patient while that happens, but I keep trying. :)

Accountability

2011-11-30T14:06:00.001Z

Hello Lovely Avalonians!

Well.... it's now the end of November and it's now accountability time. You may remember when we last left our fearless priestess *cough cough*, I came out and said, "Hey! I'm doing NaNoWriMo!". And November came, along with NaNoWriMo and in case folks were a-wonderin', I thought I'd let you know how it went.

In truth? It kind of sucked. I started out well enough. I got to day 3 of writing my book and then hit a wall that I couldn't seem to get over, around, under or through. So much of the month passed that by mid-month, I began thinking it was pointless trying to continue and kind of gave up on the book. To the good - I at least started it and hopefully, one day soon, I'll pick up my motivation off the floor and continue on with it. I am, at least, proud of myself for giving it a go and I'm sure I'll get to the finish line eventually! I might be crawling when I get there, but I'll get there!

BUT there's more!!!

Even though I didn't write the book I REALLY wanted to write, I still persevered in my goal to write 50,000 words. As you will remember, part of my motivation was to earn the NaNo badge on my daily writing site 750.words.com. I averaged writing about 1,700 words a day. Some days a bit less and other days more to make up for the lesser days, but overall, I wrote my heart out. I didn't write anything particularly noteworthy. Sometimes I wrote about my thoughts, ideas and philosophies about things. Sometimes I wrote about people or places or things that happened in my life. Most of the time, I wrote about my previous day and vented my spleen - a lot. It really does help to have a place to do that so I definitely use it!

All that writing paid off, too. I'm very happy to say that yesterday, I crossed the finish line, going over 50,000 words and earning the NaNo badge! Yay!!!! AND... I also earned a secret badge - a triple flock badge for writing over 500,000 words since I started using the site. Double and triple yay!!!! Seeeeee.....????

As you can see, total word count came in at 51,748 words and there's my pretty NaNo badge, along with all my other hard earned badges. It may be silly, but I'm proud of me! And my inner Girl Scout is totally over the moon! Next stop - Space Bird badge in 48 days and counting down!

So...what's next for Elle? WELL, I'm so glad you asked because I've got lots of irons in the fire at the minute and there are SO many exciting projects coming up next year that I can't wait to tell you about but will have to for now. But look for some announcements coming up very soon!

The one upcoming thing I can tell you about is that the Tribe of Avalon is hosting the Pagan Federation London Open Ritual for Yule. I am undertaking much of the organisation of this with lots of help from a wonderful ritual team. It's going to be a lovely ceremony, so do come if you're in London! Details are available in the Events section of my site here, or also on the PF London website at http://www.pflondon.org/.

Roll on December!!

Another Walk in the Woods

2011-11-03T21:00:00.000Z

Entering the orchard...

O Lady of Avalon...

Bountiful Lady of Apples...

You who give of Your fruits so generously...

I give thanks for the blessings You bestowed upon me this past year...

For the blessings You bestow upon me on this day...

And the blessings You will bestow in this next year...

The gateway into the wooded womb cauldron of the Goddess...

Mother, cradle me safe within you...

Keep me warm...

Protect me...

Hold me...

Love me...

Nurture me...

Until I am ready to be re-birthed anew again...

I honour the sacred long barrow of the fallen trees of the forest...

I release the fetters of the past and see only beauty before me...

I do not fear, for I know You are guiding me as I descend...

Elen, guide my way...

O Flaming Crimson Beauty of Autumn...

All paths lead to She...

The Great Crone who sits silently...

Watching...

Waiting...

To enfold you in Her loving embrace....

To share Her wisdom...

And Her dark secrets...

Thank You Grandmother Oak...

Thank You Dark Goddess of Samhain for revealing to me Your mysteries...

Writing

2011-10-19T11:17:00.001+01:00

It was a busy summer, a heart wrenching autumn and with each passing day I find myself a little deeper in Ceridwen's cauldron. Yes, Samhain doth approacheth and the Dark Goddess is showing Her face!

This week I completed my last tasks for the online Goddess Group I've been hosting this past year. It's been rewarding, frustrating, joyful, challenging, wonderful and a huge learning curve all wrapped in to one. It's been a heckuva year and it's been a real privilege holding this virtual space for the group's participants and watching them grow and deepen their relationships with Goddess.

But now it's time to move on. I've got SO many ideas and SO many things in the works now, I do wonder how I will fit it all in! But somehow I will!

One of the things I'm doing is taking the feet first plunge into book writing by participating in this year's National Novel Writing Month aka NaNoWriMo. If you subscribe to my page on Facebook, you've likely already seen my blurb about participating. This year, I'm doing it!

Mind you, it's taken me YEARS to get to this point. I've always loved journal writing. I've been doing it since I was a teenager, and I've always dreamed that one day I might write a book. In my third year of priestess training, inspiration struck with a book idea. Yay! Maybe I might finally do it! And I was excited by the idea of this and how it might all pan out. It was a new adventure before me and I couldn't wait!

But then fear set in and I began to make excuse after excuse after excuse as to why I couldn't concentrate on writing my book.

And the funny thing is, I'm self aware enough that I knew what I was doing. I was putting obstacles in my own way. I knew I was giving my power away and yet, I didn't know how to stop myself. I didn't know where to begin. I know so many people who write books and mostly the advice was, "Just start writing!" Um, ok, but what about structure and layout and having my ducks in a row and all that? It all just seemed like a mystery to me and like all these authors I know are actually harbouring these deep, mystical book writing secrets that I just couldn't figure out. In fact, I STILL don't know where to begin and I still feel like there are deep, mystical book writing secrets I'm trying to figure out.

So what's changed?

Since June 2010, I've been using a little site called 750words.com. I LOVE this site! As mentioned before, I've been keeping journals for a long time. With the advent of the Internet and Live Journal, I've had loads of online journals and diaries. I've done the Artist's Way where I've tried to keep up the practise of Morning Pages and all that. But it never seemed to be very consistent. Something would happen and I'd stop and I'd go back to haphazardly writing whenever I felt like it.

So with 750words.com, things changed. I saw a link on, I think it was someone's Facebook and thought I'd give it a go. It didn't take me long to fall in love with this site. Who would think that such simple and silly things like daily nudges by email and attaining virtual badges as rewards for writing could finally spur one into action?

Well, it does! It's that inner competitive streak to achieve the gold star for doing well that fires the passion and IT WORKS. Don't believe me? In the 488 days since I began using 750words.com I've written 448,218 words (enough for a few novels or a couple of really big ones). I average about 917 words per day. I had a little break in my original streak, but to date, I've written every day for 410 days straight and I'm still going.

Believe me now? I thought so.

I've earned almost every badge they have. My inner Girl Scout child is proud of that. See how great I am and what a good Girl Scout for having so many badges! Yes, I am awesome!

But three badges still elude me. One is the Night Bat which is for people who consistently write at night. I am unable to consistently write at night because by then, everyone is at home and it's too difficult to concentrate. So I'll probably never have that badge and my inner Girl Scout child accepts this. Another one is the Space Bird badge. That is for people who have written every day for 500 days in a row. I'm 90 days away from achieving this badge and have every intention of doing so!

The third one, and the one that brings me back to the NaNoWriMo part, is the NaNo badge for those who participated in and completed NaNoWriMo.

This badge was initiated last year. I've known about NaNo for at least 10 or 11 years now, almost since the beginning. I've had numerous friends (still do) who participate every year and love it.

I've always resisted. If I want to write a book, then why do I need a special month to do it in? I can just write it! Or so I thought. I never have.

I paled when I saw this new badge. My inner Girl Scout child stamped her foot with a huff and proceeded to pout and then sulk because she knew that as long as headstrong adult Elle was hard core resisting, there was no way she'd ever earn this badge and she wouldn't have a nearly complete set. Nope, she wouldn't.

A couple weeks ago, I looked at the badges for some reason. My inner Girl Scout child continued to be vexed about it. And then something in my armour of resistance softened. I went and looked at the NaNo site and thought, "Ok, maybe I should just do this. I've written every day for 400 days. Fifty thousand words in a month? Piece of cake! That's 1,666.666666666 words a day. I CAN do this. In fact, I pretty much do it already!"

Still needing some encouragement though, I turned to my youngest daughter. She's 15. She loves to write and does so often. In fact, she's already written enough for a couple novels herself.

I asked her if she'd like to do NaNo with me. Her answer was a somewhat enthusiastic, "Yes!"

A little Maiden energy can be just the right medicine.

I signed up.

And since then I've been pondering -

WHAT DO I WRITE???

Well...the obvious choice would be the book I was inspired to write.

"No, no.", I thought, "I can't write that and have it be crap. What I want to write is too important to be crap and unorganised and all that. No, I must think of something else and this, in turn, will inspire me to write the book I REALLY want to write."

More excuses. I vacillated between excitement and worry. In the end, I had a moment where I thought up an idea for something completely silly that would really work well. It could be crap and no one would care because it would be something just for me. And, oh yes, this will give me the further impetus to write the book I REALLY want to write.

My thoughts went on like this for a while. And then, last week, I had a little lightening bolt moment.

I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth (because that's what glamorous priestesses do), and I could hear my higher self asking, "WHY put your energy into writing a book that isn't what you REALLY want to write? What is it that you're REALLY afraid of here?"

I finished brushing my teeth and went to my computer to write my daily 750 words and I pondered these questions in my stream of consciousness. Maybe it's from being a lawyer or maybe it's just my sometimes-monkey-mind or maybe it's my inner perfectionist or something, but I realised I was worried about not being accurate, not being comprehensive enough, not having the right elements, not having a good writing style, not having this or that. In short - not being good enough.

Of course. It was simple. And I knew that I had to stop allowing fear to run my life and make my decisions and put obstacles in my way. I knew - I have to write the book I REALLY want to write.

I'd like to say that I've felt a peace come over me in making that decision or that somehow I feel more at ease about the whole thing, but I'd be lying through my freshly brushed teeth. No, I'm still nervous and kind of scared and not at all feeling confident. I'm still concerned about structure and layout and getting it all right somehow. But here's what keeps me going - if it's crap, it's ok. The NaNo people say so. No one has to read it but me unless I choose otherwise. My rational adult side says that even if it's crap, I will at least have a manuscript I can work on, re-write, edit and hone until I think it might be good enough for someone else to read, at which point there will probably be lots more re-writing and editing to do.

And if it never sees the light of day? It's ok. When I had my idea, I was inspired to write it for my daughters. I still am. So if nothing else, I can give it to them and say, "Here you go. This is for you." That takes the pressure off a bit. Or maybe not.

So in 11 days, NaNo will begin and light a figurative fire under my bum to write the blasted book I've been talking about writing for far too long. And the other book idea I had? I still like it and think I might eventually like to write that still too. Will I write two books at once? I don't know that I'm that masochistic. But I won't say no or never, just, "One book at a time and I'll see how I feel."

I have a feeling I'm going to need a lot of Rescue Remedy and chocolate along with walks in the woods and kind, encouraging words from my writing buddy aka The Fearless Maiden Daughter Who Rises To The Challenge And Writes Her Own Bloody Novels Anyway Without NaNoWriMo, Thank You Very Much. Oh, who am I kidding? She'll tell me to get over myself and get on with it because she learned that type of fortitude from her mother. And it'll be just what I need to hear, I'm sure.

*Ahem*

But I'm going to do this and somehow, I think it'll wind up being ok. And, oh yes, I WILL have that NaNo badge and my inner Girl Scout child is quite pleased at the thought.

A Ritual Walk

2011-09-26T19:52:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do much celebrating of the Autumn Equinox ON the Equinox and the weekend didn't work out for it either. So today I took the opportunity and did some autumn celebrating. This included a ritual walk in the woods.

When I do ritual walks, I like to stop at certain appropriate intervals and say prayers and/or sprinkle offerings of lavender and rose petals on the land and open myself up to the Goddess' energy and give my gratitude. Thing is, one never knows who is watching when one does this! In Glastonbury, I guess I don't think about it as much, but in London, well, it's a bit of a different story.

As I was walking along, I passed two people (a woman and a man) in conversation. I didn't think too much about it. I was about to take a turn into an apple orchard when I stopped, as I do, made some prayers and walked in. After I walked in, the woman said, "Excuse me...."

I stopped and turned around. She was curious about my moon tattoo on my forehead. She noticed me opening up to the energy of the land and asked me about my path. We had a brief conversation about my being a Priestess of Avalon and how I was doing a ritual walk to connect with the Goddess in the land and and the season. She seemed quite fascinated by it all.

At the end of our conversation, she apologised if she disturbed me, that maybe most people wouldn't just walk up to someone and ask questions like that, but when she saw me she knew she had to speak to me. The thing is though - I really didn't mind. I took her hands and looked at her and thanked her for speaking to me as many people who are curious just stare instead.

I like it when people feel they can approach me and start conversations. I don't mind answering curious questions. It's all part of the whole priestess gig really. But today, it felt extra special to connect with this lady and maybe I've inspired her in some small way. Thank You, Goddess, for the gift of connection and allowing Your light to shine through me. It's been a special day today!

Autumn Equinox - Feast of Avalon

2011-09-23T15:08:00.003+01:00

Blessings of the Equinox! It's been a long summer with lots of interesting happenings. I can hardly believe that it's now the Autumn Equinox! The year is going so fast!

Something that I've been pondering are the names we give to our festivals and the Autumn Equinox is one I pondered a lot.

Like many, I became accustomed to calling it Mabon, after the Welsh god who is the son of the Welsh goddess Modron. I never questioned this but naturally fell into calling it the Autumn Equinox after I moved to the UK.

It's only been in recent years that I've become aware there is controversy over Mabon as some say there is no connection between Mabon and the Autumn Equinox. I've seen a few different reasons given for calling it Mabon, but none of them have come up in my own reading of the old myths. It could be I've missed it, which is always possible. I do not claim to be well read. But thus far, I've not found anything to really back it up.

I also ponder naming a festival after a god when I follow a Goddess focused path. Personally, I have no problem with gods, but does it make sense to call a festival by a god's name when I'm honouring Goddess solely in my personal rituals? In my own mind, not really, although that said, I don't really have a problem with someone calling it Mabon even if I don't.

I've seen some suggest that the solstices and equinoxes were never really celebrated by the Celts. I do not pretend to know one way or the other as I am not educated enough in ancient Celtic practises to know or form an opinion. Although I appreciate there is some emphasis on following ancient ways, there is a reason Paganism, generally, is sometimes referred to as Neo-Paganism. New traditions were and are created, with new ideas injected, finding deeper meaning in it all, perhaps even more deeply than people in ancient times did. Certainly, the Avalon tradition I follow is no exception. Although it is based on honouring the indigenous goddesses of the UK and Ireland, it is done in ways that are new.

In my reading and exploring about Mabon, I've come across various names for the Autumn Equinox. One that leapt out is Feast of Avalon. Where this originates from is not clear. Again, reasons given for using this term at the Autumn Equinox varied, but some spoke to me. In the Wheel of Britannia, we honour the Mother of Earth, the continuing harvest and this time of balance. Symbolically, this is the time of the apple. Some analogies were made about the harvesting of apples, some about Celtic funeral rituals of placing an apple on the headstone as Avalon is the Isle of the Dead. Well, yea, I can kind of see a bit of all of that in the tradition I follow.

Because I am a Priestess of Avalon following an Avalonian tradition, I quite like the idea of calling the Autumn Equinox the Feast of Avalon for no other reasons than it is the season of the apple and it is the time of the abundant harvest still and Avalon is the Isle of Apples. Celebrations of the Autumn Equinox often involve feasts and libations in gratitude to Goddess and/or God. Feast of Avalon makes sense and is therefore meaningful to me.

So I wish everyone a blessed Feast of Avalon and hope your own celebrations are powerful and yet fun at the same time!

Demeter & Persephone - The Mother-Daughter Story

2011-06-10T10:17:00.000+01:00

DEMETER & PERSEPHONE - THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER STORY

With Jane Meredith - A one day workshop for women.

Explore the Demeter-Persephone myth
Uncover your own Mother-Daughter story
Untwist the themes of love and betrayal
Journey into your personal mythos to heal your relationship with your mother
Reweave the Sacred Feminine

Healing the relationships between women starts with the mother/daughter bond. Our relationship to the Goddess is an inspiring model, but how many of us manage to practise what we learn with our own mothers? In our society and in our lives, the relationship between mothers and daughters is often deeply unresolved.

In the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone we find threads of the sacred relationship between mother and daughter. Entering into the mythic realm and creating a space of celebration of the feminine journey, we weave these threads together again in our own lives and psyches. By exploring the Persephone-Demeter myth with its issues of loss, abandonment and reunion, we will access the threads of love and betrayal that lie twisted between women. Using ritual, sharing from our own lives and working for personal understanding and transformation, we will rewrite this story for ourselves.

As women seeking our own power it is crucial to address this mother-daughter story, so that the lines of feminine energy can flow again, in our individual families as well as in the wider world. The intention of this work is to heal and transform our relationships with our mothers and the feminine and our selves.

When: Sunday, 11th September 2011, 10:30 - 5:30 PM

Where: Treadwell's, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7BS

Cost: £65 - Early bird booking by 31st July £55

For enquiries and bookings please contact Elle Hull at avalonblessings@googlemail.com or Jane Meredith at jane@janemeredith.com

Click here for a downloadable flyer

For further information about Jane Meredith and her work, please see her website at www.janemeredith.com

The Red Tent

2011-05-29T11:09:00.000+01:00

I’ve been hearing about The Red Tent by Anita Diamant for years. It’s one of those books that I’ve heard other Pagan women rave about; that it’s such a fantastic book and provides inspirational fuel to start up their own red tent so they too may join together with other women in circle. Thanks to my local public library, a copy of The Red Tent found its way into my hands last week and this morning I finished reading it.

The one thing I did not know about this book is that its author is Jewish. I didn’t necessarily think she was Pagan, I just did not know Anita is Jewish. This didn’t and doesn’t cause me any problem, it just made it a more interesting read knowing it was coming from someone with a different spiritual perspective. In a small way I quite delighted in it because I find some Jewish women’s traditions to be quite lovely and hoped some of these might be included in the book. Whether Anita is aware of how much her book has affected Pagan women, I do not know. I reckon she might as she does seem aware that women across the spectrum of different faiths have found her book very powerful.

I enjoyed The Red Tent. I found it an easy and interesting read. I have no thoughts about the fact that the characters and basis of the story were taken from the Bible. To me it was merely a novel set in historical times.

What I did find myself thinking about was the whole point of a red tent, the relationships between the women in the book and especially the protagonist’s relationship with those women and how the concept of the red tent has taken off in today’s world. I found it interesting that there is no historical evidence that women in those times sequestered themselves in a red tent during the new moon but Anita felt it a completely feasible idea that maybe they did (I’m thinking this may have also been inspired by Jewish tradition that menstruating women separate from their husbands, at least sexually anyway). It was interesting that Anita took inspiration from the Native Americans (and, she says, Africans) who did have lodges especially for menstruating women.

In the end, what I found most interesting of all was how the phenomenon of the red tent has grown that women are basing new traditions upon a work of fiction. Powerful stuff!

Before anyone berates me for that comment, I don’t have a problem with it. I just think it shows how powerful an idea can be and how much women have needed a red tent so they may find sisterhood amongst other women again. The fact that so many women are is not a bad thing at all. Besides, one could easily argue that most religious/spiritual ideas are based upon works of fiction and Paganism and Goddess spirituality are no exceptions.

Dinah’s story provides some thought provoking passages and, again, I enjoyed it. That said, I find my reaction to it much the same as my reaction was to The Mists of Avalon – it’s a terrific book, but I’m not married to it. It doesn’t inspire me to do anything more or different or better than what I’m already doing and perhaps that’s why it doesn’t – because I’m already doing them. So many women found The Mists of Avalon inspiring them to seek out Goddess, to walk a more sacred path in their lives. It seems to me that women who have read The Red Tent have found similar inspiration, inspiring them to seek out or create red tents of their own and to take counsel on a regular basis with other women. These are all wonderful things. For me though, I guess because I’ve been there, done that, the books could do no more but to make me smile at our similarities and warm my heart at the messages they presented.

I would recommend The Red Tent to any one as being a good read and potentially inspirational. It is a fantastic book.

As for pitching one’s own red tent, more power to anyone wanting to do that. Anything that brings women together to share, learn and celebrate the cycles of their lives is to be encouraged. Personally, I’m involved in a women’s moon lodge that meets at each new moon. When it started, myself and my Goddess sister chose to call it a moon lodge, taking inspiration from the Native American tradition of moon lodges and I’m quite satisfied with that. To me, that feels right. Nevertheless, I don’t feel that what we do is any different to a red tent. It’s all the same to me and whatever one chooses to call it, it’s all good.

Next week there is a new moon on the 1^st of June and I will again meet with other women for moon lodge. May all of us who are gathering in red tents and moon lodges at next week's new moon find sisterhood and a deeper connection with ourselves and one another.

Reflecting Energy

2011-05-22T10:32:00.000+01:00

Two festivals gone by without any further update here. What's up with that?

If you're following me on Facebook or Twitter then you probably know what's been happening with me. March came in like a lamb and went out like a lion for me. The nice part was having time in Glastonbury over the Spring Equinox. Being in that place and on that land renews my spirit in mysterious ways. I spent time walking the land, serving in the Goddess Temple and participating in the Temple's Spring Equinox ceremony. Time there was busy but wonderful.

And life just didn't stop after that. By the time Beltane rolled around I just wanted to stop the merry-go-round and get off. Ha! General busy-ness has calmed down but many other things are going on. Beltane is a high energy time the same as Samhain and with Samhain sitting directly opposite on the Wheel, sometimes the opposing energy can be reflected back to us.

This isn't a new concept to me. I've had it happen before and this Beltane it's happening again. It's felt more like Samhain this year than Beltane. So many things going on - teenage angst and drama, family members who are seriously ill and needing tests and hospitalisation, financial challenges. It's all been enough to make me throw up my hands and officially fire Beltane for its Samhain reflecty crap it's doing this year. Where's the love and happiness, eh???

So I'm doing my best to ride with it. There's no point fighting it. Just flow with it. Instead, I'm doing my own Samhain reflecty thing and doing some spring cleaning - really clearing some things out and letting them go. Decluttering is good for the soul sometimes and this seems to be one of them. In the meantime, Beltane, for me, is still fired and I'm looking forward to Summer Solstice. I'm hoping Domnu will be kind to me this year and bring me refreshment. So roll on mid-summer!!

Goddess in my Childhood - Part III

2011-02-25T10:02:00.000Z

When I last left off in this series of posts, I mentioned how Goddess came through to me via the medium of TV. Upon thinking about it, TV seemed to play a big role in this sense. If Isis wasn't enough for my little girl sponge brain, there was also, from 1976 to the end of the 70's, Wonder Woman.

There was less Goddess in Wonder Woman (the TV series), but there were some important factors. Firstly, she was/is linked to Greek and Roman myths. She was an Amazon with a Roman Goddess' name (Diana). And she came from Paradise Island, a nation solely comprised of women, which, at the time, I thought was pretty damn cool. In the pilot episode of the series, all the women of Paradise Island dressed in ways clearly inspired by ancient Greek and Roman dress, which I also thought was pretty damn cool. Wonder Woman's actual outfit was not my bag and I think caters for the guys more than anything, but it was cool enough.

I believe the comic book version of Wonder Woman was more Goddess involved as the comic books went in to her back story more showing that she had been blessed with magical gifts from various Goddesses and Gods, of which Aphrodite was originally attributed to being the main giver of power to Wonder Woman.

The other important factor was Wonder Woman's feminist perspective. It was empowering for me to see her messages about gender equality and the empowerment of women, which were often outwardly spoken during each episode. It was also empowering to see a woman be the one to save the day, just as in the Isis show, although I think the content of the Wonder Woman show was a bit heavier since it as a prime time show.

I watched the show most weeks, if not every week, and like Isis, I had the Wonder Woman doll. She didn't get played with as much as my Isis doll, but she still got played with a lot. I remember that Navy uniform because I hardly ever put it on her. :)

It was a good show for me because it touched on various things of importance such as Greek and Roman mythology and women's empowerment and, of course, what little girl wouldn't want to be the one to have all those cool super-human powers and gadgets?

I never did read the comic books, although I'm aware they're still about. Wonder Woman was also a part of the Super Friends cartoon, so also formed part of my Saturday morning cartoon watching ritual. I'm aware an animated Wonder Woman was released a couple years ago. I'm due to be watching that soon. And I'm also aware there's talk of a Wonder Woman film coming out in a couple years. If it does, I will no doubt go see it.

The real news, however, is that American broadcasting company NBC are renewing the show and just last week announced that Adrianne Palicki will be playing Wonder Woman. Will it be just as good a show as before? Will they stay true to the comic book version or will she be different? I guess it remains to be seen.

Wonder Woman is still probably a good role model for little girls though and hopefully these new projects will inspire other little girls to find their own strength and beauty within themselves and thus find Goddess. She certainly helped inspire me to.

Fun Stuff:-

The animated film that came out in 2009.

The complete original series from the 70's.

I'm not sure if MAC have released their Wonder Woman line over in the UK yet, but for certain, I see a Wonder Woman lipstick in my future....

Goddess in my Childhood - Part II

2011-02-14T09:48:00.003Z

In 1975 or 76, the Goddess came to me in a new way - through the wonders of television and a show called Isis (now known as The Secrets of Isis). It was a live action show that aired on Saturday mornings alongside another live action show, Shazam. I never really watched Shazam, but I faithfully watched Isis every Saturday morning during my weekly Saturday morning cartoon watching ritual.

At the time I, of course, knew nothing of Isis, Queen Hatshepsut or ancient Egypt. What I did know was that Isis was the coolest thing on Earth and I loved the show. It was the first time I ever got the idea that women could be empowered and powerful. It touched on a mysticism that fascinated me and like so many others, I was in absolute awe of Joanna Cameron's beauty. She was absolutely gorgeous. I loved her long black hair and her costume and oh the crown! This was, of course, the Goddess coming to me in a new way. Being only young, as I was, I didn't really grasp the concept of the Goddess but She was certainly there. And not just for me, but for millions of other girls like me who were watching every week.

Isis became part of my regular play time as well as I had the Isis doll (yes, even back then marketing was a top business!). I don't recall her hair being as poofy as that though. I think it may have straightened out after I washed it or got it wet. That little doll got played with a lot and she was a favourite. Unfortunately I don't have her any more (can't remember what happened to her), but I still have my fond memories.

The cheesy plot lines and 70's music aside, along with any historical inaccuracies, it was a good show for little girls at the time as it was one of the first shows if not THE first show to feature a woman in such an empowering role. I'm grateful I had such a show to hook in to at such a tender age.

My knowledge of ancient Egypt grew when in 1978 the documentary narrated by Orson Welles, Tut: The Boy King, aired on TV, showing to the world (or at least those of us in the US) some of the treasures from King Tut's tomb. Of course, the King Tut exhibition had been touring the world for a few years by this point and interest in King Tut and ancient Egypt grew as it did. It was at this time that I began to link up in my mind the connection between Isis, the TV show, and ancient Egypt and its mysteries.

"You mean there really IS an Isis?" It opened up a whole new fascination with the mysticism of ancient Egypt. The idea that there were many gods and goddesses who ruled over this strange arid place and their rituals and outlook on things blew my little girl mind. What was it all about?

During all this, unbeknownst to a little girl growing up in Midwestern America in the 70's, the Fellowship of Isis was founded in 1976 by Olivia Robertson, Lawrence Durdin-Robertson and Pamela Durdin-Robertson in Ireland, an organisation I joined in 1999 and am still a member of today.

Isis was integral to guiding me on the path to Goddess. I continue to have a mild fascination with the Egyptian pantheon and ancient Egyptian ways, although it's not a path I ever felt compelled to pursue. Still, I do honour Isis and feel great kinship with Her. As a Priestess of the Goddess I feel every bit Her priestess as I do to any Goddess who speaks to my soul. Three years ago when the new King Tut exhibition came to London, there was no way you could stop me from going. It was a chance to see so many things I'd only seen in pictures or on TV. I was a bit sad to read this morning about some of the artefacts housed in the Egyptian Museum being stolen during the protests in Cairo. I hope they can be recovered so they can continue to bring joy to those who are also fascinated with ancient Egypt. The British Museum is now hosting the Egyptian Book of the Dead exhibition until next month. I hope to go see it too before it leaves as I know Isis and the Egyptian goddesses will be there to touch my heart once again.

Fun stuff:-

Fellowship of Isis: http://www.fellowshipofisis.com/

Allegedly, there is a film potentially in the works based upon the Isis show. Will it ever happen? Might be cool if it did.

A couple years ago I actually found the Tut documentary in its entirety on YouTube. However, I think it's been removed due to the DVD coming out recently.

Goddess in my Childhood - Part I

2011-02-11T09:37:00.000Z

I've been thinking a lot lately about my first, say, ten years of life and how my life was influenced by Goddess during those tender years without me even really knowing it. I guess it's because a lot of these hidden influences are popping up here and there and I wax nostalgic about it and smile to myself thinking, "Ah, if only I knew then...." It doesn't matter that I didn't because Goddess has Her way of leading and guiding and so I know that all these things were just guiding me along until I was ready.

I thought I'd do my nostalgic waxing in some posts for the sake of More Insight Into Elle (MIITE) and because it might cause someone else to think about how Goddess influenced her/his childhood too. I have no idea how many parts this will have. It'll have parts until I run out of parts.

So today, being Friday and thus Venus'/Aphrodite's Day, I thought I'd start with Her. Aphrodite first came to me under the guise of Venus. As mentioned in a post on the Aphrodite's Flowers blog, I am a Libra, so my ruling planet is Venus. Venus just also happened to be in the 7th house of Libra when I was born. My mother had a couple of astrology books on the bookshelf, one being Linda Goodman's Sun Signs, which was a much more straight forward book to read than the other one she had (the name of which escapes me now, but it was a much more technical book). I thought I was very special because Venus, the Goddess of Love, was my ruling planet and guiding influence. I loved art and beauty and all things pink. I felt every bit the Venusian child and loved Venus for being MY ruling influence.

That was only the beginning of my fascination for astrology and Venus. I go into more detail in the post I link to above about how my relationship with Venus/Aphrodite evolved, so I shan't re-invent the wheel. Have a read and see. Several years ago I did pick up a book by Andrew Dalby called Venus (British Museum Press) at a visit to the British Museum. Terrific book of Venus/Aphrodite myths and I count it as a favourite.

So because it is Her day, I give thanks to Venus for being the Light of Love in my life and for Her presence in my childhood. Thank You Goddess for leading me back to You!

Fun stuff:-

http://www.astro.com/ - one of my favourite astrology sites.

Despite the age of the book, it still seems to be quite popular to those who seek basic info about the various sun signs.

Worth a read as it's pretty much all of Venus'/Aphrodite's stories in one book.

Making Changes

2011-02-09T12:19:00.000Z

Belated Imbolc greetings! It's been a busy time for me this Imbolc which tends to happen when major festivals happen!

The Tribe of Avalon Imbolc Walk went very well and was enjoyed by all. Thank you to those who came!

I've made some changes regarding my social networking and this blog/site, which I thought I would update everyone on in case folks got to wonderin'.

The most major change is to my Events page. To enable me to keep it up to date consistently and more easily, I've embedded a calendar in to the Events page. This will allow you to see what I've got going on and what I'm involved in as the days flow into weeks and the weeks into months.

With this change, I've decided to close my announcement list on Yahoogroups. It's main purpose was to keep interested people up to date on any events I was hosting. As I'm posting details to Facebook and Twitter as well, there are plenty of places for those interested to keep up to date. Links to both my Facebook and Twitter are in the sidebar so please do add me there if this suits you.

I've also taken down the Gallery page and closed my Flickr account. I didn't get on very well with Flickr. When there are pictures to share, I can either include them in a post here or will add them to my Facebook.

I've culled the links in my Resources page a bit, keeping it shorter and sweeter.

For the time being, I've taken down the page regarding hiring me for private ceremonies. I am still available for private ceremonies but wish to reconsider the information I previously put forward in this regard. I will likely re-add this page again in the near future once I have revamped it. In the meantime, if you wish to hire me to conduct a private ceremony for you, please find my contact email address in my profile.

Continued blessings of Brigit to everyone!

Brigantia Mother Earth Workshop

2011-01-23T20:59:00.000Z

My Sister Priestess Isabelle is hosting a workshop in London on the 19th March celebrating and honouring Brigantia, Mother Earth. Further details as follows:-

MOTHER EARTH Workshop in London, on Saturday 19th March 2011

Connect with our Mother Earth Goddess of our Celtic Land, Brigantia (ancient Earth Mother). She is the earth beneath our feet. She is the womb out of which life exists. She offers her love in her healing waters, she is the essence of the perpetual flame. Come and experience an initation, into her light and you will hear the calling of your ancestors who once walked this earth..

Learn how to heal yourself and connect with the

energy of Mother Earth. Discover what power comes through you and where you access it from. Learn how to bring in higher energies and experience what this energy feels like when it comes over you.

The day will consist of energy work, ceremony, ritual and mediation: where you will connect with our Great Mother Earth Brigantia and receive information on what how to develop your gifts and fulfil your purpose on Mother Earth. Time will be given to practice healing on each other and the afternoon will be spent on an Earth Healing Ceremony where you will receive and give healing to mother earth. This will culminate in an open circle where each person will share their experience of connecting with spirit and receiving healing.

Please bring an offering to Brigantia Mother Earth Goddess for the workshop. Each person attending the workshop will receive an earth healing gift and their very own Dolphin Essence which helps to heal and cleanse her oceans, rivers and lakes.

Location: Alexandria Healing Centre: 39 Alexandria Road, West Ealing W13 ONR

Please provide your own lunch. Tea and coffee will be provided.

Cost: £60 per person

Time: 10.30am- 4.30pm

Please contact Isabelle on 07903939487 for more details or email isabelle@lotushealingcentre.co.uk for a booking form. You can also visitwww.lotushealingcentre.co.uk

Tribe of Avalon - Imbolc Walk & Pilgrimage

2011-01-08T00:05:00.002Z

Tribe of Avalon - Imbolc Walk & Pilgrimage

As the Wheel slowly turns, bringing us back to the light, we honour the Maiden Goddess Bridie at Her time of Imbolc, who touches Her white rod of power to the Earth and re-awakens the life that has been sleeping deep in the soil; for She is the tiny flickering flame of hope which lightens our hearts and gives us hope that spring is on the horizon and will be with us soon.

Please join Priestess of Avalon Elle Hull and Sister of Avalon Myfanwy Ashley as we walk the ley line path in pilgrimage from St. Paul’s Cathedral to St. Bride’s Church, the sacred site once dedicated to the Goddess Brigit as Bride who became St. Bride in the Christian Church. At St. Bride’s, we will spend time at the site of Brigit’s sacred well, exploring the inside of the church as well as the famous crypt where we may meditate upon our growing seeds of manifestation and ask for Bridie’s blessings. We will conclude the circle outside at the well site where we will offer poems and/or songs to the Maiden Goddess. We will then walk to the nearby Punch Tavern for a hot drink (or cold one, if you prefer!). Food is also available for purchase.

Please bring your poems and/or songs in honour of Goddess to share.

Date: Sunday, 30 January 2011

Place & Time: Please meet Elle and Myfanwy at St. Paul’s Tube Station (Central line) by no later than 12:15 PM

Cost: BYO (buy your own) at the pub and any donation you wish to make to St. Bride’s to support maintenance of this site. We also encourage donations to be made to the Friends of Bride’s Mound in Glastonbury.

RSVP REQUIRED! Please contact Elle at avalonblessings@googlemail.com to confirm you are attending.

All Hail Jana!

2011-01-01T09:49:00.000Z

Happy New Year! May the peace and blessings of the Goddess be with you in this New Year of 2011!

I have been contemplating this morning the Goddess Jana and the God Janus. Janus is the Roman God of gateways and doorways, symbolising endings and beginnings, the past and the future. The month of January is named after Janus, so therefore Janus ushers us through the gateway into a New Year each turn of the calendar year.

Jana is the female version of Janus. Apparently Jana is just Diana in disguise. Whether She is or a completely separate deity in Her own right, I don't know. From what little I've read, Jana and Janus were said to represent the Sun and the Moon and the highest of all the Goddesses and Gods. Given the influence the Sun and Moon have over the Earth, I can certainly understand why this would be.

It just gives me pause to think about how the old Pagan ways still influence us today and how many of us blindly go through our lives not recognising it. Actually, I've spent a lot of time contemplating this all holiday season but today is no different. So much harks back to the old ancient ways: our days of the week and some of our months are named after Goddesses and Gods, customs and traditions, folklore. I've even seen evidence of some influence on architecture. Many years ago, when my husband and I lived in our old flat, Janus was there. Our flat was a conversion flat (for US folks, this means it was a house converted into flats). The whole street was largely made up of conversion flats. The amusing-to-me part was that all of the houses had largely the same structure and nearly all of them had a gateway arch leading to the front door of the building with a plaque of Janus above it. There were a scant few that didnt, but I believe they probably had Janus plaques originally but the plaques were taken down at some point. These houses were all probably built somewhere in the early 20th century and yet the tradition of having a Janus gateway remained. Fascinating!

So I honour Jana and Janus today on this inaugural day of their month. In numerology, it's also an interesting day as it's 1/1/11. I don't know much about the meaning of this and articles found on the web vary in their wisdom. If one adds up 1/1/11 it comes to 4, but if one includes the full year and adds up 1/1/2011 it comes to 6. Still, some view the number 11 on it's own because it's a master number with it's own significance. I leave the experts to decide, but clearly it's special.

Instead, I've consulted my copy of "Colours & Numbers" by Louise Hay which uses numerology to suss out the vibrations specific to you for the year, month and each day. According to the calculations in this book, my personal year number is 7, which means 2011 will be a particularly spiritual year for me with lots of "inner" things going on. So no change for me really! lol It just means more meditating in Avalon and more wearing of purple and violet!

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season! All hail Jana as She guides us through the gateway of the New Year!

International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

2010-12-17T20:29:00.000Z

My heart is at Crossbones Graveyard tonight. Today is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. Today in many locations around the world people are coming together for workshops and seminars, for marches and peaceful demonstrations, for candlelight vigils and prayer to honour this day and bring awareness to mainstream society that even in this modern day and age, women and men are targets for violence and intimidation because of the work they do.

This Day was founded by the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA in 2003 as a memorial for the victims of the Green River killer, Gary Ridgway, who is known to have killed over 70 women (although it's believe he killed more than 90), many of whom were prostitutes. In a confession, he admitted he targeted prostitutes because they were "easy to pick up and that he hated most of them". Since then, this Day has become internationally recognised as a call to end violence and intimidation against sex workers as well as to remove the societal disapproval and discrimination against sex workers.

When I learned of SWOP's efforts in the US, I was surprised to see that there was seemingly no organised effort in London to recognise this Day. London is famous for being the site of the Jack the Ripper murders, probably one of the first, if not the first, internationally recognised campaign of hate crimes against prostitutes in more modern times. For me, the Ripper murders still hit home as the sites of the murders are but 10-12 miles from where I live and I've done "the tour" and visited the most of the sites. The victims - Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly - are all buried in cemeteries that are but 5 miles from where I live. I previously lived less than a mile from one cemetery where several of these women were buried and passed it on a regular basis. Now I regularly pass by the cemetery where Mary Kelly is buried and I often think of her when I do.

Although the Ripper murders were a very long time ago, murdering prostitutes is still not unheard of in present times in the UK. Let us not forget a mere four years ago in Ipswich, Suffolk, five women - Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Annette Nicholls and Paula Clennell - all prostitutes were murdered by Steve Wright in 2006. I remember the many news stories about these shocking crimes and the relief of the nation when the killer was finally caught. But they never should have happened.

Crossbones Graveyard would have been the perfect location for a candlelight vigil, being the unconsecrated "single women's graveyard" (a euphemism for prostitutes), many of whom were no doubt subjected to violence, intimidation and threats throughout their lives. Unfortunately, the weather has been against me today. Although it would have been a beautiful to see a plethora of candles lit up against a clear night sky and a background of snow, I could not consider it safe when conditions are quite icy and the temperatures below freezing. I became aware, after organising the vigil at Crossbones, that someone else was organising another event to commemorate the day (with speakers and whatnot - and unfortunately the details are now gone from my Facebook) so I felt better for knowing that the day would not go unrecognised in London if I cancelled.

I do not know any statistics. I imagine they would be inaccurate anyway. The fact is that people who work in the sex industry are still stigmatised as being somehow less than human, less than worthy of protection or being treated with respect because of the work they do. The biggest perpetrator is society as a whole. Despite the radical changes in modern thinking over the last 100 years, sex workers are still viewed with disgust and disdain. This trickles down from the politicians, who won't do anything to change laws yet secretly partake of the entertainment offered by sex workers, the police officers who have no choice but to enforce the law and in some instances choose to enforce their own personal agendas by expressing their own personal bias against sex workers, the shady employer who threatens his employees with violence in order to keep them working and therefore supporting his way of life while his employees lack decent living conditions, health care and education, the client who cannot see beyond his own sexual urges to see the human being he is paying to entertain him as being an intelligent person worthy of respect, in some instances having no problem subjecting the sex worker to violence simply because s/he is a sex worker. Let us also not forget the religious organisations, not just Christian, who continue to demonise sex workers and sex in general as being immoral, using fear to keep people believing that sex and anyone engaging in it in any manner outside of a consecrated marriage is bad, wrong and worthy of open contempt.

For me, though, it goes beyond what happens in the secular sex industry. As a Priestess of the Goddess I have many Sister Priestesses and Brother Priests who serve Goddess through sacred sexuality, as sex therapists, as temple prostitutes, sacred courtesans, as quadishtu. For them, many feel this service must be in secret as their families, employers, co-workers, friends, etc. would not understand. They are every bit at risk of being subjected to violence and intimidation as those in the secular sex industry from those who would view their service as criminal and those who would take advantage.

It's clear that the time has come to stop criminalising sex workers and the sex industry. With de-criminlisation comes a new paradigm that sees sex workers being given respect, proper legal protection and treated like human beings. So it is on this day that we remember those sex workers who have been and still are subject to violence and especially those who lost their lives as a result. We remember you this day and call for change so that women and men working in the sex industry no longer become "easy targets".

Tonight I planned to invite people to make donations which would then be divided equally amongst the following organisations:-

The International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE) http://www.sexworkeurope.org/

x: Talk http://www.xtalkproject.net/

International Union of Sex Workers (IUSW) http://www.iusw.org/

All three organisations are doing important work, mainly in the UK, but also Europe to promote social acceptance of sex workers and campaign for the rights of sex workers through political and legal change. Please visit their sites and make a donation to support their work.

I also planned to read out the following poem by Jacqui Woodward-Smith. This poem has been read out many times on many occasions as it never ceases to bring a sense of empowerment. Tonight it would have been appropriate.

Blodeuwedd Rising (Song for Hazel)

Blodeuwedd, Magdalene of Springtime
Sweet flower face with wings of snow
You are the gateway to the seasons
Fierce in passion, eyes aglow

And You will rise in fearless beauty
Afraid of You, they change Your face
But we remember Your true nature;
Reclaim Your love, Reclaim Your place

Defiled and changed and called a whore
If whore You are then so am I
As whore I'll be Your temple priestess
And You will give me wings to fly

Reclaim the whore and rise in beauty
With Goddess spirit deep within
Knowing our own Goddess nature
How dare they name our passion sin!

No one can shackle or control You
Owl of Secrets, flying free
No chains to bind Your hungry spirit
With You beside, no chains on me

And we will rise in raging beauty
To be what we've been all along
When we can stand alone as equals
We will sing Blodeuwedd's song

They left us here in silent fury
Thought that they had won the game
But as we reclaim our ancient birthright
Blodeuwedd will rise again

And we will rise in naked beauty
Revealing all we have to give
Loving in the ways we choose to
Deciding how we want to live

They try to make us pretty blossoms
Deny our claws, deny our power
But we must claim our truth and freedom
To choose the owl, to choose the flower

And we will rise in powerful beauty
Surrender to Blodeuwedd's cry
She draws us to the path of moonlight
On owl wings we must learn to fly

No one has the right to harm us
To name and shame, abuse and scar us
Call us hag and call us bitch.
Reclaim the owl, reclaim the witch!

And we will rise in all our beauty
For we have heard Flower Face's call
Our bodies glowing with our passion
Both owls and flowers, Priestesses all!

©Jacqui Woodward Smith

Candlelight Vigil - Cancelled

2010-12-17T13:54:00.000Z

After much deliberation and then going out and getting snowed on and seeing how slick and it is out, I've decided to cancel tonight's vigil at Crossbones. I am sorry for any inconvenience caused. I did not come to this decision lightly. Please do join in the online vigil taking place all day today. Light a candle, say a prayer, make a donation and hold awareness in your heart. Stay safe and warm this weekend!