Prepare for Halloween

Ms. Skeleton says, "Trick or Treat!"

This week we've been preparing for Halloween, with daily fun activities. Our oldest grandson has been talking about Halloween for months now - this is the first holiday he has a clear memory of.

Last year he learned all the iconic images of the season - pumpkins, ghosts, skeletons, spiders, and bats - and this year he brings them into conversation - If someone says the word candy he replies, "Trick or Treat!"; If he sees a pumpkin or a ghost he says, "Ooo, scary." (He is also very interested in "blo-o-o-od".

The build up to Halloween is all about shifting to a darker phase of the year; darkness isn't bad, but it can be frightening, and having fun with fear is part of the process, something even a three-year-old can appreciate.

Agenda

1. Unity with pumpkins

2. Decorate inside and out

3. Cook pumpkin curry

Unity Art for Pollinators

Bees, butterflies, and other pollinators are in dramatic decline. I want to support them, and find ways I can forge a stronger connection between us, so I've been applying my Unity Art practice to pollinators.

Unity Art is a process that opens the doors of creative healing to anyone, any age, any ability. My intention is to use my creative fire to forge a stronger connection between me and the pollinators.

Agenda:

1. Set pollinator intentions
2. Collect photos of pollinators

3. Mindful bee watching

4. Wild garden practices

Make My Dreams Reality

I have a dream of a world where people are an integral part of nature and we show our love and respect with our actions every day; a world where people have a growing awareness of how to change our habits to care for the earth, and a growing and expanding love, to shift us all towards life.

I read the phrase "transformative eco-justice" on a webpage a few months ago, and it has been hanging in my heart: My dream is to live that transformation, and teach about it. 

Agenda:

1. Read "How to Manifest"

2. Write an invocation

3. Starting

July Sabbath for Creation

The month of July is a golden time of passion and activity. Nature celebrates the peak of its power, the sun reaches her highest point, and I do the same; every day I get to share my light with the world. I put my best and brightest energy into my projects, my garden, and my art. I seek out chances to be courageous, and extend myself beyond what’s comfortable.

The question for July is How do I shine through the clouds?

“Hold the sadness and pain of samsara in your heart and at the same time the power and vision of the Great Eastern Sun. Then the warrior can make a proper cup of tea.”

~ Chogyam Trungpa

Agenda:

1. Keeping the Sabbath

2. All day abundance meditation

3. Read "How to Manifest"

4. Make a vision board

5. Set intentions

Medicine Art for Winter Rains

We have a paradoxical relationship with rain. Rain gives us life - we can't survive without it, but it's so inconvenient; we like to complain about it, and try to avoid being caught out in it. We sometimes find it dismal and depressing. (I certainly got tired of rain, as a young person who had to walk to school in it EVERY DAY; and not just gentle showers, but cold, sideways driving rain that penetrated every part of you...)

The importance of rain is undeniable; we need rain, and we are so lucky to have an abundance of it still in my valley. Many parts of the earth have an ever scarcer rainfall, and water conservation there is crucial. 

We are all (de facto) connected to nature because we are a part of nature, but we have built walls to keep nature separate, because our culture is human focused; we've been taught that we are more important than other parts of nature, and that's a hard lesson to unlearn. 

News flash: We are NOT more important than rain!

Agenda:

1. Set a rainy intention

2. Exploring rain (puddle jumping)

3. Collecting rain (permaculture rainwater harvesting techniques)

4. Observing and predicting rain

5. Sounds of Rain meditation

6. Creating with rain

7. Sharing and Thanksgiving

New Year's Day

Today is the first day of a new year in my part of the world. I celebrate many beginnings throughout my year, but January 1 has emotional importance because it’s the New Year of my childhood. 

January gets its name from Janus, the two-faced Roman God of gates and doorways; it's a month to look back with reflection and forward with hope. I stand at the doorway of this coming year with my mind open and curious, without fear or judgment, and with hope for the gifts that the year will deliver.

As I stand here, I remember that not all gifts are rosy. I thank the Creator for the shadows and mysteries, and potent gifts of sadness. When I live in the reality of the moment more than in my hopes and expectations, I can receive the riches that are hidden within my most challenging experiences - the gifts of compassion, self-awareness, creativity, wisdom, patience, love, strength of character, and integrity.

Agenda for today:

1. Christmas retreat

2. Kwanzaa principles

3. Set the tone for the New Year

4. Comfortable with Uncertainty

5. Zen pause

6. Make Seed Charms

7. Eat Hoppin' John

3rd Day of Christmas

This is the third day of the twelve-day festal tide - a sacred, festive season. It gets harder on the third day to maintain a Sabbath mentality, and today we will returned to our regular grandchild-care duties, so my retreat will take on a different flavor. But maintaining a peaceful and joyful attitude in the midst of 2-year-old chaos is a valuable practice!

Agenda:

1. Christmas retreat

2. Kwanzaa principles

3. Creativity reading

4. Creativity goals for 2023

5. Prayer candle ceremony

6. Seed charms for the New Year

Our Guiding Light

This week of advent I focus on the Guiding Light of God. My image of God is the Creator Spirit of earth and sky, and the Love and Light that lives in all people. I think of Light as Truth, with a capitol T.

I try to live always awake and listening for the message of love, and always feeling a connection to Creation, but I often get distracted. I often feel disconnected, disengaged, and detached. This week I plan to take some time to heal my relationship with my Guiding Light.

Agenda:
1. Read a novena

2. Set an intention

3. Prayer journal queries

4. Watch Hogfather with a Friend

Observing November

November is colder and wetter, drawing me deeper towards winter. This is a month when I celebrate the final fruits of summer’s work, and remember to express my gratitude.

Blótmónað is the word for November in Old English; it means Sacrifice Month, but the sacrifice is joyful, as Persephone goes peacefully down to the underworld every year. Peace is the fruit of total acceptance. In November I see the circle of life in all its full roundness - as it blossomed in spring and as it dies in fall.

This is a time to purge, to give or throw away things I don’t need, give up habits I don’t want, and pare down my activities to make time for introspection.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Earth Path"

2. Ground and Expand

3. Name and Journal

4. Simple life

Halloween

Halloween is the modern name of the ancient Irish and Scottish holiday of Samhain (pronounced SOW-win), a Celtic-Gaelic word meaning “summers-end”. It begins at dusk on October 31, and marks the doorway to the dark half of the Celtic year, the opening of a new cycle.

In the 7th-century CE the Pope established All Saints’ Day, originally on May 13, and in the following century it was moved to November 1. The evening before All Saints’ Day became a holy, or hallowed, eve and thus Samhain became Halloween.

The Reformation put an end to the religious holiday among Protestants, although in Britain Halloween continued to be celebrated as a secular holiday. The celebration of Halloween was mostly forbidden among the early American colonists, until the 1800s.

Agenda:

1. Make a costume

2. Carve a pumpkin

3. Trick or Treats

Sabbath for Souls

Today is my Sabbath, and also the day before Halloween, which marks the doorway to the dark half of the Celtic year, the opening of a new cycle. The early Gaels believed that the border between this world and the otherworld became thin at this time of year, and so spirits of the dead could visit the living.

This is the time of year to welcome home the souls of your ancestors. But I definitely feel some angst regarding my relatives who moved here to the "New World" to take it away from the Native Peoples, and who bought into the false American Dream, built on the subjugation of so many other living beings. 

Today I plan to spend the day opening my heart and healing our soul connection.

Agenda:

1. Medicine Art for souls

2. Study genealogy and anti-racism

3. Make Pan de Muerto, Bread of the Dead

4. Have a soul ceremony

5. Offer ongoing support for my ancestors

Prepare for Halloween

Ms. Skeleton is waving.

This week we've been preparing for Halloween, with daily fun activities. Our grandson knows something is up - he doesn't know what Halloween is yet, but loves to point out all the pumpkins (he says "orange pumpkin" pretty clearly!) and he is learning to recognize all the iconic images of the season - ghosts, skeletons, spiders, and bats.

For me, the build up to Halloween is really about shifting to a darker phase of the year; darkness isn't bad, but it can be scary, and having fun with fear is part of the process, something even a two-year-old can appreciate. 

1. Make spiders

2. Decorate inside and out

3. Medicine Art for Pumpkins

4. Cook pumpkin curry

Medicine Art for Autumn Leaves

I'm designing a Medicine Art practice that I can teach and share, that will open the doors of creative healing to anyone, any age, any ability. The goal for my practice is to heal our connection to the earth and Creation.

We are all (de facto) connected because we are a part of nature, but we have built walls to keep nature separate, because our culture is human focused; we've been taught that we are more important than other parts of nature, and that's a hard lesson to unlearn. And when we begin to care more about nature it's easy to become overwhelmed, and then we need more walls to protect ourselves from feelings of anger and guilt.

Last week I shared some Medicine Art practices and projects for fall seeds that included the intentional steps of collecting, observing, preparing, creating, sharing and giving thanks. What I'm finding is that it's easy to find ways to connect to the earth, and  - with intention - any simple task (even a chore) becomes a path to healing.

Agenda:

1. Set leafy intentions

2. Collect leaves as a sacred activity

3. Observe leaves (with kids)

4. Observe leaves (with adults)

5. Create leaf mold to cultivate abundance

6. Leaf mold thanksgiving

Medicine Art for Fall Seeds

I'm designing a Medicine Art practice that I can teach and share, that will open the doors of creative healing to anyone, any age, any ability. The goal for my practice is to heal our connection to the earth and Creation. 

We are all (de facto) connected because we are a part of nature, but we have built walls to keep nature separate, because our culture is human focused; we've been taught that we are more important than other parts of nature, and that's a hard lesson to unlearn. And when we begin to care more about nature it's easy to become overwhelmed, and then we need more walls to protect ourselves from feelings of anger and guilt.

Each Medicine Art step is a normal action that we do all the time. For example, let's say today you plan to make vegetable soup: You run out to the store or your garden to collect veggies, you prepare them by washing and cutting, you create the soup, and you share it with your family, perhaps giving thanks. With a little extra effort, the soup-making can become an intentionally healing process. When we do each action as a meditation, a prayer, everything we do in life can be a way to heal.

Today I want to share some Medicine Art practices and projects with fall seeds.

Agenda:

1. Collect seeds as a sacred activity
2. Observe seeds (with kids)

3. Dry seeds with care

4. Make seed packets

5. Bird seed Thanksgiving

We Need A Paradigm Shift

The dictionary defines a paradigm shift as "an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way."

Maybe we can all agree that our way of living with the earth is not working (as illustrated by the world-wide devastation, flooding, fires and drought). With all the bad events we've been having, our ancestors would have known that the earth was not happy, and would have devised some kind of charm or ritual to try to bring us back into balance, and prevent further catastrophe.

We have the advantage of science and the internet, but all but the best thinkers are confused about what to do. It's overwhelming. We can each only do what we can do. So, we each need to define for ourselves the change that needs to happen, and our specific calling to help create that shift.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Earth Path"

2. Set sacred intentions

3. Open to help

Autumn Equinox

The autumn equinox occurs today at 6:04 p.m. in the Pacific Northwest. Summer is over and darkness will again catch up to the light.

Now the rains have begun (hallelujah!), Canadian geese are on the move south, the leaves are turning and beginning to drop, and night temperatures are cooler. Everything in nature is paring down, and moving energy to the roots and into the earth.

This is the second balancing point in the year; in the fall we might gently shift our attention from the physical side of life to the spiritual and mental, to indoor projects and thoughtful pursuits. As the nights lengthen, we have more dark time available, to be alone and to think; to become clear about our intentions; to nurture inner seeds that may not sprout until spring.

Mark the Start of Autumn:

1. Journal queries

2. Fall possibilities list

3. Wise Medicine Collecting

4. Autumn nature tray

5. Make a straw doll

6. Fall cleaning