Thursday, November 29, 2018

Avebury: "How Do We Speak With the Earth"?


"Speak to the Earth and it shall teach thee"
.....Job 12:8


I didn't realize it before I set out, but I knew that I was going on a pilgrimage when I set foot in the airport for this trip, which  I booked without any real  planning, but a lot of intuitive and spontaneous desire, in summer.  The Metaphor here is the Circle, and the  Circle has no end.

I was googling around last summer when I learned of the Gatekeepers    Conference "Dreaming the Land" in Pewsey, U.K., in the cold month of November.  For  fun, I checked to see if there were any discount tickets to London during that off season time of the year, and indeed there were.  I'm not sure what possessed me, but the next thing I noticed was that I had my credit card out, and I was going to Great Britain again, after some 7 years. (The Isles of Bride, Bridget, Bree, the Roman Britannia...I wonder how many people know that Britan is linked to the name of the most ancient Celtic Goddess? ) 

I decided to  go to those special places I went to before,  and listen to the land, to any conversations that might occur, and any  synchronicities or insights as well as I entered into the  liminal zone of being a traveller .  I didn't realize until I found myself uncomfortably standing in a long customs line at Heathrow (you can do a lot of thinking, in a long customs line) that I was completing a few personal Circles as well as well as seeking them on ancient sites.  I was last here  for the Goddess Conference in 2011, and when I returned to the U.S.  I became caretaker and for my mother and my brother,  until they passed on in 2015.  Now I find that my life calls for a new direction, but I don't know what that really might be.  

But it came to me, as I waited at the gate for entry  to both the UK and my personal journey of  pilgrimage that I had arrived with a  Question I hoped would inform my future work:   "How do we speak with the Earth?  And how does the Earth speak to us?" What does such a question mean? How is it important for us as beings inhabiting Gaia?

"We are living IN the Earth.  Not ON the Earth, but IN the Earth.
  And what we do to the Earth we are doing to ourselves."

...... Rachel Rosenthal

From Customs at last I made my way  to Paddington Station in London, then to to Swindon by train, then to Avebury by bus, and wholly  exhausted I stepped from the bus to see,  perfectly aligned  across from the bus stop in the mist,  the great prehistoric structure of Silbury Hill.  Before  me rose the great  Belly of the Goddess, the Omphalos of an ancient world.  

And  ever since, I believe  answers began to come to my question, as well as loops within my many "Circles".


At my AIRBNB  my host, Liam, had a deep relationship with  Avebury, and he told me about the placement and  names of stones and sites,  as well as introducing me to his library, including a book called THE SILBURY TREASURE  by Michael  Dames.  Situated just south of Avebury, Silbury Hill is Europe's tallest prehistoric structure.  Dames argues that Silbury, like other "neolithic Harvest Hills" represents the pregnant belly of the Great Mother in one phase of Her universal life.  Dames' brilliant exploration of an ancient theology in which the land itself, all of it's rivers, waters, stones and invisible currents was the very  Deity Herself............gives a whole new meaning to the "Return of the Goddess" concept.  Gaia, the Great Mother, long before she became Demeter, or Mary, or..........more on this in another post.

When I walked out to the Avebury complex through the little village of Avebury  I found the high and sparkling energies I remembered so well, an intensification of a deep life force vitality I have come to recognize when i am in sacred places, places of numinosity and  telleric force.  There is no doubt in my mind (or body mind) that these prehistoric sites marked places of power, as well as serving to intensify or channel the  animating, life giving  Earth energies  present  through placement of the stones.  I believe that these prehistoric sacred landscapes also augmented the healing and consciousness changing properties through the  interaction  of the people themselves with the "spirit of the land".  John Steele called this "geomantic reciprocity" . 

I stood before a  megalith that is part of two stones called "the Cove", one wide, one tall and narrow.  I think these impressive stones mark  one of the "entrances" to the inner circle, marking one of the avenues or processional paths.  Originally there were three stones in alignment with each other at that point, but one of the three was pulled down and broken by villagers.  Many of the original stones of Avebury became building material for the village of Avebury.

"Many people believe that every sacred place has its spiritual as well as physical guardians, and a physical guardian can manifest in many ways, including people who don't even know that that is what they are."....Gary Biltcliffe

I met a man who was dowsing the area, and we struck up a conversation. So immediate and friendly was recognition between the two of us  that although we must have talked and walked around for over an hour, I never did get his name.  


He told me  he had many times dowsed at Avebury, and that there were  "male and female" polarities or lines connected to the site and even particular stones.  He spoke about the St. Micheal Line and the St. Mary line, ley lines that extend for many miles across the lands of Britain.  They intersect at certain points at  Avebury.  He also spoke about "dragon lines" that were different although often complimentary to the ley lines,  serpentine lines or currents  of (force?  energy?) that interact with different points within the empowered landscape.      I need to inquire more about this, but I think, again, about a life long (and cultural) fascination with the serpent, the dragon, and the continual weaving of this motif through mythology and art.  

And there I was, among the winding Dragons under my very feet, the great Stones before me.



A journey ahead, an adventure, and I was just at the beginning!




Sunday, November 11, 2018

Slide Show for The Masks of the Goddess Project

Linda Johnson as "Bridgit".  Photo by Thomas Lux
Photo Copyright Thomas Lux (2001)
 In December it will be my pleasure and privilege  to be  giving a talk about the 20 year "Masks of the Goddess Project" at the Temple of the Goddess in Glastonbury, England. This is the slide show that will accompany my talk, I'm rather pleased with it!  I plan on  ending the Project this coming year, and donating and selling the Collection - it's time to let them go to new Storytellers and Priestesses, to do their work in the world.

My gratitude, as always, to the many friends and colleagues who have used the masks and supported their travels, as they filled with Story, Energy, Love, and Reverence, becoming part of the unfolding story of the Great Mother as told by many minds, hearts, voices, dancers, and dreamers. 

No artist could ask for more.

https://www.slideshare.net/laurenraine/the-masks-of-the-goddess-collection-2018


Monday, November 5, 2018

The Feast of Samhain..........Celebrated again!


Thanks again to all who came to our Feast of Samhain this weekend - the food and drink was wonderful, the Altar we made was lovely, and the stories and poems everyone brought inspiring and full of sweet remembrance.




Thursday, November 1, 2018

Orb Photos of Ginny Moss Rothwell for Samhain

Orbs, Halloween night, Downtown Tucson 2011 (photo by Ginny Moss Rothwell)

Blue orb

In a past post  I've shared the beautiful mosaic Shrines by Tucson artist  Ginny Moss Rothwell.  She is actually almost a neighbor, living in the same neighborhood.   Here's another past post about Ginny  that is worthy of being shared again, especially at the time of Samhain, Dia de Los Muertos, and Halloween.

Ginny is what I would call "an Orb Whisperer" as well as an extraordinary spiritual artist.  She has a great interest in orbs, and has taken many photographs of orbs over the years in many places, both at home and in very domestic situations, as well as at gatherings, festivals, and sacred ceremonies.  She is a researcher and an artist, and I find her photographs of orbs that occur in her studio, home, and other places she has visited not only quite amazing, but very  beautiful as well.  I actually was present once when she "requested" any spirits that might be present to manifest in her photographs in specific colors, and I was truly amazed when the photographs actually did come out in the requested colors!  What, perhaps, does Ginny have about her that makes her an Orb Whisperer?  I tend to think it is the fact that she is an artist, a lover of mystery and beauty, and perhaps most of all, friendly, co-creative play.  In other words, I think the "orb beings" like her!

Violet orb
No one knows what "orbs" really are.  I've embedded a video about a movie made in 2008 about the phenomenon at the very bottom of this post.  Wikipedia has an article by a cynic who is quite certain they are just  dust specks, and I'm a bit disappointed with Wikipedia over that, because especially after seeing Ginny's work, it's absurd to make such a claim.  Among other things, the photographs she takes definately show a kind of spacial sense, as if the orbs are receeding into the distance as well as growing larger in the foreground. 


Green orb
Ginny has not only photographed many "fields" of orbs in different places, which refute the "dust on the lens" idea since they clearly appear to receed into space, but, just as she has a friendly, interactive relationship with the birds and lizards that share her back yard, it would also appear she has a friendship with the invisible visitors as well.  I've seen her ask out loud if "anyone is there", and then taken photographs around her person. As I said, on occasion she has asked if "they" would present themselves in colors.  Which they often do!

Nature spirits?  Fairies?  Devas? Angels?  Spirits of the dead?  All part of a conversational world, and although we may not know exactly what or who these beings are,  I do think that they love to gather where ever there is creativity, beauty, and loving kindness.  Thank you Ginny for sharing your work!


Orb field in night sky, backyard.  Circled orbs on close up have the appearance of a "heart" shape within them, according to Ginny, who has examined the photo closely.



Christmas lights and orbs at Winter Haven - Ginny says they seem to manifest often at festivals and gatherings.



Orbs and a strange shape in the back yard by daylight


Orb photographed over head of JZ Knight at conference devoted to Orbs.  Photo by Ginny Moss Rothwell .  JZ Knight requested that attendees photo her while she lectured.

Friendly visitors on a warm Tucson night.




Orb in motion

Red orb