In the UK restrictions are beginning to be lifted. Many of us are starting to go back to work and school. There is a mixture of feelings in my groups and circles. Some are keen to embrace a new normal and others are worried about a second spike in Corona.
Kent Goddess Group met on Zoom to celebrate Litha/Summer Solstice. At this time we come together to celebrate the Mothers of Water. While for many the Solstice is all about the sun, seen by many as a masculine force, at the height of his power and we celebrate the longest day. However, a Kent Goddess Group Litha is a time where we focus on our emotional bodies. Kathy Jones describes the celebration of Litha in her book Priestess of Avalon, Preiestess of the Goddess. “Litha is the festival of the Glistening when we celebrate the Mother of Water on the longest day of the year. We honour Nolava of Water and Morgen Gliten who brings rain to Avalon, as well as Domnu, Lady of the Oceans, Queen of the Deep, from whose watery depths all life originally sprang. We celebrate Nolava as Lady of the Springs and Wells, especially in this land of springs and wells…the Mother of Water is Queen of all the Emotions and the great astral sea where most human beings live our lives. She nourishes the needy.” [Kathy Jones. Priestess of Avalon, Priestess of the Goddess: A Renewed Spiritual Path for the 21st Century (Kindle Locations 3897-3902). Ariadne Publications. Kindle Edition.] Honouring our emotional bodies is very resonant at this time of Covid 19. The focus of our ritual was to create and dress our own holy well to the Mothers of Water. Well dressing has ancient Pagan roots, a tradition of people making offerings to sacred wells and springs, often imbuing the waters with healing properties that they believed protected from pestilence. You might enjoy the Water Witch Annwyn Avalon’s Blog on working with Brigid as a water Goddess Water Witch Blog. This is a time of great feeling, great unrest, and emotional turbulence. We felt that we needed a ceremony for remembrance, we co-created a ritual considering all the things that we had “lost” over the past few months, the people who have passed over to illness, the loss of connection and community (often felt most keenly by those living alone and shielding). We remembered the NHS and Key Workers who have passed caring for the sick and vulnerable. We remembered those who are experiencing financial distress, the loss of businesses and jobs. We remembered those facing challenges to mental or physical health and struggling to access support. We remembered those front-line workers who have had to carry on putting themselves at risk providing essential services to the rest of us. We all shared a personal anecdote about what we had loss during this time. We asked the Mothers of Water to witness and to transmute that loss into healing. I would love to share our ritual with you. Litha Ritual 2020 – Remembrance In The Time of Covid 19 At this time of Litha we call to the Mothers of Water. Before we begin, we ask for blessing on ourselves and all the sisters of this circle, both those present and those in our hearts. Before us is a sacred well. In times past the it was believed to be a pagan custom of making a sacrifice to the Goddess for the gifts of fresh water and healing. Many Goddesses are associated with healing wells and springs from Brigid to Sulis to Minerva. Many people would have believed themselves spared from pestilence and plague due to the healing properties of sacred wells and springs. At this time of the Solstice I invite you to find a bowl of water to represent our own holy well and our sacred emotional bodies. If you are outside let the masculine sun energy glisten on your sacred well. If you are indoors feel free to light a candle to the sun and some incense to help create a sacred space for today’s ritual. If it is your practice to create a circle for your ritual, I would invite you to do that now. We will take a few moments to invite in a Mothers of Water… Hail to all the Mothers of Water Healing Mothers We call to you now And invite you to attend our ritual. Allow their presence to awaken within you, connect with them in this sacred time and place. Mighty Mothers, Queens of all sacred bodies of water We stand in your presence to petition you for healing We ask your protection for the vulnerable. We ask shielding for our key workers. We ask for healing for the sick. We ask for safe passage for those who have passed into the realms of the dead. We ask for healing for ourselves for the losses that we have endured, loss of liberty, of careers and business, of experiences and connections. We will pause of a few moments for each of us to comment on something that we have lost at this time to be passed to the Mothers of Water so she might heal or transmute that loss into love and remembrance. As you name a person, event, or situation, allow the Mothers of Water to come through to you to offer emotional healing. When you have named them put a flower, coin, or pebble into your scared well as offering to the Queens of the Deep and allow them to hold and witness our pain and sorrows as we begin our healing journey. PAUSE Mothers of Water we ask that you usher those who have passed into the Summer Lands, meet them and allay their fears. We ask that you ease the pain of those who mourn them. We ask for emotional healing. We remember that our tears are token of our collective grief and the coin for the boatman. Mothers of Water we ask for your continued protection. For those most at risk. Guard them and keep them safe. Bless those who look after the vulnerable in our community. Mothers of Water we ask that you keep safe the healers Send them your comfort and strength in these dark days. We ask protection of all key workers Who have sustained us during Covid 19. Mothers of Water, we ask you to transmute our current sorrows. For the opportunities lost. Businesses that have closed. Financial hardships that have been known. Mental health that has been challenged. For the isolation that has been felt. Pour upon us your compassion, your loving gentleness as we begin our journey to process and heal. Mothers of Water, be with us as we dive into our emotional depths Bless and sanctify the waters in our holy wells For you are the source and return We are refreshed and healed In these times of darkness reveal to us How we can serve and support each other Make us vessels for peace, unity, and solidarity. And So It IS. After the ritual we took the flowers and herbs that we had used for the well blessing to make smudge sticks. You may also harvest the "well water" for use in healing rituals or to take out as an offering to a nearby water source to continue to send out healing to the world. If you would like to find out more about Kent Goddess Group please follow us on Facebook here.
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Beltane, high spring and the launch into the summer season. A festival so often associated with fertility and sacred union. Nature is blossoming and usually so is our social calendars. This year there will be no gathering in large numbers, local events like the Hastings Jack in the Green Festival have been cancelled. Many groups and circles are exploring different ways of connecting online via social media and conferencing sites. Kent Goddess Group will be meeting on Sunday 3rd May on Zoom and our plans include having a stir-up and (if we have all managed to get some flour) and mixing banana bread. For our craft we are making mini maypoles or priapic wands and you can find a tutorial over at Moody Moons here. Our ritual is adapted from Jason Mankey’s A Solitary Beltane Rite: The Magick of Joining, from his website “Raising The Horns”. This ritual really spoke to me it identifies that Beltane is more than just a fertility festival and often looking through lenses reduces things down to the binary and make connection solely about biological functions is reductive and our paganism is so much more broader and inclusive. In this time of Corona where so many of us are in isolation Jason’s ritual seemed really evocative as wherever we are and however we are celebrating Beltane we can always make time and space to invite the divine to come and join with us. Jason very kindly gave me permission to adapt and video the ritual to be shared with the Pagan Federation’s Virtual Garden, an online event from Beltane to Summer Solstice. You can find a link to the event here. I cannot help but wonder, is this solitary ritual, being shared in so many ways is it still a solitary ritual? We may be socially distanced but are we as a community exploring different ways of coming together. I know many people in the disability community have commented that when the broader society is in lockdown there seems to be a much greater push for using technology for greater inclusion. While I do hope that we all come out of this soon I hope we can encourage organisations and events to consider how they can nurture what we have learned in lockdown and use the potential to create more inclusive community ritual events in the future. So my solitary Beltane celebrations have included a meditation (in which I fell back to sleep but I think my higher self knew that I needed a bit more rest). A few oracle cards pulled. I liked this spread from Myna Moon. I used Sue Allsworth’s Chakra Oracle Cards 1. Fire: What ignites my passions? I drew communication and this really resonated with me. I love engaging with people and lockdown has really inspired me, I am really exploring different ways of connecting and communicating with people, using Zoom, Facebook Life and creating video’s. I have also explored more collaborations participating in Janet Groom’s Uplift Project and Warriorkind Women and their Online Art Exhibit. I’ve completed another NaPoWriMo month and my poetic offerings can be found over at A Little Black Phone With My Poems In. 2. Virility: Where do I get my strength and energy? I drew present. I think this is more inspiration for what will leech away our strength and passion. All we have is this current moment. Looking too far back or forwards usually robs us of the gift of the now. Lockdown is scary, people are worried for their health, of losing loved ones, jobs financial security. While we should be mindful of what is going on in the world it can really be kind to keep social media consumption to a minimum. To reach out to people who fill us up. Maybe step back from the things that drain us. I know for me the 6pm evening bulletin is enough for me to keep informed but not overwhelmed. 3. Sexuality: What attracts others to me? I drew soar, it is a beautiful card with a little witchy woman flying up to a full moon. I am attracted to those people and opportunities that raise me up. Life is too short to stay around people or situations that drag you down. I have history with inviting into my life individuals who are not interested in integrating their shadows. They become embroiled in the performative aspects of their suffering. Reliving their traumas, I know, I KNOW I have been guilty of this too. Every life experiences pain and we really do have to face it, process it and heal it. If you do not commit to doing it, you’ll always be mired to it, your ability to soar is grounded. 4. Commitment: What should I commit to during this time? I drew compassion. These are incredibly divisive times. People are judging the government, and how lockdown is being implemented. We have judged those that hoarded or ‘bent’ the rules on social distancing. Even the heron Captain Tom who raised £23,000,000 for the NHS polarised, those who thought it was an heroic undertaking to those who condemned the need to fundraise for services that we pay for through taxation. These are valid discussions and we should hold our political leaders to account but there is great deal of judgement of people rather than of ideas. I am currently reading Judgement Detox by Gabby Bernstein. In the book Gabby explores how judgement is usually against ourselves leading to feelings of shame and guilt that overtime I project onto others, which then leads to more disconnection and isolation and that judgment cycle continues to perpetuate. Commitment to compassion for ourselves and others helps us to challenge the addictive patterns of judgement, 5. Union: How can I deepen my relationships? I drew faith, I think my faith is a great comfort to me in these times. I have faith that this situation will pass. I have faith that although some people are coming from a place of fear, and there is absolutely no judgement here it really can be scary, and uncertainty hits us in waves. I have absolute faith in my ability to lift others up and to be lifted up in turn. My faith moved my family home before the lockdown was implemented. I work in Further Education and the last day before the college closed students were cooking and making up food parcels for our most vulnerable learners. I helped to pack up bags and someone started humming, “We’ll Meet Again”. I have absolute faith that we will. |