Ever since I was a small child, perhaps it\u2019s due to my Romany gypsy roots, I\u2019ve always felt connected to nature and to the changing seasons. As the wheel turns on the year, the world around us brings us subtle seasonal changes and refreshes the views from our windows and verandahs, and brings us new things to consider, always with a hearty splash of hope in my case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since migrating to Australia some five years ago, I\u2019ve always struggled with the Winter Solstice. To me the Winter Solstice, having lived in England and Ireland, was very much connected to Yule. However, this year, there was a subtle shift \u2013 whether inside of me or in the spaces around me \u2013 and I attended the above event \u2013 Dreaming Journey \u2013 with a wonderful group of \u2018strangers\u2019 and our warm host, Soraya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was with some trepidation therefore that I set off to what appeared to be a relatively normal looking house in Upper Ferntree Gully but upon entering the building, that subtle shift happened. I was drawn in. There is no other way I can describe it. There was an energy that pulled everyone together that day. Whilst there were some that knew each other, many of us did not and yet we all felt pulled into the warm and energising circle. We looked at books, images, and different boxes of cards, with one lady pulling a \u2018Honey Mother\u2019 card and showing Soraya, our host, who was clearly the Honey Mother that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we tentatively reached out to each other, our host made tea and as the cups were passed around, conversation began to flow. But not the awkward conversation of strangers, but a more open and free flowing dialogue. The door from the lounge room to the front porch stood open, giving a glimpse of the garden through the open doorway on a very cold but bright day. Cars came down the drive, each bringing an individual who had walked through the door with that same trepidation, holding a plate of food, and bringing with them their own energy and aura.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of us had bought items for the altar. I bought a glass sun catcher that catches the light and two herb bunches, one with rosemary and one with sage, both pungent in their aroma. Rosemary for protection and memory and sage to banish dark thoughts. I had also brought with me some of my essential oils which for me are essential to the Winter Solstice: clove, myrrh, and wintergreen. I cannot imagine the Winter Solstice without clove, and I scattered drops on my thick red and gold blanket, the warm sweet yet spicy smells permeating around me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also collected items, for ourselves, for each other, for the space, from the garden. Walking around the garden, looking at the buds already on the trees, contemplating that we were now at the shortest day and the days would begin to get longer and stretch their bright fingers towards spring. Collections of bracken, leaves and other garden treasures were sought and brought inside, either to furnish our circle or to add a splash of green to the altar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The circle opened fascinating dialogue; it spoke of intuition, of soul searching, of warmth and of creativity, all of us learning as we went, learning what made others tick. Perhaps more importantly for me, was the process of self-reflection and self-worth that we were all traversing through. Much of this self-reflection was channeled through a shamanic meditation experience, me wrapped in my blanket, the aroma of clove about me, listening to Soraya\u2019s soft voice walking us through the meditation, the shamanic drum music in the background calling to our inner spaces, calling us to feel its guiding rhythm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our appetites were soon awakening too, and Soraya spoke of stopping for lunch or just putting a \u201cheap of food\u201d on the table in the middle and so with most of us opting for a heap of food in the middle, the table was soon laden with warm, spicy dips and breads, middle eastern falafels, not to mention a divine homemade banana bread with a sweet oozy dip to dunk it into. Soraya also offered us mugs of her \u2018witchy brew,\u2019 a warming tea made of a base of rooibos but with grated ginger root, clove, star anise, orange, rose and hibiscus. Rich and almost syrupy in its texture that to me, was a mug of Winter Solstice incarnate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shamanic dreaming had also opened creativity as we all took a large sheet of thick paper and began to create our own sigils \u2013 based on our own experience during the shamanic meditation \u2013 choosing letters\/digits \u2013 to form the basis of an artwork. Mine was \u2018Portal to Discovery\u2019 so I took the P2D and drew these into a symbol and began to sketch around this symbol. I ended up with a powerful sketch of my imagined portal, with a bare tree adjacent underneath a crescent moon. We all had different experiences and after an hour or so of drawing and sketching, playing with colours and images (not to mention drinking more of that fabulous witchy brew), we shared our stories and our visions. The artwork was all so very different, even though they had been borne out of us sharing that ritualised space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The day was all encompassing, the dialogue surprising and varied, and really something for everyone from hermeneutics, wealth, and quantum physics to ancestry, self and of course spirituality. Through meditation, art, music, and dialogue, it reminded me to take time for myself, reminded all of us to take time for ourselves, and above all to realise that \u2013 to echo the words of Albus Dumbledore \u2013 that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ever since I was a small child, perhaps it\u2019s due to my Romany gypsy roots, I\u2019ve always felt connected to nature and to the changing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[68,8,54,10],"class_list":["post-1521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mountain-life","tag-bethany-sinclair-giardini","tag-mountain-ash-chapter","tag-mountain-life","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_5449-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pff1uY-ox","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2097,"url":"https:\/\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/?p=2097","url_meta":{"origin":1521,"position":0},"title":"A day in the life of the Mountain","author":"Bethany Sinclair-Giardini","date":"August 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As I think any writer has experienced, people are always a little intrigued by your writing. 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