Our southern hemisphere year draws to a close this week.
With the New Moon, and eclipse on April 29, comes Samhain and the turning of the
wheel once more. This quarter day marks the descent into winter and begins a
New Year. Traditionally this is a time of close approach to those who have gone
before us. Mummery and games are associated with the twilight hours of Samhain,
now commercialised in Halloween celebrations by some cultures.
For the Homestead Project it is a turning point of a
physical nature too. We are moving North during May, going to a place where sea
and land meet, partly urbanised and partly wild. There we will apply what we
have learned to a different environment. To build new community relationships
we will be considering both human and natural world neighbours. The opportunity
to build bridges of understanding and communication between all types of life,
seen and unseen, is the central focus of the Project.
Samhain is the ideal time to look forward while honouring
and letting go of conditions now passing away. We have made many Life-long
friends and connections here. It is good to know that real energetic connection
with them is possible at any time, simply by placing our attention on them.
Like family members who have passed away, places and landscapes
retain their links with those who have connections to them. This is why many
people report feeling a heart-tug when they go back to a place that was
meaningful to them in childhood. It is not just pleasant memories being evoked
on these occasions. It is a real, though unseen, heartfelt connection with the Spirit
of the Place.
What is your current environment like? Does it please you
visually? Do you feel connected to the location? Does it support you in a
healthy life, responding to your initiatives to make it
beautiful, as you perceive beauty in and around you?
Some places sing to us, providing an energy that supports us
and our life activity. Others may not be so compatible with the type of life we
are or the activity we generate. Places change too, just as people do.
Intuiting a healthy relationship with place is just as important to our overall
wellbeing as healthy human relationships.
If you feel unsupported by life, or by the environment in which you
find yourself, try taking a quiet moment to connect to the Place. This exercise
can be both healing and informative. It is done by sitting quietly, without
using your mind to judge or analyse.
What impressions come to you through your body, through your senses?
Accepting those impressions as valid is the first step. Acting on those
impressions is the second. Most often this simple exercise allows the Spirit of
the Place to communicate the most beneficial way for us to Be together.
With regular practice you will build an intuitive relationship together
– one of mutual support and growth.
Happy New Year
