Spring gardening and another giveaway!

This spring has brought with it a flurry of creating, and preparing for the immense gardening plans I have, and my new pre-occupation with Biodynamic beekeeping, gardening and mead making!

This all came about after I finally had a goodly amount of time to spend with one of dear friends who is now Biodynamic farming that I realized how in keeping Biodynmic rhythms are working with the land and bees to my own philosophy. It did not hurt that her descriptions of it sounded like mostly making large batches of witches potions during the full moon to pour into the garden either!

Below is my spring offering/giveaway, the colors are full of rich greens which reminds me of spring.  The piece is is all cryscolla and turquoise, and will be shipped anywhere in the world to whomever wins it!

The rules are super easy, you can either leave a comment below, or pop on over to my facebook page and hit the “Like” button of this photo, leave a comment or “share” the photo, spread the word far and wide, that I am having a giveaway and everyone can play!

 

 

Priestessing life

Recently I was talking to a good friend about an exciting project I am working on, and what it means to be a priestess, she wondered how it translates into my everyday life, which I thought was a great question, and I thought  about it long after the conversation was over…..

Since my life is dedicated to the divine feminine, {which also includes a balancing act with the divine male} priestessing is what I do everyday. As a woman I  am very aware that I carry the divine essence of  woman inside me at all times and this spills out into everything I do as a mother, wife, artist, priestess etc…

This constant inner knowing has not been something that has come easy for me, because  although I knew it in my head for a long time, it was through many tough life lessons that I was finally able to come to an inner heart centered understanding of what truly embodying, and being true to myself is all about, and this in turn enables me to embody the divine feminine.

Recently I posted a quote over at our Moon Mysteries Facebook Page that got great responses from woman, and I would like to share it again here because it seems to sum up the essence of what we as women all carry within us, the essence of the divine feminine:

“Before we were conceived, we existed in part as an egg in our mother’s ovary. All the eggs a woman will ever have form in her ovaries when she is a four-month-old fetus. This means that the sacred egg that developed into the person you are now, formed in your mother’s ovary when she was growing in the womb of her mother. Each of us, male and female, spent five months in the womb of our grandmother, rocking to the pulse of our grandmother’s blood. And our mother spent five months rocking to the pulse of her grandmother’s blood, and her mother pulsed to the beat of her grandmother’s blood. Back through the pulse of all the mothers and all the grandmothers, through the beat of the blood that we all share, this sound can return us to the pre-conscious state, to the inner structure of the mind, to the power and the source of who and what we actually are: the pulsing field of all consciousness existing everywhere, within everything, beyond past, present, or future.” By Layne Redmond

As an artist I see everything I do within my family as an opportunity to be creative, from making dinner and baking, to setting up my home in as many creative and beautiful ways as possible.  I am aware that my daughter and son are watching me and learn as much from what I do not say, as from what I tell them with words. This is part of that divine pulse that we all feel and partly, I am sure why I am so  called to make drums!

This is also where motherhood as a spiritual practice becomes just as important as my shamanic work and dedications to the spirit world.

I have learned a valuable lesson over the years as a shamanic witch, and that is how important my family is to my spirit work. For you see family grounds me deeply and keeps me here, as my tendencies are to drift over the hedge and into other worlds, but doing this too much, for too long is unhealthy and can make a person crazy faster then the wink of an eye.

I find that the deeper and deeper I go into my spirit work, the more it can’t help but show up here, in my sacred jewelry and in my priestess work, perhaps those of you who have read a post or two here over the years have noticed, or wondered just how deep my spirit work goes?

This has been something that I have kept very private for well over a decade, but now I am being asked to share and to speak more openly about. So it is with great care, and a little bit of excitement in my belly that you may have noticed a few things beginning to change in my posts and offerings.

In the meantime, here in Vancouver the rain continues on just as the spring makes it’s own quiet way into the buds on the trees and the growing daffodils of which a small clump popped unexpectedly up right in front of my outdoor altar/shrine to my complete surprise and delight!

The kids are home for March break and we have been spending long quiet days reading, staying up late, baking, and drinking tea, and crafting spring themed things for the Equinox tomorrow!

The best of  last week was a birthday gift that one of my dearest friends gave me, which was a gift certificate to a local fabric shop that also has sewing lessons, so Zahra and I have been learning how to sew! Our first mission was to make her the cutest little skirt, made from the best fabric with Amanata mushrooms all over it! Zahra chose it herself to my complete delight!

You see I have wanted to not only be able to sew things for myself, but I have been dreaming of all the cute things I could sew my kids, unfortunately the stage when they were tiny and would allow me to dress them in whatever my heart desired has passed, but my other dream was to teach them how to sew for themselves, Zubin seems only mildly interested because he can’t imagine what he could sew for himself that would be cool.

Zahra on the other hand already has at least 10 projects in mind for herself, and it is my secret hope that she will grow into one of those teenagers that makes herself awesome clothing that you just can’t get at at a store.

*sigh* Have I said it enough that letting go is the biggest part of parenting! I have to laugh at myself here, because it is so easy to forget that it is in the simple moments, the quiet ones that no one sees that true magic happens, and letting go is so hard, but when I remember to do it, when I remember that the single biggest part of the motherhood journey is letting go, I not only am able to do it with my kids, but also in my life and this is, in it’s most humble form, the life of a modern day priestess.

 

The Full Moon Wakes me…..

This week was International Women’s day a Full Moon and our Moon Mysteries talk at one of our most treasured and favorite book stores in the city Banyen Books and sound, a giant and stunning spiritual book store that feels like part library and part temple–seriously!

The book talk was amazing and we somehow managed to pack the room with the most amazing women who were right there with us about subjects from dealing with menstrual cramps, to honoring our moon blood cycle and discussing how we can raise our boys to have love and respect for the women in their lives around this time, it was inspiring to say the least.

I was sorry that our camera died though before we had a chance to get any good shots of us, but I did manage to take a photo of the beautiful altar we put together for the talk, it really was beautiful!

Besides all of the the excitement of having Nao in town from Honey Grove and staying with me, for both work purposes and an exciting creative project we have on the go, the full moon was extremely powerful this month and would not allow me to get any sleep, and when I did it was all wild dreams and tumbles through a shamanic landscape.

This is a shot from our back deck, it was stunningly beautiful and had a full rainbow halo around it, which you can sort of see here.

Ever since I have been filled up and full of ideas and inspiration like only the full moon can bring, now if only I could get some sleep!

Have a beautiful week-end everyone!

 

 

Right Now

In this Moment I am:

~ drinking chai from a big mug and putting together a birthday present for a dear friend.

~ preparing for an adventure over to the Island to spend some time with my coven Hollow Bone Serpent.

~ thinking about an exciting new project I am working on and looking forward to sharing it here.

~ wondering if I will get time today to work on making those beautiful new pendents from Bali into necklaces, I hope so because I have a ton of ideas brewing…..

~ looking at these lovely packages waiting to be shipped and feeling happy about the new brown paper envelopes.

~ thinking about the teachers strike and the great, but depressing article I just read on it.

~ feeling the arms of my daughter around my neck for a last minute snuggle before school.

~ feeling very grateful for her and for my life.

~itching to get outside and into the garden and wondering when the last of this snow will leave.

~ passing by my red bee hive boxes and getting excited for spring and bees!

~ thinking about making some sacred mead with my friend Sarah.

~ wondering when I am going to get over to Honey Grove Farm for that visit!

 

~Hoping that you all have a beautiful and relaxing week-end!~

The wheel turns, the seasons pass, and the bees buzz

Last week was a sad one for this beekeeper, as I set out to a task that I have been avoiding for at least a week now. You see every year in the spring beekeepers all around the world hold their breath and crack open the lids of their hives for the first inspection and to offer the bees a pollen patty or honey to see them through the rest of the winter and cold spring.

This year I knew that one of my hives was not doing well, when I went int during a sunny day in early winter I noticed some mold growing, which usually means that the bees are weak and not cleaning their house, which all bees do, for bees keep immaculate homes going outside to pee and poo as well.

Then about 10 days ago on another sunny day I went in to feed the bees and noticed only a handful alive and a ton of mold growing everywhere in one of the hives, I was so sad that I could not even think straight, so I sat and meditated for awhile, sent them loving healing thoughts and did what every beekeeper has to do, I left them alone.

Then finally the sun was shining and I knew that I needed to do another check, and well, sure enough as I held my breath, and looked in on the bees they were all gone, not one single bee was alive and the box smelled like fermenting honey.

Tears stung my eyes, my chest heaved up and down and spoke to them as I had when they were alive, “well girls I guess this is goodbye–thank you for being with me on this journey.”

I then set about my sad task, determined that it would be a positive one by the time I was done.

With hives where the bees have been sick, there is no saving the frames or the honey it all has to be thrown out. Now if I lived on a big acreage I would burn them, but since I live in the city my options are pretty small and I was left having to throw the frames out, as you can see the comb and honey was full of mold and clearly not healthy looking.

Once that was done I gently dug a small hole in the back garden and shook the bees out into it, along with some offerings from the altar and quietly gave them a proper burial, which is a sad thing indeed, for there were at least 40.000 bees at the bottom of the box.

After I finished my task I  placed a rose quartz stone on top of the burial mound and left it with loving thoughts, and as I looked back into the garden and saw the empty space where the hive had been it very nearly made me sob out loud.

But there is hope in this story, so stay with me, yes it was a sad day indeed, but the circle of life turns and I knew that I must go on, and so I headed inside to paint one of my other bees boxes in anticipation of the spring when I can divide the healthy hive that is left, and have a second colony back!

This is the best part of beekeeping,  for the strong colony has a healthy living queen who is already {as I write this post} laying her spring round of eggs that will be hatching soon, soon, soon and then when I divide the colony into 2!. This means that I will not only have my second colony back, but it will be stronger, because as I now know this colony is a strong breed, and the most holistic way to keep strains of healthy bees going is to divide them and make 2.

Here is a photo of my newly painted hive I painted using some of the natural pigment I bought in England last year for this very purpose in Red, yes Red! I have been wanting to paint my hives Red ever since discovering just how red the propolis the bees coat the inside of their hives with, and well with Red being such a sacred color to me I have been feeling pretty excited about the whole thing, then I discovered the inspiring work of The Red Bee folks just outside of New York, and I just simply could not resist!

So there it is, there are no bees actually living inside of this hive, but with a few more coats of paint and some warmer weather as the wheel turns, I will be set to fill it once more with the sweet sound of buzzing bees~

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sweet smell of earth

The weather has been warmer and I have been out to check on the bees, noticing that the garden has started to come alive with bulbs and shoots, and there is that familiar smell in the air…

The musty smell of dirt mixed and teaming with the smells of new green life.

I paid a visit to the outdoor shrine today, cleaning it off and making my usual offerings, there is a new addition of a small spirit house that came at christmas that I am pleased with,and that I have a feeling the spirits are pleased with too~

There is much news on the bee front to report, but I shall have to save that for another blog post, for as usual the bees had many lessons waiting for me this spring…

In the meantime I take up my new post as an initiate in service to the earth with a stone that now sits in a special place in the garden, the stone is a symbol of my commitment to tend and respect the earth as best as I can. This means a fresh start with composting, which has been neglected this past while,  as well as to my garden which has been neglected since our summer trip to Europe where it was pretty much left to it’s own devices and as a result is a wild thing that does not look as pretty as one might expect!

Yes the smells of earth have drawn me outside, and refreshed my inspiration and commitment to the little garden plot of earth over which I have guardianship, for now at least…

The stone sits covered with rain and morning dew, with frost and whatever elements the earth brings that day. When I visit I bring offerings of  small pebbles and rain water and sit for a moment remembering my commitment.

If you should ever fancy to pop by my garden, there is a small gate that will lead you behind the house and into it, where you will see the apple tree that loves to have ribbons tied into her branches, the altar shrine that has an ever moving amount of offerings on her, the medicine wheel garden that always needs tending, and of course the bees, ever humming and dancing about the gardens flowers, and now this beautiful stone which loves to be covered with water….. no offering is ever too small, and…

All are welcome in the garden…