Away with the Faeries...

Having recently been accused of being 'away with the faeries', so I took particular pleasure in doing just that last week...

I went away with a group of wonderful and inspiring people to Lough Arrow, Co. Sligo, Ireland. A time to breathe, heal and come back to myself while wandering in the wild places...

Walking the sacred land in wind, rain, sun and even hail...

To huddle in cairns and caves while wondering if I could fly...

...to dream of the Morrigan...

...and be lost in the mists of time...

...to hear the stories of the Tuatha de Danan and the Battle of Moytura...

...of Duirmuid and Grainne...

...to feel the Gille's tears of grief fall upon us at Lough Gill...

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..and meet Queen Maeve at the very top of the world...

Seeking Self and Finding Bare Bones II

'Before I die, I want to stand on an ice sheet and in an orange desert and see nothing but vast sky.'

 

I didn't dream of travel particularly; I was a home bird who liked being in England and at most longed to visit the ancient sites of the British Isles and Ireland. I was the last of my (three, younger) siblings to really travel in the true sense of the word. I couldn't wait to leave school and go to Art College so having a gap year was very far from my mind. Also I admit I was terrified of the idea! Despite leaving home to go to college, then moving to London soon after and virtually disappearing from the family landscape in my twenties, I needed my friends and soul family more than they ever knew.

Life moves in waves both destructive and creative. A gradual building up and gathering of people, places, somewhere to work, to call home and then things fall apart and disintegrate in your hands like dust only to pull back and move through to the next wave. Beneath it the sandy beach of your soul undulates and changes, old beliefs eroding and others revealed as treasures - curled shells upon the golden curve of Self.

It is only later in life that one acknowledges an undercurrent of restless energy, of courage and calling. Something reminds you of a story once read long ago where the heroine stood alone in a desert and understood profoundly her own being for the first time in her life. How profoundly that touched you and your young self, but what to do with it? Pocket it away until you have lived enough to need it...



Frozen Lake

Orange Desert

Arctic Art

My thoughts return to the Arctic often, even in summer, but it doesn't feel right to post about the cold lands when the wheel turns warmer. We've had a couple of weeks with spring in the air but now we're once again amidst wind, sleet and snow and so I thought I'd take the opportunity to get one more Arctic post in.

The Arctic has intrigued me for many years, ever since I was in my teens and started reading in earnest.  It inspired me even before I had set a snow boot upon ice.  I'm the child with a slither of ice in her heart, her eye, her soul.  Not in the way of frozen emotions but instead using ice as lens, a clear eye, an enhanced vision of myself and therefore the way I express that.

Once I knew I was definitely going to Sweden it was as if the floodgates opened.  I met the group I was going with in the October before we went, spending a weekend sitting in circle and sharing our journeys to this place.  Lots of connections of having been to 'Rivenstone' at the same time, mutual friends and acquaintances.

We did a visualization to meet our inner guides and took turns to sit in the yurt in the depths of night, keeping the fires burning and wolves at bay.  We wrote letters to ourselves to be received at an unknown date, our innocent curious selves meeting our knowing adventurous selves.

Here are some of the visual pieces I created before travelling to the Land of Snow and Ice…

'Arctic Hare and I' (c) Amber Caspian (Monoprints, Oil Painting & Drum Bag)

Seeking Self and Finding Bare Bones I

For years I have longed to travel, not having taken a gap year before college or starting work, it felt as though a rite of passage hadn't been taken.

In the past I had regarded myself as more of an armchair traveller, a seeker after inner truths journeying on the rhythm of the drum or the dream, rather than someone likely to do so physically. This changed as I changed and became a strong yearning for adventure.  I felt trapped in my job, despite enjoying many aspects of it, and I was tired of the 'safe' life that stretched before me.

One day I stumbled upon a book called 'Soulcraft' by Bill Plotkin that seemed to answer a number of questions.  Working in a shamanic way with nature, the ritual telling of one's story to the land, going deep, feeling the giant 'YES' to Self, to Life, to living without fear all spoke directly to me.  I loved the way that beautiful poems were used to connect to soul. It appeared that others were aware of the sharp edge of Fear against the soft flesh of Self, and the call that comes to shake the false image of oneself so that the truth you were born with could re-emerge.

Later while at 'Rivenstone' in Dartmoor I saw a presentation, given through letters, diaries and poems, by several women who had travelled to Arctic Sweden on a creative and spiritual retreat.  At the end I said with great intention - I want to do that! - and I signed up for information.  The following year I received a leaflet and realised I couldn't afford to go, so I put it aside with the knowledge that if I was meant to go I would.

So after many years of dreaming about doing a Soulcraft Quest I began to make plans to take a 3-month sabbatical and do the September Quest in Utah.  I even went out one evening with two of my American friends to talk about my trip and get some advice. However, the Universe works with us and to my utter surprise 2 weeks later the opportunity came early when redundancies were announced at work.  I put myself forward and was accepted.

The first thing I did was email the women about going to the Arctic; I was welcomed with open arms! It was perfect timing as they needed to book the flights within the next couple of weeks. Then I had a long conversation on Skype with a lady in America and signed up for the May Quest.  What an amazing gift, an enormous answering 'YES!' to everything that matters, all was meant to be and led to the most wonderful experiences of my life.

Arctic - Silver Tea and Bear Stories

I have tried to write about my trip to Arctic Sweden on several occasions, but each time I find I have either no words that can even begin to describe this magical experience or so many that it becomes deafening. So to keep things simple I have gathered here some evocative words and pictures...

~ Stillness ~ Purity ~ Adventure ~ Empowering ~ Fairy Tale ~ Wild ~ Silence ~

~ Community ~ Aloneness ~ Silver Tea ~ Huskies ~ Wild Night Rides ~ Snow Angels ~ 

~ Ice Maidens ~ Frost Fairs ~ Sami Gatherings ~ Candlelit Snow Churches ~ 

~ Bear Men and Moon Wolves ~ Frozen Lakes ~ Dawn ~ Blue Hour ~ 

~ Crafts ~ Being Rescued ~ Walking ~ Skiing ~ Naked Saunas ~ Yoiking ~

~ Sunlight on Snow ~ Colours ~ Candles ~ Reindeer ~ Willow Bark Bread ~ 

~ Drumming ~ Hearth Goddess ~ Arctic Breakfast ~ Circular Rainbows ~  

~ Soul Singing ~ Canine Connections ~ Heart Hound ~ Isolation ~ Creating ~ 

~ Answering a Call ~ Arctic Sisters ~ Laughter ~ Knitting ~ Tears ~ Love ~ Icicles ~ 

~ Tipis ~ Companionship ~ Crisp Cold ~ Crystal Eyelashes ~ Lunar Madness ~ 

~ Antlers ~ Snow Drifts ~ Beauty ~ Northern Lights ~

~ Longing to Return to the Land of Snow and Ice ~