There is a sweet feeling, Pegging out the washing Watching my hands age along the line. This inner knowing Of the right way to hang the clothes. Maybe my Grandmothers are talking through me as I peg the next to the next. This pleasing practice, Embedded in my bones, Of the women, the wind, the dazzling sun. Did they have moments like this? Early morning dew in Spring? I imagine my lineage of women,peg to peg, listening to birdsong, looking at their own hands year after year. My line of coastal dwellers, Salty air, Swinging clothes in sunlight, Clothes of colours to old worn comforts. Seagulls hovering for a bit of bread, The dry lines and cold fingers, Their hands, My hands, Now look the same.
We have a healing ritual from the ancient medicine women in our own homes. The ancient Miriams, the Maryam, or the Marys are believed to be plant medicine women who worked with the energy of plant and water. Here I am calling upon the woman with the alabaster jar, with spikenard at the house in Mark 14:3, Mary Magdalene and Mother Mother, the women who prepared spices and perfumed oils (in Luke 23:55), the Myrrh bearers, Mary Salome and Mary Jacob. And Miriam, keeper of the waters, as far back as Numbers 20.
The sacred frequency of water from a spring or well was part of the vibration that accompanied the healing elements of the plant. Plant energies and water when consciously placed together, like alchemy, create medicine. We know this from remedies like Bach and Meldings.
Next time you choose a bunch of flowers, intuitively, from the heart, from your source, take them home and place them in the vase, picture the healing you desire. As for the water, if you don’t have a fresh spring to collect water, try filtered water from a few refills. Place the water out in sunlight for energizing, motivation and positivity. Place the water in moonlight for soft soothing, cleansing and letting go. When the flowers are place with your careful intentions, sit with them, bring your attention to this as a practice. You can meditate with your gaze softly on the plant medicine you have created for your unique frequency, the plant, the water and You.
Next time you buy yourself a bunch of flowers, remember the ancient women healers also created medicine with plant, water and intention. Honour them, and remember them too. When you buy flowers for someone else, remember the intention for their healing, their frequency. And for a bit of fun, look up the meaning of the flowers you have chosen, the ones you pick out the most….you won’t be disappointed!
The last twelve months I have been travelling with the Red Tent Collective into Birth Doula Training. I have sat in circle with the most amazing women, reading a stack of books, walking on and off the path to weave amongst the mystical ways of birth and cyclicity of menstruation and menopause. I am on a mission, the way of being woman, with all of this heightened awareness. I am seeing what is missing in society for women, health and equilibrium.
Some blog posts ago I was writing about Belonging to land space and place and this year I have come full circle to the place within. What a synchronicity….the place within. To me this equilibrium is the sense of calmness, where ever I Am, the Belonging is within. It is a deep rooted sense of assurity that no matter what I am rooted in the moment. It is the heart beat and the alignment to a feeling, not a place.
How did I get to Here? I got to this place of assurity from sitting in Circle with others, from a community of people who can sit and listen with total acceptance. By that I mean a listening circle, a circle gathering of others who have capacity of Heart to Hear. When we Hear and do not fixed, when we can Speak and are not held back, when we are Witnessed and not judged, we are Accepted. Total acceptance creates a feeling of Belonging to Self.
I will continue to blog more about my journey of Womenhood as my Path unfolds. For now, I leave you with a Womb Blessing, naturally spontaneous and unedited.
In the free dictionary the word Conceive means to“ form a mental image of something “. We must conceive of a multitude of things in a lifetime. We conceive ideas, plans, and processes. We also conceive all our thoughts and emotions. And so this leads me to consider that I have conceive myself to be anxious. This is a prospect I am learning to come to terms with. If allowing myself to feel anxious, when I am not in any imminent danger, I am robbing myself of inner peace? Could I be feeling free of anxiety? I have been on a spiritual journey since childhood. I grew up in fields and amongst the tress in a small rural area. I was aware of the spirit of the land and nature from a young age. A counsellor once called me a feral child having had no adult influential learning to model discernment for boundaries. Maybe she was right, but in recent times I have come to the realisation that boundaries are not always cultivated by adults around us in our informative years. Then there is the spiritual path, the awareness of the otherly, the unseen, the imaginal, that can actually provide a level of awareness of boundaries.
My perspective is that we all have a Guardian, a spiritual guide and when we allow, really surrender and allow the connection then the guidance is quite profound and present in the everyday. Many shamanic teachers describe an awareness within dimensions of the underworld, the middle-world and the upper-world. The middle-world being the here and now. Whether we identify with a physical knowing, a third eye inner vision of knowing or a deep listening to higher knowing, this is the guidance of the Guardian or Guide. When we have deep faith in this connection and relationship that is when the boundaries of the unseen can come to give discernment and assistance in this middle-world. Many spiritual paths have this unseen understanding, whether we call it the Nous like the Teachings of Mary Magdalene, the Spirit Guide, or the Guardian, the names are not so important as the faith that we are not navigating life here alone without inner perspective.
When I take this unseen into the feelings of the anxiousness and stress it brings in some calmness. This is where I can join mindfulness meditation and guidance. This is my perspective of allowing in some self awareness of the present and also connect to what is available for my inner knowing and a calmer way of navigating the here and now. A practice of mindfulness is exactly that for me, practice. It needs to be practices not just as a mediation but throughout the day of being mindful and not skipping and leaping ahead to the chaotic thoughts of the steps ahead, the to-do-list getting out of control or the diary full of overwhelming actions if clumped together. Mindfulness has been a way first to recover and establish some sense of calm. Making time and space for myself is difficult and don’t get me wrong there are days when life gets busy. A practice of meditation is a routine, as necessary as brushing my teeth, to cultivate a living “Way” of being in meditation and prayer, lets not leave that out either. For me prayer has come after years of meditation, the hearing of my body, my spirit, I completely forgot about the asking part of spirituality. It is hard to conceive a spiritual based life practice without acknowledging prayer. After all if all I do is listening and not talking, I am hardly going to have my needs met! I don’t mean that by asking I am going to get something but in relationship to spirit and the Guardian I mentioned, if all I do is listen then I am on the outside of this relationship to myself.
Whether you agree or not to the concept of a spiritual life, in the believe of spirit, living energy, consider yourself as spiritual being for a second. If all we do is listen , we do not have a two way conversation, we are only present half the time. For me the act of both listening and speak had come at a cost. I was always the keen helper, I am a nurse by trade. It was in my coding to be the willing helper, but after my stress and anxiety lessons I now develop and grow my own voice within my Way of Being. My stress is lessened when I am seen, heard and witnessed. By this exchange of inter-communication with myself with others if feels there is more of a balance in communication. We all have stresses and for me some of the stresses are from giving and not receiving from myself. Sometimes I do tasks that I just don’t feel up to doing, for others and for myself. So when this happens my self talk has to ask directly, “what is it you really want to do?” establishing some positive self talk can negotiate some boundaries and solutions for myself.
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