Scorpio Full Moon Energy
Scorpio is an intense sign, of depth, transformation and taboo. It has been an intense and deeply troubling 24 hours. We see in these election results how few of us here in this Country know of our deep interconnection. We are not as a nation standing for the trees, the waters, the oceans or life. We are not standing for our children and their children. We have turned away again. I am deeply saddened by this.
And so after much tears and rage I drummed for the earth, for myself and for all my relations. I will drum each day again for the healing of our disconnection from our mother. This is my commitment to myself, and our Great Mother, the Provider, the Nourisher, She who Renews All. If you feel too you are welcome to join me. For drumming is prayer, it is how our ancestors prayed, millennia ago. It is how we can pray again. When we drum we connect to the frequency of the earth and her energy. It is calming and restorative for us and for the earth. I hope to feel you on the drum waves.
Of course that is not all I will be doing. I will continue to be with women, in circle, in drum making and in the deep enchantment that comes from being on land with women. Read on to see some exciting news, for in this Taurean New Moon cycle (5th May ) some beautiful things have come to fruition while others have fallen away. I am glad for the opportunity of winter to bed down some new growth, to let it rest in fertile soil before flowering later in the year.
What’s Coming up?
- Melbourne Women’s Circle- May 30
- Melbourne Women’s Circle- June 27
- Lots of rest and dreaming in Winter
- MoonSong – One Day Workshop for Women- October 19
- Two Day Drum Making Workshop- November 9, 10
- Connecting with Your Medicine Drum- Friday 22 Nov
- Opening Gathering for the 2020 Otways Four Seasons Journey 6-8 December
Exciting News- Teaching the Four Seasons Journey
I am delighted to announce that I will be co teaching the School of Shamanic Womancraft Four Seasons Journey with Nymh Fox in the Otways in 2020. I am very grateful for this opportunity to share this beauty way, this embodied ecological way of being with ourselves, each other and the land. A way the world is calling for ever more loudly.
This is a sacred journey, a sacred re- imagining of the gentle wild feminine in all her diversity. We gather 6 times over the year to deepen our connection, to remember our interconnection to the cycles, the seasons of our lives, to our bodies and to the earth. It is weaving of story, myth, land and self, a re-enchantment with the All that Is.
It has been beautiful to walk this sacred way with Nymh as part of my apprenticeship and I am so happy to now co- teach with her. Please get in touch if you feel the call to journey with us, to dive deeply into the gentle wild within you, and within this blessed land. Her Song may be calling to you. Listen, rest back into the arms of our Mother Earth, and listen to that sacred call, that tremor of a Yes. We welcome you all.
Drumming Ourselves Home
The first creative act each of us does, is our birth. We are co-creators in the birth process, and how we are birthed into this world leaves an indelible imprint on our creativity, on how we do creativity. It is important to bring consciousness and awareness to this process, to see the ways in which this story of our birth continues to play out in our lives.
At the School of Shamanic Womancraft we birth a drum into the world as a mirror of our story. It is a powerful and deeply sacred act, for not only do we get to see and feel this imprint in action, we get to create a personal tool of transformation. A lifelong tool to serve our highest purpose. This is a powerful initiation into this work and way.
My drum has held me in magical awe since I first birthed my drum into the world in December 2012. I have developed such a beautiful relationship with my drum and continue to learn and grow through playing him. He is definitely a “he” and that is tied up with my birth story which you can read more about here.
Emiie Alcato and I are also offering another Two Day Drum Making Workshop at the beautiful Peace Farm in the Yarra Valley. It is a deep privilege to work with women, showing up in all their vulnerability and beauty to be with their stories, to reclaim and remember the medicine inherent in them. In doing so they reclaim and remember these parts of themselves, for their own healing and for the healing of generations that come before and after.
As with all the women who come to our workshops- including to the Four Seasons Journey I am always in awe of the women and the process. I have learnt to really trust the process. To know that whatever happens is the very thing that needs to happen. And I watch the women laugh, cry, groan and delight in their own creative process. I watch the ah ha moments when they see the stories and imprints that are at play in their lives. They begin to see how these stories shows up in their lives, and how they can untangle the parts of the story that no longer serve. So much love for all the women who come to birth their drums in the world.
When you birth a drum, you birth yourself as a drummer into the world. This is a pan cultural lineage that goes across time and place. Women have long been the keepers of the sacred rhythms. We see them in the ancient records, on cave paintings, on vases, in stone tablets, and in ancient carvings, with their drums. Whatever your culture your female ancestors will have at one time or another played the drum for sacred and holy ceremonies. This is your heritage too.
We are indebted to the work of Layne Redmond, and her recently republished book When the Drummers were Women. It is definitely worth a look.
Enchanting Times
And these troubling times call for more enchantment, for a re imagining of our gentle wild selves cohabiting this planet with all of her creatures, of which we are only one. We are called to remember the delight and wonder of our inner child who looks on this world with love, awe and deepest curiosity.
Stay curious, follow the scents of delight wherever they take you. And listen to the ancient stories, to the voices of long ago, for they are rooted in the depths of our imagination, which is a way into deep conversation with the land and sea herself. Let yourself dive into the mystery.
And before I leave you all, here is another beautiful picture from my recent trip to Thailand, where i literally dived into the Mystery. I was so enchanted by the avian world and the underwater world especially on Koh Phi Phi and Phuket. It had been over 30 years since I ventured to Thailand, and though much had changed, much had stayed the same. This is a truly beautiful country and we were delighted to spend hours each day swimming and delighting in her beautiful seas….
Water is sacred. Life emerged out of her depths, and we continue to honour her, when we dive in and enjoy her beauty. I am sad to say that we are not proceeding with the Global Water Dance as we just did not have enough people willing to commit to the rehearsals. But I will dance for the living waters within and without, always.
And to help us get through this and whatever turmoil arises for you, here is a beautiful poem shared by one of my continuum teachers, Rebecca Lawson
A poem for you
Flow by Noel McInnis
Be
as water is,
without friction.
Flow around the edges
of those within your path.
Surround within your ever-moving depths
those who come to rest there—
enfold them, while never for a moment holding on.
Accept whatever distance
others are moved within your flow.
Be with them gently
as far as they allow your strength to take them,
and fill with your own being
the remaining space when they are left behind.
When dropping down life’s rapids,
froth and bubble into fragments if you must,
knowing that the one of you now many
will just as many times be one again.
And when you’ve gone as far as you can go,
quietly await your next beginning.
Thanks for reading
with love and blessings
Sarah xxx