These are a few of my favourite things!

Well first of all we have chocolate!

And then we have Faeries!

And maybe there are even chocolate Faeries...?


And of course we have the Harp!

And my messy desk!

Cannot forget about the best drink of the day! TEA!

And of course, lots of books!

And drawing.



Spring in Llandysul

I went to the lovely town of Llandysul today in magical west Wales.  I took my harp for a service and went for a walk around the area with hubby and doggy.

Spring was very much in the air. There was a very sharp bite to the wind even though it was a beautiful sunny day. We walked along by the river Teifi and found snowdrops everywhere. The river was fantastic, all rapids and frothing and foaming loudly as we walked along enjoying the views.

My harp was being serviced by Telynau Teifi ~ the Harp Centre of Wales. They are a wonderful company that makes beautiful handmade harps on the premises and you can watch parts of the process of making in the workshops there. All the people who work there love the harps and the company and you can feel that from when you walk in the front door.

My wonderful Gwennol harp.  She is totally beautiful and I love her very much.  I feel very fortunate to finally have a harp after wanting one for a very long time. Now I just need to get to lessons with my new teacher!

For the love of Trees

"Trees purify the air, they also purify the mind. If you want to save your world you must save the trees."

It is definately safe to say I am a tree girl.  From being a tiny baby who would often only settle when put under a tree, to now, where hours are spent in the company of trees;  my tree friends are a very important part of my life. 

To be able to go for long walks and enjoy the company of these wonderful beings is a real blessing when times get hard.  Also to sit and relax in my back room and watch the wind dancing through the evergreens at the back of next doors' garden is an opportunity to unwind and tease the knots out of a tired and snaggled mind. 

Sometimes a special tree will mark the pathway to somewhere magical....  Are you ready to cross the threshold....

The Artist's Way ~ Week 1 ~ Recovering a sense of safety

I am currently working through this book for the second time and I am really enjoying it.  I am doing my morning pages and I am going to go on an artist's date, although I am not sure where I am going to go yet or what I am going to do....

One of my favourite places to visit is the Iron Age Hillfort in the next village over from me.  It is always a place of inspiration, of filling the well.  It is one of those places that broods silently and that feeling stays with you for sometime after you leave.  I love to walk around the undulating ramparts and think of times long gone and of all the many things that must have taken place here over the years....

I love to take photos here and then sit and remember later over a cup of tea and chocolate, which is pretty much my favourite thing in the whole world...

I love it here because to me there are echos of the ancestors and they don't seem to mind me dwelling silently for a while in their company....  To me this is something of a healing ritual,  albeit never an easy one.

I love this time of year, the feeling of the new season about to burst into all its tightly held potential... It almost feels like a gently held in breath, a tension or maybe a suspension in time before we move to the equinox and the light takes over from the darkness of the winter months.

Blessings of Imbolc...

Drum

Deep within a sacred space.
A small flame burns inside.
A drumbeat growing louder, louder.
I feel the need to ride the sound.

The sacred space grows stronger, outward.
Revealing more of my true need.
I follow the drumbeat steady, louder.
It seems to come from beneath the ground.

Down the snaking spiral, flying.
Across the pathways in my mind.
I make the sacred journey stronger.
Riding rhythms that spin and glide.

Faster and faster, wilder and wilder.
Red hair flying, wind on my skin
Singing, chanting, spinning, dancing.
I am the wildness from within.

The flame grows stronger,
ever deeper.
I journey on inside my mind.
Weaving, wailing, burning, keening.
I feel my roots now my spirit flies.

Darker and darker, deeper and deeper.
I find my centre and hold it, still.
Bathed within the silent darkness.
I feel a rich, dark death begin.

Returning now, along the spiral.
Back in my space, I pause and breathe.
An eternal moment holds me closely.
I feel my home upon this land.

Helen Caladhiel '07

Rambles

Serenity

She sits:
Serene,
Still,
Knowing.
I punch her face,
scratch at her.
In my mind.

She sits:
Serene,
Still,
Strong.
I am filled with rage.
Burning.

She sits:
Serene,
Still,
Knowing.
I struggle with accepting.

She sits:
Serene,
Still,
Dispassionate.
I lie uselessly on the floor.
Dying.

She sits:
Serene,
Still,
For eternity.
I am the ashes blowing
Remaining......


Helen Caladhiel 20/03/07

New hobby

Well I have a new hobby :-D

After sitting for an afternoon just thinking recently, I realised I missed music and more importantly playing music. Not that I was ever any good at it previously. I did try to learn an instrument a few years ago but I had to stop due to some severe life circumstances at the time, and music lessons were not something my family could afford when I was a child, so it was only as an adult that I had my first try at learning. 

But anyway, I realised how much I missed my music lessons and practicing, (missed it like a physical ache), so I decided to try again. Ten years on from my first venture into learning I now have a 34 string folk harp and I am having lessons.

To say I am loving them would be an understatement! I am aching from my neck down to my finger tips from over enthusiastic practicing hehehehe!

I thought I might be too old to learn now at 37 years old, but I am having so much fun, its amazing!

The Stream by my Tent

Local Goddess

Sitting on the riverbank and watching the sunset.
I daydream as the sun sinks below the horizon.
Watching the dancing rivulets of water, as the river flows
shining golden and sparkling in the evening light.

The river meanders on townwards.
The hungry river that has swallowed many a life
of people playing on this riverbank.
I wonder about those lives lost.
swallowed by this local deity.

I sit and look into the deep, brown water.
Thinking with sadness how those
who were dragged into these murky depths
must have felt.
And the heartbreak of those left behind.

Rising upwards with ferocious speed
she floods our little town.
We think we are the ones in control...
The waters break the riverbanks
and take, take whatever is in her path.

It is not to play without respect
with this local goddess who weaves her way
through our town.
For her power is awesome.
And she is ever hungry for more.

Helen Caladhiel.

Flamekeeping

I have been asked what flamekeeping is and what doing a shift means and so I hope this explains what its all about.

I am a member of Ord Brighideach which is an order of flamekeepers. Each keeper tends a flame for 24 hours once every 20 days, although some people take more than one shift.

There are several cills that make up the ord and each cill is made up of 20 shifts, 19 shifts held by flamekeepers and the 20th shift being held by Brighid herself. Each cill is named after a tree and so people can contemplate the qualities of the tree if they want to along with whatever else they contemplate while they tend their flame.

At the basic level, a flamekeeper dedicates a candle to Brighid and keeps it lit in honour of her for 24 hours once every 20 days. However many people also pray, meditate and perform rituals in honour of Brighid during their shift time. I do a mixture of all of the above, some shifts I light my candle and it burns with the minimum of attention, at other times I pray and do ritual, or sit and contemplate the flame. 

At the moment, my flame is burning on my outdoor altar in a hurricane lantern and it will burn all night until sundown tomorrow. My flame is lit from the perpetual flame that burns in Kildare, and is passed on in the wick of a candle. I also burn my flame on my indoor altar. I have a beautiful wooden lantern on a table specially for this.

I also hold more than one shift and I am contemplating having a flame lit all the time since flamekeeping has become a major part of my spiritual path, although I'm not sure how that would work out, or even be possible or desirable. 

A quote from the website "We hope that through everyone's effort we will be sending forth into the universe an eternally tended flame for Brighid in the spirit of the historic Kildare flame."

http://www.ordbrighideach.org/home/modules.php?name=Join