this little light of mine....

'ancestor love'...mixed media and acrylic
(available in my etsy shop as a print x)

'a dance with life and death'...acrylic

'this little light of mine...im gonna let it shine'

oh yeah! as the muppets would shout 'it's time to light the lights...'...this week brings the clocks turning back on themselves (can time really do that??) and the celtic festival of samhain signalling the end of one year and the beginning of a new one...senor darkness lifts his cap and nods a sweet 'well hello there' to the northern hemisphere...

darkness...as the fun n frolics of halloween brings out our inner ghoul and penchant for fake blood and thrills n chills..as those mexicanos honour in style with dia de los muertos, honouring and remembering their deceased love ones...this shift into the new energy of the year brings us close to the 'otherworld', or 'between the worlds', as the ancient celts would say...

life takes on a dreamier quality as our grip on reality as we know it starts to dance a different step (i mean, really, can we just turn back time? oh no, another reference to cher...shit!!)...things are not as they seem, as if we have just taken the most magic of potions and the hallucinations come to meet n mix us up begin to arise...the world tips just a little, the veils between real n surreal tease us, and our perspective begins to shift n slide...

yeah..bring it on i say..sometimes turning the page upside down is just what we need to get that 'aha' moment...tho this can be achieved without the use of 80's tunes i have to add ;-)...a time to visit the underworld, taking a leaf from persephones book and heading down town for the winter...

so..what does this mean...firstly it really is about embracing the darkness..seperated by western religions into the heaven n hell roll ya dice experience of death, delving into the darkness has been shooed away heavily in our culture...and yet, so many of our ancient philosophies and cultures regard these 'light' and 'dark' aspects of ourselves as imperative for our souls wholeness, and essentially, a part of the inherent continuous cyclical nature of life itself...life and death..birth and rebirth...

this time of the year calls upon us to go into that darkness within us..to search out what weighs us down like the alchemists lead...as we let our fears, resistances and previously locked away in guilt or shame aspects of ourselves bubble up to the surface to be met in the silent attention of our self, they have the potential to be let go, emptied and that which was lead to turn into gold!

how do we do that? well lovelies, the number of practices available for any of us are numerous and simple...and yet, we need to become still, silent, resting just with ourselves, letting patience hold and support that which is hiding in the shadows...and we need to welcome in the guidance of our light...the light we honour as we come to our mats to 'salute the (inner) sun'...the light that is celebrated in the festival of diwali happening now...the light of our hearts love and belief...and the light of awareness that can guide us little step by little step...

and we can call in our guides, ancestors, daemons, and spirits to help us...let ourselves feel their breath whispering sweet words of encouragement into our ears..feeling their holding as we rest back into trust and the moment of simply being..

the more we sow our journeys intention into the dark places we have dared to explore, and the more we shine our light onto them, the lighter we become, creating the space for our dreams to nest through the winter...

so this time of year? turn off the external lights, snuggle deeply under the covers, close your eyes, and get some zzzz's...thats when the wonder of dreams have time to roam and play...happy dreaming x

word up!

words words words...its impossible to set out n about on one's daytime meanderings without being subjected to a sprinkling, even sometimes, a torrent of words!...catching the last whispers of someone elses conversation; songs sung floating like smoke's curl around our heads; the obligatory 'crazy' dude offering out his thoughts; and the general murmur that vibrates all around us like a sea of chatter...quite frankly, its unavoidable!

like an impromptu art performance, words are sounds that provide a musical background...surely i cant be the only one who often thinks that to actually have a musical accompaniment to ones day would be super fantastic indeed? you know, the blues when you be feeling a lil tender hearted; rock for those 'dont even think about slowing down in front of me on the high street you *****!!' moments; and a lil breathless french chanteuse for when you got that purring 'i am feeling gooood' saunter going on!...until then, thank god for ipods :-)

i have been thinking about 'words' this week and how profoundly powerful they are...poems that touch us in beauty and rememberance...the thrill of being 'met' by another's 'yes'....the anticipation when presented by 'we need to talk...'...the heart beat skipped upon hearing 'i love you'...and so on and so on...

words make up the fabric of our connections...sure true intimacy is the ability to simply be with another and the world without the need for words to place their marks between us...in fact, the space between words holds such depth and richness...and yet, words are like the threads that we weave around us, between us, and through us, tugging at our hearts, binding at our wrists, and drawing us silently nearer and towards in deepest curiousity

and what about those words that tumble and spin in the cavity of our skull? our thoughts...our spoken words often arise from the filter of our minds...its the sorting room, where some are deemed unsuitable, some finely tuned to serve their best purpose!...and what about those words we whisper silently to ourselves? our own ongoing internal conversing, back and forth in jest or jibe...how about those words?

words and thoughts are vibrations of energy...indeed the upanishads talk reverently about the word 'om'...made of the three sounds 'aaah', 'uuuu', and 'mmm'...chanting om carries the sound from the back of the throat all the way to the lips...om is known as the sound that holds all sounds within it, holds all of creation, vibrating all of our self and every cell in its tone...

sound creates...what we think creates..what we say creates...in every moment we are creating our world...being mindful of what we hold in our power can empower us in each moment of our lives, in every connection with another we engage in...the most powerful words for me right now arose after my movement practice a few days ago...'here i am'...'here i am'...as i repeated these words they flowed into 'i am here'..'here i am here i am here i am...'...i felt strong, feet shooting roots embodying me and solidifying me into my place on the earth...'here i am...i am here'...thats all..thats enough...

may your words echo the beauty of your soul...may your words offer the tender flutterings of your heart...may your words direct the fire of your belly.. and may your words sparkle the twinkling joy behind your eyes

with love...