Lughnasa – Embodying the Divine Feminine

HAPPY LUGHNASA!

She had won the 2-night stay at Avalon in a silent auction. The proceeds were supporting an organization called YES, or Youth Enrichment Services in Boston, which offers youth the opportunity to have outdoor experiences that build confidence and gives those who might not be able to afford a ski pass or ski lesson the chance to participate in winter sports. My old friend, Gene, who lives and works in Dorchester, was helping organize the fundraiser, telling me his own kids had benefitted from many programs YES offered. He also asked me if I would donate a healing session on top of the “get-away” to the Sweet Suite. SURE! YES seemed like a great cause, and I’m always looking for places to promote the wild and wondrous lands of Avalon…

When Louisa showed up for her Maine week-end at Avalon, I’m sure she really did not know what to expect. As this was my first time hosting the “solo immersion retreat” neither did I! But I came up with a few things I thought might move her out of the active mind and busy pace of her CPA job and into some rest and relaxation at the farm.

On Friday, after arrival around 1 pm, I encouraged her to settle in, explore the trails, and roam the property. I also asked her to fill out the form, “Stating an Intention,” that I would be picking up at 8 PM that evening. Her healing session was scheduled for Saturday at 11 AM, followed by an afternoon of integration, where she could nap, read, go to the beach or whatever she wanted. Then, our ceremonial fire would be around 7 PM, after dinner.

One of the questions on the “Stating an Intention” worksheet was:

“A common icebreaker to introduce to a group of people who don’t know one another very well is to ask the group “Who would you invite to dinner?” Famous or not, alive or dead, you get to invite 5 people over for dinner. As someone who regularly communicates with nature and all of her beings, tell me the 5 aspects/spirits of nature you would like to have an enchanting night with. Are they all plants, birds, beasts, insects? Maybe there are trees and star constellations in attendance. Who would be your treasured guests, and why? List at least five.”

This was so awesome! I actively called in the nature beings, ie. “dinner guests” she wrote down for her healing session and throughout the week-end. I also loved hearing about her “why” as to the 5 she named. What did they mean to her? Was it a new curiosity, or childhood favorite?

Although I have stopped seeing one-on-one clients, I haven’t stopped doing energy work, and her healing session was very therapeutic for her. It also reminded me that I do LOVE the work! ( I just really needed a break in the WAY I was doing it). Because I knew she was getting extra juice from Avalon’s healing vibe, I was really excited she was only traveling by foot back to the Sweet Suite, not hoping in her car to drive!

Speaking of the Sweet Suite, I had created a Despatcho caddy for her in the unit. A Despatcho is a ceremony where you make a prayer bundle (Despatcho) and either burn it or bury it. Items traditionally used are tobacco, cornmeal, dried flower petals, herbs, and the like. I found these “snack caddies” at Wal-Mart (!) and meticulously labeled all of the items in the little bins. I also included a ‘decoder’ for what the items represented, their healing qualities, and possible prayers one may say with them. Instructions for making the prayer bundle and how to prepare your mind for prayerful engagement were also included.

I asked Louisa to make the bundle prior to Saturday’s fire ceremony, where we would place the bundle in the sacred flames together. She loved it so much, she made two, and took one home to place on her new altar. Our fire ceremony was sweet and soulful, and the energy of the evening felt settled, safe and nourishing.

In the morning, my plan was to have a final council: sit with a story of her week-end, then reflect it back to her using the images, discoveries, and insights we had been exploring all week-end. But, she had tickets for a musical down in Portsmouth with her boyfriend and his family, so she got on the road pretty early.

After some reflection about how I would do this next time (and what I would charge), I realized that part of our mission here at Avalon (and Nine Pillars’ mission, too-) is to help pull the veil back, away from the mundane, away from the busy monkey-mindedness in order to help people re-capture their best selves, and to maybe glimpse something of what the soul is truly longing for. I know my work in the world is stitched into this kind of immersive experience–and that is one reason why I really did not want to offer the 2-hr sessions anymore. I want people to have an experience that will linger with them; some of you may say that my healing sessions have lingered but facilitating the power of ritual (Despatcho), of ceremony (fire), of the Spirit BATH one receives from just being at Avalon is where my calling is now. This was a multi-layered immersion, something my high-self has been trying to put into motion at Avalon for a while. I did it!

I also had a very willing guest! She even wanted to join me in my Saturday morning “powering up” by dancing the Medicine Wheel with me. She was a great hula-hooper! I did provide coffee, tea, two lite breakfasts and snacks for her in the Sweet Suite. She was on her own for other meals.

What has your YES brought to your shores? For me, saying YES to YES (the organization!) brought me a wonderful, willing sojourner who gave me the invaluable gift of feedback. Relishing my own experience, what I learned, and the gift of true connection with Lousia not only enriched my week-end and blessed Avalon, but this will inform next steps for how I’d like to offer this experience in the future.

I am so proud of the work I do. Lughnasa is an excellent time to remind ourselves of our strengths, our ‘best selves’ that we can offer the world. Although not encouraged in our world these days, the ancient Celts took boasting to an artform at Lughnasa. Part levity, part competition, it was celebrated and encouraged to boast, maybe even embellish your greatest gifts.

What we focus on, expands. So why not focus on the best parts of you?

Shine On,

PS. If you’d like to book a week-end retreat at Avalon to experience the immersion I’ve described here, I have one week-end left in September and two in October. The energetic exchange is $350 (or, $300 without the guided fire ceremony).

FEATURED EVENT:

“Embodied and Emboldened: Becoming an Intentional Human”

Saturday, September 27th and Oct 18th

Nature Wander Immersion and WORKSHOP:

Intention: To become an emboldened, embodied, intentional adult who understands her medicine and is ready to give it to the community by reclaiming the contours of self and soul and who has a curiosity about how to show up in a world which has dominated and distorted the soul’s energetics for way too long

ENGAGE WITH SOUL 8:30 AM–11:30 AM

Wander the land of Avalon to re-discover what story your soul is holding and how you might engage with it throughout the day. As you walk with the wild world, make inquiries as to how you, too, can become your most awakened self; fasting encouraged but not required

~Pls enjoy your bagged lunch from 11:30–12:30~

REFLECT WITH SELF 12:30 PM–1:30 PM

Honor the voices of soul you heard on the land by calling up the MAKER of you. Reflect in your journal through poetry, drawing or other forms of creation. Make a mandala on the earth, collage the story of your morning with images. Paint, sing or even dance the wisdom you received. Some art supplies will be provided but feel free to bring your own

~break 1:30 PM– 1:45 PM~

CONNECT IN COMMUNITY 1:45 PM-4 PM

Discover how the distilled pieces of soul and self dance together and are best served in the community. Here’s where we carry the “emboldened” self and soul into the world. You will be guided to make a covenant with yourself in service to your discoveries of truth and share with the group in council the ways you intend to apply your medicine

*THIS IS AN ALL-DAY EVENT. We will be sharing, revealing, honoring the TRUTH that arises in each of us. If you have been wondering where your passion or purpose has gone, this event is for you! But please do recognize it is crafted with the integrity to go deeply into the authentic places of self and soul that need (and deserve) tending.

*SLIDING SCALE: $50–$65; Venmo, PayPal cash or check by 09/12 (for 09/27) and 10/03 (for 10/18)

Fmi: Email ninepillarshealing@gmail.com or text 207-939-6863

*How are you feeding yourself this summer? Time to load up on the greens! Our Milkweed at Avalon is being throughly enjoyed by these soon-to-be monarchs!*

LUGHNASA GREETINGS FRIENDS!

The fires of Lughnasa, or “1st Harvest” as it is known in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, are about to be lit! Summer, for our ancient kin, was a time of WORK, of toiling under the hot sun, of praying to the weather gods or capital-G god (depending on what century-) to ensure rain would come. But by the first of August, they were ready to celebrate their hard work and start harvesting the ripening fruit! What a wonderful feeling it must have been for them: “Yah, we get to feed our families!”

There’s all kinds of work in the world, isn’t there? Some might think writing is ‘work’ too…and I suppose you’d be right. But as the old adage says: “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” In other words, writing is not work for me. Nor is shamanic healing. Nor is teaching college students how to write more efficiently. Nor is holding the monthly circle we host here at Avalon, Wise Women Talking. Nor is watering all those plants…nor is harvesting! (now weeding: THAT’S WORK!)

But seriously: how many of us get to say we really, truly, LOVE our work? I spent YEARS not loving my work as a medical assistant at a big medical practice. Wow, was that stressful, mentally and emotionally draining, and a LOT OF OUTPUT. However, the doctor I worked for was one of the very best in his field, had patented endoscopic equipment, taught incoming fellows and made A LOT of people feel better. I’ll bet he didn’t see what he did in the world as work but rather why he was put on the Earth.

Is it that ‘work’ has a bad reputation? Might the meaning of work need to be re-cast? Work does not, should not make us miserable. But sometimes our “paycheck work” is not our passion; some of us must do our passion “on the side.” In fact, no matter what kind of work you do, sometimes you have to take one for the team and give up a cushy job for one with health insurance (or to be closer to an ailing parent, or find one where the kids can enjoy a better school system or, or, or-). Maybe you or your partner get ill and you have to stop working. This feels disempowering, even if you “hated” your job. Better to be WELL and go to a crappy job than get sick…and be forced to stay home.

We Americans spend a lot of time working. Working is highly valued in our country. God forbid you be “out of work” and get the glance of pity or, worse, judgment. Why do people automatically assume that if someone is “out of work,” they really must have done something bad. Only lazy people are out of work, right?

No! Really highly motivated, dedicated employees get dismissed or “canned” every day. There are a lot of endings happening right now, both in our personal lives as well as on a much broader scale. And most folks who “lose” a job could share a litany of explanations as to why this befell them. Even though the phenomenon of losing a job happens to nearly everyone, at some point, why do we feel so compelled to defend ourselves, to assert our value, skill, aptitude?

Because the workplace is where most of us gain our value, understand our purpose in the world. But there’s other kinds of work we are also contracted to do. Recently, I was instructed by one of my spirit guides about the nature of the “work you were sent here to do.” As someone who, at the ripe age of seventeen, vividly recalls crying on the bathroom floor at our home in Hope Mills, North Carolina, pray-screaming at God to please, please, please show me how I can serve you, I’ve always wondered what “my work” in the world was. However, Spirit does not paint you a crystal clear picture of how to serve your best self to the world–not at seventeen, nor at fifty-three.

The message I received about the work I was sent here to do went something like this: “All you need is inside of you, in your safe, soul place and in your heart. You can get trampled, pulled in and trapped in any number of narratives out there. But what is YOUR narrative? What is the treasure map of you leading you towards?”

What a wonderful invitation! We DO get to write our own stories! It is so easy to get pulled into someone else’s narrative, hoping to gain approval, acceptance, or even love. How many times did I get pulled into the narrative of a boyfriend, family member or even friend? I’m sure my intention was pure, likely “wanting to help.” But my spirit guide was saying: Let’s look at the map you HOLD, the one that your soul designed. What’s the storyline all about? What plot twists are coming up that might prove extraordinary?

We forget that being gifted a message such as this is ‘work’ too. I feel an obligation to “work the energy” of this revelation and to honor what my spirit teacher has shared with me. But: it feels like a lot of work to turn away from “dependable narratives!” For now, I’m trying to surrender to the wisdom I sense it holds. And to imagine that treasure map with me wherever I go!

If you feel like you’re struggling through your own narrative, make sure it’s YOUR narrative. Sometimes we need to change the story we’re telling ourselves–for it may be outdated, delinquent in its relevance, and even harmful for who the soul is trying to usher out into the world.

WARNING: when you start to tell yourself a new story about WHO YOU ARE, things on the outside will change. Some relationships may drop away; some habits will crisp up in the hot wind and blow off. You may even find yourself ready to quit a (reliable, financially solvent) job that just does not suit who you are anymore.

As Pam Gregory likes to say: Life is an inside job. Consider the work of the evolving soul. There’s no better work than that!! Surrender to the fact that all you NEED is INSIDE OF YOU.

Happy Lughnassa!
May abundance and harvest blessings find you…

Shine On, Mary Katherine