Any Witches Here? Part 21

[speakout]

Just settling into the new place, plumping the cushions and opening the windows. Welcome to n everyone, newcomers, old friends, the curious.
Wiccans. or Pagans? Or anyone who is interested in a magical path or feels some magical stirrings.
A place for support, learning, swapping ideas and magical inspiration..

These are really for the Solstice, but are a lovely idea for summer.

These are beautiful, quirkychick

The stones are beautiful. You could make a set of runes?
I'm ok,thanks all. Taking a few weeks off work to just catch my breath and have a bit of headspace. I plan some sea swims and walks and have a theatre trip to London which has been planned for months so will still go. Then I need to get back to work and my new life.

I should have made it clear - I didn't make these, but thought I would make something similar! They look relatively easy and therapeutic 😌

@Hedjwitch I'm glad you are taking some time off and planning trips. I find having some plans and purpose really helpful.

There is a big local yoga festival this weekend and I'm meeting up with a lot of friends and looking forward to it. There are some interesting workshops going on that I will enjoy: herbalism, ayurvedic cooking as well as a Kirtan (devotional singing) run by our yoga teacher.

Those stones are lovely! I've done a little art and had planned some changes in the garden so I might get stuck into those if it doesn't get too hot!

I love the stones too. I find it very grounding to paint and warm stones, an easy way to find the flow state. I also use my stones as meditation tools, completed pieces still hold the memory of our mind state when we made them. So picking them up our brain remembers the process and can slip us back there again. I am planning a few sound baths, yoga workshop and women's circles for the coming month CailleachGhlas . I have no plans for a holiday,but will make sure I have some meet ups with friends too.
Today is a full moon in Aquarius, the buck moon, and this is very powerful due to other planetary alignments, a time of huge personal growth and change, tearing off the heavy cloaks of external validation, letting our new skin breathe, and claiming who we are from our deepest roots. A time to place ourselves at the centre of it all and release all that does not serve us, a time to return home to ourselves with passion and strength. We can slough off those definitions that others use to define us, claim our right to authenticity. Have courage, be bold, claim to be who we truly are.

Good morning sisters. Checking in again after a long time of needing to take a break from the Internet in general!

Claiming who we really are and having a break are all really important. I love the idea of using the stones for meditating.

I've just come back from a local yoga festival. It was hotter than expected and I felt a bit sore, so adjusted my planned activities. I did a lovely slow flow and an amazing dance flow meditation. I've realised that dance seems to get me into a meditative or altered state. I need to do more (dodgy ankle not withstanding).

I have taken myself away for a few days to try and process DH's death. I am in Northumberland for long beach walks and sea swims and a boat trip to Lindisfarne.

I'm really sorry to hear your sad news. I'll be thinking of you.

@Hedjwitch I hope your stay brings you some peace. Our thoughts are with you.

I'm having a break from working this week. Work has been quiet, but I have had a few students scattered over several days, so I'm trying to compress my tutoring days, so I'm not spread so thin. This morning I went to a somatic yoga flow, which seems gentle, but gets progressively tougher towards the end. I have a few social events in my calendar and we're hoping to get to the coast, weather permitting.

Thank you all for your kind words.

quirkychick I think classes can be deceptive ! I attended a Pilates class a few weeks ago- I thought it was a gentle and easy class, but next day my abdominal muscles were saying otherwise. You know that muscle pain you get a day or two after a workout- it almost feels like a "good " pain.
It has been wet and cool for the past week here, I don't mind, but feels more like April than summer.

Hedjwitch I am thinking of you. Do whatever you need to get through this time. There is no right or wrong way. Do you have support? Although sometimes being alone can be what we need.

I am visiting a close friend for lunch this week. We have planned a walk to a site where the remains of executed women were discarded during the burning times- the place now occupied by bee hives. I have visited before during my investigations, this was a geographical hot spot for witch hunting.

I was unaware that the final resting place is on land owned by my friend- she has a l farm- and had no idea of the significance of the place, next to a ruined and overgrown church and cemetery. I'll take my wellies- it was quite a scramble to find last time, hopefully she will know of some tracks we can use. Everything connected to this research feels significant. I have found a number of other sites- former dwelling places, the churches and tollbooth prison- still occupied, site of the gallows, all within a mile or two of my home. These souls deserve to have their injustice recognised. I will take a small offering when I visit on Thursday.

Wow @speakout that sounds amazing. Are you writing up about your investigations? Im sure other locals would love to learn their local history too.

I have done some arty things, done some jobs in the garden and am enjoying plenty of rest now. I'm not quite fully recharged yet, but I can feel it building up!

Enjoy the rest cailleachghlas. it is well deserved.

I had the thought of writing down my findings - a subject I have been interested in for a few years. There were so many women executed in my local vicinity, it unfortunately makes the events feel more real. I have gathered information from a lot of sources- old court documents, current clergy, reports, podcasts, a local artist, online ancient maps, and trying to tie them together to make sense. I have ideas that I can't absolutely verify, but other bits of the puzzle point towards a likelyhood. I have lots of names and dates, Edinburgh university has lots of archived material, and current research projects, so lots of info there two. At the height of the witch craze two women a week were being arrested for witchcraft, and a particularly nasty clergyman and his schoolmaster colleague sent over 80 women to their deaths. A drop in the ocean when considered Europe wide, or even Edinburgh, but this was a small town, fear and suspicion must have been terrifying within the community. To this day there is a larger than life stone statue dedicated to the memory of the of rev Calderwood within the ancient church. It reads
In memory of William Calderwood, pastor of ...[dedicated by] his son; who died on the 4th day of March in the year of our Lord 1680, in the 52nd year of his age. Remarkable for his piety, charity, and faithfulness; dear to everyone, and harmful to no one. His most sorrowful son erected this monument."

He was a brutal man- it saddens me to know that inscription lives on, not the voices of the many women he murdered.

But in the meantime I have my fact finding walk tomorrow with my friend.

@speakout that sounds both fascinating and disturbing. It really sounds as if there should be an appropriate memorial to those lost souls.

You were not wrong about the somatic yoga class, I had a sore knee the next day, as we were "playing with balance" in low and high lunge. Feels alright today, but I've booked a physio appointment, as I have an ongoing ankle and hip issue.

We made it to the coast yesterday and had lunch in a lovely pub, overlooking the sea. Today, we bought some delicious food, I've repotted some herbs and will have a barbecue tonight. I have a couple of social events this week too. @CailleachGhlas I'm starting to feel a bit recharged too.

@speakout you sound like a true historian!

I collected DHs ashes today. It has not been a good day.

@Hedjwitch that sounds extremely difficult and emotional. Feel free to post here as much as you want or not if you want space. I'll light a candle for you. Blessings to you and yours.

Hedjwitch I am thinking of you too right now x

Thank you sisters I will accept all your support with gratitude. My body tells me it wants to sleep...fibro isnt helping here..while my restless brain frets and tells me to make a list,do something! Getting used to being single after decades of marriage is proving harder than I thought,even though dh was pretty much absent in many ways latterly. It just feels different. I dont know what to do with myself.

@Hedjwitch it's very early days still. I know that awful feeling of hyper brain when you need sleep. I think it's our need to "solve" situations that actually need patience - so much easier to say than do!

Thinking of you, Hedjwitch, 💐