Saturday, November 06, 2010

New Year, New Moon, New Me

Today was the day that I took a sculpture class from Molly Stanton of Elven Elysium. The name of the class was "Sculpting the Land". The class was all day- more like a retreat than just a sculpture class.

This is the first weekend after my daughter, MacKenzie, turned one year old. It is quite appropriate that this workshop falls now, just after the Celtic New Year, and on a New Moon, to boot! I feel like now that MacKenzie is a year old and she is no longer an infant, her needs are expanding beyond me and my care. It is time to read who I am as a person, now that I am a mother and have experienced all that I have in the last two years.

I was greeted by a handsome black cat when I arrived at Mulina's Mill House this morning. He made me feel very welcome! Molly and Mulina were there also, and we had a lovely chat while waiting for everyone else to arrive. There were nine participants in all. A nice magical number! Two friends surprised me- Keri & Janell...two of my PocketFae came to play! It was a lovely surprise.

We began with a story from Molly. She told us the tale of The Corpse Watcher. It was gruesome and beautiful and magical all at the same time. The themes of the story were about compassion, connection, and sovereignty (owning your power). It was also about Gifts, and being in the flow of giving and receiving. Molly explained that when you give a Gift, that Gift expands when it is returned to you. One of the important lessons about being in the flow, is that you have to be an active participant. You can't just receive the opportunities; you have to give back so that you can continue to have active energy flow. You must do the work, so that more opportunity can flow through you.

We wandered through the grounds of the Mill. It was a lovely Autumn day, and it was a good experience. We each made an offering to the land while doing so. I took a sparkler (fire/air), incense (earth/air), and bubbles (water/air). In return, we were each to gather a small object that the land Gifted to us. We took those back to sculpt on.

As I was scouting for potential objects, I found an interesting piece of wood. I picked it up and with it, another that was close by. I thought I would look around for more by the Mill Stream, but when I made the first two steps onto that path, the handsome black cat appeared out of nowhere and began rubbing my legs and made me stop walking. I leaned down and gave him a scratch between the ears and set out to move farther down the path, and Bronson (the black cat) wound himself between my legs and made me trip! It was clear that he didn't think I should go that way. So I said "Thank you...I am listening..." and I turned around and went back. I eventually found myself at stream level, and then high above it, looking down...never quite in the flow. Bronson came and collected me, and we walked back to the Mill where everyone was beginning to gather again.

Then it was sculpting time! I had one idea when I came into the class today, and the piece of wood was not receptive to the idea that I originally had! I had expectations that I would deal with my "Zen Pendulum Fallout", and/or that I would make "The Object" that would help me finish my novel. Neither one of those things happened! As I turned the wood around and around in my hands, I saw that there was a little cave-like opening at the bottom if I set in down one particular way. When I rotated it like that, one of the women said that the one point on the side where she was looked like a dragon's ear or horn. When I turned it to see what she meant, I saw a whole dragon's face! Ear, eye, nose, mouth...!

I began sculpting. I was the last to start, and the first to finish. It was like I was driven to finish before the flow stopped. When I had a chance to breathe and look at my sculpture, I realized that it was no longer a dragon, but a BAT. Funny thing was, I had put on my bat necklace this morning. I felt called to wear it! I talked about the significance of BAT with Molly. Bat and Dragon share qualities because of their similar wings. In Asian mythologies, they are synonymous and are substituted for one another frequently. Clearly, I am supposed to work with Bat energy and imagery now!

I also learned a little about my connection with Brigid. I found out that at Imbolc (her feast day), she releases the waters that were frozen with the Winter to make way for Spring. Quite appropriate, as the first day of my pregnancy (the first day of my last menstrual cycle before I got pregant) was February 2 (Imbolc, or The Feast of St. Brigid).

Today was very enlightening, and I am looking forward to seeing where this goes from here. I know that I must actively give back to the Earth and the Universe every day. I hope to make that a part of my daily Spiritual practice.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home