Spirit Doll Musings...or How to Carry and Idea

I was poking around in the back of my mind today and found this thought tucked away, under some old quilts. I heard it rustling around when I was looking for something to carry an idea of why Spirit Dolls emit such an enchanting allure. I was expecting to find a nice basket or old birdcage, but it seems thoughts are a much better way to cart ideas around (they tend to fall out of birdcages- slip between the bars). Anyway...

I realized that through our open hearts, attuned minds and a surrendering to the process of creation the Spirit Doll becomes a sacred object through which we can bridge the very forces of magick...

...and magick, according to Orion Foxwood, Faery Seer extraordinaire “is perhaps the deepest source and expression of wisdom for it is creativity and knowledge applied.”....

This is a Spirit Doll I created preparing for our Serpent Mound retreat next weekend in Southern Ohi where I'll be faciliating a Spirit Doll workshop. He's made from simple organic air dry clay and I rather like him. He's definitely got a sense of humor. He chatted with me for quite some time yesterday morning about the nature of clay, and the Faerie realm and our Star Lineage. He tells me there's more where he came from, and I'm certain he's right and more than a few of his brethern (sister-en?) will emerge during our retreat. He's a bit hush-hush about his name though, so I've decided to call him Klatuu for now and he seems to be okay with that, perhaps even oddly amused. I may have to keep my eye on him...

Autumn Blessing Chant...

Mourn the Grape
Applaud the Wine
Praise the withering Fruit and Vine
Fall the Wheat
Remove the Sheaf
Toast to Life-
The Turning Leaf!!!

Pachiva!

Autumn's Dance

The broad hips of Summer are slowly swaying into a dance of Fall...

The warmth that now lingers here at the Ohi Cottage is that of a waning Sun... and the powerful energy of our beloved Mother Earth's summertime labor is slowing to a pant.

Now is a perfect time to step out of the chaos of the world for a moment and watch as the awesome face of the Goddess changes before my very eyes; from Ample Queen to Insightful Crone. To breathe in these breathtaking moments when She removes the mask of Summer to reveal yet another face of beauty and wisdom. I hear Her laughing as She tells me to take a cue from the turning leaves; alchemical gypsy-dancers that they are...Be Bold! Let go! Let your Colors Fly! Risk! Dare! Leap!

And then there's that feeling... that faint and familiar flicker of an inward pull. Perhaps you feel it too? Only a whisper now, but soon, as the brilliance of Autumn becomes undeniable, I'll begin to arrange my thoughts and store my energy like jars of raspberry jelly for the coming season.

That Autumn's dazzling fanfare will eventually herald the icy bareness of Winter carries with it a haunting bit of bitter-sweetness. And yet right now there’s the sensual, comforting warmth of Mother Earth, bedecked in all Her fiery glory...

The warmth, so readily available during the past few months will soon have to come from within our selves; I'm looking forward to those nights of traveling the hedgeroads; that inner realm where the memories of a season well spent reside.

But for now...I say let's join our hearts, dance the spiral and bask in the abundant, transformative, creative, spectacular blessings of the Season of Easy Magick, the second of the Three Harvests; there are celebrations and birthdays; festivals and holidays; visitors from and visits to far off lands all awaiting to take their place in our life's story...

Welcome Autumn! Blessed Mabon! Happy Equinox and Joyful Transformations!!!

Revived!!

Oh Goodness! What a summer it has been, between festivals, CD release parties, celebrations and major tweaks to the the cottage- which was all just in June!- to ankle surgery in July which literally knocked me off my dancing feet for two months,


I am finally feeling a resurgence of creativity and that in-my-bones happiness that is inherent to a healthy Gypsy Soul...(that's me with Juliette my newest addition, I'll share more about her later!)


Rather than list all the things I *didn't* get to in the past few months, I'm wiping the slate clean of all the outstanding pressures of *should haves* and *wish I woulda's* and pulling the Fool card from my Tarot deck once again. On to new adventures with a free heart...I invite you to do the same. Today. Right Now. Hop in the wagon and let's go!

Being so incapacitate with the surgery tossed me, not completely unwittingly, into some shadowy spots in the landscape of my heart, who would have thought that my ankle had a direct line to my soul? In truth, I had an inkling something bigger than mundane ankle surgery was about to happen, we don't know what we don't know- even if we thing we do! Ha! Well, luckily our bodies are so wise that when we are injured in one place we have an opportunity to heal in all places, on all levels (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual). And that is just what occurred...
I went into a place where forgiveness was being held captive and battled with the tentacled beast guarding the gate. I traveled through narrow and rocky passages, into a valley where a piece of my heart had fallen out and retrieved it. I swam to the depths of an ancient grotto and faced my Self in the mirror of a MurMaiden. And I cried and I remembered; I healed and I cried some more, until the ocean was once again full...

And here we have it, after an almost complete 40 years "around the Wheel", looking gloriously tattered and stitched and mis-shapened, well worn from use, scarred from those old wounds I waited a bit longer than necessary to heal, but still pumping, still loving- deeper, wider, higher and with just the right color red...

There's so much more to share if you'll listen because we all tell each other's stories...I'll meet you round the fire. BLESSINGS of the most ENCHANTING variety....