28/2/13 – Songs of Innocence and Experience.

The Tyger, William Blake (from Songs of Experience), 1794

I love William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, I also love Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy which I believe was inspired by William Blake’s poetry. I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately because a lot of things are about to change in my life – I feel like I’m finally an adult. I feel like I’m on the verge of some important discovery or realisation.

My life feels like it’s just about to begin and I’m glad you’re here to experience that with me.

1/3/13 – Weather Observations

It’s been on and off lately – raining, sunny, hot, cold, humid. The last week was hot, humid and sunny but this week is rainy (still reasonably humid). Since the end of January the weather has been like this – the local dam is at it’s highest in 16 years. The rain has been quite constant and reasonably heavy.

I’ve noticed quite a few galah’s (the white ones in particular but I’ve also spotted some pink ones) making themselves seen. They’ve been eating berries off a tree next to our balcony and every night just before the sun sets a big flock of them fly over the lake – they are pretty loud so you can hear them coming! I’ve been for a drive and seen them all gathered in a couple of trees near the opening of the river. There have also been a lot of bugs and as a result of that; spiders. The Magpie family has become a bit of a gang. I’ve seen them stealing dog food and they’ve been intimidating me for food – I can’t say no to birds. I’ve let them know that was the last time though as we’re moving soon and I’m not sure how the new people will deal with 5 huge magpies landing on their balcony while they eat dinner.

Our corn doesn’t seem to be coping with the rain – thankfully we harvested a majority of the ears before the rain showed up. The tops of the plants seem to be a little mouldy and the leaves have gone brown. I’m not sure what is going on with the beetroot; I have a feeling we should be harvesting that soon but I don’t know what it’s meant to look like (maybe they’re baby beets?)

PS. Sorry for the lack of photo. My computer has spat the dummy and I can’t access any of them.

Healing Through Art Project

I found these beautiful stones in the middle of the Australian bush, some of them were laying in the dirt but most of them were being pounded by the cool waters of the river. Collecting these stones were fun – something I don’t allow myself to experience often.
I have a plans for a few of these gifts from nature but I won’t divulge too much yet. Surprises are fun!

A Dedication to the Goddess’ in my Life

If anyone follows me on my tumblr or my facebook you might have already heard me talk of VDay or 1 Billion Rising. It’s a movement against violence; specifically against violence towards women. The website for 1 Billion Rising inspired me to create my own event where the people I know and love can come together and communicate.

My goal for this is to see the elephant in the room and get women and men talking about the issues of marital rape, casual sexism, spousal abuse, etc which are more common in our society. Other issues such as forced female circumcision, rape and other horrible things experienced more overseas will also be on our minds and tongues.
After creating this event I got quite a positive reaction from those closest to me which then inspired me to create this altar. The jewellery box was given to me by my great grandmother, the incense holder by my mother-in-law, the oil burner is from my mum, the necklace is from my sister and mum (I wear it during my period), the jar is filled with coins and draped with fabric from my mother-in-law, a silver bangle from my nan surrounds the goddess statue I made from clay, the daffodil pin is from my other great grandmother, there are gold earrings worn by my aunty at my parents wedding, a book mark from one of my sister-in-laws and a key ring from my other aunty. Basically I made it as a dedication to the women in my life.

In the couple of days following the ritual I saw more people getting involved – even my grandmothers friends were excited and shared with me their stories. My relationships with women seem to be blossoming into something beautiful. I’ve always felt uncomfortable with other women for reasons I can’t quite pin point and I’m starting to believe that being comfortable with my sex is probably a step in the right direction to true equality.

Happy New Year – Dark Moon

This weekend was the Dark of the Moon and lucky for me I got the weekend off work. My fiance and I went camping in the middle of the Australian bush next to a beautiful river that flowed down from the mountains. I saw this as the opposite of the first full moon of 2013 as it marks the end or beginning of the first moon cycle of the year (depending on how you look at it I guess).

Not much conscious decision making or planning went into this trip. I’d only gotten the weekend off maybe two days beforehand, we started packing at 10.30pm the night before which led to us forgetting a bunch of stuff and we hadn’t even really decided where we were going until we started unpacking the car. I must say though, it was one of the best holidays I’ve had.

The purpose of the get away, for me, was to celebrate the new moon but I didn’t take any of my ritual items a part from my diary and some herbs. In hindsight though everything I needed was there – Brian and I, nature, a fire, some paper and a pen. This year is a big one for us as individuals and us as a couple. Big changes are coming, our personalities will be tested and we’ll be pushed to our limits. Lots of decisions need to be made, responsibilities need fulfilling and experiencing life needs to be made a priority. We talked, contemplated, laughed, made love, feared and comforted each other. We learnt about each other as we always do whilst camping – it always leaves us closer together than when we start unpacking the tent on the first day (a clear sign is how much we fight when we’re putting it up vs. taking it down).

Before we were about to leave we washed ourselves in the river and both wrote down our wishes and hopes for the coming year. We read them to each other and they both contained the same basic elements – then we sent them down the river.