Cauldron

We urgently need to do things differently. The industrial growth society we have built is destroying the natural world. It is no longer tenable. We need to build a new world in the shadow of the old.

There are many people across the globe building aspects of that new world …

For several weeks now, I've been working closely with soil. I have given it the mulch and fertiliser it needs to thrive. I've sown seeds in it and watched baby plants grow. And I have relished eating the first fresh greens.

I witnessed very closely how important a good, healthy …

Sitting in a sacred circle, we listened intently. The spirits of the Wildwood spoke. Each in turn they gifted us with their wisdom, their warnings, their love.

Three of us created and held a safe space where people could explore their relationship with a spirit of the Wildwood. Nine others …

Working on my raised vegetable bed, I'm learning once again that soil is alive. Every time I dig into the earth, I meet beetles, worms and centipedes. Apart from those, the soil is teeming with micro-organisms and fungi and all sorts of things that you can't even see with the …

"We urgently need to do — and I mean actually do — something radical to avert global catastrophe. But I don’t think we will. I think we’re fucked." - Stephen Emmott, 10 Billion

Those aren't easy words to read. They're harder still to take in. Even though I have intellectually known …

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been considering some new ideas for the Westacre Spiritual Centre. I am developing a programme of one-to-one mentoring for younger or less experienced Pagans. The question, as always, is how to charge for that.

The whole issue has brought up a host …

Every so often, I fall in love with life again. Suddenly, everything feels fresh and new, and I get excited just taking it all in.

This is one of those times. I don't know what it is. The time of year is helping, with Westacre's drifts of snowdrops promising Spring …

Something significant appears to be happening. It has kind of come out of nowhere. Or perhaps I should have been expecting it. A lot of strands in my life are coming together and it feels as though something new is about to be born. Something that hasn't quite ever been …

I feel immensely grateful and privileged to be part of a very special spiritual community. We are a pretty random and ever-evolving group of Druids who camp together four times a year, at the major festivals. Every camp is different, but each one offers challenges and opportunities for healing.

This …

Over the years, I have come to accept that my spiritual life goes on a break when I'm visiting my mum in Belgium. Even when I manage to carve out some time for meditation, it never really works there, for whatever reason.

So it's good to get back home and …

We've had a well-deserved break at Westacre. We worked very hard last year, with very few breaks. So we enjoyed ten days of doing not very much except sitting by the fire and imitating the stillness of Nature.

Not having to get up early, my meditation practice moved from the …

Midwinter. The darkest of dark. The day passes so quickly it is barely there. Our days have turned into night.

And yet in the heart of that velvet black, we reach a turning point. Right there in the shadows, a new light is sparked.

This night, three such turning points …

New on my Tumblr blog.

Many Pagans regard Samhain (31 October/1 November) as the New Year. My own experience, and some historical insights, guide me to celebrate new beginnings at the Winter Solstice, or Yule.

Sitting on the Hag’s Chair at her temple, I could feel the power of the land rising through the hill beneath me. The power of the place enveloped me and flowed through me. And in that moment I heard her whisper in the wind: “I am your bones.”

The …

I'm having a washing machine kind of time. You know, when lots of impressions and ideas and thoughts and plans just churn around and are jumbled together like clothes in a washing machine. It feels quite unsettling.

It's all to do with trying to get some traction for the Westacre …

At the Autumn Equinox, I committed to creating and nurturing community in my life. I strongly believe that remembering our communality with each other and the natural world is what will make all the difference as old certainties crumble.

Back then, I promised before my gods: “I commit to taking …

We all need more magical connections.

By connection I mean any link or relationship you have with the world around you. With other people, of course, but also with the other living beings and objects around you. All these connections keep you alive and make you the person you are …

What a year it has been. As I contemplate my year's harvest at the Autumn Equinox, I give thanks for what Alex and I have achieved. For the fact that the weather has mostly been very kind. For the continued health of our bodies and our relationship.

But the thing …

Our culture, and as a consequence most of us, are a bit funny about emotions. We don't quite know what to do with them. We are afraid of them, scared that …

I have been out of sorts, in more ways than one. As I was committing more of my time to the renovation project, my spiritual practice slipped. And when that happens, trouble is usually soon to follow.

It's not always obvious though, when things start slipping. I have been very …

It was a beautiful day yesterday. In the morning I was out early, climbing our scaffolding tower to get to the upstairs windows. At the level of the trees' canopies, I was applying filler to the gap between the new windows and the wall. The wind made the trees speak …

Slowly, slowly, we are weaving a new world in the cracks of the old. Everywhere, people are coming together to make communities closely connected to the land. Last week, I had the honour of speaking at the Rainbow Druid Camp, where hundreds of people came together to celebrate and find …

So where do we start? We are in this predicament where millennia of seeing ourselves as separate has brought us to the brink of disaster. We need to create a new way of seeing ourselves in relation to the natural world.

In the past week or two, there has been …

The world is changing, and the change is human-made. In response, we are weaving a new world of community with all beings.

We have, in a very short time, degraded the environment so far that some of its creatures cannot survive. The rate of extinctions is speeding up. News of …

So time to stop prevaricating. It's not like we've got a lifetime for this. The world is unravelling around us now. We need to learn to live in that unravelling world, using what we have left to best effect.

We have the Mother, so much power still within her. We …

“If we continue to speak of other animals as less mysterious than ourselves, if we speak of the forests as insentient systems, and of rivers and winds as basically passive elements, then we deny our direct, visceral experience of those forces. And so we close down our senses, and come …

If you'd told ten-year-old me that I was going to end up with a life of gardening, DIY and nature spirituality, I would have declared you mad. I was a very quiet and shy girl whose default mode was sitting indoors with a good book. My life mostly happened in …

A step on the Pathway of Love

This time of year is just so... green. Life is fresh and new and full of promise. Flowers shine in every colour. The world is making love to itself, making love to the long day and the warm sun. Just being outside in …

The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids is quite a big part of my life, if I stop to think about it. It gives me an extended family of like-minded souls that is a source of enormous inspiration and strength. I am deeply grateful for everything it has added to …