November 20, 2021

May all beings have a home.

It’s hard to tell how many people live there. It’s hard to know how many of the dozen cars over there actually function. Now, in addition to the double wide mobile home, there are two campers that are clearly occupied.

When we first moved to MossTerra more than forty five years ago the place across the road was well tended with flower and vegetable gardens. That was when grandmother Martha lived there. Now the place has changed dramatically. It’s a stark contrast to our forest sanctuary. We are grateful the abundance of trees blocks any view of it.

It’s been suggested we could report them to the County. Although the land use codes out here impose few restrictions, we are sure our neighbors are in violation of many of those codes including just dumping their garbage out the back door.  It’s likely the County would require many and significant changes. But we have decided to let this situation be for now. No, we are not at all happy with this. However, because our neighbors keep to themselves, we can only surmise that the living conditions, dismal as they seem to us, are home and shelter for these people. Likely the only home and shelter they can afford.

Driving through urban areas we see the increasing number of homeless shelters. Sadly even in our blue state these unhoused people are routinely ripped from their shelters without support. We cannot imagine being the cause of this for our neighbors.

NIMBY. Not in my back yard is a familiar battle cry. Often applied to unwanted developments like power plants, factories and prisons, it’s now being applied to the unhoused.

NIMBY. Out of sight and out of mind. It’s tempting. But we have decided we need to be reminded of what people are going through in our nation right now. We will not look away. So yes, these neighbors will remain in our back yard.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

November 19, 2021

Someone is sleeping on the porch by the front door of the Round, my office and gathering space. The door mat is often wet and scrunched up when I arrive and there are often faint prints on the slate. Dog? Deer? I have no idea. I’m just delighted that some creature is taking refuge and shelter there. Dennis suggested a critter cam. No. Besides the ridiculous expense, I rather like the mystery. May all beings.

My spiritual tradition has as one of its core expressions this metta.

May All Beings…
Have fresh clean water to drink and air to breathe.
Have food to eat.
Have a home and someone to share love with.
May they know their true purpose.
May they be well and happy and free from suffering. 

One might think that there could be no opposition to this statement. Indeed clean water, clean air, food, shelter, health, and freedom from suffering are being much talked about these days as basic human rights. However this metta does not apply just to humans. And therein is the rub for some people. Prominent among them conservative Christians who can’t accept or embrace all beings. They can’t accept that this would apply to the natural world and especially to animals. 

As we humans clearly face an uncertain future with respect to our climate crisis, we are called to remember that we are part of the web of all life, not separate from it. And we are called to shape our thoughts and actions from the space and context of that web. 

All. Beings. Full Stop.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

November 13, 2021

I was in my office yesterday when a stag ran past the window. Not five feet away. 

In this time of seasonal transitions I’ve been spending much time with the Earth energies, especially the energies of the Seven Nations that I wrote about last June. And I am reminded that at the most basic level it’s all soul connection. So in this post there is nothing more profound than that. And nothing less profound.

The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having soul. And they do.

This is from John O’Donohue’s blessing In Praise Of The Earth.

Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And the shadowed sureness of the moon.

That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit and light.

Indeed. May we all awaken to live the full dream.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

November 10, 2021

Music is just decorated time.

In this season of clocks changing and days growing shorter, much is said about the passage of time which is generally an elusive construct no matter how much we try to measure and control it. In the latest issue of Sun Magazine, one of the regular contributors wrote about time and his statement about time and music was intriguing.

As we watch the memes flow through our FB feeds of people, and dogs apparently, complaining about the daylight savings time shift, it’s compelling to consider this flow. The natural world doesn’t measure time. Yet the plants and animals are totally adjusted to and in synch with that flow. Much better than we are. They have their own languages and music, a beautiful tapestry woven in this fluid passage of time and seasons. 

Music. It can create a space of time out of time. It can transport us. It can weave an energy that reminds us to literally and figuratively go with the flow. It can remind us to be in the moment…this moment in time. And in this moment, the harmonies can be stunning.

Music. What a wonderful way to decorate our relationship with time.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

November 8, 2021

When you scratch a Catholic,
a pagan pops out.

This insight was given to me many years ago by Jenny Beale, friend and founder of Brigit’s Garden near Galway. She was called to create the gardens seventeen years ago as a celebration of Brigit, goddess and saint, and to honor the ancient Irish festivals and sun celebrations. And they are stunning. 

The gardens have become less a tourist destination that originally anticipated and more a resource for the local community. A few years ago a summer teddy bear picnic attracted 500 people. This event galvanized for Jenny the popularity and acceptance of the garden’s pagan focus by the local community. 

Really, there was no need for her to worry. Indeed the bridge between the goddess and saint is a strong one for the Irish people. Whatever she might be called at any given time, she holds the divine feminine energy that is intrinsic to the culture of a country that is named after a goddess from Irish mythology. That knowing runs deep. And the evidence of a blurred distinction between is found everywhere. And the blurring includes Mary.

On our recent trip to County Clare we visited one of the most well known Brigit holy wells. The walls of the grotto that leads to the well are lined with statues of Brigit and Mary and on this statue the bridge is clear. The divine feminine is deeply woven in the culture, psyche, and heritage of the Irish people. No matter the name. No matter the religion.

It’s not only the land and sacred sites that hold the memory of an ancient time when people were more deeply woven with Earth and cosmic energies. It’s the people. For indeed, when you scratch the surface of Catholic veneer, the old ways emerge. And the vitality shines a bright light.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

November 7, 2021

We arrived at Uisneach, the sacred center of Ireland, to spend the day with dear friend and colleague Marty who is also a spiritual guardian of this sacred site. I had no particular agenda for our time there. But Marty did. He asked if we would offer ceremonies at two locations with very stirred up and agitated energy. We did. And the energy shifted dramatically. But that’s not the point of this story.

The full details of those ceremonies are not to be shared. But I was sharing a bit about them having happened with a friend last week when she asked a great question. Why do those places need any kind of human engagement or intervention?

Indeed, the sacred sites in Ireland have been there for thousands of years. One might think the are able to manage on their own. However, although those sites are generally located on Earth energy lines and linked in with the Light grids, they were built by humans. In those thousands of years humans were in relationship with those places. And those places were in relationship with humans.

We have long lost that connection. We have long lost the knowing that we are part of the cosmic harmony and sacred collaborations. Yes. The sacred sites in Ireland…and in other parts of the world…are still very powerful. They hold the memory of ancient times and connections. Yet they are even more powerful when there is a collaborative union of Earth energies, Light energies, cosmic forces, and human energies. That is the complete union.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

November 4, 2021

In all of this writing about Ireland and especially what unfolded in September, I want to extend an invitation for you to join me on one of these journeys if you are called. Two of the journeys are now filled but I’ve opened a third from June 21st through July 2nd. There is a link to the flyer below.

It’s not just my invitation to you. It is the invitation, the call, of the ancestors and otherworld energies. They are asking us to not just touch the wisdom they hold but to embrace it and to join them in creating more Light in our world.

When the portal closed at the foot of Benbulben, this figure (you will remember her from a prior post) showed up to show us the way to a new portal location. And we will heed her wisdom.

Would love to share these sacred adventures with you. Let me know if Ireland is calling.

2022 Weaving Wisdom Brochure

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

November 3, 2021

I mentioned in a prior post that the energy we encountered in many of Ireland’s sacred and megalithic landscapes was in turmoil and transition. In many of these places we were called to listen deeply and offer ceremony. And then we went to Ballynastaig where no ceremony we might offer that day could change what we found there. In all my time in Ireland I’ve never experienced, or thought I would ever experience, the demise of a sacred site. But here it was.

Ballynastaig is a sacred well thirty minutes from the cottage and a place I visit regularly when I’m in Ireland. It’s an extraordinary underground well in the middle of a rath or ring fort (also known as a fairy fort) on top of a hill. Over the years I’ve developed a strong relationship with the female entity of that place. Although the well is popularly known for the name of the Ballynastaig townland, I’ve been asked to name this place Tober nBan. The Well of the Woman. Not a woman’s well, but her well. The woman of this place.

Climbing down into the womb of the Mother where there is space to gather and a resonance for singing has been the perfect place to close our Ireland journeys. To speak our intentions of the wisdom we will carry with us and to gather some sacred water. 

As we made our way through the surrounding stone wall, everything was changed. I stopped to pay tribute to the guardian tree. She was dead. Completely dead unlike any of the other nearby Hawthorns. As we entered the ring fort the energy was agitated, sharp and prickly. We were not able to find any of the pattern stones that surround the well in two concentric circles. And then we we climbed down into the well. It was dry. There was no water. 

After our journey I returned to this place alone and with Mary O’Halloran who knows this place and the patterns. We were hoping that the recent rains would have brought the water back. But it was still dry. It was still holding an energy of trauma and turmoil. Mary and others on the September received a knowing that the water had been diverted. And Mary received a clear message that the water would not return. And it seemed, from the absence of the usual collection of mugs and cups used to gather the water, that the locals were aware of this change.

We were in shock. This has been a sacred place for thousands of years. I can imagine the amazing nature of water rising in a well on top of a hill caused the ancestors to build this place. And it’s now forever changed. 

We knew that the human guardian of this place, the farmer who owned this land, died last year and his son has assumed stewardship, although according to Joe who lives across the road from the well the son clearly has no sense of what that involves. But this didn’t seem to hold the complete answer. So Mary and I drove down the road past the old farm house adjacent to the well. Long abandoned, it was now being refurbished and that refurbishment included drilling a well and that well drilling has clearly tapped into the well’s underground water table. 

I will continue to go back to this place. The Woman wants prayers and song and support as she navigates this traumatic transition. But for now I don’t know if or when I will be taking others. Along with Mary, I will attend the energies and listen for how to hold this place and the Woman in a new sacred relationship…that there may be a rebirth from this megalithic transformation. 

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

November 2, 2021

Energy is not lost or destroyed,
it is merely transferred
from one party to the next.
Sir Isaac Newton

Einstein would later make this same observation and again, science confirms what the ancient ancestors knew. Granted, this applies to a closed system and because we get energy from the sun the Earth is not a closed system. But the basic argument holds. Energy shifts and changes and does not follow the linear bounds of time. We spend our lives swimming in a cosmic soup of ancient, ancestral, and natural world energies that shift and change but are always present. We just tend to see ourselves as somehow separate from it. Well, perhaps with the exception of an annual Samhain awareness. But the rest of the year it’s generally not part of our consciousness. 

In this separation we fail to see that everything in the natural world holds and emanates energy. We walk through a forest to look at the trees and fail to acknowledge that they are looking back at us. They sense our energy as much as we might sense theirs. 

At sacred locations in Ireland there are often guardian trees. Generally sacred Hawthorn. And before entering these landscapes I always stop and acknowledge them. This past September when we were climbing to the Carrowkeel cairns, I stopped to spend a moment with this tree, as I always do. Although I sensed it, one in our group saw that when I approached the tree its energy field began to expand and glow. Perhaps in recognition. Perhaps just because I was willing to honor its energy. This happened at other sites as well. I have written much about the landscapes in Ireland being alive. It’s not just a metaphor or turn of phrase for a marketing brochure. It’s real. It’s real for Ireland. It’s real for any place on Earth. 

In Ireland, folklore suggests that these guardian trees are places where the ancestors dwell.   Ancestral or natural world energies, it’s hard to distinguish. It all blends together. It is, after all, a cosmic energy soup.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

November 1, 2021

In some Native languages
the term for plants translates to
‘those who take care of us.’
Robin Wall Kimmerer

A bit of a followup on the post about the ancient Shaman in which I rather glossed over mention of the pouch of marijuana they found. Scientists determined that she died in her twenties from breast cancer and they speculate the herb was for pain management. 

Reading this struck a deep chord. For when I had breast cancer I also turned to the marijuana plant for its medicine. It wasn’t an issue of pain management for me but rather tumor reduction. And it worked. I still take cannabinoid medication to prevent any chance of the cancer returning, even after almost seven years.

As with energy, especially the essential energy of plants, the wisdom and knowing of how to work with natural world resources never dies. It might fade for a bit. But it eventually comes back. With the magical marijuana plant it seems to have taken over two thousand years. But that wisdom known to the Altai Shaman has returned. And I am grateful.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com