Category: Creating Ritual

Taking to the Air – Invisible Element

by marlowpurvesnet, posted in Astrology, Cambridge, Summer Solstice, Creating Ritual, Guided Meditation, Healing, Holistic Healing, Practical healing meditation, Spiritual Astrology, Summer Solstice Retreat, Workshops

Air is the third of the elements in the series, it is ubiquitous… we depend on its existence and yet we can do nothing more than observe the secondary expression of it as evidence of its presence. All we have are words… to convey the essence of Air, the idea. What is being expressed in words is essentially intangible, ethereal, fleeting, abstract and precise; it is thought.

Ancient texts remind us that ‘In the beginning was the word…’, which is necessarily propelled by air, vibrating the tissue of the larynx. Before the formation of words was the idea… Air might be equated to ‘before the beginning.’

Air as breath, In-spirit-us, Inspiration and our direct communion with Spirit. Birds are commonly associated with Air, their feathers represent the effect of air and its possibilities, they are masters of the invisible realm and invite our imaginations to soar to the heights. Air IS the space between…

Gemini, Libra and Aquarius – Ideas, Connection and Abstraction

GEMINI (the first air sign), is synonymous with communication.

Ruled by Mercury, the God of Communication, Gemini possesses a multiplicity of gifts. Trickster and truth teller, mover between all the worlds, Gemini is a traveller and story teller, gathering, as a magpie, every idea without prejudice or loyalty, and then putting it down again! Following on from Taurus, the earthy representative of WHAT IS, Gemini introduces the possibility of WHAT IS AND WHAT IS NOT. The glyph is comprised of two parallel lines, joined at the top and the bottom and destined never to meet.

Associated with The Twins, this is the first symbol to introduce duality into consciousness, Shadow and Light. The constant exchange of ideas and perspective happens at lightening speed and as the two pillars cannot meet (they are fixed on parallel paths) in fact, ultimately Mercury’s realm is ‘the Space Between’. If we consider the anatomy of the brain with it’s left and right hemispheres, it is as if there is no bridge between the parts and so the messenger, Gemini, is dispatched to make the link.

Chatty, articulate, restless, impulsive, playful, intelligent, entertaining and charming Gemini is the ultimate social butterfly. Gemini is keen to explore and is a perennial gatherer of ideas, people, and experiences without the need to cling to any of them. They are orators of great persuasive power, politicians in every sense of the word!

Provocative, deceitful, mischievous and conniving ‘the game is the thing’ and so they are not to be depended upon. Seldom malicious there is a curious neutrality to Gemini.

A characteristic that is often overlooked with this fast-paced character is the silence. In contrast to the witty public persona, Gemini also has the capacity and, indeed, need to retreat to an inner world of silent contemplation and reception.

LIBRA

Following the discerning endeavours of Mercury in earthy Virgo, Libra develops the ‘idea’ and ‘exchange’ of Gemini’s communication to the contemplation of opposites and thus, the pursuit of balance. The wheat has been sorted from the chaff and divided, Libra now steps in to weigh the merits of each, one from the other. Just as the glyph for Gemini represents the eternal non-union of opposites, Libra is charged with the task of RELATING them to one another and the symbol for Libra turns the pillars of Gemini on their side conjuring a horizontal expression of exchange.

Venus as the ruler of Libra invites a different quality of expression than we saw in Taurus. She is now in her guise of relationship, mediating, managing, adjusting, tuning and refining any imbalance perceived in view of the duality revealed by Gemini, the first Air sign. She is the ‘voice’ of reason.

Libra also marks the first opposition of the zodiac, as it is placed directly across from Aries. The age old love tussle between action and relating, will and harmony is the hallmark of the Aries/Libra axis. It is the Equinox point, a time of balancing opposites. It is easy to mistake Libra’s dedication to bi-partisanship for indecisiveness. However, Libra is every bit as active as Aries insofar as she is constantly adjusting, refining and fine-tuning the dynamics of balance.

Pleasing, beautiful, gracious, balanced, refined and discriminating. Libra’s iteration of discrimination is not about discarding or rejecting (based on utility, as with Virgo) but seeking the counterpoint that contributes to representation of ‘the Whole’.

Argumentative and oppositional Libra can sometimes be seen to be contrarian though far from the desire to sow discord, Libra is passionate about BOTH sides being fairly represented. The symbol of The Scales is the only inanimate symbol in the zodiac which indicates the abstract, airy and dispassionate quality of Justice. FAIRNESS and reason are the by-words for Libra and she’ll fight to the death for it.

AQUARIUS

Aquarius is the final chapter in the story of Air. If Gemini is what went ‘before’, Libra is how to relate to what is ‘now’, then Aquarius is undoubtedly ushering in the future. It follows the ultimate realisation of earth (Capricorn) and tips us into ‘what is next?!’

Capricorn and Aquarius are both ruled by Saturn, but with a twist… Aquarius enjoys dual rulership including Uranus. If Saturn (in Capricorn) is about rules, boundaries, material evidence and authority imposed from above and without, Aquarius takes it to the next level by internalising the authority, emerging as an inner-orientation based upon principles and concepts rather than physical structures, tradition or force. Uranus, as a planet has a very eccentric elliptic, the irregularity of this path is a perfect allegory for the nature of Aquarius.

Distant, cool, dispassionate and seemingly at a remove from the drama of human existence (disconnected?), Aquarius can be inscrutable, sometimes cruel. Alien, Other, different and unpredictable there is a sense of rogue boundlessness to the sign of the Water Bearer. The symbol is sometimes misunderstood to signify that Aquarius is a water sign, in fact, the wave like symbol represents radio waves or frequency underscoring its capacity for instantaneous transmission. Air creates no impediment to movement and thoughts occur at lightening speed.

Aquarius has an innate ability to see the BIG PICTURE, unclouded by emotions, material concerns and passions. This perspective invites us to enlarge our perspective and to move into a kind of timeless space. Uranus, the ruling planet, is also known as the Great Awakener, and so with sudden flashes of insight and awareness, direct knowing is afforded, lending the label of Genius to the Water bearer. The all-inclusive nature of Aquarius extends to all that is, humanity and all of creation and the most treasured value is FREEDOM. The concept of what is possible and thinking beyond what is known, the development of technology and space exploration are very much within the scope of Aquarius’ purview.

Air, the invisible link… free and unimpeded, unformed and abstract, ever present.

COMMUNITY NOTES! In keeping with the theme of The Space In Between, my friend and colleague is hosting a Summer Solstice Day Retreat

Honouring and celebrating the magic of Summer Solstice 2025 with Emma Kerr (Somatic movement), Lisa Sibley (Breathwork) and Marlow Purves (Astrology)

A day of Meditation, intention, ritual and deep relaxation with a Sound Bath to conclude.

Refreshments and lunch are included, all the be shared in the beautiful Anstey hall, Trumpington, Cambridge. Hope to see you there!!

https://spiritandsoulwellness.as.me/schedule/4ac86a14/?appointmentTypelds%5B%5D=78463248

Yielding time

by marlowpurvesnet, posted in Creating Ceremony, Creating Ritual, Guided Meditation, Holistic Lifecoaching, Spiritual Awakening, Uncategorized

It’s Imbolc and my garden is yielding flint. Rock is floating, resting on the soil that is sighing with its first breath… this time, so much is resting on the small signs. Life is here, it is happening and taking shape. That flint, heavy and cool in hand, is seeking the light. Flint, out of which we make weapons, with which we build shelters, by which we summon fire; is rising.

This moment, this year is like no other I remember, I have always hungrily awaited the brave blossoms and sweet tubers, succulent and vulnerable… And yet, I am harvesting flint. Strength, indomitability, promise that that which is emerging from the deepest part of our earth, ourselves, will be seen, will lend its gifts to the season of promise and of new beginnings. The darkness of deepest winter is behind us, despair and folding in, chaos in the dark. It is from this slumbering time which we must rise, upward, always focused on the Light. Resolute and propelled by the dark and secret earth, we move in trust. Faith informs action, ignited by the awareness that we must move forward; there is no going back. Though our creations are as yet undetermined, they are our own and we have an opportunity to shape our future.

Brigid is Mistress of the Forge and so she calls us to forge anew, to create a way of healing and new life. We live in uncertain times and life is demanding our presence, not as passive onlookers but as participants. The urge for new life is quickening and we have choices to make, weighty ones. What will we dedicate our energies to? What will we fashion from these gifts of earth and fire? imbolc-flint

Brigid’s Belly is Buckling!

by marlowpurvesnet, posted in Creating Ceremony, Creating Ritual, Healing, Holistic Healing, Journeying, Practical healing meditation, Spiritual Homeopathy

There’s fire within and once again the stirring of the season is making the yearning for life known to us all. Brigid is tending the forge and though the crust is cool and the winds can be bitter, the life within is palpable.

New shoots, true signs that our season of slumber is drawing to a close; dark nights are receding and we are being coaxed into the light. Dreams hover ever more closely to the surface and we are gently ushered into wakefulness – potent and potential in the coming year.

It feels different than before, this year feels more pliable somehow, more elastic, promising change and growth in unexpected ways. Every new year has it’s unique promise and this one speaks to a sense of movement, quickening.

What withered husks must be shed in order for the fires of new life and inspiration to shine forth? We are urged now to begin those tentative steps toward the realization of un-manifest dreams.

Brigid guides us surely as she holds sway over the arts of healing, poetry and smith craft. Letting go of and surrendering that which no longer serves us, reveals a new level of vulnerability and of strength. It is a true kind of healing that reaches beyond mere restoration, moving us forward fearlessly into new versions of ourselves; a whole-r sense of who we are. The poet, echoing the voice of the mystic, seeing and revealing what is to become before it has found its final form. The words you choose conjure your next creation into being and you are being urged to listen muse and be inspired. Conversations with Spirit find their expression in many forms and most surely by the pen of the poet. What whispering have you been privy to in your wintery repose?

And now the final piece (they always come in threes!) The forge is fired and the hammer is calling for your hand… you are entering ‘the fashioning time’, wielding, wrestling, gripping and hammering the material of life into it’s new rightful expression.

Each of us is charged to renew our resolve, stir from our sleep and listen heart-fully to the yearnings of a creative spirit. It is no small thing to pledge yourself to creation, it will call upon all your resources and yes, you will  be changed!

Blessed Imbolc, may the fires burn brightly and light your way!New shoots

Samhain- The Veiled Door and That Which Abides

by marlowpurvesnet, posted in Creating Ceremony, Creating Ritual, Spiritual Awakening, Uncategorized

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Here we are hurtling forth, in descent, into darkness, into chaos and into the unknown of the underworld of long nights. There is no turning back, the harvest is gathered…the crops are in and the herds have been culled. Time now to examine our inner resources, to account for the growth of this last cycle and decide what we will sacrifice, let go of and what we will gather within to carry us through until the new growth of Spring reveals it’s possibilities. We cling to notions of who we are and what we do in the world as though they were the truth. In the news much of what we see or hear about is the crumbling decay of many of our institutions, public figures and our environment. We are seemingly on a collision course with the end-times. Given that so much energy is devoted to tending our bodies, staving off the inevitable, feeding our various appetites…paying taxes, organizing, striving, how do we succeed in NOT succumbing to despair and hopelessness?

Samhain or Halloween is the third of the harvest festivals in the Celtic calendar, it is a time when fears are made conscious; when the physical world is muted and the we are invited to glimpse beyond the veil. Contrary to popular belief it is NOT a celebration of death. In this feasting of the ancestors we have our opportunity not only to remember those who have ventured before us, but also a time for us to be reminded of the door between this human incarnation and a much larger experience of life. As with each of the holidays we consciously take ‘time out’ to release our grip on this imagined reality and glimpse something far bigger, this is the sacrifice that is demanded of us in this harvest…

Traditionally Samhain is where we ‘meet and greet’ our beloved ones who have passed away. We honour and remember them with stories and food – a welcome chair at our table. It is not just about celebration and remembrance that we gather though, it is a time to remember our own (im)mortality. The darkness is upon us and we in the northern hemisphere are certainly experiencing decline in light and warmth – a drawing in. Our awareness of our intangible and immortal spirit through the links we have forged and maintained with our ‘Gone Befores’ as we sit, feast, remember and commune with them is strengthened; we can, at this time, reach across and know the truth of endless spirit by the one true portal – that of loving connection. This festival provides us with an quiet space in which to reflect on what is real and what is imagined and that which abides.

Blessed Samhain!

Fair Harvest – Just Desserts

by marlowpurvesnet, posted in Astrology, Creating Ceremony, Creating Ritual, Intuitive Healing, Practical healing meditation, Spiritual Astrology, Uncategorized

And so the Wheel turns and we approach Mabon, Autumn Equinox and the second of the harvest festivals in the year. It is the sacrifice of the animal, just as Lammas marks the harvest of the vegetative God, here we are confronted with the hard decisions that need to be made in terms of the herd…the old, the sick, the weak must be separated out and killed so that the community can eat, so that precious resources are not used to feed and maintain that which is not strong. It can be a ruthless sort of selection, one that is familiar for the Goddess. There is grief here too, for all that was sown and did not thrive. Seeds must be selected and saved, guarded carefully to ensure another year’s fruit. It is time now for reflection upon the harvest of our dreams and plans, winnowing of experience and savouring the blessings; mourning the losses.

Mabon is celebrated when the Sun moves to 0° Libra, like Spring Equinox, it is a balance point of the year. For the past month, Virgo has been transited and now we approach the changing time between very different energies: Virgo with it’s discerning, discriminating, critical and preparatory nature moving into Libra’s balance, accentuating harmony, appreciation of beauty, an emphasis on relating and the ‘other’.

‘Fair’ and ‘Just’ are words that are inherently Libran. Ruled by Venus, the Goddess of Beauty and of Love we can understand ‘fair’ in it’s context of balance, symmetry and harmony. Libra’s symbols are the Scales…the Scales of Justice, where every thing, act, and thought is weighed in relation to the ‘other’ and balance is demanded.

This moment between Virgo’s harvest and Libra’s balancing act is ruled by the element of water, a reflective element. It is also an element that is essentially always seeking its own balance. Water’s reflective quality offers us a mirror, to see our beauty and also to see ourselves as we are. This ‘still point’ offers us a bit of a reality-check, an opportunity to see what actions need to be taken to bring about balance and rectification, the active principles of Libra that will prepare us more fully for the descent into the dark part of the year.

The caution is that we don’t over-indulge in the newly realized wealth of the harvest, that we guard against collapsing ourselves into the warmth and moistness of the golden days of the season. These ‘Indian Summers’ can lull us into a kind of sleepy forgetfulness. Beauty, harmony and appreciation of the receptivity of the feminine can invite a certain indolence. Now we are bidden to move from the somewhat austere measures of Virgo to create a new-found sense of balance in our lives. There is so much beauty, such bounty, fair dues.

The Equinoxes and Solstices are magical moments that are out of time, a bridge between two seasons.

Peer into the water and take time to celebrate. Blessed Mabon!red-autumn-leaves-water

Imbolc – Exquisite Paradox

by marlowpurvesnet, posted in Body-centred meditation, Cambridge, Creating Ceremony, Creating Ritual, Guided Meditation, Healing, Journeying, Spiritual Awakening, Uncategorized

snowdrop shootsThe days are DEFINITELY longer and the earth is just beginning to emit her irresistible fragrance, JUST. Snow drops are appearing and gardeners’ fingers are itching and turning to trays of seedling hope in anticipation of a warming soil and softening in the fields. On this sunny day I look around and see evidence of the sun’s fire drawing forth the abundance of a sleeping earth. Hope surfaces, tentatively, tenderly. It is truly an exquisite time of year and in ourselves, new-born time.

All this fiery energy holds us in its thrall because of it’s juxtaposition to the vulnerability of newly emerging life. This is animal time, where an appetite for life is making itself felt in our deepest selves. Raw, not wholly formed; wet with the fluids of previous hidden existence, we are being called to show ourselves. We are invited by Nature herself to rise in consciousness and make a bid for life.

Commitment time, Imbolc is a dedication and initiation festival. Making a commitment is a radical act of courage and of hope. It must be tended with care, protection and loving nurture; a dangerous undertaking, worthy and requiring support. Commitment has had a bit of a bad rap in the past, alluding to constraint, bonds and limitations and yet it provides the vessel from which to grow, a stable and faithful promise to protect new life, nurture it and bear witness to its unique creations.

Brigid, the Goddess of Poetry, Smith-craft and Healing sings the heart’s song, creates the containment of a manifest vessel and heals the wounds found on the path of emergence. Feel the fire and tend your vessel with loving kindness, there is a promise of oh-so-sweet bud and flower and fruit for the faithful.