Category: Spiritual Awakening

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

Breaking New Ground

by marlowpurvesnet, posted in Body-centred meditation, Energy Workshops London, Healing, Holistic Healing, Holistic Lifecoaching, Intuitive Healing, Spiritual Awakening, Uncategorized

 

“Many workshops claim they are transformative. This one really, truly is!” Christine. 

Breaking New Ground is a courageous exploration of your soul’s unfolding facilitated by Sue Smith and Marlow Purves. Explore your unfinished business, how it affects you, and how to heal old and new trauma.

 
Those who’ve already attended the course say:
 “By far the most powerful workshop I have ever attended…I was amazed at Sue’s insight, intuition, energy and her ability to read energy and pick up exactly what was going on for all of us [without us saying a word]… she made it safe to go deep …” Caroline 
“… friends were in awe of the experience I had. I wish I could do it all over again!” Camilla
 “Sue held a very safe environment not only with compassion but tremendous humour in the right places.” Liz
Lucie wrote – “It was truly a gift.”
Selena wrote – “ I just want to say thank you! Thank you for such an amazing experience, life changing!”
Sue is a homeopath, a healer and a teacher of energy work. She brings extraordinary warmth, compassion and insight to her work with groups, creating and holding a safe space in which people can gently explore, heal and grow.
 
A pivotal life experience awakened  and opened her awareness to her  own energetic body and it’s many subtleties. She developed an acute sensitivity to others and an ability to listen deeply, to read the truth in energy and to actively respond to what’s alive in the moment. Since this time Sue has been steeped in Chakra work, in both Eastern and Western wisdom traditions. 
A key component of her work is experiential – an invitation to come out of the head and into embodied knowing, self-trust and transformation freeing you of outdated habits and patterns that no longer serve. 
Marlow is an homeopath, healer and astrologer. With a background in movement, meditation and Shamanic journeying, she synthesizes a variety of disciplines and tools to create sacred space.
Marlow brings 30 years of experience working with individuals and groups and has a remarkable ability to perceive underlying patterns and bring them to the light.  Marlow’s natural ability to lead others in light-hearted investigation allows magic to occur, creating space for transformation and healing of old wounds and restoring the flow of energy. 
The path that unfolds is unique for each person, Sue and Marlow tend them with a synthesis of playful and grounded enquiry.
This event is being hosted by The Homeopathy College, but it is a stand-alone workshop and requires no homeopathic leanings.
 
If you’re open, curious, ready to heal old wounds and move your life forward, join us on October 15/16 2016 for a weekend to remember.
Saturday/Sunday 15/16 October 2016
Saturday/Sunday 10/11 December 2016
and there will be one more in January 2017
Hurry! Spaces are limited – only ten places for each weekend workshop. 
 
Contact Christopher by email chris@homoeopathytraining.co.uk or phone 01803 865 780 for booking details.
 
 

Spring Equinox and The Solar Eclipse

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

In the words of Bob Dylan… “I feel like I’ve been through a kind of thing, man”

As ever, the poet is succinct and on task. These past few weeks have been FULL of an un-precedented amount of clearing; letting go of old and out-worn identities, habits, relationships – you name it! Lots of colds and flu’s cropping up, landing us in the no-man’s land of lurghie as our bodies re-tune to the change in season and energies which have been heralded by the conclusion of the seven-part out-playing of Pluto square Uranus over the past three years. So much has been revealed!

Here we are poised on the very brink of a whole new ‘thing’.

Tomorrow is Spring Equinox and is a particularly unusual one as it coincides with a Solar eclipse.

The astrology is important as it points us in a direction that will piggy-back on the energies of this time.

I’m going to speak to these two phenomena separately, with the understanding that nothing happens in isolation and so are inextricably linked with one another.

The Spring Equinox occurs at 0 degrees Aries, every year, without fail. This year it falls on March 20 at 10:45pm GMT. The equinox is when we enjoy the experience of perfect balance, equal day and equal night. It is an invitation to find balance, peace and to mark the crossing of a threshold into new life, growth and development. We are emerging from the primordial soup and collective unconscious of Pisces into a self-actualizing, focused, goal-orientated Aries expression.

Typically in our celebration of the wheel of the year we pause and acknowledge the shift in energy.
So, we’ll pause now and prepare to take ACTION. Actions that typify this festival are cleansing and clearing, not ‘just’ through reflection and metaphorically, but also physically. This is the time for a Spring Clean, time to open the cupboards and take everything out; review it. Has our food, our sustenance literally passed it’s ‘USE BY’ date?! Are these clothes still an accurate expression of who we are now? Is that project, long forgotten at the back of the shed, still relevant?

Emerging from Pisces and the watery, mystical world of creativity and illusion is always a bit of a shock. Nature is burgeoning and we are feeling the pull of longer days, warmer winds. Our noses are drawn inexorably above the parapet! It’s been a brutal winter, in some ways, such a lot of turbulence and the heaviness of the winter months has weighed us down. Time for a good clear out! Rousing us from a dream-time, our bodies may be feeling a little achy, unused to movement and the on-rush of sap. When ‘cleanses’ are embarked upon, fasting aids in the re-tuning of our digestive systems and enables us to process the new life force, on all levels. It’s a perfect opportunity to re-assess ourselves, our lives and our vision for the coming year.

The actions that take place at this time of year are not limited to clearing and cleansing though, this is also a time to avail ourselves of the yielding earth and to plant seeds in anticipation of a harvest at the Autumn Equinox.

What seeds will we plant? What have the past months of dark, quiet, dream-time brought forth to be transformed into matter? What have you dreamt of?

Inevitably, when I prepare to celebrate the Turn of the Wheel, I discover something that I have never considered before. My revelation for this Equinox is about the God, Mars. Associated with March (natch!) and war; strife, blood shed, anger and force. I’ve never chosen to invest too much energy with this deity. Lately, I’ve been challenged to really get to grips with the value of this ‘killing machine’. I have discovered however, that though I always thought of Ares (Greek) and Mars (Roman) were interchangeable, it emerges that they were slightly different, in motivation, if not expression. Ares is, in fact, a God of War and fulfills the profile of war-monger and brute. Mars, on the other hand, was originally an agricultural God who rose to prominence ‘in defence’ of his dominion, land, crops and community. I am splitting hairs, but it occurs to me that there is a very different quality to this expression.

So, how do we harness the energy of Mars; sheer, passionate force dedicated to protection and preservation of that which sustains us? When I ask this question I can see how we could immediately be drawn into a border skirmish resulting in the kinds of wars that are waged over resources and territory. For the purposes of this Equinox, I invite you to re-imagine an expanded version of what ‘sustains us’ and by that I mean our environment, nature, the planet or (an aspect of) The Goddess. Delicate, vibrant, nourishing, beautiful and powerful, our planet, as an embodied expression of the Goddess, is calling forth her consort, Mars, to battle those forces that would decimate her, to restore balance. It is only through the dynamic inter-action of the feminine and masculine that new life can be created and sustained.

A super-charged opportunity to manifest presents itself and looms large in our energetic and cosmological field at the moment. It is the Solar Eclipse combined with a New Moon in Pisces. This ‘event’ will take place at 9:36am GMT. It will be visible in parts of northern Europe.

A New Moon is associated with new beginnings and the seeding of intentions for growth and development, when it is found in Pisces it usually has an artistic or spiritual flavour. Meditations on what it is that we are wanting to ‘grow’ and harvest at the full moon (in two weeks time) are a powerful way to set our internal compasses in the direction of manifestation. When the sun is in Pisces and is eclipsed by the moon there is also a very strong emphasis on service (an attribute of Virgo), as in service to ‘the other’. Eclipses involve the occultation of the sun and as such have a longer journey to make to reach it’s optimal state. The essence of this occurrence is that we have the usual effect of seeding new projects/intentions but, energized and extended in significance AND in time of ripening. |The Piscean influence will be felt as spiritual and faith-based ventures will emerge.

Take time to ‘tune in’ to your quiet self, be mindful of what you wish for and be prepared to ACT on it in order to yield an abundant harvest!

Blessed Equinox and Eclipse Everyone!

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!

Lammas, Insurance Policies and Fear

by marlowpurvesnet, posted in Creating Ceremony, Intuitive Healing, Spiritual Awakening, Uncategorized

Lammas, as all of the other holidays, demarcates the tipping point and heralds the movement and changes that will characterize the coming weeks.

Traditionally, Lammas, one of the cross-quarter festivals is associated with Fire, sacrifice and blood. It finds its place opposite Imbolc on the wheel of the year. As Imbolc is the time of first shoots and stirrings of life following the Winter Solstice, Lammas marks the first harvest, following the Summer Solstice. Each of these cross-quarters contain within them the element of RISK. Imbolc’s new shoots are easy prey to the threat of frost and snow and Lammas’ ‘almost-but-not-quite-ripe’ crops are at the mercy of potential rains, blight and hail.

We are here now, poised in the slow, languid days of summer where everything in nature is beginning its inexorable journey inward and down. The seeds are ripening, growing thicker and making the imperceptible shift into a condensed and potent form – seed that will be harvested for food, stored for later use and some portion thereof retained for the planting next Spring. This very seed is our insurance policy, insuring us against hunger in the cold days and nights of winter, insuring another year, another cycle of sustainability.

Insurance the halfway mark between hope and fear; hope that ‘enough’ will be realized as we move toward reaping and fear, an awareness that all can still be lost, in the blink of an eye, to the ravages of wind and hail.

Insurance is not a new notion though our ancestors made a bid for it – in a manner of speaking – through prayer, gratitude and sacrifice rather than policies and contracts. Insurance hinges upon the notion of a future outcome or potential threat to security. Sacrifice is an acknowledgment of our connection to all life and gratitude is based on the remembrance of the past, expressed in the moment’s eternal NOW.

There is no such thing as a guaranteed outcome – as much as our fear-based consumer society would like us to believe there might be; there is only the present – ever-evolving, ever-cycling, the truth of what IS.

In the face of this we can give thanks, acknowledge that we have thus far been carried by the grace of Life itself, to this moment and that this same moment will undoubtedly usher us forth into the next moment. By acknowledging our place in the continuum of life and its inevitable growth and decline, fear dissolves and we are free to breathe each breath and embrace each moment.

Blessings on the first harvest!

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.