Merry lockdown Midsummer to you All

Gors Fawr picnic, Midsummer 2019

Midsummer in lockdown, not so bad if you've got garden, country paths and a clear view of the rising and setting sun, I suppose. 

We can't join with other pagans this year, so for the first time, won't be holding a ritual in the Gors Fawr Stone Circle in Pembrokeshire (see this link for information on that).

Instead, we are joining with a lot of others to create a weekend retreat online, with The Way of the Buzzard. This small Mystery School for pagans interested in British shamanism is run by Nicola and Jason, who described lockdown as 'a crossroads', saying This global pause is giving us an opportunity take a deep breath and reflect on where we are and where we would like to go, both as humanity and also in our own approach to life. But how do we get a sense of direction as to where we are collectively and individually going now? And how to we forge that new path? 

We're already really enjoying their Solstice Retreat; I've had a couple of amazing journeys in which I met a new guide as  I drifted down the River Teifi in a coracle. She told me she was the 'wife of Hafan' one of the gods of summer. I've written a poem during today's meditation practice, which I was able to read out on the Zoom connection with all the other participants  several of us read, and the poems were utterly fantastic...and straight off the pen. You can find my poem below. The theme of the weekend is 'finding your tribe'. I've been doing some work with my ancestors...see my blogpost here...but in my visions this weekend, I've met with some of my more ancient Welsh ancestors (hence the coracle) and observed their way of life...catching salmon and sewen trout, making a fire with flint, and their lovely settlement with warm, welcoming beds of layers of skins. I asked them what was important to them...food, comfort, safety? They replied love; to receive it, of course, but more essential, to give it away, liberally.

This afternoon we looked at just how much we miss the richness of natural life; we pass it by every day, not stopping to see the patterns of ash leaves and keys hanging above our heads, or the fortitude of the weeds that plague our tidy borders.

Tonight, we will be drumming the sun down and tomorrow will crawl out of bed to see it rise.

So if you can't get out, or have access to the countryside take a leaf (literally) out of the Way of the Buzzard, and see what you can see...a tree in a park, a flower in a garden, a weed between the cracks of the pavement.

Here's my poem, a memory of a solstice sunrise twenty years ago.

Glastonbury Tor Midsummer 2000

Even as we climbed the Tor,

Soltice night coming down in waves on us,

Wave after wave,

Like the black sea,

I knew it would be spoilt.

Too many people, climbing, climbing,

Taking up the precious space on the flat Tor top, 

Ceaselessly wandering the grass, looking for a place to lay the sleeping bags.

Ceaseless drumming echoed round the tower,

it would go on all night, boring into my head, filling my mind, Never-ending noise.

And men, screaming out,

"ANYONE GOT ANY E?"

The sun dipped and dipped again,

Waving a red glove.

And was gone.

Clear sky, black and star-glittered.

On our back, with cool grass beneath us, 

We picked out the constellations as they

roared silently above us.

But it was still spoilt, with men passing packets of pills, 

Passing and passing again,

And the girls, valiantly fighting off their new best loves...

"It's the solstice, let's just dance..."

The drums powered on, entering our pours, our hearts, and spirits, 

Until we danced with the girls who didn't want loveless sex 

Not tonight, we'll dance until dawn.

We slept, even though the air was bitter as pills

until, through the dew and blankets, there was light,

Coming in wave upon wave

Like the bright sea

and we got up and welcomed the sun

On Midsummer day

And it wasn't spoilt at all.

This weekend retreat will be an opportunity to explore all of these questions. Together, from our own ho

Although it's too late to join this retreat, you can find out a lot about the Way of the Buzzard from their website mes, we will immerse in the energies of the ancient landscape of the upper valleys of the Yorkshire Dales, under the watchful gaze of Ingleborough, a sacred mountain to our distant ancestors. 

Held over the weekend of the Summer Solstice, we will be working with the Solstice energies of power and strength. We will envision what this new world will look like and find ideas on how we can begin to live this now to find our sense of direction, and we will work with tree spirit medicine and the message that Ash has for us as the tree of knowledge and equilibrium. 

There will be a healing drum bath as the Solstice sun sets in the sky, immersive meditative videos of the wildflower meadows and waterfall and streams around Ingleborough. There will be shamanic journeying, creativity time, reflective time and nature time, as well as a ceremony to set your intentions going forward at the end of the weekend