She Changes Everything She Touches...

Hecate has set me off on a new road and opened up the space for other women to steer the circle...there will be guest facilitators now working with Tara so it will be refreshing to sample tastes of what our community of women has to offer. Thankyou to those women who have committed to helping the circle continue, Tara had a vision of creating women's community, which has flourished for some of us women who come along (no easy task in our segregrated world) and she is passionate about this circle growing. Growth always follows death which is never easy to assimilate but I think Tara and I are ready for the new cycle to find its rhythm, I hope to still throw ideas into the pot and have been researching the dynamics of womens/community groups for some time now-and rotating leadership is a common theme, whoever has the energy that will benefit the group will come forth to carry it into the future, which we have experienced when Cassandra stepped in whilst I was birthing my baby, this was a time that redefined roles and ideas about the group and shared the load.

As for me, I am taking care of my wild family and working at NatureCare College assisting Alexandra Pope with Women, Power and the Body this Saturday we are conducting a revisiting of the maiden in a menarche ceremony-will be great to initiate women into womanhood if they missed this important rite of passage earlier in life.
Also my artwork is available for viewing at www.myspace.com/maskera some of you circlegoers will recognize our Cauldron with the triple-faced Hecate...I hope there will be more Goddess-inspired art there real soon.

If you were at the last circle or heard about it, don't be alarmed by the power of the talking stick sometimes the underground rises up and needs to be examined( we did invoke the sea witch after all). If you need a concession to enable you to join the circle feel free to ask at the desk or when you book, the circle is open to all women in the community and beyond.

Tara has asked me to look after this blog(is there anyone out there reading?) I wonder if anyone who goes along would like to post occasionally as i won't be at every circle due to family commitments and it would be great to hear about the night as it happens???

I believe some of the circle got together on saturday to continue painting the songflags started at Minmia's retreat this would have been an interesting deepening of the animal journey we undertook last circle and a chance to have a smaller circle...it is hard to get together in between the monthly meeting as women we all seem to have overfull lives juggling many responsibilities so if you need to leave a comment or question here this can be your virtual circle-it might be a good place to help process anything that comes up.

Finally I hope to be welcomed back as a participant in the near future and I put out the call to circle goers of the past to rejoin the circle as it may just change your world again....

Coming up Friday June 30

Please join us this friday night, end of school term for winter relaxation and reveal your animal selves...we will be sharing a fabulous story from "Women who run with the Wolves" by Clarissa Pinkola Estes called "Sealskin Soulskin" and taking a trance journey with power animals...then we will pass the talking piece-our beautiful clay Venus and share from the heart....singing dancing raising up a storm should top off the night-
$20 doors open 6.30 for a 7pm start- c u there!
bookings Amy 0408 686 690 Tara 0414 527 481

Turning back the Sun at the Hecate Crossroads

11:22 and we've passed the deepest point of the year...midwinter...yuletide...soyal...celebrated by stoking the fire imbibing fine food and wine and drawing up and drawing images of Hecate and the mistress of fire HO! to the turning back the sun

Winter Magic Workshop next sunday @ Cronulla

Join us next Sunday 18th June for the first in a series of CHANGING WOMAN WORKSHOPS -Women's seasons and the Wheel of the year. From 10am - 5pm we will journey to deepen self-knowledge, acceptance and the celebrate the "Changing Woman".

Women mirror the changing face of nature, monthly and throughout our life cycle. By restoring value to our changing nature we create pathways to healing ourselves and the earth.

Explore the secrets of life through Yoga, the Tarot, shamanic mask making and a Hopi Indian Soyal ceremony.

Founders of the Cronulla Women's Circle Tara ER and Amy Scully, combine their skills to bring you a day of winter magic rich in creativity and ceremony.

Workshop will be held at Cronulla Yoga Centre
Suite 1, 57 - 61 Cronulla Street, Cronulla
Fee $70 (includes workbook/materials, morning tea)

enquiries/bookings Amy Scully 0408 686 690 Tara Er 0414 527 481 empressarts@hotmail.com

W.O.W.

Representing the Women's circle we opened, cleansed and blessed the W.O.W. evening( Women on Wednesdays ) at the Brass Monkey in Cronulla. This is a night created by Jamie Kearney to provide a showcase of local women artists and performers, a safe and supportive space for women to raise their voices! Jamie is a active wanai (young woman) who is passionate about creating community - a fine ally of our work. We were invited to open the night (held monthly) because I went to the first W.O.W. night to see Jo and Jacqi present a fashion parade launching their label "NISUOC" (cousin backwards- Jo and Jacqui are cousins with a passion for fashion - 2 very creative wanais who have many talents) so Jamie said we could teach about witchcraft at the night and I thought we could offer a smudging/drumming launch to the evening.

Tara smudged and feathered and i rattled my way through the audience we then met Jean and Kay onstage and banged our drums loud and clear! Tara led us in singing a song to call up the spirits and then a few more and I declared W.O.W. well and truly open it was great to see smilimg faces in the front row who were singing right back at us, a very public event different from our usual safe space of circle, but I thought it was a great opportunity to take what we do out into the world and give women a taste of what we offer...think we caused quite a stir...it was lots of fun and mysterious...we left flyers for the women and I think for most of the audience it was a new experience- HO!

Deep circle round

Just a minute off turning into a pumpkin after tonight's wonderful circle, so rich, so deep, we did it again! Some old faces, some new, some missed but all contribute with wit, wisdom and love of life's journey...if you could bottle the circle think it could cure the world's ills and we need something, don't we?

We practiced the Universal greeting-the official greeting of The Children of The United Nations, you should be able to find it on www.holistic-resonance.com and Tara issued us with a copy of "Daily Om" to get a copy go to www.dailyom.com

Tara and I attempted to look like warrior priestesses-(plastic swords, tunic dresses, leather thonging in our plaits) inspired by the Motherpeace Tarot card ' Daughter of swords' and we wrote a new invocation especially for tonight and thank Wendy Rule (Priestess of performance) for her tunes that carried us...

So the circle was cast and characters were discovered. We again worked with Starhawk's book The Earth Path and practiced open-eyed grounding, wide awareness and then coming into our senses and thought about our home base ( a place for daily reflection and observation). Then we attempted to "let go of the stories" well, first notice what stories were getting in our way of doing what we need/want to do in life...we tried to name these, mine was Drained Dot....then later on make a simple mask of this character to deal with sometime soon. Interesting themes emerged as we discovered ways that the character could be a catlyst for healing.

Mimi brought her new Phantasmagoria Theatre Tarot along and they were fun and revealing, good to work with something new, I love cross referencing different decks and getting new insights to the cards-every picture tells a story!

The talking circle blew me away tonight, it was full of gems of wisdom, poetry, stories and loving kindness and someone said that questions were asked as it started and then as we arced around the questions were answered. Oneness was discussed and also the voice of the wild fiery witch appeared, a voice that is still quietened until we learn to ride her...when she's given her place and is allowed she will speak tombs of truth...so if she spoke to you this month just listen and feel blessed that she's chosen you to carry her force into the world.

Last night I completed (with help from my wonderful man) the flyer for the first of our 5 workshops, Changing Woman - Winter Magic stay tuned for more details. And we invited the circle to join us at W.O.W. Women on Wednesday at the Brass Monkey a showcase of local womens talent where we shall open the evening with ceremonial drumming and smudging and a drink!

Thankyou to all the circle for joining tonight, to those who travelled from afar and after big busy weeks hope it was a haven of healing for you - you deserve it.

Tommorow some of us will meet to complete "song flags" (sorta like buddhist prayer flags) that we started at Minmia's corroborree- what a lovely treat after a lovely circle.

Ho!

Stretchy Roots

Wow...what a week! Altars were built, healing was sent and now the calm post the storms...Some regular circle goers didn't make friday nights circle, but felt it's effects ripple out. We had a magical night last week, sounds and smudging a poetic calling to the elements...and invocation to Nun Geena Tya, Mother Earth. The women have been asking for the talking stick to be passed around twice like we used to do so we made time for that and it was very powerful...twice allows for something deeper to emerge. Thanks to Starhawk for her wonderful book "The Earth Path" that we are using a guidebook this year, Tara took us through 3 exercises( in place of our usual yoga) that Starhawk describes as part of her daily spiritual practice. The second one," Earth Walking" had us moving about like Ents which was loads of fun and gave us a whole new perspective on moving whilst plugged in to the source! I climbed bolsters saw things I've never seen before and have been practicing every morning in my yard with my family joining me on occassion, not sure what the neighbours think but it leaves you in a slightly altered state as you open to new sight and observe the world around and within you. Then I helped everyone get crafty and we created a wand of power/wand of truth inpired by the Motherpeace card 7 of wands where a woman stands in her power holding her wand of truth aloft and she's met with differing responses from her tribe of women, some support, some challenge some don't even notice...we made these as a follow on from last month, when we explored the sacred intention meditation(Starhawk again) so the wand is a magical focus for our sacred intention, example-my intention is to teach about cycles so we are devising a series of workshops starting this winter the wand sits on my work table as a reminder for my intention. We also sang, laughed and cried and made some lovely new connections...looking forward to next circle-Ho!