The Hag at the Well - Origin of the Dreamer
Both of these beautiful films can be found on the website of husband and wife shamanic artists, Will and Niamh of Tobar Trua (Well of Compassion) based in the Northwest of Ireland. Together they work with the spirit of the land and craft shamanic drums and rattles. This area is very dear to my heart and is a place I return to often in my dreaming. Home to sacred waterfalls, holy wells and turloughs: disappearing and reappearing lakes - it is also the ancestral home and origin of Swan Blessing. The waterfall and pool that Will is singing beside in the video below is so very much like the one I see in Swan Dreaming that I felt a wonderful jolt of recognition to see it in this beautiful water song. A song that is beyond words and time similar and reminding me of a post I wrote recently: Your Spirt Has Songs Beyond Time. After writing this post I was contacted by many singers who felt deeply connected to this message.
Recently I was asked to write for School of Shamanic Midwifery's Women's Mysteries Teachers ejournal about my personal journey to teach Women's Mysteries in the Swan Blessing. I wrote a piece called Hiraeth - the Heart's Call to the Dreamer. Hiraeth is something felt deeply in Australia as many of us came to this wise place of ancient dreaming from many other countries in the scattering of diaspora. I feel it is so important to heal the trackways, ancestral pathways with song, storytelling and remembering as these are often the same paths we need to follow to find and reclaim the Dreamer.
Next year we have been invited by our dear friends Karen Ward and John Cantwell of Sli An Chroi (Pathway of the Heart) to bring Swan Blessing to Ireland. It will be such a homecoming to visit this waterfall and sing my gratitude back to my ancestors. To feel the water flow deeply along this ancient liquid pathway from the origin of the Dreamer back to my heart.
Here is Will's description of the beautiful Celtic Shamanic Icaro singing and drumming you hear, derived from journeying with plant spirit and medicine. Thank you Will and Niamh for your hearts, your craft and your songs.
"This type of singing is derived from working with the plants. It is similar to the system of healing known as Curandismo in Peru where the healers "diet" with a particular plant to learn its medicine and how to carry its energy in the form of Icaros.
I've learned through working with the plants certain vibrations and melodies which flow through me as energy and information which has the capability to clear, inform and heal. These icaros or healing songs call on the intelligence of the plant spirit world.
This Icaro is a type know as "puro sonido" or "pure sound", where words of a language are not used but primal sounds relating to plant sentience comes through, the sounds, though not a language per se, do carry intent and meaning. By the fact that it is not a constructed language, it can bypass our rational mindset and speak to us on a deepr transrational layer where it can be felt and understood in an intuitive way.
This song is never the same, as it changes to suit the moment and the environment where it takes place. When sung in the power spots of nature such as the waterfall, the spirit of the place amplifies and lends itself to the song as a combined expression of the beauty of spirit.
Perhaps it is not a matter of singing but of being sung, of becoming a channel or instrument for the divine to come through."
This song can be downloaded for free at the following link.
http://hu.lk/w8l5wf3gj7uc
Answering the Call - the Living Path
One morning I watched as a woman in her late 40s walked out on to the volcanic bluestone rocks on Point Gellibrand in my home of Williamstown, stripped off and dove out into the deep sea. The sea here is very deep and the tides stronger than people realise, it is not a place where I've seen anyone swim before and I was blown away by her strength and fearlessness. Waiting on the rocks was her beautiful companion, a strong black dog who with great focus watched his mistress swim out to the depths. Not too long after she climbed easily back onto the rocks, dressed quickly and off she and her dog went into the distance. This small and great moment has stayed with me.
This year more than any other we are hearing the call of Mother Nature & the wise voices of our ancestors. We are feeling the earth moving and breathing beneath, around & through us - the spirits of the earth are awakening. In Williamstown we are on a peninsula surrounded on three sides by water, on our shores are ancient volcanic bluestones like the ancient markers of Stonehenge - geologists are still amazed at the strange rock formations found here - they are a mystery. We are on land of the Kulin Nation, the spirit of those ancient Aboriginal tribes is still with us here. We are on the land of the first white settlement in Victoria, home to sea captains and sailors, convicts & orphans, a place of Arrival for many, from all over the world.
This year Tony and I will be sharing the energy of this beautiful & sacred land in our workshops & classes as we remember again those who have gone before. We can learn much from these spirits of the land.
The Oracle Speaks: learning to channel messages from the Earth's Oracles & reading the Elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Air. Receiving the wise wisdom from our own hearts & from Spirit. Includes Full Moon meditation & journey on the rocks at Williamstown Beach.
Commitment to Self Circle: A night of honouring our spirit as we journey with the ancient Celtic grandmother An Cailleach who will help us to shed what we no longer need to embrace our radiant future. All proceeds of this night go to the koalas at the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter.
Beyond The Ninth Wave: Dedicated to the wise grandmother An Cailleach, in this 6 week course of developing your own personal practice, building strength and resilience, we will discover the ancient teachings of the wise ancestors of the Celtic Otherworld. Develop connection to your own Animal Totems, Plant Helpers & Spirit Guides. Includes Full Moon meditation & journey on the rocks at Williamstown Beach.
New Moon today - Thumbs Up for Rock and Roll!
I love this little boy - yep! Thumbs up for Rock and Roll on this beautiful morning of the last of the eclipses - welcome to your New Moon. I hope that you all begin to benefit from this more expansive and flowing energy very soon.
Today we are launching our new Shamanic Tarot Course: The Golden Temple opening at the Spring Equinox in September. This course is the 3rd & final wheel of the Tarot Mysteries and is open to anyone who has completed The Path Within. This course is half-full already and we are only taking 10 students so please let me know as soon as you can if you wish to join us. The Golden Temple will be taught by both Tony and I as we develop strong and clear connection to our Animal Totems & Spirit Guides, journey with our Animal Totems on the Drum, develop psychic protection and grounding before learning to channel direct messages from Spirit. We are so very excited to be offering this new course that brings the Tarot Mysteries and Shamanic journeying together.
There are also a couple of places left in each of these new circles:
New Moon wishes to you all,
Julia & Tony