October: Crossing continents, Dadeni & Dreaming into Winter☄

Hello Friend,

I stumble as I begin this letter..the cursor blinks at me, waiting.. I'm coming in with neither a profound point nor plentiful purpose other than letting you (& maybe mostly myself) know that I am still here, lay over-easy under the light of this Taurus full moon, sitting with a loud mind amongst the fallen leaves of what has been, what is, & what is yet to come.

Rewinding the film back a little ~ October began by journeying from Mackenzie to the big rainforest city, Vancouver ~then flying all the way East to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

~ this shift in landscape was a shift in frequency..

Vancouver area was beautiful to experience.. I need a whole photo-book made with the pictures of places we ate and where we explored..there's an enormity when it comes to the west, everything feels bigger..taller..wider..wilder..has my spirit been slowly stretching to try to meet it all? I wonder..

The maritime flavour of the East carried a different kind of feral magick… familiar, somehow..There was a heritage there that echoed my own ~ threads of Celtic & Gaelic, the music of familiar accents, the feel of the wind in the way the sea holds time..

From the still lakes of inner BC to standing on those wild Atlantic shores, I could now feel my birth land just over the other side of that vast water. I caught subtle ancestral whispers through the salt air and the soft hum & artistry of old coastal towns & villages.. there's just something about'um, they hold a feeeel ~ waters that ripple & splash with all accounts of comings and goings..above & below.

The magick here was not like the raw mountainous West… but a salty–sweet filling ~ a rugged, tastefully spooky, bewitching cosy autumnal edge-of-the-world.

I fell in love with so many houses and seasonal vibeyness (photo below of the pink church says it all) ~ as well as the spirit of sea lichen, sugar Maple & tidal rivers the colour of chocolate.. this edge was a kind of enchantment that felt like a coming home << in an inner way >> .. memory I was preparing to stir in a little more once my feet returned to the other side..

The reason I was leaving Canada at this time was to make it back for Dadeni ~ the last retreat of the second year, in my 3 year initiatory Spirit School with a group of absolute legends...

This gathering was a continuation of our journey in indigenous tradition.. an honouring of the ancestors...that of people, place, animate beings, and of the spirals of story, myth, ritual, and ceremony that have been humming through the old stones, streams & tree bark across these isles (UK) for thousands of years.

Through a Welsh lens & language.. we uncover what it truly means 'To Tradition' (Traddodi) - 'to be' in communion with the animate land & our people, of now, of yesterday ~ in practice for what may be, tomorrow. wherever in the world we find ourselves.

Our gathering was deep and dirt’ful as per usual. We got intimate with mythic earth, we let the elements have their wild way with us. We communed, shared, laughed, sipped mead, brewed herbs, burnt incense, and we sang — gods, we sang (& so much more)

We sprinkled the bones of so much being into a great cauldron & stirred, for a year and a day ~ between the old trees by the stream, in good trust, in good company, in good soil.

And we journey on… this time each of us taking a new ally aswel as a deeper kinship with each other with us as we go.. For me, this cycle ahead, I walk with Alder ~ she will be my companion, my mirror, the tree I will sit with and listen intently to until we gather again in March.

So, finally after all this meaningful wandering for miles (I wish I didn't have to fly in truth).. I'm unexpectedly circling back to the wild west for Yuletide..(maybe my heart knew before my head) to be in more good company, back with ma guy & the sleeping bears of Mackenzie..

I'll be tending hearth & hibernating in the hush and sparkling snow of midwinter, before another adventure across continents calls to in February & beyond..

So for now, I return to the quiet alcoves of my loud mind ~ to digest, to replenish, to life admin the shit out of November yes! to be with my dear Mum & close others & to remember what truly matters, before I set off again..

I'll also be working on the next of the astro-nutrition series - Sagittarius.. I'm curious what's going to come through.

A bendith, A diolch - Be well! x

Chapter III Astro-nutrition series: Scorpio season, feeding transformation & the hidden layers of nourishment ☥ (recipe enclosed)

Before she became fire, she was water. Quenching the thirst of every dying creature. She gave and she gave until she turned from sea to desert. But instead of dying of the heat, the sadness, the heartache, she took all of her own pain and from her ashes became fire.

● ◐ ❨ Hidden Herb Kitchen 𓋼𓍊Giorgia Lamola Glenville