Prayer Beads of the Wise Women

Her hand moves slowly over the beads as her eyes look out over the landscape. We are in the time of Lughnsadgh, a festival which although it has been known by many names has always been a time of great gatherings.

The priestess sits with her thoughts as the morning unfolds, as she holds her prayers beads in hand. She is of the clan of the Old Antlered One, an ancient linage which stretches back to the time of the great ice. The antler on her prayer beads is now deer but it symbolizes a time of the reindeer and all the mysteries that her lineage holds.

Under this time of the waxing gathering moon she looks forward to seeing her sisters of the seal clan, the wise selkie women, she looks forward to meeting her bear sisters, the women who tend the Cave of the Grandmothers plus her sisters of the Shield and the women of the Eagle clan.

Although this is the time of year when the clans gather, exchange gifts, teach each other new skills there is also much singing and dancing later into the night. The wise women find the time to gather together just with their sisters - to join in circle and honor the old ones - through ritual and ceremony and rites of the mysteries each women holds in her linage. each of the women carry their own prayer beads. It is their connection when they aren’t together.

The circle the women form together is the circle of life - reflected in the circle the prayer beads create. The circle of beads replicates the great circle of life which holds each birth and breath, each stage of life, of love, tears and joy and it also holds our fial journey the one we take back home through death and rebirth.

The beads hold all of this and rarely, very rarely there will be so much intense emotion that the silk will actually break, the beads tumbling to the ground - all within helping the ritual of release in whatever form it takes.

The priestesses of the old Antlered One hold antlers on their prayer beads sets, In honor of a great antler which has been carried down from priestess to priestess through many generations. This great antler is said to have come from a time of the great ice. The antler they carry on their prayer beads connects them to their ancient lineage. (although probably deer is a symbol that connects them to this ancient linage.

There are priestess whose beads hold a hag stone, a snake stone - some of these women are midwives for throughout folklore these stones have helped aid women 9and animals) in birth. SOme women see the great eye of the Cailleach in these stones and use it in their work as they connect to the great primordial Hag. Some women whisper incantations, spells and all manner of well chosen words through the eyes of the hag stone.

Grandmother Bear - click on image to view in shop

Whatever your lineage, wherever you are to hold your prayer beads in your hand is an invitation to enter sacred space. The first three circular silver beads are ‘step beads’ and as you hold each of these eel yourself dropping down into the mindset of entering sacred space - picture a temple, a shrine or holy ground. Next is an invitation to leave all your baggage - your questions and worries, this ‘mystery bead’ invites us just to be present within this sacred place, to let go and to sink into the mystery, honor that which we don’t fully understand.

The circle the beads form has eight sections representing the festivals of the year. They are represented by eight wise women who hold the traditions of the Ancestral Mother, women who hold the relates mysteries and practice those rites and ceremonies. Each section has a ‘threshold’ bead where the energies of the festivals merge and overlap. Right now we are in Lughnsasdgh but you might well be beginning to feel the pull of autumn equinox. And so as you hold your beads what is it you are priestessing - what tradition do you follow and what wisdom do you practice, hold or are perhaps seeking?

If you are interested in journeying the Wheel of the Year with the priestesses of the clans of the Ancestral Mothers - click here to sign up for the mailing list then you’ll receive your invitation to join the course before it launches at Autumn Equinox.

Tulsi

 I give thanks to this goddess plant Tulsi. She has helped me deal with numerous stresses and overwhelming demands. She's helped me to relax - which has given me the energy to say no to things and to finding the energy for the things that need to get done and those nurturing things that feed me in return.  She carries an offering bowl, she offers herself, what do we offer in return?

It is hot here in the Appalachians. Way too hot for this transplant to cope. Summer is hectic enough - so many things demanding that small precious amount of energy. Energy that is quickly depleted from a bad nights sleep - which starts the cycle of the next day off with even less energy to begin with!

But there is magic in these nights. A chorus of singing frogs and a light show from hundreds of will-o-the-wisp fireflies pulsing in the trees. Pulsing in rhythm with a  scattering of stars sprinkled out in the dark skies above them.

What I really miss is a cooling down at night. Just now in Scotland it barely gets dark. There is a long dwindling twilight stretching out for hours. Oh how strange it is here to go indoors and suddenly when you come out in 20 mins later it's already dark. That will never cease to confuse me, night as a great magician robbing me of twilight. Twilights are powerful thresholds, great gradual waning of light. It's in that threshold that spirituality was born, there that our ancestors listened to the land - and that the land told them the sacred stories.

The climate is chaotic, I suffer boughts of crippling anxiety - what’s to come, what is unfolding around the world. I just can't cope and a horrible anxiety grips me. At these times I turn to Tulsi/holy basil (Ocimum sanctum) and she offers sanctuary.

Tulsi has been honored as sacred in India for thousands and thousands of years. It is kept in many Indian courtyards where it is believed to offer divine protection.  For more than 5000 years Tulsi has been considered India's "Queen of Herbs" and has been revered as one of the most sacred herbs in India, infused with healing power. Hindus view Tulsi (also spelled Tulasi or Thulasi) as a goddess in the form of a plant bestowed with great spiritual and healing powers. According to legend, no amount of gold could outweigh Krishna's power, but a single Tulsi leaf placed on the pan in loving devotion tilted that scale. In India today, Tulsi is still traditionally grown in an earthenware pot in every family home or garden, and the leaves are used to make a delicious and refreshing tea that possesses wonderful health benefits.

As Tulsi traveled west along the early trade routes from the Orient to Europe, it became known to the Christians as "sacred" or "holy" basil as is reflected in its Latin botanical name, Ocimum sanctum. They hailed Tulsi as "The King of Herbs' instead of as a queen, and Holy Basil became routinely included in legends, offerings and worship rituals and was looked on by many as a gift of Christ.

Medicinally it's been used in the treatment of colds and flus  to cleanse the respiratory tract of toxins, and in the relief of  gas and bloating.  The oil is an antioxidant and is used for pain and arthritis.  Recent scientific reports have confirmed the healing potential in medical conditions ranging from diabetes to cancer. 

Promotional video from Organic India

Tulsi is considered an adoptogen, a group of herbs which greatly improve your body's ability to adapt to stress, whether it's a hectic schedule, heat or cold, noise, high altitudes or any number of other stressors. This elite class of herbs impart strength, energy, stamina, endurance, and they improve mental clarity. In many parts of the non-Western world adaptogens are used extensively in high-risk, fast-reflex occupations, from athletes to miners to deep sea divers. Stress poisons every inch of the body. It cripples the immune system, upsets delicate hormones, and disrupts digestion, among other things. Most dangerous of all, it dials up inflammation. Stress lies at the root of every inflammatory disease, says Aggarwal, who is chief of the cytokine research section in the department of clinical immunology, bioimmunotherapy, and experimental therapeutics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Ginseng and other adaptogenic herbs share rare and coveted traits — they mitigate the negative impact of stress by strengthening and stabilizing your body. “No category of herbs holds more potential for overworked, overstressed Americans than adaptogens,” says David Winston, RH (AHG), herbalist, ethnobotanist, and coauthor of Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress Relief (Healing Arts Press, 2007). “They are a bridge that can carry us over stressful situations with our health intact.”

The idea behind adaptogenic herbs is that a plant’s DNA can do for people what it’s done for plants for millions of years — make us more pliable, adaptable, and resilient. Each of these herbs has its own personality, thanks to different active ingredients. Some are more stimulating, while others are more calming; some dial down a hyperactive immune system, and others increase immune response.

Women carry holy basil plants (Ocimum tenuiflorum) on their heads during a religious procession in Hyderabad, India

Tulsi also plays a vital role in the Indian lunar calendar. Kaartik (October-November) is loved by Tulsi. During this time the holy plants are decorated with structures of sugar cane, mango leaves and flowers. One day during this period is celebrated as “Tulsi Vivah” or the wedding day of Tulsi and Shaligram (stone form of a sacred lingam). The Tulasi goddess is formally married to Lord Vishnu annually on the eleventh bright day of Kaartik; this inaugurates the marriage season in India.

---

Information links:

Seeds of India

Adaptogens

Ancient Healers: Adaptogens

A Burning of the Scrolls & Reading by the Clouds

At Spring Equinox it is the great crone brings us out of the months of darkness, drawing us into the light half of the year again. Over the years her story has morphed and changed in reflection of people’s beliefs - this one and mighty crone who created the landscape is reduced to an evil old hag who becomes jealous of the new life and beauty of spring represented by Brighid.

This is not my story. My Cailleach hasn't gone anywhere, she didn't fight with anyone. As spring unfurls in the great greening she merely took off that winter plaid and released that tender green she has been carrying all winter. She spends her spring and summer days walking the mountains and hanging out with her herds of deer, her fairy cattle. Enjoying the births and death. In fact, if you climb to the heights of a Scottish or Irish mountain you might even hear the snoring of this great hag! 

Throughout the year I always feel that this old hag has got my back - summer, autumn, winter or spring. So in the days leading up to the full moon I out out a call for anyone who wished to offer a prayer to the old one. I am not a priest or a priestess, I am no different to the women who sent their requests from all over the world. The only difference being I was born in the lands of the Cailleach, the lands whose very bedrock is formed from her bones. She is Scottish and Irish (much like myself), she does not walk the land of this continent (US), for the peoples of this land have other great giant women and sacred hags. The people of this land who do see the Cailleach it is because they have blood ties to the lands she was born of. There is no heather or peat, no great Scottish moor or mountains on this continent that belong to the Cailleach.

I gathered the antler (top photo) I found on the way to the Shrine of the Cailleach, I was perfectly happy to just leave the antler in the bog but I felt a push on my shoulder to reach down and take it. The vole or mice gnawings, or perhaps the scrapings of antler on stone when it was attached to the stag's head read like symbols and markings of a secret language waiting to be read. 

Prayer for the Cailleach Vigil

I had envisaged a great fire whose sparks would fly up to the stars on the night I ritually burned all the little scrolls of paper but the weather here was torrential rain and the wood and fire pit had transformed into a little pool of water. So I had to improvise under a porch roof, at an angle I could just see the rising moon.

I walked a circle around the table holding the scrolls of paper, I do not call in directions or cast circles but walk the path of the Ancestral Mothers, the path of the year and as I walk those women join me - the wise women and the priestesses, the ancient ones. Not everyone turns up of course!

I lit the little scrolls of paper, there was no great flames but more a smoldering and sometimes that little line of fire circled the scrolls as if accepting the prayers and translated them into a fiery language - to exist just momentarily. Maybe just long enough to reach the old one’s ear, for I have known her to stand so tall that I can see her from this continent over the ocean.

One Samhain eve I was north in Maine walking by the ocean. I felt sad that I wasn’t in Scotland to awake in the morning to see if there was the first dusting of snow on the hills after the old one ushered in Winter wen she washes her great plaid int he whirlpool of Corryvrecken, the cailleach’s cauldron. Suddenly I noticed two clouds appear just over the horizon like two great eyebrows framing two eyes. The branch of a tree beside me formed a nose and a rock in the water resembled lips. I thought I was hallucinating as tis face emerged so I asked a friend and she too saw the face - the face of the cailleach standing so tall that I could see her on another continent!

After alighting all the scrolls I scanned the sky, the moon was now shining and the clouds racing by where illuminated a brilliant white against a dark sky. I practice neldoracht of reading by the clouds and I was surprised I didn’t see something in the clouds, I have seen great hag faces and owls peering down and the holes n the clouds which form their eyes are filled with dark skies and stars.

Then I realized the reading of the clouds wasn’t for me bit for all those whose scrolls were offered to the old hag. So i’m adding some photos below of the clouds and maybe you’ll see a figure or something that catches your imagination which is a message from the old hag to you!

The Path to Beltane with the Ancestral Mothers

Photo copyright Jasper Schwartz for Beltane Fire Society

Beltane Fires Burning

In my younger years my Beltane was often a wild affair and was celebrated with fire - just as a fire festival should be! Yet my vision of Beltane, and the wheel of the year in general has changed over the years. I now I look upon Beltane as an ebb and flow of many different forms of desire.

Beltane on the Ancestral Mothers of Scotland wheel is marked by sacred desires and unspoken yearnings - those long far off callings that speak to us through time. I often feel they are longings that call to us of home, and home looks different for every woman, home becomes apparent when we take time for ourselves wrap ourselves up in our sealskins and then we’re recharged ready to engage again - with family, our community and with our role we play in the world.

“Jude’s depth and breadth of experience and knowledge as a woman, artist and scholar indigenous to the lands of the Ancestral Mothers inspires trust in the authenticity and wisdom of her teaching and guidance around the Wheel. Discovering Jude and her work has greatly enhanced and expanded my search for the path to my personal Ancestral Mothers and traditions. ” - Ann Harrison

A Primordial Landscape - Looking over to Jura from Oronsay

The Wise Woman Cee-al

Each festival on the Ancestral Mothers journey around the year is represented by an Ancestral Mother - Bear guardians, Goddesses, Bean Feasa (Wise Woman), priestesses - they take many roles but are women who honor Her in her many forms.

Cee-al is the figure of Beltane, her story comes from the nomadic mesolithic peoples off the west coast of Scotland around 6,000 BCE. They traveled from island to island following the natural rhythms and the natural harvests of the land and sea. Cee-al’s role was to know when to move, to know those signs in the landscape to ensure they moved at the right time. She also has a deep relationship with seals and is a guide to women who seek out their sealskins, to women who wish to feed their ancient longing.

A Years Journey Around the Wheel

The course introduces the Ancestral Mothers of Scotland through folklore, art and imagination and honors the energies of the seasons through simple gestures of ritual, art and in creating an altar which helps you focus on the elements of the festival you wish to work with.

Last Retreat Spot - Is it Yours?

We have one place left on the Ancestral Mothers of Scotland Retreat

Is this last available place yours?

We’re keeping the registration open for you!

Peat Cutting - isle of Eigg

Maybe it’s time to answer that ancient calling from the bones of your ancestors!

and hear the stories of the Ancestral Mothers (From Goddesses to Amazons, Antlered priestesses to Selkies and primal old crones)

Can you feel the coldness of the water as you drink from the Well of the Holy Women and ask the old ones for their blessing?

What will you gather while beach combing to adorn your doll? A pinch of wool, a feather or shell?

You’ll meet the islanders with a local croft tour and join the local singing group for an evening

Will you be brave enough to step into the loch and submerge yourself under the water?

Will you step fully into your stride and embody your wild self?

(This is an island whose name is the Isle of the Big Women)

Join a like minded circle of women to share your experience and deepen your connections

Imagine yourself inspired and transformed and to take that energy home again and infuse your life

PLUS receive a free pass to one year of online courses!

Your journey from Glasgow to the Eigg ferry takes you on one of the top scenic railway journeys of the world.

You’ll travel over the Glenfinnan Viaduct  made even more famous by the scene from Harry Potter

Transformation

Are you ready for an experience that will change you?

If the answer is ‘yes’ get in touch we’ve extend the registration deadline so you can find us!

Ancestral Mothers of Scotland Retreat

Ancestral Mothers of Scotland Retreat. Isle of Eigg, Inner hebrides, Scotland. 8-15th June

Have you ever felt a deep soul calling or a yearning for an ancient connection?

- Come join us on an island at the edge of the world. An island who still holds ancient magic and mystery.

- An island whose Gaelic name translates as ‘the Isle of the Big Women’.

- Get to know the Ancestral Mothers through storytelling, doll making, art, ritual and folk magic.

Doll Making

You will translate your own experiences and what ancestral mother you are drawn to through doll making. All materials are provided and you’ll be guided through ech stage producing a finished doll to take home and be your connection to this spacial place.

Storytelling

Each day you’ll hear a story of one of the Ancestral Mothers and a guided meditation will help you to connect to these ancient figures. You’ll also learn about the Ancestral Mothers of Scotland Wheel of the Year as well as receive a years pass to take all of the ‘Path of the Ancestral Mothers’ courses for free.

Sacred Sites

We will offer gestures of ritual at sacred sites together as a group or individually at the Well of the Holy Women, the Hill of the Cailleach and the Loch of the Holy Women.

Magic & Mystery

These Hebridean islands are one one of the last realms of he Celtic nation and lands of the pre-Celtic peoples. People first arrived on this island around 6,000 BCE and today can still see the remains of their dwellings. At this time of year long lingering twilight’s draw you into a time between time - a time that inspired these ancient people to tell the stories of this land and the ‘Big Women’.

We currently have 4 places available

Antlered Advent. Glenys Livingstone. Cosmogenesis Dance for Winter Solstice Ceremony

Cosmogenesis Dance for Winter Solstice Ceremony

By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

In traditional PaGaian Winter Solstice ceremony, after anointing each other with oil and invoking and recognising the sacred in each other around the circle, the celebrant invites: "Let us celebrate this sacredness, Her eternal Cosmogenesis, in the Dance". This dance is one of our favourite things to do. The sacredness that we celebrate is imagined by the story told as of Old: that on this night "the Great Mother gives birth to the Divine Child", and that "the Divine Child is the new being in you, in me ... is the bringer of hope, the evergreen tree, the return of warmth and light, the centre which is also the circumference - all of manifestation. The Divine Child being born is the miracle of being, and the Unimaginable More that we are becoming." And with the invocation then, we the celebrants, recognise that we are each “Goddess Mother” and also each the “Divine Child”: each is Creator and Created – as one cannot birth without being birthed at the same time.

We recognise in the invocation that each participates in Her eternal Cosmogenesis: “Thou art Goddess Mother – Tia-mat, Thou art the Divine Child - Thou art all of That … a whole Universe” is the blessing each gives to another around the circle. Then we dance this eternal Creativity in the “Cosmogenesis Dance” as I have named it.

The dance has three layers, which is understood to represent the three aspects of Goddess, the Creative Triplicate Dynamic that the ancients were aware of - imagined in so many different ways around the globe. As Triple Spiral She is a dynamic that was apparently understood as essential to on-going Cosmic Creativity, as it is the ancient motif lit up by the Winter Solstice dawn at Bru-na-Boinne (known as Newgrange) in Ireland.

[IMAGE#1] The three aspects poetically understood as Goddess celebrate Virgin/Young One - Urge to Be as I have named this quality – the ever new differentiated being, Mother – the deeply related interwoven web -Dynamic Place of Being as I have named this quality - the communion that this place is, and Crone – the eternal creative return to All-That-Is - She who Creates the Space to Be as I have named this quality. The three layers of the dance may be understood to embody these. The Dance represents the flow and balance of these three – a flow and balance of Self, Other and All-That-Is. It may be experienced like a breath, that we breathe together – as we do co-create the Cosmos: at Winter Solstice we each specifically light a candle for the new being coming forth in us this year, and we join together in expressing the "flame in our hearts" with which we may re-generate the world, as the Sun has always done.

The Cosmogenesis Dance that we do in the ceremony expresses the whole Creative Process we are in. It is one of complete reciprocity, a flow of Creator and Created, like a breath. There is dynamic exchange in every moment - that is the nature of the Place we inhabit. The dance may help us to get it, and to invoke it. Every year when we do this Dance, we want to do it again soon!

The Cosmogenesis Dance on YouTube

REFERENCES:

Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005.

Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. NY: Harper and Row, 1999.

Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.

---

Glenys Livingstone Ph.D. is the author of PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion, which fuses the indigenous traditions of Old Europe with scientific theory, feminism and a poetic relationship with place. She lives in Australia where Winter Solstice occurs and is celebrated in June. Glenys’ website is http://pagaian.org

---

An Antlered Advent: Art Contributions

Our ‘Art’ issue for our Antlered Advent series, featuring:

Arlene Bailey

Jannica Honey

Virginia Walters

Jane Valencia

Jenn Campus

Pegi Eyers

Cat Shepard

1. Arlene Bailey

Like the reindeer herds guided by the Ancient Deer Goddess and the more modern Elen of the Ways, I follow the energetic paths that sustain me. Moving along these ancient paths, these ley lines or dragon lines, I move along the edge and in the shadows, finding the threads of memory which birth meaning in this time. I am as old as the stone mothers and as new as the sickle moon making her first appearance. I am a Way-Shower, a Memory-Keeper, a Path Weaver and words, ideas and themes – musings on deep calls to the deep feminine - come to me from an ancient primordial place called forward to be birthed into this space and time.

In this time of the Winter Solstice, this time of that first glimmer of light after the descent into the darkness, I come to remind you of your strength and your resilience. I come to guide you to those paths with footprints that match yours, those paths that will offer heart during the days to come. I come to remind you of ancestral ways and rituals for celebrating the offering of new life stirring in this season, ways and rituals that will hold you in Her warmth and offer a hearth to sit around as you and loved ones tell stories... remembering and re-membering.

Like the female reindeer who wear the crown of the Ancient Deer Goddess... the Old Antlered One... Elen of the Ways... the deer standing in the dark glade watching, listening with antlers reaching to the light of the full moon and the returning sun... the deer who stands sovereign in her knowing and connection, grounded in ancient ways and memories...we too can embody this energy and way of being.

I am Sovereignty and in this season of light and life, I come to remind you of yours.

Arlene Bailey, © 2018

Arlene Bailey is a Visionary Artist, Writer, and Mystic with a hunger for the wild, the ancestral, the deep end of experience so as to understand that which is the most hidden of all mysteries… the soul of woman. As a Certified Facilitator of the Art of Allowing Process - using the canvas as a portal and ritual as the language of the soul - she takes women on a journey to remember their ancestral lines and awaken their own unique soul connection to the Deep Feminine.

The Sacred Wild, The Art and Writing of Arlene Bailey

Click here to view her page on Facebook

---

2. Jannica Honey

My name is Jannica Honey, I exhibited When The Blackbird Sings in March here in Edinburgh. I photographed women in nature, every full and new moon and only during twilight. I based my shooting schedule on the moon & channeled the earth’s natural rhythms into the work, explored my own connection to womanhood & femininity. Check out the press release for When Blackbird Sings

When I worked on my project I met Kristina Turner who later on become my Antlered Mother. She was attached to the blackbird story and we ended up collaborating together. Kristina, is the mother who are now ‘The Crone’ who is supporting other women with their journey. We all have that power, we will just need to listen withing, stop for a few minutes, hear the blackbird and feel our feet to tap in to that ancient energy that flow through all of us women.

Swedish-born Jannica Honey moved to Edinburgh to study photography and digital imaging after completing a BA in Humanities  (anthropology & criminology) at Stockholm University 1998

www.jannicahoney.com

Jannica on Instagram

---

3. Virginia Walters

The message the reindeer totem carries is faith. It’s about learning to take a leap of faith into the unknown and placing one's trust in the process of life rather than an outcome. In a sense, the focus becomes about the journey. Similarly, the journey one takes following a cancer diagnosis could be considered comparable in essence. The ongoing monitoring, treatment and uncertainty which often follows a cancer diagnosis is comparable to the message Reindeer brings – that is, to trust the process. 

 The antlers represent the ‘fight’ which is often associated with cancer. Whether that is the fight which the surgeon faces navigating through a long and difficult surgery when things don’t go as planned, the nursing and hospital staff’s consistency and kindness or the caregivers who support their loved one, they each face their own battles. Together they fight the good fight.

 The sculpture was deliberately made without ears.  Gynaecological cancers are often referred to as silent killer as symptoms are often subtle and are not often heard until they reach a more advanced stage.

 The colours used are representative of women’s gynaecological cancer and each flower represents a different form of cancer.  

• Teal = ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer

• Peach = endometrial, uterine cancer

• Blue and white = cervical cancer

• Pink also = cervical cancer

• Mauve = vulva cancer

• Purple = all gynaecological cancers

• Yellow = hope

 The Reindeer was sculptured by hand using paper, wire, tape and plaster. The cover is hand crocheted using 100% merino wool.  Patterns used are traditional granny squares, African daisy motifs and freeform crochet to bring it all together. 

---

4. Jane Valencia

I've loved Deer all my life. Although I grew up in a suburb in the heart of what was to become Silicon Valley, I managed from time to time to see the deer that lived in the nearby hills. I kept a tally of deer sightings, and wished I could get out of the car (most of my sightings were at 55 mph on I-280), and join them out in the golden fields and oak woodlands.

As a child I read every book on deer, fiction and fact, that I could find in the library. My absolute favorite book was Bambi - A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten. Felix Salten was clearly a naturalist, portraying the lives of the deer and the forest creatures in careful detail, a far cry from the Disney version. I literally read Bambi more than fifty times (I have book logs to prove it!). I wrote stories and drew comics that basically copied Felix Salten's deer books (besides Bambi, there is Bambi's Children, and A Forest World).

Fast-forward to my teen and young adult years, when, in my study of and passion for Celtic and other folklore, and medieval and Renaissance literature, I became aware of the deer in other forms. The white stag that leads one into the Otherworld, the doe who is pursued by the hunter in the English ballads, a metaphor for the romantic chase. I embroidered the deer into the costume I wore at the Renaissance Faire. My running with Deer continued through song, poetry, myth, and wherever I glimpsed kin* (explanation of word usage to follow!).

Celtic knotwork deer embroidery by Jane Valencia

When I was 35, my husband, daughter, and I moved to a semi-rural island in Washington State. Suddenly the deer were everywhere! I followed deer tracks, wandered kir trails, and became still and watchful whenever I encountered kin. I began to pursue deep nature immersion practices, and this led me to observe the deer as closely as I could, and to mimic kin -- practicing Deer Ears to gather sound from every direction, moving with the varying motions and gaits of a deer, and -- as one growing into a love of the plants and herbalism -- finding my own way to browse in the wild.

Deep nature connection and soul work inevitably leads to a tangle of shadows, beauty, grief, and breathtaking heart in one's inner forest. How does that wildwood tangle become a medicine bundle?One evening I arrived in frustration at my greenwood sit spot. So much had shifted in my mythic terrain that I felt that, in another place and time, I might have received a new name, a sound essence that would witness and ground my fledgling understandings, and, like a small bird, coax me from a new place of knowing to reenter a soul service to the children, to my people -- human and more-than-human kin, the Sacred, and Earth.

But that village with elders and name-givers did not exist for me then -- not in a way that I perceived, anyway.

"If I lived in a different place and time," I told my sit spot companions, Douglas-fir, Red Cedar, and Red Alder, who I called the Three Sisters, "I'd have a new name. A name like ...." I peered into the twilight, trying to imagine what kind of name I'd receive, what kind would embody the sense of who I was and what I more fully longed to be. In that moment, the encompassing Forest dropped a name like a pebble into the pond of my heart. I found myself finishing my own sentence with the words: "... a name like Singing Deer."

The shadows vanished. My heart overflowed like Spring waters, I gazed in wonder at the greens-and-black, the bright night of Forest welcoming me as kin. "Thank you, thank you ..."

Many reasons existed then as to why that name spoke truth to me. I continue to discover more.

In my nature connection work with children and adults, I teach Deer Form, in which we listen and move through the landscape as if we are deer, the better to experience the smells, sights, feeling, slow grace, and comfort of being at home with Earth. Becoming the Deer is to grow in relationship with the plants. For the Deer who pass kir time along the landscape, or resting within, the green world and Earth are a relaxed extension of who and what kin are.

To be like the Deer -- to practice Deer Medicine -- is to engage in the deepest listening. The deer are not always wary. Deer play or groom one another. In the mating season, the stags engage in single-minded pursuit. This past fall, a group of women and myself shape-shifted into Deer, and followed actual Deer (!) off the human trail and into a wooded hillside. Following the Deer has led me to understand the nuances of sacred plant medicine that I now consider to be Deer medicine. Kin have led me to listen for music when I am within a magical moment in nature (and magic is in nature, always). I call the melodies that come to me during these times "Deer Songs".

I have given Reiki and song to a fawn who lay dying. I have heard fawns bleat, and stags snort. I am trying to use ki/kin pronouns for beings of the living earth, as proposed by Robin Wall Kimmerer, a nature writer, botanist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi. It is for the illuminated world that the Deer have shared with me that I do so.

The Deer feel safe around our home, and my family often finds we can look in the four directions and spot deer in the far field, deer in the chicken yard, deer ruminating near the plum trees, deer eating the fallen horse chestnuts.

This past spring I walked out our front door to find this very young fawn sleeping by our walkway.

When I see the deer, when I am near kin, I know that I'm on track with my life. With the Deer as a strong physical as well as imaginative presence in my life, my ten-year-old child self is ecstatic with this sweet truth that our world is one of real magic.

Maybe because I now associate with other Deer Women (thank you, Jude!), I actually feel like I have grown my antlers. Really, I can feel the energy of them! My grown daughter, not knowing I sense these energetic antlers, sometimes pauses in fun as she passes me to make her fingers into antlers on top of my head. In my work with kids, I now use the name Singing Deer, and I am both moved and delighted to hear them and my colleagues call me by this name.

And so now, at the end of this narrative deer wander, you know a little about the illustration up top: "The Year She Grew Her Antlers." How have you grown your antlers (or the equivalent) in your psyche, and what marks this year's growth for you?

Click here to listen to (and download for free)

Jane’s track: The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance.

Hunters and the Deer have a sacred relationship in our indigenous past and present. In the village of Abbots Bromley, in England, an ancient tradition exists in which Morris Dancers bearing reindeer antlers and with rows of bells binding their ankles, engage in a midwinter ritual dance of the hunt. As the Celtic harp duo Spookytree, my music partner Debra Knodel and I recorded the tune used in this dance and known as "The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance."

You can listen to our recording of The Abbots Bromley for free here -- and, during this month of December 2018 -- even download it for free .

Many dreams of the Deer to you during this merry midwinter and time of sweet enchantment!

Jane-Singing Deer

Jane Valencia loves helping young and old alike to join in with the healing magic of the green world around us, and to discover through curiosity, creativity, and wonder what nature and imagination reveal about our truest nature. Jane has recorded several harp CDs, published a children's fantasy novel, written numerous articles and blog posts, teaches weekly at a nature immersion program, and is the host and producer of a streaming radio show, Forest Halls Celtic. She is author-illustrator of Paloma and Wings: a Kids Herbal Comic, due out this Spring 2019. Please visit Jane at her websites: Foresthalls.org or SingingDeerHealing.com.

(first image) Photo: Jane and her Antler Harp. Behind her are her wire-strung clarsach (Ancient Gaelic-style harp) and her nylon-strung Celtic harp. Jane once experienced an "antler harp" in a dream -- an African "bow" harp with two necks upon which the strings are wound, the necks resembling antlers. The first harp ever was probably a hunting bow: the string plucked while under tension makes a pleasing sound. It is easy to experience the mythic connection between the Deer and the Harp.

5. Jenn Campus

Winter Solstice Dreams

Twenty years ago I dreamed of a woman…

She beckons to me from the trees deep in the forest and I am compelled to go to her. Her hair is bright as flames and tendrils of it rise up in the wind, caressing her face and sticking to and winding around the tree branches above her. Her face and hands are pure white like moonlight and her eyes are dark and wild.

As I move closer, I notice that the tree branches framing her head and face are not in fact from the trees surrounding her, but are actually a part of her, like some great rack of antlers. In fact, they may be antlers, disguised as branches, but I can’t quite make it out.

The energy around her is electric, and I can feel it prickle my skin. She is a wild woman to be sure, someone who has cultivated a synergy with the forests and the trees. Someone who has spent much of her life there, away from humans, lying down with the deer at night and following the flight of birds.

“Some call me the mother of these forests and the creatures who live here,” she says. “ I am mother to some yet this forest was not always my home. I was sent here by my own grief to heal and I have long since aligned myself with the Good Folk who live here and are in fact true mothers and fathers to this place. And you are one of mine, my child many generations removed, yet I claim you still”.

In a flash of understanding, I realize she is connected to my female ancestors and I know my place in her story, her place in mine. Then it is gone, all fading away as the dawn starts creeping through the windows; her image etched into my mind, her flaming red hair, and dark, wild eyes.

I know her now as Elen. She dangles her carrot of wildness in front of me, forcing me to seek out nature wherever I am and most of all to remind me that I am an animal too, a creature of nature, an important truth often forgotten in these modern times where we are expected to be everything at all times, but rarely true to our natures, part of the animal kingdom and beholden to its rhythms.

She bids me seek the old trees and breathe in their beautiful and grounding manna that is so sustaining, to learn what lessons they have to teach and allow them to heal and strengthen me. Her tree is the birch and it is my favorite. Slender yet strong, it can almost bend in half during a winter storm, but it rarely breaks as an outcome. The birch is a pioneer of sorts, digging its shallow roots into ground that has been damaged, with the intention to re-wild the land, at least a little bit.

Elen knows the wild plants and how they can heal, or harm. She knows the secret places and the trails of the deer. Her steps bring life and fertility to the land and forest. She is my teacher, and asks that I teach my own children the knowledge she shares. She reminds us of our innate wildness.

Ten years ago, I had another powerful dream. This time, a God named Wuldor gifted me with an ancient relic, a magical shamanic deer mask.  In the dream this mask allowed me to shapeshift into the form of a reindeer and travel to another world where I was told the origin story of this lesser known god, and how he is connected to Elen. I was asked to write a fantastical tale incorporating their stories and the fundamental truths therein in a way that would capture the hearts of humans and get them to care about the wild places again. A tall order.

The tale, Dreams of Ýdalir is a result of years’ worth of devotional work with both Elen and Wuldor in which I weave together their stories, and my own.

Both Elen and Wuldor are associated with this time of year, Elen with her connections to the ancient reindeer goddess, and Wuldor, to the Green Man. Both are associated with the wildwood, and deer, especially reindeer. Reindeer are the only deer where both males and females grow antlers. Male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, while female reindeer retain their antlers until after they give birth in the spring. The stories of reindeer that are prevalent during the winter holidays are modern tellings of much older stories, tied to the landscape of northern places where Yule has its roots, and to the sacred feminine, since only female reindeer would have their antlers at this time.

Drawing on ancient Winter Solstice celebrations, and the symbolism of these antlered figures, we can find sacredness, meaning, and connection at this time of year without all the commercial trappings that can often cause anxiety, and dread and disconnect us from an important truth. As a descendant of my northern European mothers, it helps me to remember that at one time, all my ancestors down the line celebrated this sacred festival, it is our birthright, and it is time to reclaim it. We can create lasting memories and traditions for our own families that draw on this truth, and keep these traditions alive so that our children can share them with theirs and so on down the line so that the light never burns out.

Jenn Campus is a best-selling author who weaves the genres of fiction and non-fiction to create a rich tapestry of connection between myth and matter, ancestors and descendants. As her family’s hearth keeper, she draws on the traditions and wisdom of her female ancestors and the sacred duties of motherhood to build a legacy for her children, their birthright. She ties the sacred duties of home and hearth with ancient stories and folklore to help strengthen the never-ending line from her ancestors, and the lands from which they came to her descendants.

---

FREEBIES: Join her at Jenncampusauthor.com to receive FREE samples of her books

Dreams of Ýdalir, and A Guide to Celebrating the 12 Days of Yule.

Dreams of Ýdalir Sample includes:

50+ pages, including a dozen gorgeous illustrations, straight out of my dream! “Where Norse Mythology and The Legend of Tam Lin meet, this tale, set in the lowlands of Scotland and the Otherworld brings untold legends to life.” Download the free sample here: http://bit.ly/DOYSample
or go to my website to download it

A Guide to Celebrating the 12 Days of Yule Sample includes:

Your FREE downloadable PDF will contain 30+ pages of Ritual, Folklore, Activities, and Recipes to help you create lasting memories and traditions with your loved ones this holiday season!

---

6. Pegi Eyers

"Shapeshifter ~ Being Anwynn". Mixed media, 2018.

"In the rich folklore of the British Isles, and my own Scots Gaelic tradition, there are ancient narratives of shapeshifting between beings in Earth Community, or at least the acknowledgement that our Ancestors were not necessarily human.  I find the mystical poem "The Song of Amergin" as mentioned by Elen Sentier in Following the Deer Trods fascinating, as it defines our sacred kinship with the creatures and elements of the natural world.  "All of the things that he has been, enable Amergin to know how their lives are, how they think, how they feel, how it is to be them. It’s a form of shapeshifting and the ultimate way of learning for the awenydd." (Elen Sentier)  These animist skills may be (for the most part) lost in the modern world, but my vibrant and whimsical mixed-media piece "Shapeshifter ~ Being Anwynn" evokes the bright mystery of a Wise Woman and her transformational powers.   Earth Community shares common forms, patterns and symbols, and my art also pays homage to the Wheel of the Year and the timeless solstice celebrations that sing to the Celtic soul."   

Pegi Eyers is the author of the award-winning book Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, a survey on the interface between First Nations and the Settler Society, and the vital recovery of our ancestral earth-connected knowledge and essential eco-selves.  www.stonecirclepress.com     www.lyssanda-designs.com

---

Elen of the Ways by Cat Shepard

7. Cat Shepard

Drawn from a journey exploring the Celtic goddess Elen of Ways, this Antlered One came to guide me during a time of darkness in my life.  December's descent into darkness and the rejuvenation it offers remind me of my connection with my sacredness within and the Earth beneath my feet during the busy winter holiday season.

Standing Stones Winter Solstice by Cat Shepard

Winter Solstice is the gate that marks the return of the waxing light.  It signals a time of celebration, rejuvenation, and life in the depths of the darkness. The antlers on the standing stone are a symbol of the deer's gifts and a relationship with the celestial signs of the seasonal shift towards the growing season in the cold of winter.

Cat Shepard: Shamanic Artist & Priestess exploring the creative & sacred Mysteries with Art, Myth, and Ritual.

www.cshepardarts.com 

https://www.facebook.com/mycreativemysteries/