Lammas

Fields of listening, whispering corn

Ripen in the heavy air

Lugh the Golden dancing forth,

Leaves and sheaves in his wild hair.

In perfect circles bow the stalks,

Mark the path where great Lugh walks,

Mark days and seasons, round they go,

As above, so below.

Grainne and Diarmuid meet

Clasping in the heady air,

Loving in the dolmen's shadow,

Lost deep in her corn-sweet hair.

And his Moon follows her Sun,

Marks the way where she has gone,

Marks how love and life must be,

Each follows his own destiny.

Misty sun and steaming rain

Upon the pregnant, swelling earth.

Drying trees and tiring fields

Await the mystery of birth.

Now, in her ecstatic sleep

Mark she opens, dark and deep.

Mark, the Neolithic tomb

Pulses, like a throbbing womb.

Poppies scarlet on the gold,

Slashing, gory, gaudy red.

Colour brash and petals frail,

Bright life cut down, blown away, dead.

Now he lies down on the fields.

Mark, his life he freely yields

Mark the blood upon the corn

All that dies shall be reborn

All that dies shall be reborn.

(from Teresa Moorey & Jane Brideson's 'Wheel of the Year')

Lammas has come and gone, and quite strangely, we're almost approaching autumn. It seems unreal, considering how wet and cold it has often been in the last months. Last Saturday, I even found a coloured autumn leaf. Beautiful, I thought, but a bit early.

Warwickshire Spiritual Network has been relatively quiet over the summer. There has been a Past Life Regression workshop in early August that some of you attended, but little else, apart from a daytrip to Avebury, including Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow, for Lammas. Maddie and I spent a beautifully hot and sunny day on the land, wandering through the stones, making flower and grain offerings and celebrating the day with a delicious feast.

This is a bit of a nostalgic post for me, as it will be my last one, at least for a good while. I am leaving Leamington Spa in September to travel the world by train. I suppose you could say it's a spiritual quest on many levels, following the call of the wild soul that does not want to be contained any longer. I'll be travelling from Leamington to Pakistan on the train, via Eastern Europe, Russia, Mongolia, China, Tibet, Nepal, and possibly India. After that, who knows? I'm looking forward to going with the flow for a while. The focus of my trip is a rare opportunity to celebrate the Winter Solstice festival with the indigenous Kalash tribe in the Hindu Kush mountains on Pakistan's North West Frontier. It's something I'm really excited about and looking forward to, even though it's daunting on some levels, and I'm quite sad about leaving Leamington! This town has been such a transformational, creative place for me, but I suppose it's time to let go and move on to other journeys. I'm having a leaving party in September, too, and details will be sent out to you via our mailing list - if you're not on it and would like to come, please e-mail us on spiritnet@tiscali.co.uk. If you want to keep in touch with me or simply read about my adventures, I have a travel blog online which you can subscribe to: http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Travelling-Priestess/

Warwickshire Spiritual Network will continue as an organic entity, with events, networking etc as usual. Beth will keep up quarterly meetings and inform you about these accordingly. We're not clear yet what will happen to this website, either somebody else will take it over, or there might be a new one - but we'll post details on here as soon as we have them.

For now, lots of love to you all, and I hope to see you before I leave!