Wrapped in the Magic of Descent

I sit in awe as I reflect upon all the nature beings who have sacrificed their lives so that humanity will hopefully one day learn to rebuild and evolve com-passionately. By observing them, their descent and surrender, I sense into the depth of my mission and lessons. And by learning to listen to my inner Gaia-dance guidance, always attuned to the natural world, and especially, to those who have died, I now solemnly share…

Death has always fascinated me!

Even as a child, I felt the presence of dead animals along the road (squirrels, birds, mice, snakes, deer), and whenever possible throughout my life, I’d carry them to a sacred place in nature. Thanking them through song and dance. Anointing them with fallen leaves, twigs and other nature allies of the earth. 

And then guided to my present home, where all the nature beings, visible and invisible, are being ripped away from their homes, the land where I live. I realize now that I am being initiated, even more deeply, to assist souls through the death portal. Through the gateway of grief…  

What awakens within you as you take in my words?

What have you learned about death? About grief?

Embodying grief has been a lifelong lesson and initiation for me that began in late 1990 with the process of my father’s death. Learning to bend with it. Flow with it. Honour it. An inner harmony, a dance of deep love where I hold it sacredly without suppressing it, or becoming terrified of it to the point of either trying to transcend it, or feeling completely overtaken by its heaviness. 

This is our world. This is what we’ve learned… This is how we’ve learned to process this most beautiful energy of grief. It’s become another taboo. Especially in the western hemisphere. We’ve forgotten how to feel the profundity of our natural rhythms and cycles. And of Life’s.

Our ancestors TREASURED their grief.

As if they could hear the melody of the Cosmic Divine Tremble.

They found the most precious ways to honour it, to allow it space ‘breath’ in their body. To feel its presence as an emerging harmonic, sometimes deeply guttural, song. And to trust this magical process as a token of pure adoration for their loved ones who crossed over. Even using the word ‘process’ diminishes the sacredness of our grief as if it is something we need to ‘just feel and get over’.

And it takes my heart back to October 15th, 2019, when I was awakened by my cat a few moments before her unexpected and sudden death. Just a few months before our entire world experienced profound grief as the pandemic ripped through our collective.

Miwa [Japanese name for harmony; peace], my beloved cat, tore my heart wide open and taught me to feel the depth of my grief as a portal to the Otherworld.

As a celebratory dance through the realms of death. 

As a divine midwifery.

Miwa’s death was significant in other ways as well. Many years ago before she died, I received a divine message that my time of birth, 3:40 AM, was important (specifically the numbers 3 and 4)… that I’m here to assist in re-weaving our heart ‘fourth chakra’ to our solar plexus ‘third chakra’ (heart to belly). As some of you know, we have now tipped the scale too far into transcendental spirituality in an attempt to find balance in our shadow work and heal our trauma. Much of my initiations, on a sensorial level, have been to re-open the blocked passageway between our heart and belly, helping our soul to descend more fully into our body.

With Miwa’s time of death, yes 3:40 AM, my initiation became more acute in potency. Especially given that she died from heart-related complications. I could not have received a clearer message about this stage of my mission! That grief, loss and death can be felt as a deeply treasured celebratory gateway and sacred union of the soul. And a loving re-union with our ancestors. That our tears and anger are like divine nectar to anoint our tender broken hearts.

So exquisitely beautiful and intimate…

that words can not convey.

Only Deep Love can truly touch.

And savor.

As you step into November’s new moon in Scorpio and her love of depth and death, and as you observe the natural world retreat into her magical descent (not to mention the magic of tomorrow ~ 11:11!), how might you begin to ritualize grief? To feel its presence as a rite of passage into wise elder. Into a deeper connection with your ancestors across the veil. To feel it as an embodied celebration of song and dance. To bring it out into the light from the hidden places of your soul.

To re-claim this sacred presence as another one of Gaia’s most cherished treasures.

As many of you know, one of the ways that I’ve been guided to ritualize grief is to craft earth elixirs with my ancestors and to share them with the world.

I’m excited to share that I’ve been gestating more of them which will birth in time for the holidays! Though these elixirs will be of a different nature. So stay tuned for my upcoming newsletter for more information about them.

Below is a photo of an earth altar for a tribute ceremony my sister and I created this past October 15th at 3:40 PM in honour of my beloved Miwa and our divine mission together. It took place in an old growth tree forest at Austin T. Blakeslee Nature Park.

I highly recommend creating an earth altar for yourself or your loved ones!

Sweet Naked Innocence

Sensory Portals/Gateways

As I share mine, I invite you to contemplate your own… in this moment.

I taste the pumpkin creamer in my tea.

I smell the rot of dead twigs and leaves.

I hear the motor of a car.

I see the Himalayan salt lamp.

I touch the space between my heart and belly.