The Blog- Rituals and Sacred Feminine Teachings

New Moon Energies & Rituals to Manage the Emotions during this Unique Time

I hope you enjoyed my first video new moon message about current energies and thoughts. We are in a time of chaos and radical change. We are being pulled into our more feminine energies of being-ness, of creativity, of connection, of soft, gentle, present movements in our lives and we aren’t used to the slowed, down, alive, feeling based pace.

It feels anxious, scary, and overwhelming. We feel lost and unsure what to do. I invite you to simply move into what is there on this New Moon. Welcome your feelings, invite them into your space, invite them to show up so you can honour them and diffuse them into the ethers of the Earth Mother and the Universe at large.

New Moon Rituals : Creating Space for All the Feelings.

As always se the tone and mood by lighting candles, burning incense or diffusing oils. Take some deep breaths and se the intention to honour your feelings, to take space and feel and allow what is there to come up and come out on this New Moon.

Gather some papers, crayons and place the papers all around you in a circle. Just take some breaths and write out your feelings and thoughts, get those true dark feelings out of your body and onto the page. Name where you feel it and what it feels like. Emotionally purge that energy onto the paper. Simply honour what comes up and get it out. You are allowed to feel what you feel. You are created space to feel so you don’t end up wallowing and lingering into a downward spiral. When you are done jotting it all down just take a moment and pause with it. See it. Witness it. Allow it. Then release the papers if it feels right. Burn them, rip them up, hold on to them. Whatever feels right for you.

2). Write a letter to the Great Mother, Creation, The Universe, the Divine, God/Goddess, Buddha, whomever floats your boat. Describe how you are experiencing this time physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally. Here are some prompts.

-Describe you feel physically, how has your movements and environments changed?

-How does your body feel and where are you feeling it? What sensations are emerging?

-How are you feeling emotionally? What feels heavy, can you name it?

-What are your fears and challenges?

-What is feeling like a gift? What is feeling Sacred during these times?

-What are the simple pleasures during this time?

-How can you connect to Spirit and Life more often, in little tidbits everyday?

-Are you honouring your Presence as life quiets or are you distracting and panicking?

-Can you embrace this time as a Sacred Pause, a time of healing, rejuvenation and recharge or are you obsessed with doing?

-Can you focus on bringing your Presence to life as though it were a spiritual practise and sacred act?

-How are your thoughts? What are the fear based thoughts? What are the trusting/safe ones?

-What are you needing during this time? Claim it and express it to the Universe, She is listening !

-What gift can you offer yourself in this very moment?

I invite you to claim and feel and inhale the sacred of this unique, sometimes scary and uncertain times. There are many gifts amongst the chaos. There is Sacred Shift going on right now and it can feel a bit rattling. I invite you to feel what you do but to open to Trust and Faith and know that the Universe always has our backs and is always supporting us during these changes. There is a knowing we do not know yet but is in our best interest.

And so it is friends.

Happy New Moon. Feel the feels, the scary, the sad, the lonely, the lovely, the amazing, the gifts. Feel it all.

Crystal

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How to Feel Connected as a Family with a Weekly Team Huddle (especially now)

I feel like I always wish for more time. More time with my kids, to cook, to clean, to go out, to be creative, to have more dates with my husband…to do the things I want to do…to organize, to whatever. Amidst this Coronavirus pandemic life has suddenly shifted drastically. Hockey is cancelled (that is much of our life these days), school cancelled, social gatherings and activities put on pause. The kids will basically have nowhere to go and nowhere to be. Has this ever happened??? It’s time to get creative to keep those stinkers busy! I don’t want to down play the current global crisis and extreme measures we are placed under because I know myself as an immune comprised gal, I am nervous to leave my four walls. However, perhaps there is some light in this somewhat dark tunnel. Perhaps we can engulf the good that comes with the bad. Perhaps there is a real gift, a real shifting into being-ness, the feminine side of life that is given the opportunity to emerge while much of our outside lives are on pause.

A piece of me is like, “eeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkk!!!” this is going to be a long four weeks of no school and no daycare. But the creative part of me is sparked up with inspiration of what we can do creatively at home, while building and incubating our connection to each other and a family as a whole.

What I feel really committed to within myself and my family these days is tending to our emotional and spiritual needs and health. This is so often put aside amidst the busy days of homework, hockey, play dates, family visiting etc. etc. With the growing number of places closing around us, the “doing” of our life has come to a halt and we are being called back into those lovely inner places of being.

A plan to do a series of Family Connections activities during the next while.

So this week’s Family Connections activity is the “Team Huddle”.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

This week’s Team Huddle topic – Talking to the Kids about Corona Virus & How Life is being Affected by it.

Gather the troops (family members) and sit around your kitchen table. Light some candles, maybe even infuse some oils or burn an incense. Make the space special.

Explain to the kids that you are having a team huddle for your family and it’s something you’d like to do weekly. Maybe Monday nights or Thursday nights or Sunday afternoons. Whatever works for you. It’s a time and place to come together, sit, process, get on the same page and plan for upcoming activities.

Here’s a brief outline. (create it in a way that works for your family and lifestyle)

1 )Have a beginning – a ringing of a bell or clinking or forks on glasses. Kids love this.

2)Talk about what is going good this week. Each family member takes a turn.

Introduce this week’s topic or goal. For us this week it was discussing Corona virus after my oldest son questioned if he would be ok if he got Corona virus. We reviewed common symptoms, how people get it, how to prevent it. We reviewed the important of really good hand washing.

I put 2 papers on the table. 1 paper we all wrote about what we thought and felt about Corona Virus. Even my 3 year old scribbled on the page and talked about another topic but it was inclusive as his little mind still doesn’t comprehend fully.

The 2nd paper we listed ideas of activities we could do at home as we would be together and at home a lot over the next while. We then taped the paper to the wall to remind us when we are “bored”.

3. Next we discussed calendar/schedule/upcoming appointments.

4. Followed by everybody’s ideas for meal planning ideas for the upcoming week.

5. Ending -We ended by having a goal each and a family goal or activity planned for upcoming week.

6. Family Treat. End with bell or clinging of glasses and a nice treat like cookies and milk, cake, tea, ice cream or some other fun food as part of the experience each week.

This really helped us feel connected and discuss topics in a supported, safe way.

I hope you give it a whirl and let me know how your family found it.

Sending love, good immunity, joy, embracing what is, and trusting in the Universe for she is shifting us into something soooo deep. It is scary and overwhelming but it also feels miraculous what we are doing as a human nation.

With love Crystal

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8 Sacred Feminine Teachings You Deserve to Know on International Women’s Day

What if upon our transition into our teen years, we were supposed to learn really important teachings about our body, heart and soul? What if these teachings could dramatically change the way you feel about your self…your body…your heart?

Sign me up – right?! The trouble is these teachings have been lost, buried, waiting to be reborn into our lives and into the world. And so I hope to share some of the Sacred Feminine teachings I learned on my healing road, in hopes your soul remembers and your own self love grows.

In mind-body therapy, our behaviours and our struggles are really symbolic to our deeper issues and needs. So…let’s take world’s obsession with our weight, body hatred even body altering and let’s explore that for a second. Is it possible we are acting our our soul starvation on the physical level? Is it possible we are expressing how truly disconnected we are from our bodies as a nation by trying to become physically perfect and thin?

This was true for me…I was acting out a deep feeling and longing without having the words. I was showing how frail and weak I felt on the inside by becoming it on the outside. So let’s meet the issue at the root : we are emotionally and spiritually starving and we don’t know what to do with that.

I know as an emotional, intuitive, creative, feminine soul, I craved these teachings at the threshold of adolescence and perhaps if I had them, I would have discovered how to love myself sooner. I would have lived my life in union with my feminine, primal, wild, emotional soul instead of feeling like I had to separate from her. Perhaps, I would have saved myself from the battle wounds of an eating disorder because for me, it was merely an expression of my dying, starving soul. I didn’t know that then, I felt it, but I know it now. The healing journey brought me home, back to these teachings and practices and in presence of my own body, heart and soul.

So here are 8 Sacred Feminine Teachings that your feminine soul might still be craving and that that teen girl in you deserves to know:

1) You are a soul on a journey. You are a soul with a body and you’ve come here to learn, grow, expand and heal. That is your purpose, to evolve, to love, to enjoy this moment, to find your passions, enjoy food, movement, and your sensual body. It’s not to build up a pile of things or have the biggest this or that. It’s about love…connection and growth. Have fun, lighten up. Take life a little less seriously. Get creative, express yourself with words or art or pictures or music or by making something whether it is food, clothes, wood pieces, buttons, whatever…just feed your soul and create, create, create!

2) Your connection to your body is your life line in this world. She is the place of your soul, your emotions, your physical sensations and your gut instinct. She is your compass and guide in this lifetime, never separate from her. Honor your relationship to Her above all else as your connection to her will show up in every aspect and relationship in your life. She communicates what you feel, want, need and desire, your job is to listen to her and honor her as best you can. You will navigate yourself and your soul in the world only by knowing her and her emotions, sensations and symbolic images that she gives you to guide you on your life path. She will tell you what feels right and what does not. She will tell you if you like something or you don’t. She will tell you if this direction is right or wrong for your soul. Make friends with her, because she is the keeper of your destiny. How you feel about yourself is a reflection of your relationship to Her.

3) Feeding off of life lesson #2, learn your sacred body’s language so you can steer the ship of your life. Your body will guide you through emotions, through aches, pains, restlessness, irritations, anxiety, even depression. She will also express to you through radiant joy and peace. Explore your emotions and physical sensations as literal symbolic messengers. If you’re neck hurts or your throat, ask yourself is there something you are not saying or need to say? If you’re anxious or restless, your soul has something to tell you and is getting your attention to tune inward that something is off or she has a need. Your emotions are sacred communications from your soul…listen to them, don’t ignore them. Addictions are born when we don’t know how to be in our bodies and present to our precious emotions so we use something to distract away from what’s inside.

4) Stillness is a must! We live in a fast paced world where everybody is concerned with doing more…quicker, better, stronger, faster. I’m exhausted just thinking about it. I honor that accomplishments and goals are important but not in the name of betraying yourself and your body’s limits. We must find balance between doing and being or there is really not any success. If you must betray yourself and your body to succeed, you have not really succeeded. So get still…often…daily…reflect…journal…listen. ..feel. Notice what comes up like it were a message from an angel. Write about it, draw pictures, symbols, colors, doodles, whatever comes and express it. Release it out of you for there is a message and reason for your feelings. Honor them as sacred messengers from your soul. And most importantly…just breathe…in and out..in and out.

5) If you “feel fat” or start obsessing about your weight, that’s a sign that you’ve lost connection to your wild, feminine, tribal soul and that she is starving for your attention and for some nourishment. She desires connection to the Divine, the universe, the stars, the moon. So plug back in and feed your luscious spirit through creativity, writing, lighting a candle and getting still or dancing like a silly goose. Stare at the moon and remember our tribal, wild, primal ancestors who followed the moon cycle each month. Life is about your soul’s journey, about magic and the mystery, not the size of your thighs. So indulge in some fun rituals that re-ignite the magic and sacred in your life. (Check out www.womenshealingandspirituality.com for some ritual ideas)

6) Enjoy luscious food. Learn to cook! It’s an art, an expression, its’ soul food and life force energy on a plate. Think of all the farmers, grocers, animals, gardens, makers and bakers who conspired to bring this wonderful meal together. Your hands can unite all that human love and energy into a meal on a plate, what alchemy! Use whole foods when you can and indulge in luscious chocolates and homemade dessert creations alongside your wholesome, homemade, nourishing supper. Feed your taste buds, it’s part of feeling alive, part of the human experience. Watch Rachel Ray connect with her food, that is how we are meant to relate to our food like it were a being. Get passionate about food. Make those meals colorful and nourish yourself mind, body and soul!

7) Move your body. Here’s a secret…I hate gyms. They are soul sucking spaces that to me feed the ego with all those mirrors. So go old school and get outside to move. Pile some wood, cut the lawn with a push mower, take a run outside, walk down the road, pull weeds, play tag outside. Go to the park, ride your bike to school or work. Exercise should be about moving the energy and lymphatic fluid in your body…period. It should be fun and playful, not dreadful. I used to hate working out, I’d literally be swearing as ran, angry as ole’ pie. I was doing it for the wrong reasons, for calorie burning and weight loss. It felt like a chore, now it feels like a gift. I think of all the stagnant energy that wants to dance alive in my body. Today I move with no time goals or distances to reach or calories to burn, I just move to move. Make it about energy and play, not calories. Turn up the tunes and dance! Return to our primal, natural roots and move authentically, and naturally, not on a machine indoors.

8) Last but not least. Honor your menstrual cycle as something ancient, sacred and holy. The human nation has carried on for thousands and thousands of years because of our menstrual cycles. It connects us as women. Historically women used to gather and bleed together during their moon time. They’d bleed right onto the Earth and sit together in circle gathering emotional and spiritual wisdom found in their silence. With this guidance they’d lead and guide their tribes towards the animals for food or towards protection from surrounding tribes and clans. So, remember that your cycle generally follows the 28 moon cycle give or take a few days and that as women we have followed the moon’s cycle for thousands of years. It is common for us to ovulate or menstruate on the new moon or full moon. When menstruating, your body is naturally cleansing itself, releasing out old energy, emotions and physical debris from last month and moon cycle. So honor this amazing process and turn the energy dial down during this time. Make sure to get still and sit with yourself, your body and Grandmother Moon as you are most intuitive and emotional during this time…meaning your body and soul has much to say and guide you with. Create a moon time ritual with your friends or mom. Do something special like a meditative foot soak or where a special moon time robe and journal in your decorated moon time diary. Bake some luscious cookies and drink fine tea with your mom and sister and have a mini sharing circle. Honor your ancient, tribal roots by celebrating your sacred body and soul during this special time each month. It need not be elaborate but do something special.

Simply by regularly connecting to our bodies and her inner realm and making this a conscious practice, we naturally nourish our souls. And when our souls are nourished, we feel confident, fulfilled, full of life, joy and energy. We don’t need to try and express our pain or fill up our soul starvation through body bashing or dieting, because we are already nourished from the inside out. Your cravings for bingeing or alcohol or shopping will automatically disappear with this practice if you struggle with disordered eating symptoms or weight pre-occupation yourself. So I ask you to remember that your body is a Sacred Messenger of the your Divine Self. Please, please, please treat her with the reverence She deserves.

I honor you and your Sacred body…the Sacred Home of your unique soul!

Aho! And so it is.

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XO Crystal

March Energies – Action

This last week has been etched with interesting, restless, agitated energy. With mercury in retrograde we are revisiting old ideas, themes, projects and we are asked to re-work it. We are asked to remold some aspects of our life just like a pottery artist does as she sits at her potter’s wheel and molds a big hunk of clay into a new and beautiful form.

All I keep hearing from Spirit is to take Action. Jump in. Just do. Start in the doing and find your path one step at a time from there. The energy feels like an art form, not a set path, just finding the expression and soul form as we work with it, like clay in our hands until the piece or project finds a form. We must breathe energy into, stoke it like a fire and allow the magic of manifestation and creation to form with our infused energy. We can not think this one out, we cannot plan it in linear form. It is Sacred Art and Expression from our souls at its finest.

So this month, just allow that mind to quiet and let your body lead. Let your instincts guide you, let spirt take your heart and hands and allow you to begin to mold your work, your life, your relationships into something brand new.

You’ll notice I did some changes to the website. At first I was like, “oh my gosh what did I just do?”. It had appeared that I lost all my old stuff. Some of it was lost. But I knew Spirit was nudging this to make me dig deep and re-mould, re-work and re-form some new ideas and inspirations.

So this month…jump in and just start. Just do. Sometimes we get so caught up in the how, it stops us from taking the first step. Figure it out as you go along and trust that the energies are supporting you as you mold your new creation into a new form.

WAYS TO SUPPORT THIS MONTHS ENERGIES:

-Clean out closets and release, stuck old energy. Call in new energy by making some space for it.

-Smudge your home, clear out the stagnant energetic corners.

-Buy some flowers, and know it is a Sacred Expression and invitation to beauty and abundance in your home.

-Clean out cupboards, toy boxes, garages, anywhere that accumulates stuff and let that old shit go.

-Open up the windows and allow the crisp Spring air to sing a cleansing song in your home. Imagine the wind sweeping through with her luscious spring colours and vibrations.

-Do something different. Really shake up that routine. Take another way to work, wear something bold. Try a new class. Shake things up.

-Take a bold step. Register for that class. Apply for that job. Buy that thing that makes your heart sing and feeds your joy just cause you value your joy.

-Just do. Act. I remember Lynn Andrews inviting another therapist and I to use some of her teachings in tools in our therapy sessions. We were stuck on the how. How do I use the drum in a counselling session? How do I approach it? How this, how that, when…. She said stop. Just pull the drum out and drum. Just do it. Ha! So simple. Just do!!!!

Happy March Energies my friends. The ice is breaking up, we are prepping the energies for Spring movement and flow.

Crystal

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Creating Joy and Abundance – Journaling Exercise.

I’ve been focused on manifesting lately. The energy, the dreaming, the seeing, the feeling and the beliefs that allow the dream to come or stop it in its tracks. Low and behold the Armadillo has pranced his lovely teaching across my path today.

The armadillo says, (from Jamie Sams deck)

“A clue to how to proceed is to make a circle on a piece of paper and see it as a medicine shield. In the body of the shield, write all that you are desiring to have, do, or experience. Include all things that give you joy. This sets up boundaries that allow only these chosen experiences to be part of your life. These boundaries become your shield that wards off the things which are undesirable to you. The shield reflects what you are and what your will is to others on an unconscious level.” (Pg 149 Medicine Cards book).

Armadillo teaches us about boundaries, not just physical boundaries, but boundaries of the Self. Do we create time, space and boundaries for our own fulfillment and connection? This is usually the first thing we toss when we get busy or down, but it is the most important. It feeds all of our other connections, our energy wells, and all of our relationships and experiences of life around us.

As you complete your medicine shield on paper, pin it up somewhere where you can see it regularly. Decorate it with images or collage your shield.

Ask yourself and journal….

Am I honoring the time I need for my personal joy, fulfillment and connection?
How am I doing this or why am I not?
How can you start each week carving out and planning sacred times of joy for yourself? What do you want to do? Fun wise? Soul wise? Connection wise? Creativity wise and how and where and when can you do it?

I hope you use the medicine of our friend Armadillo and create some boundaries, time, focus and commitment to you and the joy you want in your life.

It is done 😊

Crystal

FEBRUARY ENERGIES – Discipline

shallow focus photo of moon — Photo by Matt Hardy on Pexels.com

This month the word DISCIPLINE is etching itself into my psyche. I have a love/hate relationship with discipline. I used to be so disciplined it turned into obsession/addiction and sucked my life dry of beingness, joy and aliveness. It was only mundane routine.

My old thoughts believe discipline is somewhat torturous and a life filled without fun or joy. It comes from that part of me that turned discipline into an obsession and let it become my barometer of self-worth.

Today, LOVE tells me Discipline is an action of self-love. Discipline and routines, even schedules are supported energetic frameworks to help you manifest. They are acts of love and you can be flexible within them as needed, as life happens and straying off the path at times will happen.

I have so many balls in the air right now of things I need and want to do that I’m struggling how to organize them into my day and it’s throwing me into chaos in overwhelm. I need a contained form of organization or a plan to execute my day because I’m in overwhelm, I’m spinning my wheels in anxiety and restlessness and virtually getting very little done.

So as I reflected it became apparent to me I need to shake up my morning routine to set my goals and plan for the day. I find when I wake up I need to sit and drink my coffee. This is hard amongst 3 kids. So here are acts of discipline and Self-Love to help me organize, and manifest by day.

Wake-up earlier so I can have alone time
Start with coffee and meditation
Make a plan for the day.
Execute the plan and honour it as a sacred act of love.

REFLECTIONS:

I sit and close my eyes. I’m around my sacred fire in the dark, night sky. I can hear the crackles and see the sparks. The stars are twinkling amongst the blackness all around me. I invite DISCIPLINE to sit beside me. She does and takes a seat on the ground around the fire. I make an offering to her, a basket filled with buns. (I’m not sure why, but that’s what I brought with me for some reason.)

I ask Discipline,”Please….tell me about yourself.”

She says…,“I am really just about self-love, self-commitment and self-worth. You know you are worthy and celebrate your worthiness when you invite me into your life. Having me in your life is like saying to yourself that you matter, you are worthy, you deserve great things. And in doing so, you invite my energy into your everyday to help you execute your acts of self-love and your actions to help manifest your goals and purpose into your everyday, I am an energy that oozes love, confidence and a sense of accomplishment. I am space between an idea stalking you and the expression or manifestation of that idea into the world.”

As DISCIPLINE finishes her last sentence, I notice there are others at our fire. JOY, PASSION, FLEXIBILITY, CONNECTION, CREATIVITY, possibly even more in the trees around us.

As I notice all these “beings” around the fire, I know they come as one package, they are all inter-connected. One cannot really be Disciplined if one doesn’t also commit to joy and connection or dive into creativity. It’s about balancing being and doing, as though each energy has a duality that must be honoured. DISCIPLINE has FLEXIBILITY. CREATIVITY has PRODUCTIVITY, CONNECTION has SOLITUDE and so forth.

So as I see all these alive ENERGY BEINGS around the fire with me I am filled with encouragement, calmness and a lot less weight on my shoulders. I bring my hands into prayer position at my heart and look at each lovely being around the fire and send them love. I release my all or nothing attachment to DISCIPLINE and recognize that her energy brings with her all those other lovely beings around the fire too. They are family and connected. I leave them all gem stones, and shiny things as a sacred offering for their teachings and leave the sacred fire.

This journey around the fire has reminded me that we cannot abandon the juiciness of life in the name of accomplishment and self-discipline. I know I can’t. When life stops getting fun, I get cranky and wonky, and move into self-sabotage because I get bitter thinking that I need to suffer to manifest and accomplish. And this is not true, this is the old mind-set, the ALL OR NOTHING thought pattern that stems from addictive patterns. I really do believe when we are joyful, grateful and inspired, this is where we create momentum for acts of self love like discipline and manifestation.

Those of us with addiction/compulsive coping histories generally have an all or nothing attitude with discipline. We can get extremely into it, even addicted to it to the point we lose our connection to joy, beingness, flexibility, etc. In my past, discipline for me has become about control and obsession and I have lost balanced because I didn’t honour the other teachers like joy, passion, connection, and fun. We must keep all the teachers at the table, we cannot be all or nothing. The goal is consistency, if we fall off, just get back on. It’s easy to fall into Self-sabotage mode and get caught in the all or nothing thinking pattern. Find the grey, know that discipline includes joy, and room for life and relaxation and fun and flexibility where needed. If we are not finding joy and nourishment in the discipline then why are we really doing it?

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION?

What is your relationship with DISCIPLINE?

Where are you most disciplined?

Where could you add discipline in your life?

Are you disciplined in all aspects of the Self? Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual?

Are you only disciplined in areas of accomplishment ? Or Health? What about tending to your soul and emotions?

What small acts of discipline can you invite into your life to help you in your goals and everyday management of your life so that life can move more freely and smoothly?

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And so it is! It is done!!

Crystal

Journal Prompts to Reflect & Integrate the Good, Bad and Ugly of this Past Year.

I like doing these question every year around New Years. It’s so interesting to look back on and reflect. Each year is so voluptuous in learning, healing and evolvement. Take a moment to sit and ponder, dive deep and soak in the year. Write your heart on to the page while letting go and inviting all the energies of the past year and the year to come.

woman reading book — Photo by The Lazy Artist Gallery on Pexels.com

Here we go….

1) What was the single best thing that happened this past year ?

2) What was the single most challenging thing that happened this past year?

3) What was an unexpected joy this year?

4) What was an unexpected obstacle ?

5) Pick 3 words to describe this past year.

6) Pick 3 words your partner would use to describe their year. ( without asking)

7) What are the best books you read this year?

8) What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this year?

9) What was your single biggest time waster this year ?

10). What was the best way you used your time this year ?

11)What is the biggest thing you’ve learned this year?

12) Create a phrase or statement that describes this past year for you.

13) What is your word for the New Year ahead? Mine is creation. And Manifestation.

I hope you enjoy and savour the taste of these reflections into your whole body and soul. And so it is 🙂

Happy New Year friends 🎉😘.

Crystal

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Blessings and warmth!! Have a safe night .

7 Ways to Energetically Cleanse Your Home to Welcome in the New Year.

woman in white cap sleeved shirt blowing dust — Photo by Jakob on Pexels.com

And the end of each year I feel the need to clean and purge. It’s like a letting go of the past year, a wiping away of stagnant, old energy and a sacred gesture to the Universe acknowledging and welcoming in the energy of the New Year and new experiences ahead. So I invite you to join me in welcoming in a swishing, cleansing, wave energy into your home that releases the old and opens up portals for the new.

Here are some ways to prepare the energy in your home and close the energy of this year.

Clean out your closets. Go through your clothes and remove all the ones you don’t wear. Donate what you no longer need. This goes for your pantry and linen closets as well. Get rid of old food or spices you no longer use. Donate or get rid of half bottles of soaps, shampoos, lotions etc.

Go through your email and clean it up. Delete, delete, delete… what you no longer need! I recently did this and unsubscribed to a truck load of sites as it was simply clogging up my email accounts. It was so freeing. I had 3000 emails, now I have fewer than 50. I also created folders and categorized and filed emails that I need to hang on to. This feels so good.

Vacuum, wash the floors and if you can allow a fresh breeze of air to flow through your home. I know, I know it’s kind of the last thing you want to do but cleanse out the old dirt of the year. It’s winter here, snow, ice, freezing, but I still open the windows to allow the winter breeze to fly through and cleanse out what is there, even for a few brief moments. May all those who walk in your home be blessed, loved and healthy.

Clean your entrance and doorway. Wipe the door, wash the floor, re-arrange furniture, put away the pile that gets stored at the entrance. Sweep out the floor and old energy and allow new energy and prosperity to enter. Say a prayer of welcoming in joyous friends and family, abundance and health. You’ll feel the effects instantly!!

Go through paper work that needs to be filed or thrown out. Get organized. File things away and throw out or burn what you no longer need and feel the old releasing in the flames. Feel how light it is to deal with the paper.

Clean out your purse and wallet. Make sure receipts are not filed in the place you store your money. That is a no-no. Do not place bills where money is suppose to flow. Say a prayer to welcome in abundance with ease and grace.

Remove all your garbage and recycling from your home. If you’re like us and live in the sticks make a trip to the dump and recycling depot. If you live in town or city just try and place it outside or garage until it can be picked up but before the New Year.

Clean out your fridge. Wipe it down, throw out those two year old jars of pickles that will never be eaten. Empty out containers and jars that just aren’t be used. Welcome in healing energies of food and nutrition in your home.

Smudge, light candles, burn some inscents or simply open a window. Change the feel of the air. Break up any old stuckness or resistance and allow joy and peace to flow freely in your home.

Clearing out the old is so refreshing may you enjoy the new space and energy that comes in this New Year.

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Blessings, joy and health to you and your family in the New Year !!

Crystal

Soothing Solstice Ritual

close up photography of snowflake — Photo by Egor Kamelev on Pexels.com

Happy Winter Solstice from here in Canada! On this Darkest day of the year the Universe has brought me back to the teaching of the Grouse. I have lost my balance between inner and outer self, between light and dark, doing and being. And the grouse has puffed up her chest in my face, reminding me of her sacred message.

In her book Medicine Cards, Jamie Sams connects the grouse to the sacred spiral. She asks us, “Analyze the way you move through your world. How do you picture yourself in the act of “locomotion”…What word would you use to describe the way you move through both the material and spiritual worlds?…is your movement compatible with your greatest desires and goals?” (journal prompts!!)

For me I’m like a chicken with head cut off, running around my busy life with my three boys and husband, always doing three things at one time, somewhat disconnected from it all. I want to move slower, more gently and way more consciously. I want to be fully present in the moment of what I’m doing. I have almost come to a screeching halt in the spirit world and need to change this today! In this moment I see how we cannot manifest this visions into physical form if we are not taking time to see the vision in the moments of still and spiritual world exploring.

The grouse is also an ancient symbol for birth and rebirth and is often represented by the sacred spiral as this is the way the grouse does her sacred dance. The sacred spiral is symbol of personal power, a feminine symbol that we used to paint on our bodies for ceremonies and vision quests, a symbol of visioning to the centre of creation, down the sacred spiral and towards the centre and still spot of a tornado.

This message fit well as I have been really exploring my energy lately and witnessing how much I push myself and how much I pull back. And in my self-assessment I’ve come to realize that I’m really good at pushing myself and I rarely pull back my energy on my own accord but usually out of collapse. I typically go from a state of pushing, pushing, pushing to a grinding halt…stopped dead in my tracks with inertia and exhaustion. The experience of pulling back is not gentle or subtle, it’s extreme and fierce. It’s forceful and out of desperation, a need for recuperation and a catching of my breath for survival. Like everyone else I’m learning to exist somewhere between inertia and a thousand miles a minute and moving away from the extremes. I do know this, for every action there is an equal or greater reaction. So when we move to one extreme, there is always the opposite extreme waiting for our arrival.

So can we experiment and maybe loosen our ropes? Pull back from doing so much? I remember during my recovery from disordered eating, I forced myself to find the middle ground and find the luscious glow of mediocrity. I wouldn’t run as far or push as hard, I would intentionally try not to be the best or on top but rather middle ground because it was gentler and more loving but it was deeply uncomfortable. Feelings of worthlessness and fear of not being good enough oozed out of me as I tried to live a more balanced life. I equated not being perfect or the best with failure even if it cost me my well being. A new form had to be found. This constant over-doing and busyness is a ridiculous and unhealthy way to live my life, no more. The busyness of my life has moved me into exhaustion and disconnection. My pulling back is to be more intentional and consciousness in the moment and way more stillness. I need to make space for it like my life depends on it because I know it does.

On this beautiful day of darkness, I encourage us to find the sacred ceremony of intentional gentleness. Mmmm…I want to inhale the word “gentleness” into the aura of my life and let her soothing energy settle into my bones. So celebrate this day of darkness by sacred acts of doing less, of being gentle, of soothing the soul by dipping into our dark depths. Perhaps gentleness is letting the dishes dry in the sink or reading a good book instead of doing the laundry. I found it to be quite playful to try and find balance in a gentle, subtle, loving way in my every day life instead of just pushing and getting through these few days and then falling ill or finishing my weak in a state of depletion. Perhaps it’s even lighting up on the workout or spending the day cozy in fuzzy socks and Christmas sweaters by the fire. Perhaps it’s lighting candles and infusing peppermint oils with the sparkling twinkle of Christmas lights around us. Make today a sacred game of finding was to be gentle and softer, more being less doing.

SOLSTICE REFLECTIVE WRITING RITUAL:

aurora borealis — Photo by Tobias Bjørkli on Pexels.com

What is your relationship with Beingness?

What is your relationship with your own inner darkness and shadow self? Do you welcome and embrace your darkness or do you push it away and positive affirmation yourself into by-passing it?

Do you spend time in reflection and contemplation? What supports this practise for you or what hinders it?

Imagine sitting with the great sacred being of Solstice, the keeper of the dark, cavernous portals of being. You and this powerful gatekeeper are sitting around a crackling fire inside a deep rocky cave. Can you just sit in the energy of this Being..feel that being ness, pull it in, let it soften you, soothe you, surrendering your guards. Just sit and be, feeling Presence, feeling the warmth of the fire on your face. Sit there and receive the gifts of Being. Inhale the gentleness and calm around you. Expand the calmness all throughout your body. Feel it in your lungs and allow it to settle into your bones. Savour in it for as long as you need. When you are done, make an offering to the Divine Solstice being seated with you and when you’re ready, open you’re eyes and feel how you still feel the gift of Beingness.

Aho! And so it is.

Happy Solstice Friends 🙂

For Free Soul Connecting Goodies please FOLLOW THE BLOG and I’d be happy to send you some juicy, soul igniting goodies weekly. Or Follow the THE WOMEN’S TRIBE FACEBOOK PAGE.

Crystal XO

A Powerful Full Moon Healing Ritual for the end of the Decade.

adult blur close up cold — Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Pexels.com

Happy last Full Moon of the decade! It really feels like the last full moon of the decade, doesn’t it?! Like a real completion, ending and new beginning, a new era is about to emerge.

This full moon feels like a wrap up of the last ten years. It’s time to dot the “I’s” and cross the “T’s”. If you were like me you may have felt the urge to clean, cleanse and organize.

In a couple weeks, my oldest son will be turning 10. And it has me reflecting a lot on my life ten years ago. At the very beginning of this decade, I was 9 months pregnant and found out my husband (at the time) was cheating. My life literally fell to pieces as I birthed my son into the world. I remember going to a tarot card reader who pulled the Tower Card for me. The card showed a burning and collapsing tower with giant piles of ruble and people jumping out of the tower. It couldn’t have summed up my life better at the time. All that I had built was being destroyed. Little did I know that it would be the best thing that ever happened.

This last week in particular I have been struggling a lot with my health. My neck becomes suddenly immobile and swollen. So I listened to my body and just moved my awareness into the areas of pain…between my shoulder blades and neck. As my mind went to this spot, an image of knife popped into my head. I had been stabbed in the back. My husband’s affairs felt like being stabbed in the back, the ultimate betrayal.

As I spoke with my neck and asked what it needed, I heard her whisper…”to take the knife out.” I have been living with the knife still in my back, or at least the memory of its pain. I started this decade with heartache and loss and I’ve carried that in my back til this moment. I’m done waiting for a magical apology, or an owning of a horrific action. I’m freeing myself from the last energetic chord to my ex. As I imagined pulling the knife out, I seen myself walking to his house, ringing the doorbell and handing him the blood stained knife. I turned my back and walked away. It’s his to hold, not mine. What he does with it is his choice. I’m done living with the memory of that pain. I don’t need to anymore, I’ve done the healing.

I’m entering this new decade in triumph, on a chariot of courage, determination and clarity. Ten years after this treacherous time in my life, I’m remarried and have two more sons, a new home, a new job, essentially a whole new life. I have rebuilt a stronger tower, on a much sturdier foundation. I’v built a life that is actually suited to me.

The next ten years of my life will have nothing to do with that knife. It will be about my life that I created and all the new stuff emerging, manifesting and singing my name. To close my journey inward, I felt the need to heal the open wound in my skin left by the knife. I imagined my guides coming and doing some energy healing and sowing me up with golden and sacred wire. I imagined too putting my own hands on the wound and filling myself up with self-love and self-honour. This is what I really want to focus on in the next ten years of my journey. And so it is!

A FULL MOON SOUL JOURNEY FOR COMPLETION.

On this full moon I invite you to summon what is left of your learning in these last ten years. Light some candles, burn some sage or innocence or infuse some oils and take some deep friggen’ breaths. Really inhale. Really exhale. Move into that part of your body where the stuck energy and patterns of the last ten years are held. Where is it? What are the sensations that you notice? Describe them. Just move your mind there. If you were to imagine an image that best represents the old wound or stuck pattern, what image emerges? Or words, or shapes or colours? Use your imagination.

What do you imagine this imagine represents?

What does your soul need regarding this energy in you?

What would the image/object say to you?

What do you need?

Are you ready to release it?

Ask your wise body how she would like you to release this old patterned energy? Feel free to call in the elements of wind, water, fire or earth to help you. Maybe a loved one, an Angel, a guide or power animal will be your helper. Or maybe like me, you will just imagine pulling it out yourself. There is no right or wrong, just what is.

What energy are you needing to fill yourself with, having removed this old energy and

beautiful beauty blue bright — Photo by James Wheeler on Pexels.com

pattern?

Are there helpers, guides, stars, Grandmother moon…the water…anything that can help you heal the spot of the old.

Fill yourself with golden, radiant light and feel how lightened you are from freeing yourself from this pattern you’ve carried for the last ten years.

You are amazing!

And so it is!

Happy Full Healing Moon.

Much love

Crystal

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