Category Archives: Wheel of the Year

Samhuinn – Samhain – Calan Gaeaf – All Hallows Eve  

 

Samhuinn – Samhain – Calan Gaeaf – All Hallows Eve

However you name this time between time, the liminal time when  the Spirits walk close in the place between this world and the Otherworld. Of our blood, spirit and race lineages, of those who have walked before us, and the Ancestors of land and place. In the Northern Hemisphere it marks the end of the summer season of light and growth and the beginning of the descent into the darkness and decay of winter and the dark half of the year.

One of the two most powerful Spirit Nights of the year, (the other being Bealtuinn) cross quarter days and the major fire festivals of the Celtic Nations. Each mark the beginnings and endings on the perpetual cycle of growth and retreat of the Wheel of the Year, the Cycle of Life.

It is the time of the Cailleach Bheur who grows ever stronger with each cold gust of wind, icy wind and swirl of snow…until Imbolc,  with the return of Brìghde, the Goddess of dawn, new light and of Spring.

As the sun fades, dies, and is reborn to grow again, the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth permeates nature and our linear minds are offered much wisdom if we do but study the Mysteries.

All of nature goes to ground, retreating to hibernate and conserve energy for the coming time of light and growth. The trees are singing their winter song and go inward  to prepare for the regeneration that is Spring. Offering their leaves freely to nourish and sustain Earth Mother. To shelter and support all the creatures of the land. In offering this gift they also nourish and protect their own roots ensuring that they too return in the Spring. The cycle of life.

We can learn from this to let go what is redundant or no longer relevant by going inward to incubate and prepare for our own spring growth. Finding the beauty in decay and release in the cleansing power of the winds and winter rains.

Inviting the directions to open Sacred Space, to sit in Circle with the Ancestors, I am mindful of the profound gratitude I hold for them all. For their wisdom, guidance and protection, the legacy they have bestowed, with which we are all blessed. For the great and many sacrifices made by them, the Ancestors of blood, spirit, race and land. So that we could walk gently upon Earth Mother, our most ancient Ancestor.

As the Great Mother embraces the Goddess of Winter, the Cailleach Bheur, so do I embrace my Dark Mother Goddesses – Mothers of Life, Death, Transformation and Rebirth. Of knowledge, wisdom, inspiration and change. Of Mysteries, Myths and Magic.

The Cailleach, The Mórrígan, The Magdalene, of Scáthach and of Cerridwen, Arianrhod and Rhiannon, of Inanna, Baba Yaga and Kali Ma.  All the ones I do not name or do not know.

As I put fire to the flame of the vigil candle and to resin of Dragon’s Blood. As I pour Sacred Water on Sacred Earth – I wish you peace with that which must go to ground and decay within and without. – Wisdom of that which you carry into the dark time – Joy of that what you nurture in your inner garden.

The Wheel turns.

Samhuinn Blessings,

Heathir

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making darkness conscious.” Carl Jung

 

SHAMANIC JOURNEY CIRCLE

SHAMANIC JOURNEY CIRCLE

Ancient Shamanic practices for contemporary times
 
in sacred circle ~ in community
 
Thursday September 20 2018   7 – 9 pm
 
Beginner or seasoned practitioner, all are welcome. Join us as we gather in community, in sacred space to journey to alternate, unseen realities. To the beat of the drum, ride across the sacred bridge to connect with Spirit Animals, Guides, Teachers and Ancestors. Receive answers, guidance, wisdom and healing…
 
THE INNER CAULDRON ~ TRANSFORMATION ~
Journey to the Mother of Changes
 
…connect with your Spirit Self, discover and restore your spiritual power, your Shamanic Consciousness and become your own authority.
 
Meet at a wonderful venue in Central North Vancouver
 
Address upon registration.
 
Pre-registration is necessary
info@heathirrhyasen.com
$20.00 cash at the door
 
Bring your curious nature, questions for guidance, healing and change, or come as you will with your love of possibilities. Water to drink, paper and pen to record journeys.
 
Circles for Healing ~ Circles for Change
 
Heathir Rhyasen heathirrhyasen.com

SHAMANIC JOURNEY CIRCLE

 

SHAMANIC JOURNEY CIRCLE 

Ancient Shamanic practices for contemporary times

in sacred circle ~ in community 

Thursday August 16  2018 7 – 9 pm 

Beginner or seasoned practitioner, all are welcome. Join us as we gather in community, in sacred space to journey to alternate, unseen realities. To the beat of the drum, ride across the sacred bridge to connect with Spirit Animals, Guides, Teachers and Ancestors. Receive answers, guidance, wisdom and healing…

THE INNER CAULDRON ~ Fruition ~ JOURNEY~ The Hill of Vision

…connect with your Spirit Self, discover and restore your spiritual power, your Shamanic Consciousness and become your own authority.

Meet at a wonderful venue *** in North Vancouver

Address upon registration.

Pre-registration is necessary 
info@heathirrhyasen.com 

$20.00 cash at the door

Bring your curious nature, questions for guidance, healing and change, or come as you will with your love of possibilities. Water to drink, paper and pen to record journeys. 

Circles for Healing ~ Circles for Change 

Heathir Rhyasen    heathirrhyasen.com

 

DANCING LUGHNASADH

Dancing Lughnasadh

Fruition. The first Harvest. What wisdom have we gathered, what is the harvest of our soul self? What do we still look to reap?

Lughnasadh, Lúnasa, Lammas, is a Cross Quarter day, approximately halfway between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox. In old Gaelic, Lughnasadh is a combination of Lugh, a God of the Celts and násad, or assembly.

 One of the Celtic fire festivals, this day marks the turn of the season and we step into Autumn as Summer declines into Winter. A time of fruition and completion, Lughnasadh is the first of three harvests on the Wheel of the Year. The Land is ripe and full and bursting with Earth Mother’s Bounty.

We celebrate the Celtic God Lugh, God/Master of all skills, known as the Bright One or Shining One. It was/is a day to honour Lugh and also his foster Mother Tailtiu. She who, it is told, died of exhaustion and a broken heart after clearing all the plains of Ireland for agriculture. Tailtiu was possibly an earth Goddess who represented the dying vegetation that fed all humans and animals. In this, we also celebrate the role of Women who take on the role of Mother including those to children they might not have born.

Great gatherings and celebrations were held at Lughnasadh; bonfires, games, fairs and festivals, the ritual cutting and offering of the first grains, games of skill and strength, horse racing music and storytelling, trading, proclaiming of laws and settling of legal disputes, drawing up contracts, and matchmaking. Lughnasadh was also the traditional time for handfastings, a trial marriage that lasted for a year and a day. Lugh’s original festival was said to have lasted for two full weeks.

Traditionally a festival of bounty and abundance and a celebration of community and family, of reaping what we have sown, and sharing the harvest, we have forgotten these ways. What joy that we are now returning to these rituals, celebrations and rites of passage that mark the passage of time in the cycle of life.

The Wheel turns.

Heathir

  • What do I need to release right now?
  • What am I looking most forward to for the rest of the year?
  • What can I anticipate coming to fruition for my highest good?
  • In what ways can I give gratitude for the gifts of growth and change I have received this year?

SACRED GARDEN

 

The power of our Inner Sacred Garden

In an alternate reality, outside of ordinary time, in the dreamscapes of the Middle World, there is a place that is solely and uniquely ours. Our inner world, our power place, our Sacred Garden. A place of healing, a place of nurture, a place of retreat, reflection and restoration. A gathering place, a meeting place, a resting place. One of wisdom, grace and gifts.

This landscape is one that you come to know intimately and love deeply. Reflected in your pool of memory and held deep within your heart, in time, just the thought of it or the feeling of being there can return you to this place of peace, of power and protection.

As you discover and develop your garden through journey work, you will learn that it mirrors your life in the mundane world and that while all has meaning and is symbolic and metaphoric, you are the architect and steward of this Sacred place. The Magician as it were. As you design, create, add, shift, plant, water, weed or remove, so does it manifest in your everyday life. You step outside of time and into the realm of infinite possibilities.

 “When I changed my garden, something in my outer life would shift in response. It was almost as though everything in my garden was symbolic of some aspect of myself or my life experiences, and when I changed the symbols within my inner reality, something in my outer world changed, too. I have since come to accept that the ability to do this is magic—real magic.”  Hank Wesselman

I’ll meet you there.

Heathir