The Raggle Taggle Gypsy Rover
Dear Readers,
It's been rather a long time since I've posted here... yet despite it, I see some of you wonderful folks have been checking in regularly and I thank you for that. I feel like I'm finally rousing from a long hibernation at the first stirrings of Spring (that's an internal metaphor by the way, as we are still a little way from Springtime here in England) Anyway, I've been very much off-grid but can at last feel a new day dawning.
Life has taken some interesting turns since August, with a big house move into a property that has unwittingly turned out to be most unsuitable.
You need to watch out with houses numbered '7' - that includes all the numbers that in combination you can add down to the single digit, like 61 & 16, 52 & 25, 34 & 43, 115, 214 & 313 - you get the picture. These are houses for quiet reflection and solitude, ideal spaces for mystics and dreamers. Ruled by the water element they are prone not only to leaks, plumbing issues and damp but also to illusions of not appearing at first glance what they truly are, often seeming bigger or smaller than they are in reality... and so it has been here for us on all of those counts!
This week the landlord has finally consented to release us early from this rather ill-fated tenancy so he can carry out the much needed work to bring the property up to standard and we can find somewhere new to go and move forward again.
Two moves in two months is extreme even for me, and this next move will take me to 14 house moves in 12 years. So many things can happen with rental properties here in England, and I think I've pretty much seen it all! From landladies returning from a long sojourn in Spain and wanting their cottage back, the landlord and his wife ending their marriage and needing to sell and divide their assets, step-daughters wanting to go to University and step father consents to them living rent-free in the home you've been in for 3.3 years. It's interesting...anything can happen.
Not all of these moves have been driven by circumstance however... some have been bold and deliberate moves, like relocating half way across the country to a town I just HAD to live in (led by an inner prompting and wishing to follow a deep call to growth and Soul evolution) then going away when the time felt right, 200 miles north to be with an incredible man up in the wilds of North Wales, then moving right back across the country (with him this time) back to that same town again and finding it was completely different the second time around - but hey, so was I!
And right now I'm feeling every inch the itinerant Raggle Taggle Gypsy Rover.
So there are still changes to come, we're not out of the woods yet!
And speaking of out in the woods, as the shortest day of the year swiftly arrives here to the Northern Hemisphere next week, that most powerful day will see me heading out to spend time with my three precious Mandrake plants hidden in the woods.
I realise how they help me to feel strangely timeless and deeply rooted into Earth wisdoms. I grew them from seed* in a ritual bound with moon cycles 5 years ago and planted them out at the new moon a couple of weeks back... It felt like a profound act of creativity having Mothered these truly remarkable little beings till they became strong independent root-people who flowered for the first this year.
I'm talking like the proud hippie green-fingered herb-mama I am.
Blessings of beauty,
Catherine Athena xo
* Botanists will attest to how difficult it can be to get Mandragora Officinarum to germinate from seed. They can be the most pernickety, contrary plant imaginable. And if you CAN get them to germinate the young plants are prone to bouts of narcolepsy, with no clear pattern to it, suddenly dropping into deep hibernation... their humans will often think their plant has died, but if they can just wait it out, quite suddenly out of the blue one day when the Mandrake is good and ready, new leaves will suddenly sprout again! They really are a law unto themselves and completely fascinating to be around.
• • •My journey through the senses• • •
taste:: Vegetarian pizza - so perfect when everything calls for a comfort food moment.
smell:: Fir trees and needle-scented footpaths while walking into town
touch:: Little root-people gently lowering into new ground
see:: Things from a completely new angle
hear:: A hawk calling overhead
think:: If I'm gonna be moving around like this, maybe it's time for a horse-drawn wagon!