Garden on Winter Solstice

Dear Ones,
I am happy to share this course with you over the next four weeks. It is my intention in sharing this course that you may find the wisdom of nature in winter. The beauty of winter is stark, its complete. Much is revealed through the mirroring of this starkness within ourselves. We may discover who we truly are in nature’s completeness.

Each week I will offer seven simple rituals. I define ritual as a focusing of energy with a beginning and an end. Each ritual will begin with your breath and end with gratitude. I simply say “thank you” when I complete a ritual. You can choose your own way of offering gratitude. You may have a specific intention for your ritual but that is not necessary.

I encourage you to open to new ways of perceiving as you work through this course. You may be surprised by what you witness and your connections.

When you are in the middle of a ritual, don’t spend too much time thinking about what you perceive, if you find you are analyzing, take note of the wisdom received and gently bring attention back to your breath. I encourage you to record your experiences when you have completed each ritual.

This course is nonlinear. You can do all the rituals in one day or do one a day for the next seven days. You can do the first ritual everyday etc. What are you guided to do?
It doesn’t matter whether you are out on the land, in a forest, or in the city. You can do this anywhere.

I invite you to share your experiences with me through email Let me know if you have questions, share your inspirations with me, allow yourself to be vulnerable. I would love to know how it is going with you.

Be gentle with yourself.

I have made a recording for you all for this first week of the course–a message from the Earth. 

Seven Rituals ~ First Week

Silence ~ In Three Parts:

1. Inside where you live, do this in a space where you can have privacy. Sitting, standing or laying down. Notice your breath and breathe a few breaths naturally. You are going to breathe 21 breaths in and out. With the first breaths, notice the silence—you are not talking, you are present and quiet. Keep breathing and being in the silence. When you are done with the 21 breaths, allow yourself to be. Just be. When this feels complete, offer gratitude.
2. Outside, notice your breath. Breathe 21 breaths. Being silent. If thoughts come in, let them go as easily as the out breath. Offer gratitude when complete.
3. Inside, start with 21 breaths. Then, spend some time in silence. No texting, no computer, no TV, no reading, no talking. Do this for awhile. How long can you do it? Offer gratitude when complete.

Nature:
Outside, bring attention to your breath and breathe a few breaths naturally. Notice your feet on the ground. Notice your surroundings. Notice the “not so natural” surroundings, they are part of nature too. What are you experiencing? What are you seeing? What are you hearing? What are you smelling? What are you feeling? You are nature too. Take some time to experience nature is whatever way it is presenting itself to you. Offer gratitude when complete.

Cedar Tree

Trees:
Outside, find a tree. Which one is calling you? Stand before the tree. Notice your breath and breathe a few breaths naturally. Now, imagine that as you breathe, you are breathing the breath of this tree. Breathe with the tree for seven breaths. Then, ask the tree, “What have you for me?” Listen for an answer. Be open to the answer coming in many different forms. Offer gratitude when complete.

Wholeness:
Outside, find a place to stand. Notice your feet on the ground. Notice your breath. Close your eyes and imagine your smallness on our beautiful big planet. Open your eyes. Now imagine that as you breathe, you are breathing in the whole world, all of it. For 21 breaths, breathe in the world, the wholeness of it. If you feel resistance, allow those thoughts to be released as easily as the out breath. Offer gratitude when complete.

Wind:
“Wind is the breath of the universe”
Outside, you can go to a windy place, but any place will do. Notice your breath. Sense the wind and feel it moving through you. Watch the trees respond to the wind and allow yourself to move like the trees. Watch the birds respond to the wind and allow yourself to move like the birds. Is there water where you are? How does the water respond to the wind? Take it all in. Offer gratitude when complete.

Near by:
Outside, just outside your door. Notice your breath. What lives near you? What is growing right outside your door? Notice the tall trees. Notice, the small, seemingly insignificant plants. Notices the grasses. Notice the plants that appears to be dead and dissolving into the earth. Look up-what does the sky look like where you live? Look down-What is under your feet? Look around you-what are you feeling? Acknowledge your feelings. Offer gratitude when complete.

Heart:
Outside, return to the place where you did the wholeness ritual. Notice your breath. Breathe and spread your arms out, palms up. Bring your attention back to breathing in the wholeness of the world. Do this for a number of breaths. Now, put your hands over your heart and breathe 21 breaths, breathing the wholeness of the world into your heart-all of it. Everything is earth. Now for another 21 breaths, breathe in the wholeness and breathe out as a prayer for the earth, offering the wholeness, the healing, the beauty, the completeness that you seek and that you are to the whole world.  Offer Gratitude when complete.

May the wisdom of winter guide you deeply into yourself.

Peace and Abundant Green Blessings, Julie

Seven Rituals ~ Second Week

The Wisdom of the Trees

Trees ~ Who am I?”
Outside: Return to the same tree with which you connected last week. Stand before the tree and notice your breath, breathing a few breaths naturally. Notice your feet and that you are rooted like the tree. Notice your torso and that it is strong like the trunk of the tree. Notice your arms, how they reach out, and up and down like the branches of the tree. Notice your head and how it connect you with the heavens, the cosmos like the top of the tree. Breathe 21 breaths with the tree. Acknowledge that as you breathe in each breath, that this is the oxygen provided by the tree and as you breathe out, you give your breath, carbon dioxide, to the tree. After 21 breaths, ask the tree, “Who am I?” and listen. When you are satisfied with the answer, ask another question of your choosing. When this is complete, offer gratitude.

Trees ~ Rootedness
Inside: Find a quiet place to lay down or sit. Have either a drum or drumming CD or have someone drum for you. (If it isn’t possible to have any of these options, that is okay) Close your eyes. As the drum begins, see yourself in front of the tree from the former exercise. Notice your breath. See a place near the base of the tree where you can enter. Go down below the ground and find yourself moving down the roots of the tree. Keep going until you are past the roots and into the earth. You will find a place there. You may see it, you may hear it, you may sense it, even subtly. Be open to this. Explore this place. If beings appear, inquire of them who they are. This is a benevolent place. This is the place of your rootedness, your place of complete connection. When you are complete with this go back the way you came climbing back up the roots until you are standing before the tree again. Offer gratitude and open your eyes.

Trees ~ Weaving Connections
Outside: Go to your tree again and notice your breath. Breathe 7 breaths with this tree. Now find another tree and do the same, 7 breaths with the second tree. And now, breathe 7 breaths as if you are breathing with both trees, weaving the energies of the trees together. Ask the trees, “What have you for me?” Listen and offer gratitude when complete.

Trees ~ Letting it Go and Gathering Gifts
Inside: Find a quiet place to lay down or sit. Have either a drum or drumming CD or have someone drum for you. (If it isn’t possible to have any of these options, that is okay) Close your eyes. As the drum begins, see yourself before the your tree. Notice your breath. And now as you breathe 21 breaths, give away what no longer belong to you to the tree. Release it, let it go. What no longer serves you, let it go. You don’t have to know what it is that you are releasing. Just have the intention of giving it away to the tree. Don’t be concerned that you are giving something to the tree that is negative. It is the water in the plant that neutralizes what is removed so it does not exist anymore in the same form. When this is complete, ask the tree for a gift and receive it. Offer gratitude to the tree. See yourself before the tree again standing there after this ritual and open your eyes.

Trees ~ Letting Go and Gathering Gifts
You are going to be doing the same exercise as above but this time it will be outside with your tree.
These two exercises are potent healing rituals. Take time for yourself after you complete each one.

Trees ~ Intuition
Inside: Find a quiet place to lay down or sit. Have either a drum or drumming CD or have someone drum for you. (If it isn’t possible to have any of these options, that is okay) Close your eyes. As the drum begins, see yourself before the your tree. Notice your breath. Now, climb into your tree so that you can look out from the branches. See what the tree sees. Feel yourself connecting with the tree’s spirit and breathe 7 breaths, breathing the spirit of the tree into your being. You are merging with the tree. You are merging your energy with the energy of the tree. Now you can think as the tree. Think on something and see what the tree thinks about it. Does a tree think? How does it think? When this feels complete, unmerge with the tree with 7 breaths so that your energy and the trees energy are distinctly separate. Climb down from the tree. Offer gratitude and you can open your eyes. This ritual will enhance and give you more clarity about your intuition and what is happening when you connect with intuition.

Trees ~ Herbal Crafting
Outside: Go out to your tree and notice your breath. Breathe 7 breaths with your tree and ask, “What have you for me?” Listen. Offer gratitude when this is complete.
Outside and Inside: You are going to be crafting with a tree. I am sending you a few eBooks with ideas for crafting with cedar, pine and Douglas fir trees. Other ideas are to make apple or pear sauce. Gather and make a honey, vinegar or tincture with Hawthorne berries. What else can you think of? Once you have crafted something, return to the tree and offer gratitude again for its nourishing gifts.
The wise woman way of shamanic herbalism teaches that not only do we communicate and receive wisdom from plants, we also take them in, utilizing them for nourishment and healing. The wise woman tradition teaches that all healing come from nourishment.

May the winter wisdom of the trees nourish you.

May it be in Beauty.

Peace and Abundant Green Blessings, Julie

The Following are Links to More Explorations:

Cedar Teacher

The Rituals of Winter-Poems and Words of Wisdom

Douglas Fir Vinegar-The Messy, Kitchen Table Method

Making Herbal Preparations the Wise Woman Way

Seven Rituals ~ Third Week

As I walked out on the earth, I could see the sun reflected in the small, green grass shoots. Then I heard the land speak to me: “The sun is always there, even when you can’t see it. The soul always exists, even when it is very quiet.”

1. Go outside and find the sun. If it is cloudy, that is okay. Remember the quote from above. Stand and notice your breath and breathe a few breaths naturally. Now, breathe the sun down in through the top of your head, through your entire body and down into the earth. Breathe the earth, up through your feet, through your entire body and up and out through the top of your head. Do this for 21 cycles of breath. Listen and be present with this remembering the quote from above. Offer gratitude when complete.

The next three rituals are called, “Get Thee to the Roses!”

2.Outside: Find rose. This could be a wild rose, a garden rose, a cut rose etc. If you do not know where a rose is, imagine where you have seen roses and connect with them, even if it is far away. Notice your breath and breathe a few breaths naturally. Now, breathe 7 breaths with the rose. You are breathing in its oxygen. You are breathing out offering your breath to the rose. Ask the rose, “What have you for me?” and listen. Offer gratitude when complete.

3.Inside: Find a quiet place to lay down or sit. Have either a drum or drumming CD or have someone drum for you. (If it isn’t possible to have any of these options, that is okay) Close your eyes. As the drum begins, see yourself in front of the the same roses the former exercise. Notice your breath. Look for a place at the base of the roses where you can go down, a hole, an opening at the base of the roses. Go down the roots of the roses. You will find the fairies there. (The fairies, the elementals, do not sleep at this time of year, they are doing their work in their underground places. They travel along the roots of plants, from one place to the next.) See what happens. Ask them a question. Offer them gratitude. When this is complete, come back the way you came. The journey is over when you open your eyes.

4.Outside: Find the rose again and/or connect with rose. Notice your breath and breath a few breaths naturally. Now, breathe twenty one breaths with rose and ask, “Who am I?”. Listen. Offer gratitude when complete.

5.Outside in the Night: Find a place that feels comfortable to you. Notice your feet and feet your connection with the earth. Notice your breath and breathe a few breaths naturally Now, look up at the night sky. Breathe the cosmos down into your body and at the same time, breathe the earth energy up into your body. Allow the energies to mingle and then dissipate. Notice a spark—what is it? breathe into what it could be. Do this for awhile, listening and noticing. Offer gratitude when this is complete.

6.Outside by Day: Do the same ritual as #5 during the day. How is it the same? How is it different? Offer gratitude when complete.

7.Enchantment: For a whole day, notice that everything is alive with enchantment. Notice your breath often. Offer gratitude when complete.

May the life be filled with enchantment.

May it be in Beauty.

Peace and Abundant Green Blessings, Julie

Seven Rituals ~ Fourth Week

The birth of the world has happened with the Winter Solstice. We can now gather all the gifts we have received and turn from the inward place around to face the world. In traditional births, there is a period of “laying in”, a quiet time to allow our tender souls to be quiet and prepare for the world that is to be in the coming year. Who are our allies? What do we leave behind that is no longer needed? What will we share in the coming months. This is a time of preparation, of expectation, of formation. May it be in Beauty.

1. What is in your heart: Very simply, sit, lay down or stand. Place your hands over your heart. Notice your breath and breathe a few breaths natura
   

   wild rose heart

   lly. Listen to your heart song. If feelings arise, let them come and let them go. Do this for awhile. Do it a little longer than feels comfortable. When you are complete, offer gratitude.

2. What is in your soul: As with the above ritual, sit, lay down or stand. Place your hands on a comfortable place on your body. Notice your breath and breathe a few breaths naturally. Listen to your soul. Sense your soul. Allow this without knowing how you will do this. If feelings arise, let them come and let them go. Do this for awhile. Do it a little longer than feels comfortable. When you are complete, offer gratitude.
3. A Journey to meet your power animal: Choose to journey down the roots of the roses, from third week or the tree, from the first week. Find a quiet place to lay down or sit. Have either a drum or drumming CD or have someone drum for you. (If it isn’t possible to have any of these options, that is okay) Close your eyes. As the drum begins, see yourself in front of the tree or roses. Notice your breath. See a place near the base of the tree or roses where you can enter. Go down below the ground and find yourself moving down the roots of the tree. Keep going until you are past the roots and into the earth. You will find a place there. You may see it, you may hear it, you may sense it, even subtly. Be open to this. This is the lower world. Your intention is to meet your power animal. Who shows up for you? When you see or hear or sense an animal, breathe it into your heart for seven breaths. You can ask the power animal a question. What does it have to share with you? When this is complete, journey back up the roots to be standing before the tree or roses. You can then open your eyes. Offer gratitude. (If you already have one or more power animals, you may find a new one or you may connect with one your have already.)
4. Gathering gifts and turning to face the world: Find a quiet place to lay down or sit. Have either a drum or drumming CD or have someone drum for you. (If it isn’t possible to have any of these options, that is okay) Close your eyes. As the drum begins, see yourself in front of the tree from the previous week’s ritual. Notice your breath. Breathe a few breaths, naturally. As you face the tree, see yourself gathering gifts, from your heart, your soul, your helpers, the trees, the plants, all the things that you have connected with during this dark time of year and even all the gifts you have received for your entire life. Gather them up ask if in a basket. Offer gratitude for all these gifts. Now turn clockwise and and face away from the tree. Take one step and then another. Imagine what it will be like to share these gifts with the world. Offer gratitude when complete.
   Gratitude Walks:
5. Walking with your power animal: Take a walk outside and imagine your power animal walking with you. Bring attention to you breath. Take some time with this. Offer gratitude when complete.
6. Walking with the gifts you have to share: Take a walk outside. Bring attention to your breath. Acknowledge all the gifts that you gathered and be grateful for them. Take some time with this. Offer gratitude when complete.
7. Walking in Wholeness: Go outside. Imagine you are walking in wholeness as the small being you are on our beautiful planet earth. Take some time with this. Offer gratitude when complete.

For this time of “laying in” as the world awakens once again, spend time outside walking and with every step, offer a blessing to the world, and with every step, receive the blessings of the earth.

May it be in Beauty.

May your life be filled with the blessings of the green.

Love and Peace, Julie