June - Celebrate Our Absent Friends

June - Celebrate Our Absent  Friends.

June as a rule marks my most favourite Wiccan festival of them all, Litha, or Summer Solstice to the layman.  I love the fact that in the past, when I lived down south, it would often be pretty hot on this day, the late afternoon and evening bringing a balminess which would somehow lend a magical air to the evening.  I wanted to dash down to Stonehenge and join in the celebrations with complete strangers, drinking wine around make shift fires and catching the eye of a handsome pagan through  the shudder and shimmer of the flames.  I never did.  I sat in my little garden and toasted the sun and the moon and enjoyed the fact that the day would stretch on and on, ignoring of course that after this the days would actually get shorter.  It also marked the time when the sun moves into Cancer, which is my star sign, so in many ways this festival has always felt like mine.  My own private party, a time for making wishes and dreaming big, and hopefully manifesting those dreams instead of fantasising about adventures, which is what I used to do when I lived alone.

I started writing this months' column in April during an incredibly sad period.  Our  beloved Bob, our ginger and white cat disappeared during the night and I felt absolutely devastated.  This is what I started to write: 

'nothing feels like it will ever be the same again.  He was always a special cat, when we first rescued him and his sister from the Cats Protection League we were told that he had had a seizure when he first came into the home.  Of course they put this down to stress and a 'one off incident'  and they could find no medical evidence of any ongoing problems.  He was such a loving soft cat, you could cradle him in your arms like a baby, kiss him and he would reach out to touch you with his paw gently.  He would 'tread' my hair when I was laying in bed, and snuggle down into it, using it like a comfort blanket.  He was our special needs boy, we used to joke about it,  but I really do believe he was slightly brain damaged.  He had the gentle  innocence of child, no common sense whatsoever and the only time he would ever show any sort of aggression was after a seizure when he would sometimes growl and cry if you tried to pick him up.  He just needed to eat and sleep it off, sometimes taking a day or two to get back to normal.  So we realised we had adopted a very special boy, who needed lots of extra care.  The tears are streaming down my face as I write this as I cannot comprehend that I will probably not see him again.  I feel like we have let him down terribly.  Perhaps I should have kept him indoors, but this is so difficult when he loved being outside, he never wandered far, and his sister needed to be outside too.  I couldn't have kept him indoors like a caged bird just for my own selfish needs to know he was safe.  During the 18 months that he has lived with us he's had the best of everything; the best love, toys, food, warmth.  We couldn't have loved him or cherished him more.  And the weird thing is I was reading about Litha and how the Oak and the Holly gods sacrifice themselves to ensure the safe harvest and that the wheel of life continues and I thought how ironic that in a way we have had to sacrifice our Bob, I don't know why or what for, maybe I will never know, but maybe it's also a comfort too'  

Thank God our darling boy returned after 9 days all by himself, a little thin, but otherwise fine.  During the time he was missing we had done absolutely everything to find him, we scoured the streets, we did all kinds of crazy things to 'scent' the surrounding area so he could find his way home.  I had almost given up hope when he returned.  I did feel like we had lost our boy forever, that we had had to sacrifice him.  I was at the point of letting him go when he returned.  What is the lesson in this if any?  I guess I feel there are several pointers; never underestimate somebody!  We had categorised him as 'daft' and unable to find his own way home and yet he did!  I guess not giving up on something or someone is important in there too.  We were focussed on finding him, even though hope was dwindling.  Yet what stands out to me is the fact that he was out there somewhere, we didn't know where, we didn't know what road, what house, what area he was in, but we hoped and prayed he was out there, and he was.  We couldn't see him, or touch him but he was there.  Just because you can't see someone/something doesn't mean they aren't there.  People lose loved ones every day, my belief is that they aren't gone.  Yes they are visually absent, physically we cannot touch them, but I feel they are somewhere else, their energy is around us and we should celebrate their mark on the world in  a positive way.  I was lucky that our Bob returned, but I know he isn't mine to keep.  I cannot hold him prisoner, I have to give him his freedom and love him enough to let him live the life he wants to lead.  I have to give him 'wings'.  Several friends have lost loved ones recently, ultimately there are no words of comfort to offer.  One tries to write compassionate words of comfort, offer hugs, extend  religious assurances, but all these seem futile and banal in the wake of their obvious grief.  How does one carry on when your husband or wife or loved one has passed on, how can life ever have any meaning again?    I really can't answer that, except to say how I feel which is just because they have 'gone' visually and physically doesn't mean they aren't there.  You don't have to believe in heaven or hell or god to believe that our energy remains; our soul is on a journey which, although may be at its end in this life,  cannot be destroyed.  The love that those people created, is very much apparent, in their children and in the footprint of life  they left behind.  The people they touched throughout their lives, the memories they were part of  will all live on.  Let's celebrate our absent friends this solstice, with the energy of the sun at its highest and the mysterious hidden world of the moon closest to earth at this time, until we meet again, and you will, you will.

Practical Magic

This is a very simple instruction this month.  Litha is such a charged powerful time, raise a glass to the sun and the moon, raise a glass to your absent friends, what would they say to you now about your life?  What should you,/could you be doing differently?  Make some promises to yourself, do it, just do it.  This poem by Philip Larkin sums up to me the love that is left behind after the seemingly finality of death.

An Arundel Tomb by Philip Larkin

Side by side, their faces blurred,   

The earl and countess lie in stone,   

Their proper habits vaguely shown   

As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,   

And that faint hint of the absurd—   

The little dogs under their feet.

Such plainness of the pre-baroque    

Hardly involves the eye, until

It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still   

Clasped empty in the other; and   

One sees, with a sharp tender shock,   

His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.

They would not think to lie so long.   

Such faithfulness in effigy

Was just a detail friends would see:

A sculptor’s sweet commissioned grace   

Thrown off in helping to prolong   

The Latin names around the base.

They would not guess how early in

Their supine stationary voyage

The air would change to soundless damage,   

Turn the old tenantry away;

How soon succeeding eyes begin

To look, not read. Rigidly they

Persisted, linked, through lengths and breadths   

Of time. Snow fell, undated. Light

Each summer thronged the glass. A bright   

Litter of birdcalls strewed the same

Bone-riddled ground. And up the paths   

The endless altered people came,

Washing at their identity.   

Now, helpless in the hollow of   

An unarmorial age, a trough

Of smoke in slow suspended skeins   

Above their scrap of history,   

Only an attitude remains:

Time has transfigured them into   

Untruth. The stone fidelity

They hardly meant has come to be   

Their final blazon, and to prove   

Our almost-instinct almost true:   

What will survive of us is love.

Crystal of the Month - Green Aventurine

Green aventurine is a type of quartz, it is a stone of abundance and career luck.  It encourages prosperity and thus is a good crystal to take with you on a job interview, or if you are hoping to change career or move on up in your chosen profession.  It has a gentle energy and is also associated with the heart chakra.   I use this stone in my chakra stone balancing kit, you can use either green or pink colours for the heart chakra, but I prefer the calming influence of the green.  It Is also supposed to help relieve migraines and is the birth stone of the sign of Libra.

Angel Card of the Month - Your Inner Guidance Is Real and Trustworthy

I let my cat Bob choose this card which made me laugh really as I wondered if it was his little message to me too! This card is about trusting your instinct and taking action when you are feeling uncertain or confused with a situation, you may feel like doing something but be hesitating.  Don't hesitate, just go for it!  The card confirms that is it safe to go forward and make those changes.   Trust that you will be guided in making the right decision, there's no such thing as a wrong decision!

Moody Moon

This month the full moon falls on June 9th at 14.09 in the sign of Sagittarius.  It's a day for adventures and taking a few risks.   Today is a great day to travel or start a new job or 'adventure'.  Fortune favours the brave, let that be your motto on this month's full moon!  The new moon is on 24th June at 03.30 in the sign of Cancer. Today a house move will be advantageous, or having a baby or starting a new relationship, all things linked to maternal home loving Cancer.  It's an emotional day but a positive one for new things starting.  Don't think about those things ending, concentrate on the new beginnings.....

If you look carefully in the evenings you will see Jupiter in the south, Venus in the east in the morning and from mid June Saturn can be seen all night long..........

Eat:  Broad beans, chicory, crab, French beans, peas, nectarine, raspberries, watercress

Play: You know the photos you always keep meaning to put in an album?  Stop procrastinating and get on with it!  Enjoy those memories.

Love: the moment.  The past has gone, the future is yet to come, all we have is the present. Grab it, do it find it NOW