Elen, light bulb moments and Muses

Myself and the Kitchen Witch team spent last weekend at an Elen of the Ways retreat - log cabins, woodland, Bell tent sacred space, food, cake, friendships, meditation, drumming, fires and sacred foot prints...it was all interesting in one way or another and probably meant completely different things to each and every lady that attended.

For those of you that know me, you will know that I have a patron Goddess, the Cailleach, she has been with me for several years now and although I work with other deities on occasion, she is always with me.  So investigating the illusive Elen of Ways was interesting but it also led me to several 'light bulb' moments regarding not only my relationship with my own Goddess but also that of my life long totem, the wild boar.

What I really got from the weekend was a more solid and deep emotional and heartfelt connection to my two dear Sisters in the Craft - although we chat every day via email or text, although we meet for rituals and workshops we are usually together because we are running or organising something (don't get me wrong we love to do all those things!) but the weekend gave us a chance to relax and just enjoy our company...possibly the bottles of wine helped slightly ;-)  including deep and meaningful conversations started at about 1am whilst sitting on the veranda (me already in my PJ's) - we saw sides of each other we had not seen before (including them seeing me with no makeup on eeeep!).

Several of the other ladies on the retreat remarked at how wonderful our energy was together, we were even dubbed 'The Three Muses' (Greek Goddesses of song, music, dance, knowledge and the past) which we took as a huge compliment.   Although I am not so sure about my new nickname of 'Captain Cake Arms'...but I guess you can't have everything ;-)

On the last day of the retreat we received the sad news that one of our beloved Coven had passed to the Summerlands and I think that just reiterated to us how precious life, time and friendships are - he made the most of life, was a beautiful spirit and we shall miss him.

I am still processing a lot of the information and clarity with regard to my own journey, but am truly thankful for being gifted the time to spend with my Sisters ♥ even if one of them wears crocs and the other wears her slippers outside ;-)...