Our western culture doesn’t make much room for the honoring of  ancestors, for the gifts they gave us that have enriched our lives, layers and layers of story– our story embedded in the story of our family, which in turn is nestled in the story of our parents’ families, and so on back through generations.  This genetic story is wrapped in cultural stories, the places and events that shaped the people who came before us — language, music, landscape.  Within us is a sacred thread that is woven with everyone in our ancestral past.  We carry within us the hopes and dreams, the wounds and longings, of everyone who came before us.

Our ancestors, those who are the twice born, those who have conquered death, who have done battles with the archetypes and the battles of nature to be become persons of great knowledge.  These are the trustees of our earth and it is their wisdom and the parts they played that propelled us to this point in our lives, right here, right now……..

Some people say to me how can we honour ancestors when there has been conflict and problems in our families.  My family is no different, my father was an alcoholic and bought with him disharmony and mayhem, but his weaknesses around drink was my strength, his love of music and the melodies he wrote for his bagpipes bring a richness to my life beyond words.  All our ancestors bear great gifts,  sometimes it just takes time mine the rich seams of gold that lie within.

I personally have come to know of the celtic life  blood that forces through my veins, this has given me that earthy connection to my sexuality,  my wildness, my love of music, literature, poetry,  arts, and my spiritual wisdom, and the power and beauty held in all my female ancestry has given me the strength to survive when everything around me was failing.   I honour you all for your wonderful gifts.

In the North, we encounter the energies of Hummingbird ,  this archetypal energy teaches us to honour ancestors and put them in the order of love, to place them behind us, supporting us, so we can journey forth in the knowledge of who “we are”.

The images show some of the pieces I have made to honour the path I have journeyed so far, my grandmother and great grandmother take their rightful place,  their strength and beauty live on.

the deep dark woods of our soul, do you go there, do you dare to go there?  are you afraid to enter into the menacing darkness that old folklore tells us not to enter for fear of death and destruction.  Little red riding hood met her wolf, Hansel and Gretel the wicked witch, Vasalis met Baba Yaga, but in those times of fear and death, wonderful seedlings grow, intuition to see the way back home to self to allow the dream of our becoming to emerge.

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow, so when you go for a walk in this deep dark woods of the soul, listen………… underfoot things are stirring.

“The greatest achievement was at first, and for a time a dream.  The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities”

James Allen (statesman)

I took creative inspiration from the quote and created this image.  Its layered from photographs I have taken in nature, ferns unfurling, grasses swaying, teasels drying in the hot sun and sketches that I drew from my own souls journey . see more images click here http://www.carolgearing.com and http://www.flickr.com/photos/8853574@N03/

Every day, since the beginning of time, the earth, the wondrous mother earth has supported us. Under our feet every moment of our lives,  she provides for us in every way.

The moist magical blood of the mother, the feminine energies that swell and give birth to abundance on this planet. Wonderful Pachamama.

The Divine mother comes in many guises, in Greece for example, DEMETER, mother of Persephone, tall in stature, full hipped, wide shouldered, swollen breasts always full of milk, the stars of the milky way is said to flow through her ……….  as she walks the earth flowers spring from the footprints she leaves behind, she is the bringer of the seasons and the mother of Persephone.

In Egypt, ISIS, she who gives birth to the heaven and earth, the Queen of the heavens, Mother of the gods, the light giver of heavens and she who knows how to make right use of the heart.

In Roman history she was known as CERES. in the Andean communities she is knows as PACHAMAMA, 

This detail is from a much larger painting I completed recently  in homage to her vibrant presence under our feet.

You can see more of my work here

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/8853574@N03/collections/72157612065321714/