The Cosmic Dance of Light & Dark

Into the Dark

Last night I walked down to the river. It was one of the darkest nights, approaching New Moon and clouds misting the starlight to a very faint diffuse glow. Bio-luminescent mushrooms making themselves known with their yellowish blue light, evoking the feel of spirits holding space, guarding the dark creative spaces. Arriving at the river bank, I turn off my head torch, let my eyes adjust to the darkness, taking a few deep breaths, connecting with the dark lunar energy above and the magnetic creative womb of the earth. I call in the elements.
 

Water... flow, tidal rhythms, sometimes flowing around obstacles, sometimes tearing them away,  fertile swelling, flowing towards something bigger than us, following intuition and instinct.
 

Air... light cool breeze, spaciousness to allow love to blossom and healthy boundaries to grow strong, discernment and vision, deep listening to the whispers of my allies and my whole and healed ancestors.
 

Earth... aahhh, deep connection, roots reaching down down down, grounding heavenly energies,
anchoring, wisdom of receiving and digesting, solid rock to lean on, soft sand to snuggle into.
 

Fire... the glowing spark of creation in the dark womb of the night, hope, passion & energy to show up authentically, sovereign flame of the heart, destroyer and transformer of what no longer serves. Feeling the potent energy around me, I speak my intention, womanifesting through the birthing of a new creation child...

I release the skin of my drum-to-be into its birthing waters, so it can gestate in this dark nature’s womb at this magickal potent time...

Autumn Equinox – New Moon – Moon Time

As in all of nature the fierce feminine ways are cyclical, tidal and rhythmic. Equilibrium is a flow state as depicted in the Daoist Yin-Yang sign or the symbol of Medicine Woman’s ally the Ouroboros. On very special moments, space and time align for a short time in the state of balance. Like twilight, half tide, a quarter moon. Where seemingly opposing forces are equally strong and result in a stable and balanced, if fleeting experience. They act as subtle markers of change, whispering to us to get ready, giving us a chance to tune in what lays ahead.

Like the equinox we are experiencing at the moment. When day & night are equal in duration. A
magickal time of becoming. The Yang and more masculine energy of summer, of light, heat, of doing, of growing and maturing subtly shifts to the Yin and more feminine energy of winter, of dark, of cold, of being, of digesting and transmuting. The interplay between dark & light, light & dark is essential to all life on this planet. Circadian rhythms guide blossoming, mating, fruiting, gestation, hibernation, germination, mitochondrial activity, hormones... basically all our physical and energetic cycles . They offer us the deep knowing of where we are in time and space, of where we belong.

The more in synchronicity with these cycles of nature - with the rising and setting of sun, with the
gravitational force of the moon and the earth, the more we are familiar with the lives and rhythms of our other than human relations – the more healthy, ‘sane’ and resilient we are – because we belong, we feel connected, we are embodied.

Re-membering Wholeness

My journey with the Amazonian Arts Warrioresses reminded me of and invited me back into this
connection through awakened curiosity to explore and trusting in my instinct and intuition. The
Archetypes call deeply to our innate wisdom held in the trillions of cells in our body – remembering the feminine ways through breath, dance, sound, sacred crafting, ancestral skills and the support of sisterhood.

The cosmic dance of light and dark invites us into wholesome intimate synchronicity with the flow of life without and also within. The importance of both dark and light is mirrored in our internal
landscapes. Honouring the gifts of both our internal shining light and misty shadows is essential to experience our natural wholeness. Our society has primed us to deny and judge our shadows, but only by inviting our anger, grief, sadness, shame and bitterness into belonging we connect with our true compassion, courage, unconditional love, trust, creativity and sovereignty.

Topo-ka Turner speaks to this in her book Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home:

"While the New Age movement has awakened many to the power of creative intention, it has
simultaneously pathologised the so-called ‘negative emotions’ and stricken them from our social
palette of acceptability. We live under a kind of hegemony of positivity which emphasizes happiness over sadness, pleasure over pain, gain over loss, and the creative over the destructive. But what if the ‘negative’ emotions have something essential to communicate, and the real problem is the misguided attitude that they make us less evolved, and need fixing? Just as fire can transform food from its raw form into something digestible, our darknesses are radical transformers. Instead of airbrushing our personalities, we should practice at exaggerating our blemishes, leaning into our stagnancy, wounding, and discomforts. If we really want to evolve, we have to learn how to be more expressly where we are.”

Sacred Crafting

The Ouroboros has swallowed its tail ...... and is rebirthing itself once more... the second journey with the 13 Warrioresses is about to begin. And I am so excited to share this journey with 8 fellow apprentices and so far 4 new journey women. I felt an urge ... a calling to give my commitment to this journey a voice to remind me, when the ease of comfort and assumed safety might hold me back, a voice to guide and call me back when I might disconnect, a voice resonating with my tribe of like-minded sisters.

Checking on my drum skin in the river this morning, the omens and signs were deeply affirming for me - a Green Tree-Snake curled up in my Tipi, Lyre Bird singing and the howling of wild dogs in the distance, later both the Yellow-tailed and Red-tailed (Glossy Black) Cockatoos flew over... Feeling truly blessed and connected. This afternoon I will enter the sacred space of birthing a new drum-child during this equinox, which I can call upon when in need to remember my wholeness of dark & light.

Looking forward to this sacred solo-time in nature at my secluded rainforest hide-away in the Kalang Valley - Honouring the elements, by sitting by the fire, on the earth, breathing deeply into my womb, stretching and lacing the wet skin of my apprentice drum – tuning into the cosmic potent time of equinox, new moon and my personal moon-time.

Fierce Blessings to you sisters,
EveOak, Medicine Woman Clan Mother