Earth Pathways Showcase

The Essence of Imbolc ~ The hearth fire seemed dimmed and fragile in the cold stone, but now, warmth seeps from a spark kindled in the darkest of winter nights, bringing with it the promise of thawing landscapes, rebirth, and new life. Frost may rime the hummocks and winter fog may haze the dawn, yet underneath the hard, unyielding blanket of winter, life begins to stir.

Rituals ~ Burn incense, light candles! Sow seeds and keep them nestled indoors until spring. Write your intentions for the year ahead. Feel the bright, fiery energy in your solar plexus unfurl its tendrils and spread healing warmth throughout your body. Walk through woods adorned with snowdrops. Decorate your altar with flowers, foliage and candles. Celebrate the coming of the light!

Reflect ~ You have explored the darker realms of winter, now is the time to bring all that you have learned out of the darkness. Tread the spiral path into the light, reclaiming your energy, your warmth, your vibrance; shed those protective layers that obscure your colour from the world. Unfurl your joyous radiance, and begin to spread your tendrils of hope, love, and compassion. What dreams do you wish to bring forth? What will you share with the Earth this year? What seeds does Imbolc call for you to sow and nurture for the year ahead? Allow the potential of your intentions to gently rise. Your kindled fire will encourage the world to throw off its frosted cloak and bask in the returning Sun.

Imbolc © George Parker 2021

The Essence of Ostara – Spring Equinox ~ Spring is here! The goddess unfurls her lithe limbs, stretching into the light and warmth of the Sun! At this point in the wheel, dark and light hang for a moment in perfect balance, and then, under the pounding drumbeat of the hare’s leaping feet, the balance is tipped and the land explodes in a flurry of colour and vibrance!

Ritual ~ Bright green bursting foliage! Wild riots of violet and daffodil and crocus and primrose! Celebrate the thrumming expansive energy of Ostara by placing these joyous tidings on your altar. Bake bread and hot cross buns – the Celtic cross in their centre; place wishes of hope into eggs and decorate their shells with loving intent to offer to the Goddess. Run through lush meadows and valleys and hurl yourself into the wind, float in the sharp wisdom of the spring river, gather Ostara’s bright blessings all around you. Breathe in her glaring wisdom and slip into the bold lunar magic of the hare. For a second, draw your attention to your own dancing energy. Note how it bursts with readiness to embrace the sunlit earth. Let your wildness flow! Dance!

Reflect ~ Life, rebirth, death, immortality. The circle of life and the cycle of the year is immensely clear and powerful now. Meditate on how this festival contains all aspects of life, and how there is a stillness in spring where the energy hovers, ready to burst forth once the balance of light and dark shifts. Are you ready?

Ostara - Spring Equinox © George Parker 2021

The Essence of Beltane ~ Beltane heralds the height of spring, and the burgeoning of summer. The goddess is full of sensuality, the Earth bursting with energy and life. It is a celebration of the marriage of the Goddess and God, and as such, this is a festival of sexuality, passion and fire! Decorate your hearth and swathe yourself with bright beautiful colours in honour of the Great Wedding!

Ritual ~ Dance the Maypole, tread the path into the wild woods and walk under moonlit skies. Make love. Feel how the air is thick with potent magic. Kindle a Beltane fire and jump its flames to purify, bless, and cleanse. Ask that this bright fire nurture and nourish. Feed the fire within, see what passions the flames have stirred. Gather your intentions and funnel Beltane energy into them. With a gentle focusing of your inner magic, you can imbue your intentions into flowers, copper, talismans, ribbons and sprigs of greenery and lay them on your altar or offer them back to the wilds. Honour the Earth that is bursting with abundance around you!

Reflect ~ Beltane brings a peak of fiery energy that surges through the Earth. If you tap into it, you may find that dreams, wishes and intentions manifest. Sit quietly and notice how easily Beltane lets you conjure your own fierce magic. Allow it to unfurl and roar through your spirit. Envisage your root chakra as a circle of pure red magic around you, within which is the power of protection, strength and creation.

Beltane © George Parker 2021

The Essence of Litha - Summer Solstice ~ Midsummer brings us the longest day of the year, where the Sun seems to hang in the sky, weightless and languidly powerful. The Summer Solstice – from the Latin solstitium which translates as “Sun stands still” – is a time to honour the space between Earth and the heavens, and to celebrate the zenith of the Sun God, the fertile Earth, crop-filled fields now bursting with life and the brightness and warmth with which the land is blessed.

Ritual ~ Sing loud and dance wild for this is the peak of the Sun God’s power! Light bonfires on hilltops, bid goodnight to the setting Sun and stay up through the night with fire and stargazing, before welcoming the Sun’s rise at dawn. Cover your altar with the colours of the Sun! This festival brings strength to any love magic, including handfasting. Some traditions celebrated this festival by rolling a large flaming wheel downhill into a body of water, perhaps representing how within the peak of the Sun’s strength is also its impending waning. Wild swimming and bonfires offer a beautiful echo of these traditions.

Reflect ~ Within the climax of the Sun God’s power is the knowledge that, with this peak reached, we are now facing shortening days and are beginning to walk the path once more into the dark of the year. The Oak King hands his reign to the Holly King, and we begin our descent. Create a moment of quiet and meditate on the light and darkness in your own life.

Litha - Summer Solstice © George Parker 2021

The Essence of Lughnasadh - Lammas ~ Earth Mother is ripe and full, carrying within her the seed of the new year's Sun and next year’s harvest. At this time in the Wheel of the Year, we acknowledge harvest, death and rebirth together; active growth is slowing and the darker days of winter and reflection are beckoning... We have begun to tread the spiral path inward. Every fruit reaped contains the seed of new life. Every death holds the potential for new life.

Rituals ~ Bask in late afternoon sunshine and dance in warm summer nights. Adorn your altar with harvest blessings! Forage fruit from the hedgerows, and bake, stew and preserve, capturing the heady richness of summer in jars and bottles and bellies. Take a walk through the dying light of evening and soar through the summer sky on wings of crow, swift and kestrel. Bake seeded Lammas bread. Feast with those you love. Create a ritual to give thanks for the first harvest – gather those first fruits, berries, grains and stories and share them around a fire or sunset.

Reflect ~ Lughnasadh heralds the beginning of the harvest season! Sit and ponder how the seeds you planted at the beginning of the year have bloomed; how have your intentions grown? Give thanks for the abundance of blessings which you have manifested. Soon, there will be a quietening of energy. The Wheel begins to turn toward the silent lands. Celebrate all that is sunlight and fire, and know deeply within your bones that we stand in this midst of life and death.

Lughnasadh - Lammas © George Parker 2021

The Essence of Mabon – Autumn Equinox ~ Once more, on the cusp of change, we hang suspended, this time ready to begin the descent into the darker realms. As the Earth cloaks herself with autumnal fire, we too must embrace a final flare of colour before the land becomes quieter, colder.

Ritual ~ I left things draped like ornaments on fingers of gorse and soul-fire heather – in return, I gathered courage… It is time to prepare ourselves to follow the land into the quieter portion of the year – and, like the land with her audacious flare of colour, gather the abundance of the harvest to our hearths and tables and celebrate! Cornucopias! Feasts! Raise your face to the waning Sun and give thanks for all its warmth. Then close your eyes, feel the wind’s touch, bright with cold, bringing clarity and sharp wisdom. This autumn wind reminds you of the hidden path. This Mabon wind invites you to discard the unnecessary. Carve away excess. Allow yourself to prepare for the peaceful introspection of winter ahead.

Reflect ~ At Mabon, we reflect how the seeds we sowed at Ostara, Mabon’s counterpoint, have grown, and bring those we can to completion before autumn’s rest. We are preparing for a reflective period – a hibernation. This is the second harvest, so reap, gather and celebrate! Once you have swept the ash and debris from your hearth, consider what dormant seed it is that you will cherish quietly through the winter months, in readiness for spring planting.

Mabon - Autumn Equinox © George Parker 2021

The Essence of Samhain ~ Gather colours from the ground and trees and sky – soon there will be none, so lost will the world be in monochromes and frozen silhouettes. Tuck those colours in, fill your belly with sunlight. The harvests are complete. Samhain invites us to greet the dying of the light with acceptance and celebration. As we tread the spiral path further into the depths of our inner selves, we must be curious, open to what we find there, and resist shying away.

Samhain Rituals ~ Usher in the darker, quieter realms of the Wheel. Welcome the thinning of the veil. Connect with the spirit realm through meditation and oracle readings. Trust your night eyes, walk the woods at night. Dance around a bonfire, feast, honour ancestors. Draw your awareness inward and reflect on the stillness and peace found in the enveloping night. Rejoice in the darkness, pregnant itself with the promise of light.

Reflect ~ Shed summer skins. As autumn strips the trees bare, their branches left unburdened by fruit or leaves, so you must remove that which no longer serves you. Skin yourself to vulnerability, and from there see the true essence of yourself. Are you resisting this coming time, afraid of what you’ll find? If you lean gently into these hidden aspects of self, do you discover something different to what you expected? Cloak yourself in rich hues of magic and darkness. Sink your awareness into the quiet core of Crone energy and breathe into acceptance, wisdom, and the potential of dormant, buried seeds.

Samhain © George Parker 2021

The Essence of Yule - Winter Solstice ~ Midwinter. We have settled into the depth of the dark. At the Winter Solstice we now find ourselves hanging at the nadir of the year, waiting for life to unfurl once more. Yule brings us the longest night, and the darkness can feel impenetrable, endless, overpowering. But just as we begin to wonder if the light will ever return, the Sun halts its descent in the sky. Slowly, gently so that our eyes and our hearts may adjust, the Sun begins to rise and reclaim the sky.

Rituals ~ We have reached the peak of the darkest months and welcome the return of the Sun! Light candles and strew your home with the bright colours of holly berry and evergreen! Hang boughs of evergreen by windows and doors. In the darker months, ivy, holly, yew and mistletoe remind us of rebirth and resurrection, and protect hearth and home. Echoes of Saturnalia can be found in homes across the globe, with pines and firs brought into homes as a symbol of rebirth in the depths of winter. Warm the wood spirits and hang them offerings on a Yule Tree. Rejoice, share, celebrate!

Reflect ~ The Sun seems to hover, hung low in the sky as though it might never push back the darkness. We’re in the depths of the dark winter realms, waiting for the return of the light. Explore the dark. Trust your night eyes, and walk through the land of night knowing yourself, and knowing that the light is coming back.

Yule - Winter Solstice © George Parker 2021

As I walk, I try to tread so softly
nature thinks I am a part of it.
A heron amidst a bed of reeds
hides its head,
begging silently to be left to its own devices,
spotted only because mine is tucked away in a pocket.

I walk, noting which of the steep brambled banks
will be full of berries in a handful of months,
spilling plump reds and purples onto
the tufts of grass by the riverbank.

Coots pick their way through the borage and nettles,
their yellow-green legs lifted and raised
in awkward motion
and I want to say to them,
Yes, that is how I feel when I walk along the city streets.
Awkward. Missing an element.

As I near home, a tumble of spices drift
along the river with the wind,
reminding me to step softly,
and to tread some of my journey back into my city life.

Quiet Steps © A. G. Parker

This wind has come to sweep the tremblings of mountains,
the shudder of far-distant stars into my heart,
to bear the longings of peat and woodsmoke and valley air into my lungs.
This wind comes with the richness of the blood of the setting sun
as it sets fire to hidden pastures.

This wind has come to scatter the notes of a willow’s song into my hair,
to leave ocean spray clung to my skin, to blow the cracks in a cloud-
fettered sky into the caves of my eyes.

This wind has come with the roar of the desert,
to smooth my bones with the roughness of its tongue,
keeping them strong and honed and ready.

This wind has come to kindle fire in my heart,
salt the blood in my veins,
lace the tread of my step with the power of ancient ways
that are spun and bundled around the land and back into my body.
This wind has come
in the name of rewilding.

This Rewilding Wind © A G Parker 2020

You’d forgotten
the crisp chilled air
that sweeps over your skin
and rattles the leaves in the path through
the woods,
the oath you’d sworn
the autumn before
to be wild
and windswept and free.

The clear tread of light
that cuts from the horizon
sharpens your senses –
so dulled by summer’s hot breath –
brings that autumn wind which
whispers, Be wild,
be windswept,
be free.
You feel the tremors of the earth ask,
Can I take a little more
of that weight
for you?
That flesh looks mighty
heavy on your bones.

Autumnal Reclamation © A G Parker 2019

Echoes of autumns long past stir
the burnt umber secrets concealed within your bones and flesh.
Damp forest leaves under foot
release the scents of summer brewed,
of lingering light –
a magic you’ll keep wrapped inside
as autumn’s extravagance
spreads its wings
and envelops the land
in sacred
blazing
splendour.

The Reds and Golds of Earth Mother’s Cloak © A G Parker

I saw the steep mountain pass in the distance
and knew that summit
required me to discard unwanted things.
I would need more gravity

I left things that shone draped like wintry ornaments
on fingers of gorse and soul-fire heather
In return, I gathered courage amongst those sharp tongues and dirt-clad sinews

on the ground, I laid swathing fabrics and skinned myself to vulnerability.
When the dust cleared, my heart filled the dusk ahead with light

I spat embittered expectations and allowed tears of all that might have been to fall into twilight,
it licked at the wounds and spun me a peace-lined cloak to drench my fevered need and, sated, I left that behind too.

next I shook out my bones,
left them to splinter on the ground under following soles

those that built me were left as an offering by the roadside

when I reached the peak I saw all I’d released, strewn and consumed
by the elements
and earthfire
and all that remained of me yawned and swelled and hung itself out over the cosmos,
creating the universe
atom by atom.

Intuit © A G Parker

sit
be still.

the wind will whisper secrets
through rushing boughs,
roots will imbue murmured wisdom
humming soft thrums
through the soles of your feet.

if you wait, abide,
the earth will tremble sweet refrains
through veins of leaf,
and the husky truths of bark
will croon sweet against your spine.

sit
be still
this land has hidden
journeys to carve
into your skin

Inspiration © A G Parker

gold slips from the harvest sky
wends its way ‘round leaf and bough
skips with brushing lips across the waves
and burrows – shoots! – in leaps and bounds
from roots to grain
tripping its laughing path
skimming the earth,
making the whole land and mirroring waters
a sphere of butter-yellows
ambers
flames
and all the refractions of the sun
swept up and round again.

Everything We See Is Sunlight © A G Parker 2018

Shed summer skins and add them to the cobwebs
that cocoon your stone walls.
Let autumn leaves preside over thatching,
laying crimsons and golds against its cheek,
keeping the warmth in,
the cold out.

Gather colours from the ground and trees and sky
for soon there will be none,
so lost will the world be in monochromes and frozen silhouettes.

Tuck those colours in,
nestle amongst them,
fill your belly with sunlight,
for soon wild winds will roar and tumble
and churn it all,
and into their chaos
we can step from our door and bellow
thank you
and retreat once more.

Settle In © A G Parker 2018

let these be nights of howling moon
and silent hare

let sage-smoked skin slip
under night’s cloak of ink
and seek tongues tangled
flesh snared
in magic

let wild ones walk the land
and their bare feet crush
the oil
from autumn’s scattered spoils
and spill their scents
as offerings
in blustering night winds

let the quiet rage of inner hearths burn on
wrapped in bones
and autumn’s song

let there be gentle
restful
madness

let autumn’s lunacy dance on

Autumnal Rites © A G Parker 2018

the earth says,
offer me your last breath
I shall give you another

Offerings © A G Parker