It’s been quite some time since I have been able to sit down and write about the happenings throughout winter. In between mothering dragons and the Yuletide, it’s always a long period of introspection, quiet and journeying, interspersed with meeting friends and family to catch up.
Even though I am not a fan of the cold I have been keeping up the practice of drumming outside up at Castlerigg on the New Moons and I’m looking fwd to Equinox Celebrations which I will do again up there, the same as I did last year.
This particular post is a sensitive one. It begins on Christmas Eve when a friend of mine contacted me to say that mutual friend had passed away. She had been ill for sometime and couldn’t go on any more and had taken her own life. She had asked our mutual friend to let me know. The message came through on my phone at the same time as my mum was having a night terror about a dark entity trying to steal her away. I spent a couple of hours up at Castlerigg later that day performing a ceremony for my friend who had passed. I met some lovely people up there who were visiting and they were asking what I was doing. I explained that I was holding ceremony for my friend who had passed. They were so kind to offer words and blessings on her behalf, I was overwhelmed with so many emotions and moved by the whole experience. Death is the great anesthetiser to pain and suffering. Choosing to go there willingly can be for many reasons and these people should never be condemned for their choice. Yes it is sad for those left behind , but if it’s their time, it’s THEIR time.
After I had performed the Ceremony and the circle had temporarily emptied, I closed my eyes while standing in the Sanctuary space and felt every single hair stand on end as someone stepped in front of me. Not physically but a form that I could see with my eyes closed, radiating a purplish light. When I have been up here on a couple of occasions drumming with friends, one of them picked up a presence that was drawn to me, and she had described what she saw. Since then I have felt this presence with me on numerous occasions, especially when I am performing ceremonies.
Fast forward to last week and I just learned that the only son of my friend had also passed, in the same way as his mum, and as I was transcribing dreams from my phone to my dream journal there was one in particular that made me stop in my tracks. I had dreamed of my friends son, surrounded by boxes, as if he was in the process of moving, and he had taken lots of pharmaceutical drugs and couldn’t talk properly. I had been talking to him via messenger not long before that discussing scattering his mums ashes and I had agreed to take some up to Castlerigg for this purpose. This dream had taken place on the 6th of Feb. Had he been trying to let me know also, that he was leaving this plane?
I am not affiliated to any particular belief system when it comes to Death, other than it being a change and transition from one way of being to another, and that it is not the end of the consciousness of the individual who is crossing the abyss into the unknown.
The same day that I found out about the second passing, I had been watching a video of the Lascaux Caves in France and had stopped the video as the camera went past a set of Roman numerals on the wall, the number 13 in the middle of all these incredible paintings of animals that flow along the insides of the cave walls from prehistoric times. These caves have been closed for a long time, to protect the art from mould and deterioration caused by breathing in the caves, and you can only see the art on the pictures and videos that are shown on the museum website. The fact that there was this particular symbol in the cave, which to me is associated with the Death card – and is 13th Card of the Tarot, blew me away because there was allegedly no writing in Prehistoric times… how could there be this symbol in the middle of all these cave paintings? In the same black medium that was used on the paintings.
All these synchronicities have been taking place as we are emerging from the darkness of winter. Cave Sanctuaries and their purpose and meaning have become a huge research interest for me, and the links between the primal instincts to retreat into darkness for changes in consciousness, development and initiation. I think perhaps there are new stories here, just waiting to unfold and emerge from these sacred places as we enter into the awakening of Spring time. The emergence of our selves after the Pan-demic has some huge connotations and I think we are in for one hell of a ride over the next six months!
I have since had other dreams and synchronicity concerning the figure that stepped forward after my ceremony. But that is a tale for another day!
Jade Melany
1/3/2022