spirituality – Penny Reilly Artist Beyond the Gate

Weaving a future…

Everything is in flux… not only the shift of seasonal change, but the whole vibratory force of a changing world. Consciousness reveals, everything we think about or imagine becomes real somewhere so, therefore, we can balance how we see the world and how it affects us, even indirectly and not let destructive forces rule.

Allowing consciousness to shift elegantly takes more than just prayers and dreams. Action is needed and, with us knowing who we are, implementation despite challenges from others, who may be uncomfortable, because change is confronting on any level for many.

If we are uncomfortable in emptiness… filling it with anxiety or restlessness, we will naturally refill the space with the same content… so rather sit in the empty until, by choice, embracing the magick of change, we renew the space with our deepest needs for wellbeing.

‌Nature doesn’t stop… she breathes in and out in cycles and seasons… we take her in with every inhale and release her again, taking into our body all it needs before letting it go. This can be applied to life in so many ways. When we are filled with anxiety, we forget to breath and so our bodies are depleted. Sitting in nature we can refill and reenergise ourselves on every level… it’s not just food we need to fuel us. Becoming familiar with all our senses is a way to remember what keeps us moving forward… what fuels us and what depletes us…

Senses stir

Ruffled fur

A bird floats

on a thermal

it cannot see

but feels

lifting its wings

A breath of air

A scent on the wind

A salty tang

An ozone explosion

Changing leaves

A changing song

A sultry breeze

Ripples on a dam

A falling feather

Forgotten bones

A place where

one feels the need

for silence

A chill on the skin

Ancestral walks

with kin

Trees whisper

in words

no longer understood

in the

forgotten language

found

in the dappled light

in the sacred wood

in the dreaming pool

of life itself

Wellbeing is something we have greatly misunderstood, I feel… thinking through things instead of feeling through things or a better yet, a balance of both. We cannot think straight if our adrenals are on overload… it’s our fight or fight mode that can leave us exhausted if not addressed with appropriate rest.

We clear so much that clogs our system through breath. Nothing fancy, just deep belly breathes and when we do this in nature our brain/mind/body all respond, to give us the sense of letting go, even when we’re unaware what we’re letting go of or even that we were hanging on at all.

Peace comes when we let go, when we stop questioning every little detail because when we don’t we lose momentum and miss tiny encrypted messages sent from the universe…

Humans have a constant need for answers that they can never truly find solutions to. If we were meant to know we would but, this said, perhaps being less reliant on what the internet tells us might be the place to begin; turning inward instead, to what our brain/mind/body is telling us all along… instinctively, intuitively and without embellishments.

Does a tree, mourn its leaves when first they change colour and fall; do they feel relieved of weight shed from the bough or do they just allow the ebb and flow of life?

There are moments in a day when things become translucent… when light falls specifically on one blade of grass, a water droplet, a bee’s wing, ripples on a pond, a fragile leaf… the world slows down, stills and the electronic white noise falls away… this makes simple sense. Do we need to know more or just be overawed by the fact that we are here to witness it all. Then, all that’s left is the ebb and flow of life… a heart beat song.

Live life

like the birds

Sing awkwardly

out of tune

raucously

dishevelled notes

feathered warbles

trilling dips and

soaring heights

deep multi-tones

wing-drummed drones

hooting cries

taloned moans and sighs

squawk your sound bites

screaming for human rights

with no sense of time

yell an orchestra

to the indecipherable sublime

entice the gentler gods

into the rhyme

of your heartbeat’s

outraged symphony

Walk softly… let things flow, toward and away… Awen /|\

Penny 💚🌳💚

Animism, Anima Mundi, Genius Loci and the World Soul…

Boo and Boody-bird are a fixture… they fight over food but otherwise spend their days hunting and calling to each other from the trees around the house… two misfits in a world of perfection-seeking beauty. Most of the flock that came through have moved on to harvest the bugs waking from winter slumbers but my two crazy opportunists have opted to stay, for now at least.

Boo keeps me company as I sit in the first sunshine with any real warmth, to dream of what I’ll be planting or have planted for spring. She seems content, a funny wee thing with her overly long and unnaturally twisted tail, while Boody-bird keeps a little distance unless I have a bug for each of them… then the squawking and squabbling begins.

I take a little time to think about the books and how to bring everything together… if I put it all down there’d be a thousand pages, so really, although the next novel has made progress, Wild Spirits Whisper is not quite manifesting yet.

I don’t want it to be a ramble of words… I want it to be just enough in art, photography, poetry and information to tempt a person to want a little more of my meanderings. Perhaps, how to make ink from plants, how to print with leaves or flowers, how to plan a sustainable lifestyle and garden without becoming exhausted in this crazy, in a hurry, world. Add favourite recipes to create from home grown produce; simple methods that don’t take as much out of a person to create. A self-sufficient lifestyle can be exhausting if allowed to run away with one… after all, it’s supposed to be a slower paced life, not one of worry and stress… and then behind it all is the philosophy of why…

Nature gives us seasons of plenty and of lack, but there’s always been enough to take us through a tricky season and naturally, we can’t grow grains or rice so we still have to invest back into a struggling system and there’s always tools etc., needed to run a productive farm and a productive farm brings people together and creates a community of like minds.

We keep items for standby… flour, salt, rice, a little sugar etc… and there’s eggs, root vegetables, berries or wild greens most of the year round. So my book IS about this natural lifestyle, but more simply, about re-finding, perhaps redefining and exploring the connection to our natural environment that so many have lost in believing we are separate from the rest of nature.

Anima Mundi is the lovely concept of a World Soul, a unifying principle that gives life and consciousness to the universe. Animism is the belief that spirits or souls inhabit all things, not just humans, and that these spirits can influence the world. This philosophical concept, found in various spiritual traditions, proposes a universal soul or life force that animates the cosmos, suggesting that Earth and her components are not merely physical entities, but are infused with a spiritual essence. So much of this is mirrored today in quantum physics and cosmology in terms of us and everything being made of the same stuff of the stars, planet and indeed, the cosmos from which everything originated.

This worldview of Animism, emphasises that spirit or soul inhabit, not just humans and animals, but also plants, rocks, and geographical features… i.e. Genius Loci. It sees the spiritual and physical worlds as intertwined, with all entities possessing agency and consciousness… in fact, all is one and so many have sadly been conned into believing we are not just separate but quasi, ‘better than’ anything else in the universe. This is our downfall as we watch the planetary system and wild nature that sustains us, become slowly untenable.

Modern Druidry, drawing from ancient Celtic practices, is inherently animistic. Druids see the natural world as a sacred entity, respecting its various elements and spirits. Druidic Practices often involve connecting with the spirits of nature, honouring seasonal changes, and recognising the sacredness of specific places and beings. This can include practices like tree planting, creating sacred groves, storytelling and poetry. Here in Australia, our own First Nation people, had such reverence for the land.

Still today, we Druids use the term “Awen” to describe the life force that animates all things and the creative flow that stems from it. This concept reflects the belief that all beings are interconnected and share a common spiritual essence.

Animism, Genius Loci (Spirit of Place) and the concept of Anima Mundi provide a framework for understanding the spiritual interconnectedness of all things, which is deeply embraced by Druidic practices. We embrace the annual cycle by marking the seasons and lunar months. Instead of blocking out the night which balances the day; our days begin at dusk and darkness is celebrated equally to light.

I could write about fears and anxiety for the state of the world but honestly, I think removing myself and speaking of things I love, speaking of quiet change that starts within a person is more profound.

Why does this all matter… I hear so many say, it’s too late, so let’s just continue the hedonistic journey to our own destruction…. but let me just say…

We need spiritually connected people with practical skills.

Healers who can empathise with people whether they’ve personally experienced a similar journey or not. Creative muses who know how to stack wood, plant trees, cook and scrub pots with equal enthusiasm.

We need teachers who show children the forest ways, how to tend a garden and share the bounty. To teach them to remember wild childlike being-ness over cyber rivalry and bullying.

Political and spiritual leaders who listen to bees, hear what the waters have to tell and the language of trees.

We don’t need the escapism of so called spiritually enlightened people who believe they are readying themselves for the ‘ascension of the special people,’ who would rather leave the world than face the challenges of reconnection to nature. We need a more authentic, down to earth embodiment of this existence… more grounded, rootedness. More thankful, appreciative ritual connections, that touch the Earth before wanting to escape to their concept of heaven.

If we walk together to the places where our souls can find rest, natural power is quiet, and sacred… not needing show off rituals that scream ‘Look at me.”

When the world unravels, we need weavers of energy and substance to reweave the threads… for what if this is all their is for us to experience in this, our current form on our planet?

We need community above escapism… we’re all in this together…

I will not apologise for being human

my place is here on earth

I will not apologise

for my rage or joy

…my dark and light

this place called home is falling into night

Constantly, I witness

those who believe they will ascend

…who focus on flight

on being other than earthly

…for me, their ignorance is a blight

We need those who walk the land

grow food and commit to life

We need those, who with tools in hand

…lend help to build a peaceful way

free from the state of strife

We are all one

A part of the infinite

We are all whole

only we have defined

even denied it

Dissatisfied with self

we seek to criticise another

forgetting we are all, simply

sister and brother

Walk softly… reconnect… Awen /|\

Penny

On the move towards Solstice…

Winter arrived with a boom… days of autumn sunshine and colour, turned white by instant frost… brrrr, -3°.

Still… winter brings introspection as solstice approaches. We burrow deep into the cold… dark days, somehow bring hope. We know, subtle underground movement is already afoot… green shoots silently unfurl to break through the icy crust. When I close my eyes, I imagine them slumbering, waiting and with animism, perhaps anticipating, how the light will feel on their green flesh… sunlight, pulling on them, tugging them to reach up to the light from the darkness beneath.

Sow the seeds
Weave the web in time
Weave
sow
Grow
in wisdom
in knowledge
of the
life stream
and the
soul spark
of
intelligence
…breathe
All one
Awen

I love to connect in this way to the earth and all things, by knowing I am a part of it all, as it is all a part of me… all of me, contributing to the wheel of life.

Life is a moment and in that moment, all moments exist. Life can appear fleeting or be forever in full consciousness. There is no separation between who we once were in the scheme of things, are now or will be “one day”, for all is a continuum.

Complex thoughts, and yet not, unless one thinks in straight lines, past, present, future rather than in circles, and cycles of ascension and descension… expansion and contraction, filling up and emptying out.

There again, perhaps our very challenge is overthinking. Does nature think, “I’m a daisy; I wanted to be a rose.” Does an amber-coloured leaf in autumn, wish to be green?

As children, we fight to maintain our identity until parental expectation, educational institutions and peer pressure, forces competition, whittling away at our personality, character and psyche until we’re swamped, drowning, in other’s expectations of how they perceive we should be. We’re moulded by circumstance.

This is the pivotal moment, when we can realise, we are in fact, our inner parent or teacher, continuing to hear and be instructed by the echo of their physical counterparts instead of learning to simply be ourselves.

The thing is… nature doesn’t judge how we behave, how we express ourselves or criticise who we intrinsically are, with or without societies trappings… just as a daisy doesn’t wish to be a rose.

Letting go of guilt-induced reactions to how others respond to our internal change, can be like running a marathon… but when does the adult self, stop apologising for who they are, despite the constant inner and outer critique.

Nature doesn’t judge the leaves falling, to strip branches bare, or new leaves budding on near-naked limbs.

Life in all its ages and stages is a precious gift so why waste it, desiring to be something we were not designed to be? Isn’t this a unique wonder in itself?

Observing nature, we see there are few straight lines, except those we create. Nothing is linear. Droplets of water constantly change shape to adapt and are a part of a greater body be it a droplet, an ocean or small pond. If we understand everything is energy in constant motion, where there is a void space, something always rushes to fill it and there is no judgment in the process. Unless we ourselves, judge that filling as good or bad and this, dependent on where our thoughts are leading us.

If we can reconnect to nature’s cycles, movements, brief pauses, breath held and let go… a beating heart, a pulse within myriad pulses, we simply become. Every cell becomes luminous with cell-wisdom-memory of everything experienced, and in the remembering, remembers its source.

When we become aware, strength lies in the allowance of emptiness and in not filling empty spaces. In this knowing, we can choose substance to fill the void, and in fact always do, even by not choosing. Waiting, empty, gives us clarity to know what we truly desire. I speak not of “having” for the sake of it …because it’s the most recent fad or gadget, but more the awareness, “being in emptiness” can bring. It has its own taste, smell, sound, sensation and there is nothing to fear there, except the proverbial fear itself.

My waking and sleeping moments, fill with the rhythm and scent of nature’s cycles rather than the tick-tock of the business world. Although that said, I run my own studio… one has to live, but the key is to find the ultimate balance between the perceived mundane and the “spiritual life” …and there we have it – everything is spirit/energy, and therefore, spiritual… sacred.

Hollowing out
emptying
Seeking the purpose of life,
in simply being
Giving up
the fight for more,
allows unhindered flow

Living… simply being
with no place
left to go
Past
present
future
merges
the well of life
upsurges

The wheel spins
on and round
All places,
all seasons
begin and end
…on sacred ground.

The ocean tides, whittle away at the shoreline as we wear away our lives, often in needless struggles for understanding.

All energy is in motion constantly, in waves and pulses, just as our body is in flow and flux, cyclical birth to death, with each waxing and waning moon. We are ultimately 78% fluid. Our body is at the mercy of those internal and exterior tides unless we can be observant, present in awareness as those tides turn. Thus, we can see ourselves not as helpless puppets, but empowered by those very tides, toward the shores of creative consciousness by our own choices.

Our natural state
of being
is magick
Moving between
full, exhilarant joy
and oft, comedy tragic
Spaces between
filled with
liquid notes sublime
in cycles spinning
adhering to the rhyme
Diaphonous, silken threads
on the loom of time
fading in and out
annual, biannual, diurnal
We are but a blip
in life eternal

Walk softly… make wise choices… Awen /|\

Penny

You can now find me at my website http://pennyreillyauthor.com for direct book purchases.

Writing for the muse of seasons… A Wild Spirit…

Autumn for me is the season of the muse… she arrives in the rustle of dry leaves underfoot and the soft earthy scents of moss and mud.

I decided to begin the first chapter of A Wild Spirit (now that the the layout and ideas are more firmly strung together (rather than rattling around like wooden beads on a thread), with the season of autumn as she wanders through my psyche, trailing long sleeves of frost and dew, through the icy portal towards winter.

She’s such a delicate entity, made of pure reason and yet prone to throw off the season’s delicately coloured skeins and stride along in white and silver, moon-struck lace, just to catch one unawares… sprinting ahead with random ideas, thoughts and dreams of a final completion to another year and the beginning of another book… my tenth.

Yet, in this season of withdrawal, when leaves fall, let loose by the retreat of sap and energy, we too may go within and seek out the next phase of our being. Just as I attempt to do same… there she is, entering my dreams with odd sounds and symbols. Clattering around like a cook in a kitchen who can’t find the right implements to create a feast, all in my sleeping psyche.

At first she leaves only remnants for story, prose, art or poetry but then in she comes with the rubber mallet, leaving larger deposits of data for my battered brain to work through and it’s precisely at this moment it’s time to retreat to the studio… no matter the given hour, to write or paint until she leaves me to my slumbers…

As this inner dialogue progresses, amounts of information are downloaded in huge juicy bites (sometimes, sound-bites) then it’s left to me to conjure it into some sort of order, understandable for mortal ingestion.

When spirit speaks
in muffled tones
and autumn drifts
into wintry zones
you can feel the calling
in your very bones
…speaking the rhythm of nature

When mind clouds gather
and winter winds roar
the muse enters
through a forgotten door
taking your mind to leap and soar
…singing the rhythm of nature

When the mind is free
to wandering
allowing the time
for pondering
a landscape appears
beyond all mortal fears
…whispering the rhythm of nature

…and so the journey of creation begins as I dive into wintry solitude with my whispering muse.

Walk softly… listen to the season’s muse… Awen /|\