“Intimacy is trusting that the Universe will provide what we need, when we need it and in the manner most appropriate to each one of us”
Gary Zukav & Linda Frances
Photo: Annie Sempill
It was a delight to hold space for, guide and walk alongside the small circle of pilgrims who made a contemplative Camino, walking the Camino as a spiritual path.
Some were returning pilgrims and others experienced their first Camino. For each of us, something was awakened. The fruit is yet to come.
Early in our Camino, the night before climbing Monte Irago we contemplated the
crossing of thresholds, acknowledging that as we approach, the fear is real!
Navigating muddy paths the following day we knew we had crossed – the threshold
keeps mud and water out of the house, and we were ankle deep in the stuff!
The threshold was also, in times of old, the birthing place. Leaning against the sturdy door frame for support, a woman would deliver her baby on the threshold, the only place in a house with dirt floors that could be scrubbed clean.
In each of your threshold moments, what is longing to be born?
Having climbed the peak, we wound our way down into the Bierzo valley, on a steep rocky path, edged with wild lavender, rock roses and white broom, through a torrential,
cleansing downpour.
Our arrival in the springtime garden of the Bierzo valley coincided with the solar eclipse that many of you experienced in it’s fullness across the USA.
I have recently heard that many experienced a cleansing, a purging almost, an emotional release at that new moon-eclipse. It was a time of letting go, when “baggage” fell away to clear the space for healing.
That was certainly true for me.
What was happening for you around the 8th April? Was there some emotional release or inner shift that began with that total eclipse?
As we approach the May new moon my thoughts turn again to baggage – this time much more practical and tangible.
I’ve arrived in Oviedo, capital city of the Asturias region of Northern Spain and popular starting place of the Camino Primitivo, the First Way.
My backpack is heavy, my fear is real!
Although I had considered walking the Primitivo, I was called to another path, the Camino Olvidado – The Forgotten Way. I feel drawn to a time of re-membering, or as David Whyte says a time to, “begin to welcome back all you sent away, [to] be a new annunciation….”
The upcoming new moon, according to astrologer Heather Ensworth, is a time to honour and align with the rising life-force energies of spring and to take time in nature,for reflection, introspection and integration.
And to set an intention for the month ahead.
Astrologers say that our intention is most effective when it is associated with the house area in which the new moon falls. This all gets quite complicated for those of us new to
astrology – so my suggestion is to go with your intuition! Those of us who are spiritually sensitive (if you’re reading this, then that’s you!) will have a sense of the area of your life that is calling for an intention.
The new moon falls at 18 degrees (and a few minutes)of Taurus.
For me, that’s in my 12th House. I’m still struggling to understand the 12th House! It’s described as the collective unconscious, the zeitgeist, the house of spirituality, withdrawal and contemplation. I’m not sure about the zeitgeist bit, but contemplation – that seems to correspond to my sense of being called to walk the Forgotten Way.
I travel again tomorrow, 7th May, by bus along the northern coast of Spain to Bilbao, and plan to begin walking on 8th May. I had not knowingly planned this to coincide with the new moon. Perhaps “being the river” comes more naturally than I thought!
The fullness of my backpack is a physical reminder that as I cross the Cantabrian Mountains, on remote and, I’m told, beautiful paths, it is an opportunity to relish the life-force energy of the spring.
And to re-member. To call back that which I have sent away.
It’s a time to care for body and soul, weave intellect with intuition, integrate work and leisure, pain and pleasure, and to allow that which has been conceived to slowly take form.
And, most importantly, it’s a time to acknowledge that the winter has passed, that flowers are appearing on the earth, that the time for singing has come! (Song of Solomon) I intend to continue to contemplate the nature of joy. As Amanda Gilbert says “Awakening to your own joy can be as simple as taking delight in a gorgeous blooming flower, hearing the sound of your beloved’s voice, or noticing the way your favourite song soothes your heart”.
I would love to bring you along on the journey.
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