We are promised a minute extra of light every day from now in… did you know? 

Inspired by the wonderful Karine Celestine, I imagine these Wee Light Bringers, felted creatures with woodland lanterns, holding their gifts high with flames that last just 60 seconds. Taking turns to come out in the dark and deliver their daily ritual, from Samhain onwards.

I recently attended an afternoon in the Bone Cave with the incredibly knowledgeable author, mythologist and Jungian psychologist Dr Sharon Blackie; in our regular community.
 
Using myth and folklore, we pick over the bones that are left from this last season and indeed this funny old year; reflecting on how entering the Cave and being in (and with) The Dark can help us see more clearly.
 
I have made my peace with dark times – with help from her... and have even learned to welcome them... a particularly useful orientation to have at times. 
 
In ye olden times, Caves were seen as dark, subterranean routes to an Otherworld, devoid of sensory input and necessitating the sacrifice of upper world trappings. And as a reward for spending time there, in difficulty and challenge, we may access the wisdom of The Ancestors or Delphian Oracles; and guidance to further our personal growth. If we can stay with it for long enough, insight is gained and imaginings of new ways begin.
 
Liminal times always feel inspirational to me. That suspension of forwards and backwards. That pause and time to think, the balance between light and dark. And with this Time between Stories comes shifting thoughts and shedding of old skins. The darkness that has been both metaphorical and literal this year, has given us time to slow; and may yet work its magic upon us all.
 
Emergence follows. I wonder what that will look like.
 
I haven’t been able to spend as much time as I would like in myths and folklore this last year, as my training schedule takes its priority and I fulfil a promise to myself. But am holding the seeds of some new projects with a soft hand.
 
For now, welcoming these Wee Light Bringers - my felted friends – and waiting for the magic to happen.
 
Let me leave you with a beautiful song for Winter, from the second album of Spell Songs II: Let The Light In… to sing us into our emergence …. eventually. Take a moment, switch off all the lights and rest in the melody of dark wisdoms – I will meet you there.

Happy Christmas to those who celebrate it and with my best wishes for 2022,

Kirsty 

Improve with... Kirsty Hall
Restorative Movement Teacher
www.improvewith.com
 

I cannot tell you
how the light comes.
What I know
is that it is more ancient
than imagining.
That it travels
across an astounding expanse
to reach us.
That it loves
searching out
what is hidden
what is lost
what is forgotten
or in peril
or in pain.
That it has a fondness
for the body
for finding its way
toward flesh
for tracing the edges
of form
for shining forth
through the eye,
the hand,
the heart.
I cannot tell you
how the light comes,
but that it does.
That it will.
That it works its way
into the deepest dark
that enfolds you,
though it may seem
long ages in coming
or arrive in a shape
you did not foresee.
And so
may we this day
turn ourselves toward it.
May we lift our faces
to let it find us.
May we bend our bodies
to follow the arc it makes.
May we open
and open more
and open still
to the blessed light
that comes.

~ by Jan Richardson