Samhain New Moon

Earth Based Spirituality & Permaculture 

#ktshepherddoodles

The Pagan festival of Samhain, occurs at the end of October, and today is the Samhain New Moon. One of the of the eight festivals from the Wheel of the Year, it also marks the end of one year and the beginning of the next, in the Pagan calendar.
 
Like some other permaculture practitioners, I love to use the solar and lunar cycles and circles within this Earth based spirituality, as a grounding tool and guidance for my permaculture projects.

The core symbolism of the death of one year, followed by the birth of the next, offers a welcome opportunity to reflect on how the permaculture projects in my life have progressed over the last year.

Im spending time using the roses, thorns and buds reflection tool with each of my current projects, to help me re explore and focus on the functions of each different design. Possible aspects of each project that are no longer useful can also be stopped. Then I identify the “seeds”  of next steps to be taken in each project, plus seeds of other potential designs/projects.

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#ktshepherddoodles

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Connecting with patterns in nature at this time, I have designed a ‘pause’ time within each project over the next few weeks, as the time ahead darkens towards the shortest day of the Winter Solstice. In practical terms, for me, this means that I have dedicated a blank page in my journal for each project, and with an open mind will be recording any ideas, possibilities, knowledge and insight gained over the next few weeks.  Then, as the days start to gradually get longer again after the Solstice, and seeds begin to germinate, these pages can be used to help influence the next chapters in my permaculture work.
 
In addition, this year, I have decided to keep a dream diary throughout these weeks of inner reflection and contemplation too, which I am really looking forward to using as a new tool in my life!

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I've enjoyed and valued the following resources over this Samhain festival: -
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Starhawk  - Wheel of the Year - Samhain - online ritual
Starhawk - Dreaming The Dark - book 
Maddy Harland  - Celebrating Life and Death During The Festival of Samhain - Resurgance and Ecologist Magazine 
Glennie Kindred  - Sacred Earth Celebrations  - book
Earth Pathways - Website and Diary