For this year I had planned to be in Argentina at the Celtic Festival of Samhain, at the first of November and the start of the new year in the Celtic Wheel of the Year. No fires, pumpkins or labyrinths for me at this year’s Hallowe’en. I really wanted to celebrate my 'New Year' at “The Great Waters” (I-guazu) in the jungle to the north of this amazing country.
And so it came to be: deep within the subtropical evergreen forests of the Iguazu area of northern Argentina with the Full Moon shining high above the forest canopy I met the Spirit of the Waters. It was just after my birthday. Although Spring, it was quite warm like summer. I finally had my birthday celebrated in summer. It was a perfect place, a perfect time to invoke the spirit of the new; and the newness of life that lay expectant within me.
The traveller who returned home in November is a different person from the one who had left in early October. Travelling alone was for me not only an amazing outer journey but an enriching inner one too. For through it I learned to face some inner blocks, those barriers of fear, which often get in the way of me opening to love, for myself and for others. Through this experience I also learned more about this wonderful planet of ours and in doing so, deepened my connection with its beauty - and its soul.
Being far from home, totally immersed in this wonderful outer expression of nature, helped me to create a yet deeper bond with the Gaia consciousness of our planet, a consciousness that can touch us and connect with us so profoundly. Although it is only ‘natural’ that this connection can be made anywhere and at any time by anyone who chooses to lovingly open themselves up to it.
My special wish for you is that this new year brings you a greater love and appreciation of our beautiful planet, which is our fragile home and of all those life forms, both the visible and the invisible, who dwell upon it.
