And, well, I’m in a documentary!!! For a couple of bits only, mind

Diary of a Sorceress follows the journey of a lady who goes on a pilgrimage, finds a community and is healed by magic. A true story.

Little of this information was new to me and I still found it fascinating and very well worth watching. You can watch the trailer and then choose to download or stream it by clicking on the image below. I may be biased but I truly do think this is a wonderful film and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Click through for a beautiful evocative expression of the essence of neo-pagan witchcraft by a good friend of mine! (I don’t look this serious the whole time either!)

I love the way it flows, the imagery and how it clearly expresses the essence and mythological history of a path very dear to my heart. If this is a part of your life, a part of the life of someone you love or something you’ve been even a little interested in ever… go watch it

(PS: This is an affiliate link and I am in it, AND every word I say above is truly my opinion )

Click to sign-up to my list to receive the Mini-workbook…

Hello Folk!

You might have seen my recent post inspired by Creating With Care in which I talk about the reasons why creative folk would be best off respecting nature when we work. It can be tricky to work out how we are to do that however, so I’ve crafted a mini-workbook to help, which I offer here for your enjoyment

All you need to do is click the image in this post and you’ll be guided through a process which signs you up to my newsletter and delivers the link for you to download the mini-workbook all ready for you to print in colour or black and white, complete with tips and instructions to help you get the most out of it!

I’m excited to be able to offer this mini-book and I’d love to hear what you think

In Delight,,

~Halo x

It was about looking at our art-making practices and challenging ourselves to clean up our acts… our creativity is often inspired by the natural world, our lives depend upon it and our very materials come from the earth. Without  big ol’ Mother Nature we creative folk (and that’s all of us) would be in very dire straits indeed!

I wandered into the party a little late (as usual!) and was just in time to send in some afterthoughts on why exactly we should strive to be aware of what we do – especially when we’re being creative – which Yaga kindly published… and I was inspired to put together a mini-workbook on the topic too. Sign up to my newsletter to get it when it appears!

My thoughts on the topic ran like this…

Our world is built on technology which has grown through a belief that the world is here for us to use as we wish. This belief has lead to clear-cutting of forests, polluted skies, oceans of plastic, extinction and genocide. As folk who are inspired by nature, who are connected to the most fundamental and natural human instinct after survival – creation – we can see how clearly this disconnection has cost us and we can show the world. We are capable of inspiring others to care for and protect and respect the world around us. This respect is what might, ultimately, save us and the land we live on.

If we are to do this, however, don’t we need to do our best to take this respect into the very practices that we love so much?

Read the rest over at Shiny Bubbles!

Through the studio inspiration flows as a river from faery. Painting – my prayer, my ritual, my magic – brings me to the power in the land.

I’ve been painting more now, when I have to travel to my studio, than I ever expected. Having a dedicated space encourages me to set aside time for painting and encourages focus. I’ve got at least five paintings in progress now, including ones I’ve not worked on for almost a year which are suddenly talking to me again!

The more I paint the more truth I find in the thought that painting is prayer and prayer is conversation with the divine. I’m finding my magic leading me deeper into art and further into working with the magic of the land I live upon and the people I am descended from. The stories of Y Mabinogi resonate in this landscape and the Norse tales echo in my bones. I find myself painting Blodeuwedd and Freya side by side.

My own work with the Faeries is still central to all that I do and it is becoming clear that my path is taking me deeper into exploring the magic of this land. As I open to listening, the responses come back clearer and clearer…

I find myself stepping back magically from other traditions (though they still inform my practice) and deepening the connections within my heart, working directly with the spirits and gods who are walking with me. Its an exciting time and I do not know quite where this path is heading but I know it is enchanted!

It is wonderful, the magic that occurs when you make space for it.

How are you making space for the things you love? And what path opens up to you when you do so?

A prayer as a conversation with the divine… sometimes one-sided, sometimes where understanding flows thick and tangible between those present.

Once released into the world it becomes an invocation… invoking into those that view it the feelings found by the artist in dialogue with the divine.

A blessing or a curse.

Through what do you pray?

And what do you invoke into the world?

A month ago I posted about my longing for room to paint… since then I have cleared a corner in my living room where I can prop a large canvas and give my wings space to stretch and it worked! I made space and the expanses of colour I’ve been dreaming of became possible!

A work in progress filling the space…

Suddenly it felt easier to breathe into my art-making, to relax into it without a sense of constricting and confining what I make. Working on a small scale became easier too. I created the final three cards for the Faery oracle deck I’ve been working on directly onto the cards as I travelled.

Tiny pictures completing the set...

And then, this Full Moon, I had an unexpected phonecall.

An offer of a space in a shared studio, in the centre of the town I work in!

A collective of artists, a light, airy space, a new project with room to grow…

How could I say no to the perfect opportunity?!

I am so excited to see where this leads next…

As I learn again and again; when I say yes to what I truly want, it comes to me.

What do you need to say yes to today?

Can I spread my wings and allow myself to be bigger than I am already? Can I keep growing and exploring and playing? Can I afford to keep playing small? Can you?

Something in this post by Pixie has cracked my heart.

I gazed at the images of her filling her new space, of her Pandora’s box and giant thirsty canvasses, and my breath caught in my throat.

I’ve long longed to spread colour on larger canvasses, to have a bright space full of sunshine and shelves and drawers and places to put my paints within easy reach… I’ve long kept my artworks small because my living space seemed to require it.

But what if that isn’t so?

What if that cannot be so?

What if I can spread out and create the space I need in this wonderful home of ours?

What if I only think I cannot spread my wings out as far as I wish to?

What if my thinking small, my playing small, is the only thing keeping me that way?

Maybe I’ll try a bigger canvas and decide it isn’t for me… but I have everything to lose by never trying… and much to gain if I do.

Time to stop waiting for the right time.

Open, Breathe, Remember.

I breathe in deeply of the salty air, the cries of gulls fill my ears and I begin to walk.

Do I look hard, I wonder, or try to just relax and let reality wash through me? Taking my cue from the ocean I choose the latter.

Maybe five steps I have taken before I see, standing in the sand and calling to me, a staff of driftwood. The perfect height for me.

Sometimes what you need will come to you.

Heres something I wrote for New Years, a resolution if you like, for which an idea has begun percolating as to how to make it true:

I call myself enchantress-in-training. I am a Devotee of Delight.

I believe in the power of beauty, wonder and joy to heal the world.

I believe that feeding ourselves with delight fills our own cup to overflowing so we can give back to others, so we can heal the world.

I believe in the power of Love – as cliched as it sounds.

I have spent a few years musing on the idea, wandering round it, writing about it. This is why I wrote my Feyhearted books, especially Pixie Kisses.

This year I will find a way to act on this belief in ways that feel concrete.

This is the year that I move from belief to creating change.

Faith is no good without manifestation.

I resolve to manifest enchantment, to manifest more delight in the world, to bring healing through beauty and wonder and magic to those whose lives I touch… wherever I can.

I do not know how this is so, only that it is.

May beauty kiss your life, may magic grace your heart, may delight fill your days, and may you and your world be healed through each moment of bliss that pixie-kisses you.

Light shines from the depths

For so long I ran from water – fearing the depths of the ocean which engulfs, the river which sweeps away, the floods which drown. I knew its power, this water, I turned from it not because I thought it held no power but because I feared it because I knew its power.

Now I come to learn that I hold an Ocean within me. How can you hold an ocean within you and not break?

Trying to keep it contained lead to cracks through which it seeped.

I tried to build a relationship with Water outside of myself. This did not work. What I’ve come to realise is that what I ran from was what I carried within me. You cannot run from what you hold inside.

I feared that it would break me. If I had not begun the process of accepting it… it would have done.

Slowly I feel my way through holding an ocean within my self. Slowly, like the turning of the tides, I come to find the depths within my core, the power and the freedom there. Simply acknowledging that Water is so much a part of Me relaxed something clenched so tightly. Relaxing into my own nature, a source of perhaps my greatest power, allows me to hold it without breaking.

I will not be washed away as long as I remember that I AM the Water.

I have run from the things that hold power for me so often.

What do you run from? Which of those things hold power for you?