A Mandala for January

On Saturday night Lucy and I drove to Holly's house for a Mandala and Moonlodge. We don't do it very often, but it is always right when we do. See the three previous Mandala's we have made here, here and here.

I had suggested we cut up magazines, a bit like the decoupage activity we did last Samhain (see here). And given that Paul and I are fanatical about cycling and triathlon.. We have A LOT of magazines floating around! Perfect!

The key to a successful Mandala is brain food... ahem..! Doesn't hurt though, right!

Then take two of your friends, and distract them.. (Lucy, take heart! I am publishing a photo of you where you aren't hot and sweaty!! Ha ha x x)

 With the shenanigans of a rather cute kitten, called Pebbles..

Then once everyone is suitably comfortable, begin your Mandala:

Given that we were cutting up magazines and gluing them to a circular surface (paper) the premise of the Mandala was rather lost, but its surely all in the making, so lets over look that!

The task we set was to create something feminine out of a few rather masculine cycling and tri magazines..

I could waffle on about my portion, talking about the feminine in cycling, enjoying being one of the few female riders at predominantly male sportives.. But the truth is I really struggled!! I could not relax into the activity and I looked through magazine after magazine without inspiration and I was feeling more pressured as Lucy and Holly created their designs out of the same magazines with relative ease. So in the end I stuck with what I felt comfortable with. Cycling!

And actually it does fit. So the other two stuck to the brief and created something feminine out of the predominantly masculine magazines, but still my portion fits in.  I feel like there is a hidden lesson there.. something glaring at me.. I like to cycle.. I like to be feminine.. It also seems to suggest that I can't think about anything but cycling at the moment, even when withdrawing from events.. Inspiring (in the end!) as ever!

Thank you for hosting Holls x x

Moonlodge and Mandala for August

I have had two gorgeous evenings celebrating womanhood, myself and our connections.  I spend all of my time being a mother, a wife or a would be athlete, and sometimes its just fabulous to be me and celebrate life.
Thursday night was the womb blessing and my last intro to yoga at The Sanctuary.  I struggled to find my feet at the sanctuary at first, they are a world away from my world, but rather at the last I found that actually their way is pretty amazing. 
Then on Friday night Lucy and I went to Holly's, for our full moonlodge and Mandala evening.  We took some inspiration from the womb blessing, and together with an amazing curry curtesy of Holly, we had a meaning evening.

This one has an Aztec feel to it.  I think the metal plate and skull beads lend themselves to a Mayan theme or similar, don't you think?  We noted during the making of it, that the other two were 'natural' ie food and then flowers, so it was ok for the colours to be hap hazard, but this was beads and therefore needed some thought - although I couldn't tell you why!!

And in other news, I cycled my furthest distance on my own last Friday.  31 miles up Portsdown hill.  I actually hated every moment of the way back, it was wet and windy and the tonne lorries were hurtling past little old me, and I had a little cry when I got in (you know me!) but I did it and I am aware of the achievement!!  Together with some great cycling I have been doing with my amazing Dad of late, I seem to have worked up the courage to put my money where my mouth is..  I'm going for a taster cycle with Fareham Wheelers tomorrow morning.  I AM TERRIFIED!  Will I spot them ok to meet up?  Will I have everything I need?  Will I be able to keep up?  Will I be able to do the distance?  Will there be any women?  What on earth will we talk about....?  I have to keep thinking of the first time I did a spin class, the first time I ran 5k..  All these firsts.  I am not the same person I was at the beginning of year.  I can do this.  I bloody can and I will, of course, report back.  Think of me!!

A-mused Mandala

Come and join us at Tangled Muse and have a go at making a Mandala..  You know we love our Mandala's!!  Should be a great morning, I'm really excited!!

Mandala for July

I feel like I have a lot to reflect on and be grateful for right now, and an evening moonlodge making a mandala was just what I needed.  Lucy brought the ingredients this time, a beautiful cherry tree stump and herb cuttings from her garden.

 I love that Holly started in the middle (her third is pictured top here, with the 'starburst'), she moved away from linear design - I shall attempt to remember this next time!

 I was lucky to be hosting and get to have the mandala rest in my sacred space.  The view from the house was just gorgeous and I felt very privileged last night.

Even this morning, my Day of the Dead skull (This is what I have dubbed it anyway!) still looked impressive.  Of the two we have made so far, this is my favourite.  I love that I intentionally drew a skull on the last one, and this one just accidentally ended up looking like one!

Moonlodges and Mandalas

I blogged a few posts ago about a Sacred Woman workshop offered by the yoga sanctuary and I'm not sure if I mentioned anything about it afterwards?  The workshop itself was great, the afternoon was lovely, if not really what I was expecting.  I decided that I probably wouldn't get much out of the ongoing course, but that I would really like to explore yoga some more (Yoga starts next Thursday and I can't wait!). 

Lucy and I came away from the afternoon full of inspiration and with Holly, we got together for a moonlodge or red tent type evening.

Its hard to describe what a Moonlodge is, because all of my experiances have been led by the same group of people in the past.  I enjoyed this description "The Moon Lodge is the place of women, where women gather during their menstrual time to be at-one with each other and the changes ocurring in their bodies. Long ago, during this special time of moon cycles, women were removed from duties of family and allowed to retreat to the Moon Lodge to enyoy the company of their Sisters.

Traditionally, the Moontime is the sacred time of woman when she is honored as a Mother of the Creative Force. During this time she is allowed to release the old energy her body has carried and prepare for reconnection to the Earth Mother's fertility that she will carry in the next Moon or month. Our Ancestors understood the importance of allowing each woman to have her Sacred Space during this time of reconnection, because women were the carriers of abundance and fertility.

As Grandmother Moon is the weaver of tides ( the water or blood of our Earth Mother) so a woman's cycles follow the rhythm of that weaving. When women live together in a common space, their bodies begin to regulate their menses and all will eventually have their Moontime concurrently. This natural rhythm is one of the bonds of Sisterhood.

Women honor their sacred path when they acknowledge the intuitive knowing inherent in their receptive nature. In trusting the cycles of their bodies and allowing the feelings to emerge within them, women have been Seers and Oracles for their tribes for centuries."
taken from http://www.moonsurfing.com/moonlodge.html

I suppose essentially it is a meeting of women who have come together to just be.  What they do or share during a Moonlodge is up to them.  The details of our first moonlodge I shall leave sacred, however I am keen to share the mandala we made.

A mandala, according to the Collins dictionary is

mandala (ˈmændələ, mænˈdɑːlə)
— n
1.	Hindu & Buddhist art any of various designs symbolizing the universe, usually circular
2.	psychol such a symbol expressing a person's striving for unity of the self
[Sanskrit: circle] I like to think of them as sacred art.  I specifically chose to make the formation of ours mindless, and so therefore relaxing, and the resulting art was not the point - using edible and natural objects to create art doesn't lend itself to anything that will last.  There is a great description here 'creating them is a meditation and leaving them signifies the beauty and impermenance of life.' Anyway!!  I am quite sure I over thought the process, and when Lucy and Holly read this entry they will be like 'what?!'  Either way, I was delighted with the results and have many ideas for making them in my Sacred Space outside..  Enjoy!