How I Priestess is affected by the Wheel of the Year and the element that I find myself in each season. 

By nature I can get quite cerebral about my spiritual practice, this has both served and hindered me. As I began to work with the Wheel of the Year and implement the four elements into my growth, I found balance. Earth grounded me, water connected me, and fire ignited me, these three elements balanced the cerebral airy nature that I often lean into

 

In the lineage that I am trained in, it is the element which corresponds with the cardinal astrological sign ruling at the beginning of each season that rules that season and direction. This means that Autumn, which begins in the cardinal sign of Libra is ruled by Air, as is the direction of West. Winter and North begin in Capricorn which is Earth, Spring and East begin in Aries which is Fire and Summer and South begin in Cancer which is ruled by the Water element. Thus, every season I am drawn to the Creator in One of Her expressions through the elements.

 

The Goddess as Air is the ruler of the Spirit realm, communication, higher consciousness and all things ethereal. I love this expression of Goddess, She is inspiring and lifts me up and beyond the density of my physical form into a realm that feels magical. 

 

I was very airy and watery as a child and young woman, it took quite a lot of work to convince me and then for me to be able, to ground down into the body, fire was an element that I had a lot of healing to do around, which I did in my mid-20's and now as a woman and Priestess in my mothering years I can happily work with each of the four major elements and learn and deepen with them. I call upon them individually and as pairs or as a foursome throughout the year, in ceremony, mediation or during  circumstances that would benefit from one or more of the elements. My favourite way to work with the elements however is working with them in their corresponding season.

 

Now that Autumn has arrived and air is our ruling element I am brought into close contact with a part of myself that I have known the longest. This season is the season of my prayers being prayed, my path of meditation beginning, it is the season of pilgrimaging to Glastonbury and being uplifted on the Tor and in the Goddess temple, this is the season of beginning an online psychic radio show, it is the season of workshops and ceremonies led, this is the season I became sober in, it is the season of my spirit. 

 

As I enter my 36th turn of the wheel into Autumn I once again feel my spirit calling to me, she is urging me to find the space, no matter how brief it may be during these early mothering years, to tend to her, to nourish her, to bring her into the front focus of my life. Motherhood grounded me deeper than any training I had done before and with that grounding came a need to raise up again, the deeper my roots the higher I must rise in consciousness so that I do not become mired down in the density of this realm. Similar to the Priestesses in the Mists of Avalon I am using the grounding that motherhood has afforded me as an anchor to hold me as I energetically rise up to part the mists of the hardened areas in my consciousness, that is the focus for me as I enter this Autumnal Air ruled season.

 

With this focus on raising up my consciousness comes a re-visiting of principles that I have studied and applied on and off for years now, as I do so I am brought back to one of the fundamental principles that I encountered when my conscious path began, the principle of grace. When I was ordained as a Priestess it was grace, rather than a deity that I aligned myself with, for me, the path of grace is the only one that my soul can serve.

 

Practicing the mysticism of grace first proved powerful for me when I got sober fourteen years ago. At that time in my life the last thing I needed was a magical attempt to attain my will, my will was the issue and it was my will gone to the extreme that had created such havoc in my life. Carl Jung theorized that alcoholics were people who came to Earth with souls that remembered the realm from where they were before incarnation so keenly that they had a hard time adjusting to Earth. The intoxication of 'spirits' felt similar to the heavenly realms we originated from and so we got tangled up in the insidiousness of alcoholism. That rang true to me, when I got sober I needed a spiritual experience that would live with me on a daily basis if I was going to stay sober. I remember one day in my early sobriety sitting in meditation crying out to the Divine that I didn't know what to do, life without anaesthetics felt so raw and overwhelming. I had a peace descend upon me after I cried out and I saw a bubble surround me as I received a clear message, "you stay in here with Me and I will go out and take care of the rest," that's just what I did, whenever a worldly matter began to upset me I would repeat "God's grace is my sufficiency," and turn my attention away from the issue, as I had very little resilience at the time, and I would wait to discover how a solution, a beautiful solution, always arrived without my having to do a thing.

 

As the years continued and my spiritual path deepened I grew resilience and curiosity and strength, I began to forget to allow grace to be my solution at all times and got into self-will quite a bit, oftentimes I could get out of jams in the human realm, but never have I felt the peace and serenity that I experience when I am surrendered to grace. There have been times that I have been tempted by magic, certain that I know the way a situation should go, or a possession that would serve me and I've turned to manifestation only to find again and again, that that is not my path. Whatever I turn to Goddess to do or to create for me is indicative of a lack that I believe exists, and in my deepest space of knowing, I know that in Her world there is no lack, my work is not to manifest it is to surrender and allow the unfolding of grace to appear.

 

Grace, is a principle followed by the mystics and it differs from the magic of the metaphysicians, it can be difficult to decipher the two, especially during the airy season when mysticism and magic are at their height of influence. I've found magic to be tempting, it is tempting for me to take the truths that I have honed within and to turn them towards the attainment of a personal want or desire. Yet, time and again, I have found that this temptation which takes me out of the path of grace and into the path of manifestation does not bring me peace and does not feed my soul.

 

What grace looks like for me is a continual turning over of wants and desires, an ultimate trusting of the circumstances of my life and a commitment to follow and to flow. It is not easy and it is not always comfortable, but in the end that is where I get my peace from, the surrender to grace. While I may not be utilizing magic to create in the 3D matrix, I do experience the magical reality that exists behind the matrix when I allow Source to create Her life through me.

 

That is how I am following the inspiration that came to me, when I prayed for guidance for this season this is what I heard : "Be like the Goddess of Air, flexible, ethereal, inspired, light, other-worldly and expansive."

 

This season I am re-committing to grace and I am embodying the Goddess of Air, walking between the veils, living in two worlds at once and feeding the spirit while I honour the human. There are circumstances in my life right now that feel confusing and insurmountable, when I am tempted to seek a solution in the human or the mental realm I get tight in spirit, I feel constricted and I sense my wings being clipped as I become tangled in the briars of the worldly circumstance that is upsetting me in the moment.

 

However, when I begin to soar above the circumstance I find that what was confusing becomes mysterious, and all that is mysterious is honoured as hallowed and sacred by me, what seemed insurmountable becomes a feat of the Goddess' and I am reminded that I am but a daughter of the Goddess, that I can rest comforted in Her everlasting strength and witness how She overcomes through me and as me. Suddenly circumstances that were of this world and anxiety provoking become enchanting opportunities to observe how grace will come in and create peace and order out of mystery and intrigue.

 

Be like the Goddess of Air, this season I am flying above the trees to see the immensity of the forest for what it is, I am landing back in the now, reaching upwards in consciousness for at-one-ment with Source and allowing the unfoldment of Divine perfection to reveal Itself as I Priestess grace into my life and the world as deeply as I can. As I Priestess grace into my life and into the spaces of this world that will allow it in, I once again sit in awe as I observe the power, love and beauty that grace creates when She is given an invitation to enter this realm, will you join with me this season? Sisters of grace, Goddesses of the Air, raising our consciousness and meeting one another in spirit as we continue to evolve and ascend and usher in a new era for the Goddess to rise up.

 

Grace Be With You,

Priestess of Grace,

Candise Soaring Butterfly 

 

 

artist of picture, Josephine Wall