jan21.qxp_Jan 2014 Aff 05/01/2021 21:12 Page 10
Midlife Madness I suppose it all started to happen a while ago – during our first lockdown when enjoying a glass of wine in the garden on a summer evening, I started to realise that I love fairy lights. So of course, I started putting them all over the garden creating a wonderful fairy grotto effect. But as nights started to draw in and temperatures dropped, I started to create a similar ambience in the house.
It must be acknowledged that I knew others in the household were not as keen on it as I was but I was undeterred. I have always enjoyed aspects of what people might call the mystical world. I believe in the law of attraction, in miracles, in the power of plants to heal, in serendipitous happenings, in magic and occasionally I swear I could even stretch to believing in unicorns.
I confess to having a book of spells and in some ways feel I could get in touch with my witch persona but let’s be honest they’ve had a bit of a bad rep completely different ‘branding’ to fairies! It was pretty much open season on witches for decades – essentially women who were usually trying to help other women but were then burned or drowned for their efforts – I won’t use this space to go off on a diatribe about misogynistic males ……. but I could!
So, recently I’ve been doing a bit of Feng Shui thing in the house, and a Buddha is on my Christmas list to create a nice meditation space in the garden. I also started to investigate crystals – as a tool for healing. Do I understand how on earth they can work? Not at all but I know they are thought to promote the flow of energy AND they have been used for thousands of years. Am I willing to give them a try given that it’s hard to imagine them doing any harm? Definitely! The other day on a work call with someone I’d describe as having her feet firmly on the
ground, a colleague told me one of her favourite ‘rituals’ bit of a scary word in itself – makes me think of semi naked folk dancing round trees in a forest somewhere making strange noises- was after her baby was in bed she’d sit with her tea and amethyst crystals to re-set herself! But that actually got me looking at rituals and I found they don’t all involve forests, darkness or semi-nakedness, yes I know a bit of a shame in some ways, I was particularly drawn by moon rituals.
There is a belief that many of us are influenced by the moon –before you dismiss the thought remember that the Moon’s gravitational pull causes tides, there is clearly some pretty powerful energy and if I can tap into some of that why wouldn’t I? As it happens many Moon related rituals are pretty simple and involve setting intentions, lighting candles and such and usually geared towards you making decisions reviewing where you are and where you want to be, sort of goal setting but tapping into some other energy.
Now the thing is the family feel I’ve gone a bit mad. Clearly, I’m not – I’m just getting in touch with more ethereal worlds and I’m not harming anyone else or myself so please hold fire with the cries to burn or drown – though thankfully at least here we’ve moved on a bit. My longsuffering husband regards it as a phase – which it might be though he has made the odd joke about finding himself turned into a frog – not very supportive – but I’ll continue to enjoy it and who knows maybe life will become more magical – must confess to buying myself a wand – which has all sorts of uses I’ve discovered but no one has become a frog or bat yet – I can always live in hope!!
T
