Hello good people, Heather here with a simple (read “short”) newsletter for you.
What a year so far, 2025! Anyone else out there experiencing massive transformation? As in shift-entire-dysfunctional-family-patterns-and-experience-liberation-and-renewed-compassion type transformation?
I’ve gone through my share of this kind of transformation, and this last round has been a complete reorganization. The old adage, “the only way out is through” is a hard fact. Our healing occurs when we turn to face whatever it is we need to heal.
And then wrestle with it, like Jacob wrestling the Angel of the Lord.
There are many interpretations of that Old Testament story, which I won’t go into here, however, what I will say is that your wrestling, your decision to wrestle and the act of wrestling, not literally high school sport wrestling but deeply grappling with, diving into, ingesting, discerning, rejecting, practicing, digesting and incorporating are, in many ways, requirements of healing. And along the way, you may find yourself injured, as when the “man” (ie the Angel) “wrenched Jacob’s hip at its socket.”
Which is another truth entirely unto itself, and one that I relate to the study of, contemplation of, and ultimately surrender to karma – the fruits of one’s actions.
Which is yet another musing, for another time.
For today, I leave you with this, an invitation to a land blessing and fire ceremony next week, on the Vernal Equinox. The herald of spring, this year on Thursday, March 20, is when the length of the day is equal to the length of the night, ushering in the first signs of spring – the blossoming of the snow drop and the crocus (which you’ll miss if your attention is captivated by the news stream on your iPhone), buds showing vivid green on the skeletal outlines of the nine cottonwoods in our yard, and in the hope restored that, truly, the growing season approaches and the warmth of the sun returns.
Our ancestors, no matter your lineage, celebrated the return of the sun in many ways, with sun chariots and stories of those beings who threaten to devour the sun; in the sun wheel which subdivides the year into four seasons: two of warmth, renewal and rebirth – and two of cold, endings, and death.
This year, amidst the chaos in the world, the uncertainty, the trembling (of markets and nations), one thing is certain – there is a natural order and intelligence that ever guides us through illusion and deception, should you choose to surrender and be guided. I have learned to watch for signs and symptoms, with gratitude for awareness, alert and awestruck by the dance of apparent duality, as the Beloved dances with His Bride. Day/Night, Masculine/Feminine, Sun/Moon, Sky/Earth, Yin/Yang – the dance of the five elements, Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space, in a never ending journey of balance and rebalance, in rhythm and time, like the seasons rolling forward and returning, year after year after year. And I give thanks to the Source of life and the One who set the rhythms of time, the One who Heals – when we turn to face what needs healing.
This is why I offer fire ceremony, to give gratitude for the Source of life – the gentle Force that cannot be overcome, no matter the chaos in the world.
In reciprocity, we will bless the Land for continually giving Her gifts of life. In reciprocity we will bless the Fire that gives warmth to our bodies. In reciprocity we will give thanks to Source.
If you’re in Boulder, I invite you to join me.
Love,
Heather
Inspired by our work together, and facilitated by myself and Sabrina Dokas of Lalita Soma, our fire ceremony will be offered to benefit the land at Elk Run Farm, with donation proceeds benefiting the ongoing Drylands Agroecology Research work of Nick DiDomenico and Marissa Pulaski. They’re real ones, salt of the earth people, dedicated to the regeneration of landscapes to improve life on Earth.
“Drylands Agroecology Research has become an unlikely reality in the arid foothills of the Rocky Mountains and continues to focus on researching and documenting how it truly is possible to create abundance where there may be little to no water or hope.”
The fire ceremony is free to attend, with a suggested donation of $22. If you’re local to Boulder, I hope to see you there.