Sowing the seeds for my visit
Hello readers and many blessings for the season of returning light!

Imbolc (pronounced imm’olg) signals the time of year that is literally ground-breaking, with the bulbs coming through with their greenery and flowering and the tilling of the soil for Spring crops. New life being awakened with the longer days. Lambs are being born, allowing the flow of the ewe's milk, which Imbolc is named for. All of nature is beginning to unfold and stretch, reaping the benefits of the sun in the Northern Hemisphere; food for the plants, vitamin D for humans, feelings of safety and shedding light upon the darker times of Samhain (pronounced sow’an) and Yule, when we were taking stock and being still. Now is the time to start to take action. We don't need to jump up and start running, but following the example of nature we can begin to pop our heads up, stretch, unfurl and recognise what it is we can be doing; our potential actualised.

 Last year, for me, the ground was laid early and the shoots only began showing as a feeling that something of wonderful potential was going to happen.

In May my husband, Stuart, and I decided we were going to book a holiday for September, so off we went to the travel agents to gather some magazines about Croatia/Slovenia. That was fine with me; a beautiful place with warm beaches (warm being the key word), high, grand mountains and vast, deep lakes. Wonderful! Very unlike Stuart, it took him a month of pouring over the magazines and perusing the internet to find the best place for us. In the end Stuart said to me, "Do you know where I would really like to go on  holiday? The Outer Hebrides!". The Isle of Lewis to be exact. We have always wanted to go there and even though the sandy beaches wouldn't be so warm, the mountains not so tall and the lakes, well, bogs really, we booked straight away. 

An initiation
The next couple of nights I couldn't sleep and I am a sound sleeper. There was a ritual going around and around in my head and it wouldn't stop! After writing the ritual down, the sleep gratefully returned and I had a lovely feeling that an initiation might be the thing that was going to take place on the Isle of Lewis, but I didn't know how. During an appointment for David Hand's awesome Soul Space I was given an athame (a ritual sword used in Wicca) in the meditation part. I felt it was a sword of power and David confirmed to me that it had to do with initiation. Hmmmm. The exact word I had been thinking of in regards to the trip to Lewis.

A few days later I mentioned to Stuart that I thought I would like to do a full moon ritual just after the Autumn Equinox when we would be on Lewis at the Callanish Stones and I felt that something significant was going to happen there. Although not being spiritually inclined as I am, Stuart is very respectful of what I do and was happy to oblige. All things were falling into place and I asked the Universe to look out for Stuart during the ritual, so that he would be in a safe and good space that evening, taking part in his own way.

A very important event occurred about a week before our trip. I was with a group doing meditation. The energy was very strong and I had the feeling that we should all sit closer together, so we did. Someone suggested that we all hold hands and when we did one of the meditators was told that I was going to Lewis, and the Callanish Stones in particular, to bring a new energy to planet earth. Holy cow!

It seems that I had done this before in another life, but our group needed to help bring the energy to me, so that when the ritual took place it wouldn't be too much for me. Talk about powerful. I was so joyful that my fellows could be part of this with me.

Stuart and I arrived at our destination and it was like another magnificent world. Rainbows, brighter than any others we have ever seen, greeted us and spectacular glacial eroded mountains gathered us up. Lewis is known as a flooded landscape and the bogs were wonderful colours of orange, red, rust and yellow heathers. The rocks, unique to Lewis are known as Lewisian Gneiss and have the colours of pink, black, white and grey which are twisted, shoved and pushed into fascinating patterns. These are the stones that Callanish is made of.

Strangely, the place we chose to stay was about 12 miles from Callanish and if I was a crow could probably fly 5 miles to get there over an Atlantic inlet. Kindly, Stuart took me to greet the stones the day we arrived. Even he was fascinated by their patterns and that they felt warm to his hand. The main Callanish site has a cairn in the middle with a ring and an avenue of stones. Within viewing distance are two other stone circles named Callanish II and III.

(All Callanish photos here are Copyright Joanne Mackenzie-Winters August 1998 see http://www.scotland-inverness.co.uk/c-nish.htm for more details and to order beautiful Callanish posters.)

Callanish I is on a hill with water from the Atlantic flowing nearby - quite a sight. The night before the full moon we had been out for a and were driving back. The moon was intensely bright already and I had to look behind us to make sure there wasn't a lorry with its high beams on! As we turned down the road that took us home I saw a white arc in the sky in front of us! I asked Stuart if he saw it too, and he did, so he pulled to the side and turned off the car lights. Behind us was the moonlight and in front of us, a lunar rainbow with it's colours just barely visible. We both felt so blessed to see this and only later realised how rare this occurrence is. A real treasure from the Goddess.

Photo by Thomas Thies of Gearhart, Oregon taken after the sun had set on 8/12/03   
www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/moonbow.htm

The next evening we prepared to go to the stones. I gathered all the things I brought with me for the ritual and some extra things to be blessed. Stuart was able to watch me from the warmth of the car and I told him I would be about 20 minutes, 30 max. Wrapped up like someone on an arctic expedition, except with bare feet, I approached the stones. Being very popular, the stones still had people milling around them and taking photos. This was going to be a present life lesson too. Self-consciousness/ego needed to be put aside and mindfulness was to be observed for those taking photos. A very bizarre combination to be dealing with and all at the same time in a gorgeous meditative state. One of my main thoughts was this is what people come for as well. Too bad I didn't have full regalia on!

Opening the circle and calling on the quarters and elements began and the energy started increasing. I sat down at the end of the avenue of stones within the circle near the cairn where I had set up an altar. At one point a man on a mobile phone was talking rather loudly and it made me laugh as I knew he was also in some way supposed to be there just then to receive some of this energy. After a little while I could see a dome over the cairn and then a pyramid over the circle, my palms and soles began to be very warm, then I remember nothing. As I closed down the circle and walked away a girl was riding her pony around the stones! When I got into the car and looked at the time I realised I had been there for an hour!! Stuart must have been in a time warp too as he didn't even mention the time waiting. I didn't know where I had gone to or been.

On our last day Stuart took us back to say good-bye to the stones and again, even he felt moved when leaving.

Connection with Isis
A few days later I was teaching reiki I and passing attunements at my place of work in Ashley Cross. One lady was enjoying quite powerful attunements and on her last one I felt the omniscient presence of Isis as I saw her in my mind's eye. She then announced herself and told me that the lady had been a priestess of Isis and needed to reconnect to that energy in this life. Isis moved into my field and the connection with the student was palpable. Callanish had connected me and the world with Isis, only fully revealing this to me on that evening of attunements. The Goddess' renewed energy will fill the earth and touch all just as Imbolc renews us all each year. 
 
May the Goddess bless you and remind us all that we are Divine Beings Being Divine.
 
Blessed be,
Darci Swift
 
 
Darci Swift is an ITEC qualified complementary therapist and teacher practising Reiki healing and teaching, aromatherapy, Hopi earcandling and massage from BWT Physiotherapists in Lower Parkstone, Poole. She is currently on a reflexology course looking forward to her exams in late February. Darci also participates in Pagan nature rituals, which form a spiritual foundation that includes aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism and other bits and pieces. As the Yogis say, "The paths are many, but the truth is one."