## In this issue
– Westacre’s latest
– Winter Solstice meditation
– The Warrior’s Call new web site
– What you can do to help Westacre
## Westacre’s latest
After several weeks of off-and-on disruption, a lot of noise and a lot of dust, all the triple glazed windows are in! Westacre’s first step towards maximal insulation has been achieved.
We’re pleased with the result. The white windows at the front will blend in nicely with the Edwardian look we want to achieve there. And the grey windows at the back and sides will give the rest of the house a more modern slant. Inside, everything except the large folding sliding door is smart looking wood.
Just ahead of the Winter Solstice, darkness has descended on Westacre. After a trip to Glastonbury to celebrate the dark time of the year with my spiritual family, I have drawn closer to the warmth of our hearth fire. And deeper into a darkness that I can’t quite see the bottom of yet. I wait and trust, knowing that new light is just ahead.
The meditation in this Newsletter will help you let go of the whirlwind of activity we often get caught in at this time of year, and enter the point of stillness we so crave. As our bones rest against the body of the Mother, we dream the life of the year to come.
Withdrawing into my roots, close to the Mother Earth, I have also become more viscerally aware of the things that threaten her. With the spectre of fracking and related technologies hanging over many parts of this country and many regions of the world, I would like to introduce the Warrior’s Call web site, a great resource of information and motivation.
This Solstice season, we’ll be travelling to visit family an friends. You can expect the next issue of the Westacre Newsletter in January.
Whatever you are doing this Yuletide, make sure you get time to rest and to listen to the stillness, to dream into the darkness. And may your life waken with your dreams as the light returns.
Blessings of the Solstice,
Hilde
## A Meditation for the Winter Solstice
‘Solstice’ literally means ‘sun standing still’. Every day in the waning of the year, the sunrise and sunset move closer to the South along the horizon, making the arc of the sun shorter. In the few days around the solstice, this movement slows and stops, before the days begin to lengthen again.
The world is dark for two thirds of the time. Often, the weather is dark and cloudy as well, and with the lack of sunlight, our animal bodies long to rest, to sleep, to cuddle up and stay warm.
Our culture chooses this time of withdrawal and stillness to fill the world with artificial light and busy shopping, cooking and travelling. With noisy gatherings of people. Just the opposite of what we need.
So even if we do choose to spend time celebrating the season with family and friends, and enjoy the preparations and the flashing white LEDs, it is important to take a little time to ourselves to align with what Nature is doing. To be still. To turn towards the dark and rest.
This meditation will help you to do just that.
Choose a quiet place where you can be alone and undisturbed for a while, ideally a place where it is dark. If you wish, bring a candle and something to light it with. Leave it unlit for now, and turn off all other lights.
Sit in a comfortable position. Take some breaths, allowing yourself to surrender to gravity as you breathe out. Let yourself rest on the Earth.
Keep your attention on your breath for a while. Notice it coming and going. Don’t try to change it at all. Just notice your natural breathing rhythm.
When you notice a thought arising in your mind, just allow it to be. Let it become a solid object in your mind. It is a thing separate from you. There is no need to attach any emotions to it. Pick it up and put it aside.
If many thoughts are swirling around at once, just give attention to one at a time. Let it become a solid, independent thing. Pick it up and put it aside, before turning to the next one.
Keep working like this with the thoughts that come up. It doesn’t matter if you have to put some thoughts away more than once. Give yourself plenty of time, until you feel clear and free.
Let the pile of thoughts gently dissolve.
Now feel the darkness around you turn into a black velvet blanket. Draw it close around you. Feel its warmth and comfort. Allow yourself to rest in its soft darkness.
When you feel rested, take your awareness deep within. Deep within the darkness, within your body, at its very centre, somewhere close to your heart, a tiny light is shining.
Let your awareness be lit by that tiny light. Sit and breathe with it. When you clearly feel it shining at the heart of you, gently open your eyes and light your candle. Make the tiny light manifest in this world.
Sit with the light inside you mirrored by the light of the candle. Stay in that gentle warm light for as long as you like.
When you feel complete, blow out the candle. Take a few more breaths in the darkness. There is no rush to return to the light. The Sun will take several days to start moving along the horizon again. Let the darkness be for now.
When you are ready, turn on a gentle light and jot down your impressions of this meditation. Then return to your day.
## The Warrior’s Call web site
The whole reason why we are renovating Westacre to a high standard of energy efficiency is because we are concerned about the effects of climate change on our world. We want to do all we can to reduce our energy use, so that we can live more lightly on the Earth and do our bit to protect her.
It is by now abundantly clear that, in order to preserve the world humanity originated in and in which we thrive, we need to drastically reduce our use of fossil fuels. We need to keep the bulk of oil reserves that are still there in the ground.
So when governments and corporations advocate digging more fossil fuels out of more unlikely places in ever more destructive ways, I reel at the insanity of it.
When my Warrior friend sent out his call to protect this particular land from fracking, one of those destructive and unlikely methods of fossil fuel extraction, I knew I had to be there. So did a lot of other people.
The Warrior’s Call ritual was a massive success. The central ritual at Glastonbury had hundreds of people in attendance. All across the world, many others came together for this one purpose: to protect our lands from fracking.
I have stayed involved with The Warrior’s Call ever since. Right now, we are organising talks to bring information and resources to pagan communities threatened by fracking in South Wales. We will continue in other parts of the country through the year. If you’re in the UK, keep an eye out for our talks at local Pagan Moots.
The Warrior’s Call also has a beautiful new web site. In its pages, you can find resources to help you learn more about fracking and what you can do about it. The site contains
– information about the techniques of extreme energy extraction.
– videos and articles about the effects on the local and global environment.
– suggestions of things you can do today to help protect your sacred land.
– video documentaries about fracking, its corporate and political backers, and its effects.
– links to detailed scientific information about the techniques involved.
– fracking news from around the world.
– events listings.
– ways to get in touch.
Go and have a look. The site is beautifully designed, and you are guaranteed to learn something.
## How to help Westacre
You know what? Don’t. This time, just head over to the Warrior’s Call web site and click on the link ‘What can you do’. Pick one thing from the list and do it today. It’s that important. And don’t forget to share it with your friends on social media.
If you’d like to stay in touch with the Westacre adventure, find links here.