I was honored to facilitate twelve women who gathered on Dec 20th 2014, to celebrate the Winter Solstice.  It was inspiring to witness the participants taking this time for themselves to be still and to dance, amidst this busy last Saturday before Christmas.   We focused on the methods of Body Soul, which were created through the Marion Woodman Foundation.  We were joined by women from Clare, Dublin  and Galway.

The focus of our time was to become  connected to our bodies, through deep relaxation, dance and authentic movement. The afternoon began as we gathered at our Hearthstone.

The hearth this a place where we gather particularly at winter time in our homes.  The Goddess Hestia is the goddess of the hearth and domestic life.  She is more specifically, the goddess of the fire that burns within the hearth.  The fire symbolizes the inner light that burns within each of us,  recharging and rekindling our spirits.  As we gathered at the hearthstone we focused on our intention for our work in the afternoon.

We danced our circle dance and the poem I read was from T.S Eliot

” I said to my soul be still and wait without hope,

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing, wait without love,

For love would be love of the wrong thing,

There is yet faith, and the faith and the love are all in the waiting,

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought,

So the darkness shall be light,

and the stillness the dancing. ”

T.S.Eliot from Four Quartets

As the women lay on the floor and focused on their breathing and each part of their body, there was a sense of waiting, like waiting within the cairn at Newgrange for the light to make its way up through the roof box and light up the passage and eventually the inner chamber. Each member connected deeply to their body and then made their way up to standing position, once again.  The dancing began and the participants found themselves moving from stillness to dance.  This play of opposites was present during the afternoon.

We ended our afternoon with a dream circle, in which we gathered the images from our dreams and located them in our bodies.  As we distilled the dreams to their essence we gathered  a dream poem which held the energy of our work.

Then we gathered at the Hearthstone for our closing ceremony.  I felt privileged to have shared this first workshop with such an amazing and courageous bunch of women.

I’ve been asked already when can we do it again, it won’t be too long, watch this space!