A Cycle Ends

As I was meditating this morning I turned to the Tarot and turned the Death card.

It's interesting, as I celebrate this time of new beginning it's easy to forget that before it was a time of ending, a time, a place, where all was laid to rest. My spiritual practice isn't just about identification with the seasons. Although this is part of it, it's far, far deeper than that and I find if I do attempt to skim over something, Goddess brings me back to that same place again and again until I learn that lesson and learn it well!

As the land has travelled through a time of death, a time of ending before the reawakening, so have I. I have travelled deep into the Underworld during the winter months, knowing what it is to lay things down, to let go, to withdraw - retreat, even, and evaluate, reassess and listen anew to the voice of the Divine. I've felt both the fear and the excitement of this. It's clear to me now that a cycle has ended and I am moving on into a new phase of my life - but I need to leave behind the things that I have laid down and not pick them back up again!

This is going to be a year of moving into the new, of change, and I am not always going to have a template, a blueprint or a map and there will be times, like now, where I'm not always sure where to place my feet. What I will hear is the voice of Goddess and God - provided that I am listening. More than listening, I also need to respond. I am a solitary practitioner, I've known this is my calling for some years, but I've often veered away from it, wanting to work in groups, but this has never really worked for me. I don't believe that I've begun to appreciate or understand the depth of what working as a solitary practitioner means - there are depths that I have yet to explore and experience and this will only come about through personal application and dedication. I'm called to a role and this is something that I now need to start taking up. I'm so glad Goddess has patience!

A cycle has come to an end, a phase in my life, a pattern of learning, part of my path, is over. I now need to move on into the new and not attempt to recreate that which once was, or rather, that which I attempted to create. What is being built within me is a work of Spirit and my response, my role, is to learn to move with the subtle energies of Earth, and to the words of my Ancestors, and those of Goddess and God. It's about allowing a work to happen, a course to be taken as this is a period of transition. I'm moving from a time of preparation into a time of action and I am being called to respond to this.

There is power in solitude, not just in reflection, but in genuine solitary practice. The 'L' plates are falling of and the time has arrived to step into the challenge and to become that which I was called to be - which is to be who I was intended to be, before name and form.

So a layer is being peeled off, a cycle is ending, I'm moving into a new and powerful place - provided I move with it.

It's about moving into a deeper period of initiation.