Last weekend I was lucky enough to be bringing Bear magic to Scotland. I was invited by my friend Helen Anthony to run a workshop as part of her 8 festivals group Summer Solstice celebrations. A group of around 20 of us met at Mugdock Park near Milngavie for the afternoon and worked with the energy of the Bear who is at the point of Summer Solstice on the Wheel of Ursa. As I began to plan the workshop, sitting on Achmelvich , and various other Beaches I realised that She was showing Herself to me as 'Flow Bear'.
So who is Flow Bear ? She is a polar Bear, huge and white and powerful. Her body is designed for water, She is made to be in the flow, She is shaped like a water drop, like a tear drop, long pointy snout widening to strong body. She holds her back legs like a rudder to steer the way, with Her front legs She reaches out in a graceful swimming dance. Her strength is in Her constant movement and adaptability, She is long distance swimmer, confident diver, never afraid to leave the safety of the shore. Her mystery is watery, She slips through our fingers, we cannot hold Her.....to know Her we must immerse ourselves in Her presence, trust Her water to hold us and plunge in. She lies opposite Her frozen, still, polar sister at winter solstice...and flow Bear is the playful ice breaker splashing in the shallows with Her cub shaking sparkles from Her fur.....She is the flow of all great bodies of water which move, oceans, lakes, lochs and rivers....
And on this earthly plane She walks as polar Bear, Ursus Maritimus, the sea is in her name, she swims at up to 25 mph for many days on end covering hundreds of miles.This long distance swimming is polar bears response to the melting ice floes, she is adapting but this has an energetic cost for her and she asks us to step into our flow in turn and change to support her and her watery oceans...how far can you dive to adapt and turn the tide of climate change ?
Some random thoughts that come from observing Her body ,the sea, in the Highlands..
Emotional bouyancy....not sure what this truly means yet but...
-it takes deep waters to float a big ship, the bigger the project/ shift/whatever we are working on the further from the safety of the shore we must be prepared to go.....
- going deep requires conscious effort, we are naturally buoyant on still water, if we kick and struggle or the waves get high then we may feel like we are drowning....and sometimes we choose to dive for hidden treasure.
watching the sea ......
- at the edge its foamy, playful, sparkly, its where Her voice is, there is lots of surface movement
- a little further out its clear and light and there is gentle movement and sway
-deeper still its dark, there is little surface movement and the currents are hidden from view
Water moves back on itself to make forward progress, rivers have curling eddies and swirls, the waves roll back under themselves in undertow, and currents. When water hits an obstacle it doesn't stop, it swirls to the side, gushes upwards in flumes of spray, or rolls under itself again....these are all the magical cycles of Her flow, adapting, moving ever fluid.
FLOW BEAR
Her breath is the sigh of the sea meeting the shore.
Her salty, snorting sea spit waves lap and lick at the body of the land teasing it into softness.
Below Her ruffled white foam fur pulses Her saltblood ocean heartbeat.
Her liquid breath tumbles the cold hard stones of old wounds into smooth pebbles, soft sand, and we slip into our saline smooth selves.
Her rattling growl of shingle undertow pulls us down to our depths and up over the straight line of our horizon to unknown shores.
Sending you all the Blessings of Flow Bear this Summer Solstice....xxxx