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Crane Bag
On Sunday 8th May 2011 we presented Crane Bags, our first Wye’s Women Workshop at Garden in the City, 65 Whitecross Road, Hereford, HR4 0DQ. The work was very exciting.
I began by opening the Interface. This is calling the four directions, plus above, below and within, ie our own spirit. For each I ask the energy of that direction to guide, guard and keep us in the work we would do this day.
I began by talking about the Crane Bag in the British Celtic tradition and told the story of Aoife and Manawyddan. People noticed how similar it is to those of the better known Grail, and so it should be for it holds many of the same principles. The main ethic of the Crane Bag is service, service to the Goddess, the Earth. It’s not about self-aggrandisement but about caring for the Land, the Earth, the goddess. Aiofe is the goddess in one of her forms, Manawyddan is her Guardian. When she dies he takes her skin which is the skin of the Earth and put the treasures within it, one for each of the thirteen moon-months for which Aoife holds the energy. Her guardian, Manawyddan, as lord of the waters and the Moon is the lady who moves the water. We all held this idea strongly.
After some interesting discussion on both the physical and spiritual nature and properties of water – I’ll write more on this later – I led everyone into the first journey. This was to meet Aoife and ask her to show us the shape, form, materials and decoration of the Crane Bag we would make in the afternoon. This was fascinating. Of course everyone’s journey was different. When the journey was over everyone drew what they had been shown by Aoife. No words … just drawing, pictures, images, symbols. These engage the whole of the self, spirit, soul and body. Words let us hide within the mind, the thinking process, where we can distort the images the goddess has given us and make it small enough to fit into our current “reality box”! Not at all what the workshop was about ?. Drawing is very immediate and cuts the crap of “normality” allowing us to grow, connect to the Earth, expand our awareness and that is what all the Wye’s Women workshops are about.
Everyone shared what they wished to from the journey and again this was fascinating. It was now time to digest … and to have some of that lovely lunch Jennie had prepared for us. It’s important after doing spiritual work to replenish the body. It may look (to the inexperienced) like you’re doing nothing when you’re journeying but that just isn’t true. Your body is supporting the other senses as well as the spirit while you travel, walk between the worlds. Food is vital. We had a lovely roast vegetable quiche with salad, hummus and couscous, with pas
bags made at the workshop
sion cake for desert. Then we got back to work.
We began the making. There was some knitting, weaving, crochet, sewing and lots of colour. Everyone had got the message … ask! Everyone asked, each time they went to explore the baskets of materials they would stop for a second, hand hovering over the basket, saying ‘What shall I use? What would you like me to use?’
I found this thrilling. Working with folk who felt quite natural about asking Spirit to help with their making, who were very willing to make to the design of the goddess, not needing to push their own egos.
We stopped for tea and talked about how our work was going. Several found they were in continuous conversation with the spirits, asking when they didn’t understand, saying when they found something very difficult … and they got responses straight away. Spirit was very willing to change the design a bit to fit with the maker. This was new to some people and a very pleasant surprise as they hadn’t realised you can negotiate with spirit. They want the work done and are very happy to work with us. It’s about working with spirit … which is what spirit want us to do.
After tea we journeyed again, this time with Manawyddan, to ask what to put in our Crane Bags today. It is he who makes the Crane Bag from Aoife’s skin and puts into it the 13 Treasures of Britain. We did this journey out in the garden, travelling to the sound of the waterfall there. Again everyone’s experience was different. Things people had seen they would have included a kiss, a heart, a tiny statue of the goddess, a bone, a stone, a conker (Chestnut seed). Some were immediately available – I brought a bowl of “goodies” which included some of the things – and others, like the kiss, were not and required more work from the person.
This is how it is. Wye’s Women’s workshops are rarely “neat and tidy”, they always ask the participants to do more … after all learning and growing are lifelong processes.
Everyone took their Crane Bags into the final dedication and closing, along with the things that were to go into them today. I closed the Interface, going round in the reverse direction and thanking each for guiding, guarding and keeping us all for the day’s work.
We parted, joyfully and with lots to ponder on and continue working with. I look forward to working again with the participants and with new people who would like to come on future workshops. The next one will be Healing the Wasteland on 3rd July see the link for more details. It’s about ley lines and dowsing, reaching and touching the threads that carry the goddess energy through the Earth. Do come, it promises to be another exciting day.
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