In Irish Celtic mythology, Tailtiu is the wife of the last king of Fir Bolg whose reign is renowned for his justice and prosperity. Adopted mother of God Lug, Tailtiu died of exhaustion after transforming the forests into arable land. When she dies, Lug organizes ceremonies in her honour at the Lugnasad Feast.
Celebrated on 1st August, Lugnasad – which means Lug Assembly – symbolizes a turning point in Mother Earth’s life cycle. This feast marks on one hand the abundance of the first harvests and on the other hand the decline of the power of the sun. Lugnasad is a joyful celebration and a wake.
For the ancients, the annual harvest reflected the human cycle of life and death. The time of harvest was associated with the spiritual abundance which nourished the soul as much as it foreshadowed the first autumn frosts during which the first seeds of introspection which will be made the following winter will begin to be laid. Lugnasad is therefore a transition feast.
Time of reunion and conviviality, period of truce, symbol of peace, friendship and abundance, this celebration erases all socio-cultural barriers and brings together the peoples who honour the fertility of the earth. We thank her through offerings to share with her what she has so generously given us. Lugnasad is a moment of sharing and giving, because to receive, you must also know how to give. It is therefore also an opportunity to take stock of one’s life and honour one’s debts.

Some people are naturally structured, while others need to make plans to avoid being overwhelmed by the flood of information that we receive every day.
Making a plan or being structured has the effect of channeling the flow of emotions while leaving that flow and those emotions intact, it means that the flow as well as the emotions will retain their strength and power, but rather than paralyze the person, the structure will teach him/her to guide (and not to control) the flow as much as the emotions.
A guided emotion is at the origin of a great creativity while a controlled emotion is against the perpetual movement of Life. And if we go even further in the energy understanding, an anarchic emotion, it means a not guided one, has the power to destroy rather than build.
It is an exciting alchemy that happens in us at every moment. We are multidimensional beings, we are composed and evolve in various dimensions: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, but also social, cultural, temporal, etc. The art of happiness or Hozho – a word that means harmony in the Navajo language – is to be constantly at the centre of all these dimensions in a perfect and always moving balance resulting from all the manifestations of these dimensions that compose us.
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I won't dwell on the symbolism of the structure that is linked to the Masculine, procreator, spirit, spiritual, etc. just as I will not dig into the symbolism of the emotions that are linked to the Feminine, creator, material, etc. I leave it to you to explore these symbols and other archetypes at your own pace and according to your desire for the moment.

A tense and unpredictable Full Moon oscillating between constraints and rebellion, between Saturn who wants to control and Jupiter who wants to be free. The summer will be hot, will it go so far as to become volcanic?
Of course, we are all concerned, so what happens to each of us in our daily lives? What was initiated during the first half of February and is being validated until it takes shape in the material? It could be a some news, an accident, a unilateral decision (by our spouse, our parent, our child, our boss…a government…), it was certainly something that now comes up that forces us to see what needs to be changed. It is useless to resist, it is vain to postpone what must be transformed. By the end of the year, what has been our past will definitely no longer be. Is it not better to let go of what has been and find a creative solution rather than to dwell on the loss of something that will never come back?
The current context remains vague, giving pride of place to illusions, deceit and lies of all kinds. Let us stop listening to speeches - whether promising or anxious - and let us focus on the acts that we are doing and that others are doing at this moment, especially since, shortly after mid-October, fine words will inevitably be subject to the law of incarnation, This means that everything initiated in July and August will be revised. On the upside, on the downside, for better or worse, no one can prejudge that right now.
It is therefore not the time to start anything new and the period is rather propitious to develop a real internal security by trusting our intuition and/or instinct and by developing ever more confidence in us and in our choices. It is time to get back to basics, to take stock of our life, and the realization of our projects will take place later, in November and December of this year.
A word of caution: if we are asked not to take for granted the talks and other speeches coming from our external environment, let us always remember that if the Other can abuse us psychologically, intimidate us or threaten us, we also have the ability to do that. Let's be careful not to abuse our own power over a weaker or more gullible than we are, because in the long run it will backfire.
What if we stopped regretting the past and demanding for everything to go back to the way it was? What if we devoted our energy to building a society in which we would like to live and see future generations live? Nothing will be like before then let’s close this old book and open another one in which everything is to be written.

All of our life is conditioned by our system of beliefs and some of them carry us towards fulfilment while others limit or even freeze us. In short, our reality, our world view, flows directly from our belief system.
The good news is that a belief can be transformed. The least good news – regardless of the hardcore of reason – is that the will of the conscious mind is not enough to transform a belief simply because most of them are firmly anchored in the deepest layers of our subconscious.
Some of our beliefs are rooted in the results we derive from lived experiences (both unhappy and happy) while others – those that are more difficult to transmute – come not from our personal experience but from the education received and the socio-cultural environment in which we are born and grow up.
Fan of non-ordinary psychic experiences, I personally tried the one of living without beliefs. Interesting experience with however extreme accents that I recommend to no one and whose result was that it seems impossible to live without beliefs. Moreover, when the skeptics of antiquity pretended to suspend their judgment on everything, Aristotle invited them to remind that they did not go for a walk on the edge of a precipice on a day of strong wind.
Your belief system has only a value for yourself, and if you are at peace with it, you have no need to claim it or seek external approval nor try to impose it on someone else. So… where are you on your belief system?

I journey to the lower world to ask a specific question to the animals I will meet: is the professional path I envision today the right one for me?

I go down very easily and find myself instantly submerged by water. I feel like I’m in an aquarium and I see a dolphin smiling at me. I immediately asked him if he is one of the animals that I was intended for me on this journey. He utters a cry and I feel his invitation to follow him. While I am not particularly in affinity with the water element, I evolve without fear alongside this animal. I guess in the distance the silhouette of a whale while a huge octopus appears on my right. I do not feel reassured by the presence of the octopus, and as I try to ask my question to the whale, she disappears at the same time as the dolphin. Alone with the octopus, I am resigned to asking him my question. Nothing happens and I wait.
I suddenly see and feel my crown chakra opening and then a white luminous tube starts from the top of my skull, crosses the water and rises straight to the sky. I feel an upward suction movement and observe a white, lumpy substance coming out of my head and heading for the sky. I feel like these are pieces of brains, and I’m a little disgusted with that. When everything seems emptied, the upward aspiration ceases and the movement is reversed. I now receive a clean and pure white light from the sky. This light descends into me and fills all the space of my physical body, even into my feet. Then the connection between the sky and my body stops while my body is now surrounded by a white cylinder that solidifies more and more. I feel like a neon light, like I’m frozen in glass, or rather ice. I shudder.
I had not paid any more attention to the octopus, but he is still present and now he very delicately encloses with his tentacles the white cylinder that I became. He’s dragging me to the depths. It’s getting darker and darker around me and I can’t even distinguish the animal that holds me with a mixture of firmness and softness. In this dark immensity, all I see is the white light that I have become. I feel an immense sadness that grows as I descend, which seems to have no end.
I vaguely hear the reminder of the drum, and the cylinder breaks and bursts of ice in all directions. The octopus and I magically find ourselves in clearer water, his tentacles open he releases me. I lay one hand gently on his head and thank him and I then come back.

At any time, Life offers us an opportunity to open our consciousness and broaden our vision, allowing us to grow. Let me tell you about my experience this morning.

Several weeks ago, a person had contacted me by email and wrote: "Marushka, I feel lost, I need you to help me find myself". After various exchanges of messages, this gentleman ended up taking an appointment for a 4-hour session in nature, during which I intended to transmit shamanic techniques to allowing him to find himself while acquiring more autonomy. We agreed on a date, a schedule and a place to meet.
This morning, therefore, I went to the appointment, constantly repeating to my assistant: "This man is not ready. He would consciously find himself back, but he still hesitates. He won't come". We waited half an hour and he didn't come.
Back home, I turn on my computer and check my mailbox. I discover a message that had been sent to me at 10:03: "Marushka, I will be there in 30 minutes". However, we had an appointment at 9:45. I replied to this person and received a second message: "I can’t find our meeting place". I answered a second time before closing my mailbox for the day.

This short adventure illustrates perfectly the inner state that this gentleman lives in and of which he is aware as he admits to being lost. The next step would be to observe how the fact of being lost affects his daily life. In today example, this man goes to an appointment without having previously inquired about the situation of the place where he was to go. So he misses his appointment and I imagine that his daily life is currently punctuated by various other missed acts.
When we experience the feeling of being lost, this perdition manifests on the outside and nothing seems to work in our life. We are no longer connected to our inner compass and we are exhausted in trying to concretely manifest objectives that are not based on any of our internal foundations.
Observing allows us to take note of what is happening and offers us the opportunity for real change. There’s nothing to look for, because it’s already there. When we are in search of a purpose, we focus on it and make ourselves unavailable for all the other daily teachings. To find oneself, to find oneself back, begins already by observing oneself.

I journey to the lower world to meet my very first animal.

I’m having a little trouble getting down. I do several tests, but I always let myself be disturbed by external noises: the fire crackling, the breaths of others who fall asleep, the movements of their bodies. The changes in the tones of the drum sound also bothered me. Then, rather than letting myself be invaded by a possible disappointment, I mentally return to a place I have known for years and which serves as a refuge.
Once in this known and thus reassuring place composed of two dark tunnels, I go to the one I do not usually take. I walk for a long time in total darkness guided by a thin point of light that I guess at the end. The point widens and when I get to the exit of the tunnel, I observe railway tracks fixed on the ground. I go out, turn around and see the stone-adorned entrance of a large railway tunnel.
I wear a canvas bob on my head, a light t-shirt and shorts, strong hiking shoes and I carry a backpack. It’s very hot and bright. I don’t know where I am. Tall, dried-up weeds cover the slopes on either side of the track, which seems to be abandoned. I walk on the tracks, meet no animals, but hear the sound of insects in the grass. I don’t know if they’re crickets or grasshoppers. Tired, I end up sitting on a white and red bollard at the edge of the track and I wait for something to happen.
The drum rings and I come back.

Rest, my King, rest
While I watch for you

May your sleep be sweet
And your bright dreams
May your mind be mad
And your happy body

Rest, my King, rest
While I watch over you

You sail on a peaceful ocean
You fly in a clear sky
Your heart is filled with joy
Your soul has found its way

Rest, my King, rest
While I watch near you

That you’re building your future
And never know the end
That you're master of your desires
And respect all your needs

Rest, my King, rest
While I watch with you

Marushka - 11th March 2013
(translated from French)