In the Eye of the Storm and the Aftermath

We weren’t actually in the eye of the storm, more a bit to the right of it but that didn’t sound so good as a heading 🙂 Ophelia though was an experience which thankfully we have survived almost intact.

So how was it?

Well, we listened to all the advice and outside moved anything loose; plants, pots, wheelie bins and even the tiny stone dragon, and gargoyle as well as the ironic garden gnome. We filled buckets with water to weigh them down and also so we had some extra water even if it was a bit green and slimy and then we gave up as we didn’t know what else we could do. Later, in the dark we ventured out to do some last minute moving of a table and my tiny oak saplings.

Inside we cleared all the window sills, lowered blinds and drew curtains. I’m not quite sure what this was for but suspect it was in case the windows blew in. We also filled up water bottles, kettles, anything we could get our hands on really so that we had as much fresh water available as possible.

The Irish have a very laid back ‘sure it’ll be fine’ attitude towards weather warnings, mainly because we get so many, but the night before we watched the weather forecast and listened to the warning that this was not ‘the tail end of a hurricane’ this was an ACTUAL hurricane. This might it seemed, be serious, especially as half the country (the bit I am in) had a red warning, the other half orange.

The morning itself I woke around 4am and weirdly could physically feel the hurricane coming, something in me had changed. I had not expected this in any way that on a physical level it would make its presence known. By about 7am we were wide awake. It was incredibly warm for October and still relatively calm but by now I had a headache.

We had been given comprehensive information as to when the storm was expected to reach the various parts of the country and as we still had power we knew it had reached the far south west and was on its way. By this point the whole country had a red warning. We put out phones back on charge and being very first world, also the electric toothbrush, then settled down in the lounge, the farthest point from the south/south east winds as well as the furthest from our (glass) conservatory and watched the drama unfold online.

Durning the morning we were more and more aware of the wind, sneaking peeps out of the windows at odd times we saw trees down on our crossroads, leaves blowing outside and felt the temperature drop dramatically.

Somehow we held onto power all morning, watching reports from those with mobile internet that the power had gone all around us and then at 12.30pm during the peak of the storm for us, the power went.

We had been expecting to be in the band of fiercest winds, shown as dark purple on the map, but the hurricane had changed course, very, very slightly, and so the damaging gusts were not as bad as we’d been warned. Yes it was fierce but it didn’t seem to be gusting as much as we had expected. Despite an incredibly strong desire to go and see what was happening we stayed hunkered down listening to the odd and unexplained noise from outside

Eventually around 4pm my headache cleared and we felt the worst had been and gone so we ventured out. Three ridge tiles had blown off the roof and were laying on the ground in an empty space where the table we moved in the dark the night before had once been. Somehow these fell the right way and so luckily missed going through the roof of our conservatory. We had also lost a couple of outside lights and the fascia from a shed. Oh and the contents of the fridge and freezer which have now had to be thrown out of course.

That evening we listened to the wind change direction to come from the North West. This then hit the end of the house we were sheltering in but luckily had lost lot of  its strength.

The next day dawned calm with blue skies and sunshine. We chanced the roads into town where a supermarket with its own generator, cleaned up by providing take away coffees. The delight of a hot drink. The afternoon saw us first of all clearing up fallen branches in the garden and then walking on the beach still in the sunshine. We had been lucky. No roads blocked, none of our trees down, others though weren’t as lucky.

In the city over twenty ancient lime trees had fallen completely blocking a road, all around the south and south west of Ireland trees had fallen and are still falling, my husband’s golf course is closed for the foreseeable future due to damage and we know that means a large number of trees have been lost. Three people lost their lives in the storm, damage to property is widespread.

Today and tomorrow we have another weather front bringing heavy prolonged rain. Drains and ditches are blocked with leaves and debris causing flooding on roads. The road from our village to town was only just passable this morning.

Our power came back on last night, others will still be out over the weekend it seems, maybe even into next week.  We have another storm on the way after the rain. It’s called Brian which sounds harmless enough, but has winds that we are being warned could do even more damage coming after Ophelia. Lets hope not.

The three days we had without power have taught us the following:

• Not having any idea what is going on anywhere is incredibly isolating, we may now get mobile internet on one of the phones, just in case.
• We should have bought some baby wipes and hand gel then might not have felt quite so grubby.
• Pot noodles, just add water pasta meals, tinned tuna etc would be handy to have in the cupboard
• The old camping stove that we eventually remembered we had and unearthed from the shed yesterday will be better kept in the house in the future
• Food in the fridge is not edible once the power has been off a while

We were lucky. We are a little sheltered from south/south easterly winds, if the next winds from Brian come from the north/north west as forecast they will hit us straight on. In that direction we are exposed 😦

Meet Brian!

I would like to think the energetic protection I put in place helped keep us safe, that the overtures I made when journeying to Ophelia persuaded her to change her course slightly (although I clearly wasn’t persuasive enough that the storm missed Ireland, or even us, completely), that connecting with Huracan (thanks Laura Perry for the suggestion) which was easier once I had discovered his links to Quetzalcoatl whom I know from Munay Ki, may have made a difference. Who can know for sure. What I do know is that with Brian brewing up a storm I am off to reinforce our energetic protection ….just in case.

Awaiting Ophelia

Ophelia is the hurricane that is heading straight for us. Now if I lived in the Caribbean that sentence would make absolute sense but as I live in Ireland, not so much. We don’t get hurricanes, or at least we didn’t….until now that is.

Ok we get winds, sometimes very high winds, and we get the tail end of hurricanes that have begun their lives somewhere over the Caribbean in the warm waters there and which then blow themselves out as they travel over the cold waters of the Atlantic but not real hurricanes. Ophelia is a rare one, or so we keep being told, one that has formed down south of the Azores and which instead of blowing itself out has instead been getting stronger and stronger. She is now heading straight for us.

We have a red weather warning, the highest we can have, school buses have been cancelled and schools advised to close tomorrow when Ophelia is expected to make landfall. And we have been advised to take precautions! What precautions?????

Basically we are warned of possible power outages, flooding, falling/fallen trees, debris on the roads and the possibility of structural damage. I have seen suggestions ranging from picking up any loose items outside, putting away the wheelie bins, to charging phones, making sure there are torches ……..and packing a bag in case we need to evacuate. Again…What?????

I live on an island and not a big one at that. Where exactly do they think we will be able to go?

Plus I have seen photos of houses flattened by hurricanes, cars picked up and flipped like pancakes, trees uprooted and roads destroyed. I’m not going outside tomorrow!

I’m not sure that our attempt to make ourselves safe by picking up loose plant pots in the garden, laying the bird table down and collecting the apples from our trees (because we don’t want to lose them, nor because we think they will do any damage) is really going to make a lot of difference. There is in fact not much we can do.

Ophelia will not of course be a hurricane by the time she reaches us. We are told that she will be an ex hurricane or a post tropical storm. I’m not 100% sure that changing the name of what it is helps in any way. The winds are still likely to be stronger than anything else we have ever experienced. This is a complete unknown.

For us if we lose power it also means no water as we have our own well, and I suspect that at the very least we will be without power at some point, so I did of course go shopping yesterday. I picked up drinking water, ready made soups that can be heated on our wood burning stove, bread and some salady bits and bobs that don’t need cooking so we won’t starve. Plus of course we have tins of baked beans 🙂

I think most of us are still hoping Ophelia’s path veers a little so she rushes by either west or east and not over us, but time is running out for her to do this now. I did read something on Twitter earlier where someone was saying it was time we stopped the Father Ted attitude and started taking this seriously but I’m not sure there is really anything we can do apart from building a force field around Ireland or something.

And that in a way is what I have done. I have energetically placed the Munay Ki Bands of Power around Ireland and for double insurance around my house and garden for I’d like to keep the land of which I am caretaker, and all that resides here safe, as well as my house of course. For double, double insurance I have placed an energetic crystal pyramid over everything too. Oh and I have journeyed with my allie and one of my guides, to try and reason with Ophelia but she seemed desperately upset about something (I can’t think what Mother Earth could possibly have to be upset about) and at that point was showing no sign of calming down.

Will any of it help? I’ve no idea. If it does I’ll let you know, if it doesn’t I may be away for some time clearing up the aftermath of Ophelia.

 

iPagan – New E-Book Release

iPagan

Edited by Trevor Greenfield

Available now from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

 

 

A long time ago, or so it seems such is the length of time it can take for anything to be published, 40 Moon Books authors, of whom I am one, got together to write iPagan, a collection of essays on a range of Pagan topics.

The collection covers Druidry, Shamanism, Goddess Spirituality, Witchcraft, and Paganism today. It is available only as an ebook and with 40 writers and 59 topics for such a tiny price that it represents unbelievable value.

It would be hard for me to write a review being as I have a piece on ‘Signs, Symbols and Messages’  published in the section on Shamanism, but I am so looking forward to reading the other entries being as they include essays from amongst others; Ross Heaven, Luke Eastwood, Elen Sentier, Graeme K Talboys, Robin Hearne, Nimue Brown, Brendan Myers, Jane Meredith, Rachel Patterson, Morgan Daimler and Lucya Starza.

Amazon has its look inside feature in operation for the ebook, so why not go and have look. What have you got to lose?

Finding balance

When I first started teaching courses and workshops I did what everyone else does and blocked in weekends where I felt it would all work. The problem I quickly found was that although the dates worked for me they didn’t work for others. I would advertise a Reiki 1 course for example and have one person book a place with four or five others interested but looking for different dates.

At first I tried to juggle this, attempting to adjust dates, connect people up etc but the more I did the more of a mess it became. Even my husband was asking me if I wouldn’t just be better waiting and letting it all sort itself out. Eventually I learnt that if I just handed it over to the Universe it all fell into place.

This was really hard for me to do though as being in control is what I was used to but somehow it worked and over time it did get easier. I also found the letting go of control spilled over into other areas of my life and I began to learn that sometimes it is best to just sit back and go with the flow.

Ever since then I have waited until I have enquiries and then arranged dates to suit everyone rather than planning things in advance. I never advertise unless I have spaces on a course or workshop that need to be filled. Recently though I became aware that my never having any courses or workshops arranged might sound a bit wishy washy to some prospective students and that I was maybe losing them. Perhaps they wouldn’t have been drawn to work with me or my energy anyway but there is never any harm in having a rethink. Maybe I have been going with the flow a little too much, after all there needs to be a balance in all things and I suspect I need to make a little effort too. Can’t leave everything to the Universe after all 🙂

Yesterday trying to be a little more proactive I advertised on Facebook that I am looking to arrange a Reiki 1 course. So far I have had several enquiries and have been able to send out information. I have no dates booked but as before I will arrange these with  people who are definitely interested.

It is far too soon to tell how this will work but it does feel a slightly better balance and allows me to put some energy out there, the energy of being willing and available to work. I am not really taking back control but just giving the Universe a bit of a push and maybe finding a better balance which now feels as if it should be a partnership.