Extreme Bridal

After picnicking in a cowshed during a storm, we headed out onto the farm to take some extreme bridal photos of my dear friend/supermodel extraordinaire Kaylia.

The gift that is Kaylia: not only is she a talented writer, a dear spirit sister, a healer and my crazy adventure accomplice, but she is startlingly beautiful with Raven hair, Pacific eyes and Dove skin. And she has one of those wild woman hearts who will climb water towers in high heeled cowgirl boots just for that one shot. Or drape herself over a fallen tree in the middle of a lake. Or canoe out into the lake in gusty mad wind just to stand up for a photo.

And did I mention she is beautiful?

*happy sigh*

My friends are the very best.

May these photographs fill you up with beauty, truth and peace.

lush link friday

feet love earth. earth love feet.

it amazes me how words from an old post of mine can soothe and balm my heart just when i needed it. just as i needed it.

my heart is touched by the new york girl on subway story... he FOUND her! he FOUND her!

and WOOT! some of my extreme bridal photographs just got featured on Trash The Dress Australia!

maybe some time i will do some delish projects from Learning to Love You More.

i'm loving these goddess headwraps.

phwoar, these flower petals necklaces are delectable!

i'm totally impressed by these creations of this 17 year old goddess.

listen to the birdsong of women from the monkfish abbey.

Self Portrait Challenge: What I Wear

I clothe myself in Mama Earth:
dried eucalypt leaves tangling in my hair,
coral in my eyes, stems of nuts and flowering buds dangling from wrists,
seaweed and mulla mulla grass wrapping their tender arms around my body.

I walk barefoot:
letting the air and the light
kiss me and cleanse me
reminding me of my beginnings and endings.

I lose myself in Her, and Her in me.
Every part of me is dust and love,
singing in a body.
I am in the trees. The trees are in me.

What I wear is My Self and My Earth:
medicine bag on my back,
radiant body, limbs, life, breath,
joy in every step.


~ * ~

I had wild photo picnics on the farm on the weekend!
Check out the pictures here!

Sacred Sounds

Saturday afternoon was birthed clear and blue, shining and new.
What to create on a day such as this?

Dream this:

Souls driving out of the city
and into the southern alpine fields that kiss the feet of tender purple mountains.

A Sacred Sounds Concert on a healing retreat ~
friends, lovers, families, dear ones to celebrate sacred sounds.

Imagine making music because that's what calls you,
that's what frees you, that's what makes community.
There are no mistakes, there is only sound, and there is only laughter,
as you make music together.



Imagine a circle of souls:
of healers, children, teachers, musicians, shamans, filipino tribal chiefs, artists, fairies and farmers
holding hands in one circle, in oneness,
in an old circlular cow shed
singing ohm together
until the sacred sound swirls around them
and dances up through the roof
making spirits creak and souls soar.



Imagine dancing like an eagle,
in a circle of dancing eagles,
with a goddess child in your arms.



Imagine a couple who love each other
tenderly, honestly and genuinely.
Who love this Earth and its people so much that they open their hearts and their land
to make a healing retreat and hold gatherings to come home to.



the entirely beautiful peter and gini



Imagine an incredible band who don't make just music:
they make spirit and magic and dreams play harmony in the air.


Gorgeous George and their sublime drummer

Imagine the Andi and George band that make music that is your soul home.
Imagine them and then buy every single album they own,
because they deserve it and you deserve them.
You deserve their tilting, dancing, miraculous ocean music beauty in your heart.


Goddess Andi

Imagine bare feet
aching to tell
their story
in movement.



Imagine your friends, your circle sisters
swirling together into light and song and dance
there in the cow shed with you.


Angel and Freya


Goddess Kaylia

Imagine a gathering of souls and music
where dogs are just as much a part of the gathering
as anybody else.



Imagine a beautiful man who loves you
so deeply, unconditionally and acceptingly,
always gently watching from the corner,
always watching you fly.

Imagine a man who is a lake of reflection,
soaking it all into his depths,
letting the singing bowl and the didjeridoo
make their music inside him.



Imagine walking by the lake,
coming home to yourself and to the Earth,
strung in a necklace of Goddesses
who have become your tribe.



Imagine finding a woman who is like a twin to you.
Imagine her. She is coming. She has arrived.



Imagine reclaiming the Dance:
the Dance of Freedom, the Dance that makes you Glad,
the Dance your body longs to dance.
Imagine the Dance that isn't about judgements or others,
it is the Dance of Being Alive and Barefoot and Grateful.

All I need to dance now
is hands beating drums
and the dirt floor of a cow shed.



All I need to dance now
is Mother Earth
kissing my bare feet



and Father Sun's light
kissing my bare face and arms



and the sacred sound of our own hearts beating.




All we need is the sacred sound of our own hearts beating.




Imagine it... so it may be...

In brilliance,
Leonie

Sale and Sweet Spring

Let your dreams grow Geisha Goddess

Thank you deeply for your support in my Off to India sale.

The sale continues, so if you are interested in something, get in now. I'm now low in stock in a number of prints and am not sure when I will reprint again (if at all). You can see remaining stock at my Goddess Etsy store. Happy days!

Also, I've just sent out my Sweet Spring newsletter... if you'd like to receive a copy and future ones, email me (leonie@gmail.com) to be added.

Speaking of happy days, welcome to springtime, blossoms, skirts over jeans, and green loving. Joyful Photos from a damp suburban walk today with my trusty little Samsung V3.



"Grab your coat, and get your hat,
Leave your worry on the doorstep
Just direct your feet,
To the sunny side of the street."
- Dorothy Fields



"May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back"
- Rilke



be blessed,
Leonie

Ways to Change the World

• Books can be our best friends, our inspirations, our wisdom jewels and our delights. They nourish us deeply. It's time to nourish Mama Earth for providing us with all the paper in those books! Have a tree planted for every book you buy at Eco-Libris.

• Make your adventures to discover the world a healthy thing for the world too! You can make your flights carbon neutral here. (With thanks to my lovely name~sister Leonie Wise for these two links!)

• Instead of birthday and Christmas cards or presents you feel you *should* buy for friends and family~ why not gift them with a good feeling? You can gift them with the pleasure that a third world community has just been changed by being given a business loan, animals, tools, water or education. You can gift Hope through Oxfam Unwrapped Australia, UK and American websites. Plus, it feels kinda fun to tell someone you bought them a goat for their birthday.

• Become a lender to an entrepreneur in a developing country to help them fulfill their dreams. You can become a lender to change lives through Kiva.

• Planning a wedding, and don't know what to have as those bags of sugared almondy thingies? I say give them a little bag of seeds, and a card that says a tree has been planted and named in their honour. What a beautiful emblem of your growing love that could be!

• The energy saving version of Google: Blackle
  
  
• Become a part of a heart shaped forest at Tree Nation (With thanks to sweet Silvia for this!)
  

Got ideas and ways to save the world? Email me at leonie (at) gmail (dot) com & I'll add them.

With Mama Earth love,
Leonie

Air Self

All the ways
to see the sky
in myself:

the long vast days of turquoise summer
the soft greys of replenishing rain
the dark umbre of night emblazoned by Venus and her sisters...

and always,
the vibrancy, the possibility, the sheer expansiveness.

This is what the sky teaches me:
The world is infinite.
Everything is possible.

I relish how the sky is always a part of my paintings too...
always spreading her lovely silken azure wings around my canvas.


Magic falls from her hair,
prints on Goddess of Leonie etsy store

with love and wind,
Leonie


~ More elemental self portraits at SPC
~ More Turquoise Journey here

Surrounded by Love

Surrounded by Love
original painting available on Etsy

Sometimes
she felt a little bit achy,
a little bit like a tiny soul boat
lost at sea.

But then...
if she remembered...
she would close her eyes
and find herself
in the embrace of the Mama Goddess.

Mama Goddess would hold her,
deep and gentle in her star~jewelled bosom,
stroking her hair,
whispering silent words into her ear.

You are surrounded by love.

You are surrounded by love.

You are surrounded by love.

Like a fish in the ocean,
you are surrounded by love.

Like a woman in the sweetness of air,
you are surrounded by love.

Moonlight songs

"The moonlight sang sweet tunes to her heart"
Original available on Etsy


And every now and again,
she stood with her bare feet on the earth,
caught in a shard of moonlight.

If she listened closely enough,
she could hear the moon singing
sweet tunes to her heart.

Fire Stories

1.
Once upon a time,
driving to work in the morning,
the light caught my hair,
and a wildfire burned there.

Behind me, Paris said:
"Miss Leonie,
your hair is glowing
like a nimbus."

2.
My name, Leonie, means lioness.
I have a blonde mane framing a face of proud cheeks,
falling to nestle on a lion's heart.
A Lioness is a Woman of Flaming Manes.

3.
I am alight from a weekend
with a dear friend,
a sister, a woman
who is my astrological polar opposite.

I am alight from two sparks igniting each other,
a white wolf standing between us,
awakening from a drumming journey
to see her gazing at me,
both of us crumpled, embryonic, on the floor,
blazed through by the drum and the didge.

I am awake with our fierce journeying,
our thirst for knowing,
our dreamings and possibilities.

I am awake with the fire of sisterhood.



4.
When I was a child,
I fought bushfires.
Our farmhouse came close to being razed a time or two.

The drill was
heavy summer days
the scent of burning grass in the air
the sight of flames
the call of neighbours
the gathering of machinery.

We would wet down great bags of hessian,
ladle large plastic tubs of water into the car.

My father and his father
would be at the forefront of the fire
and the licking fingers of flame,
playing an elaborate game of rugby with
their dozers and tractors.

The womenfolk and children
would be at the sides and rear of the fire,
putting out spot fires,
bedding down the heat.

It was something I feared and relished, all at once.
Somedays I still think I want to be a firefighter:
for the community, the tangible challenge,
the smell, the sheer physicality of spirit, body and water against earth and fire.



5.
Fire is the kundalini,
my passion, energy, actions.
Fire is the bushfire,
my transformation, alchemy, release and rebirth.
Fire is the inspiration,
my burning possibility of all that wishes to come ablaze in this world.

6.
All our lives are waiting to teach us.

Bright, Burning Blessings,
Leonie

* More Self Portraits on the elements here
* More Turquoise Journey here

Water Fairie

can you see the fairies?


I'm a water fairie, born under the sign of the Deep~Waters Scorpio.

I have mermaid hair, and a merman lover. I have mermaid friends ~ when I meet them, I know them by heart: curling masses of hair inhabited by seahorses, shining eyes that speak of the sea, wide smiles that light a mermaid's cottage...

*
On our first date,
my merman and I sat by the sea at night,
holding hands, and he said:

When I see the ocean through my eyes, it makes my spirit happy.

*

Water is the Mother of healing,
Water teaches the Way of the Flow,
Water is the embrace of Great Spirit.


with light blessings of the sea,
Leonie


~You can read more about the soul purpose of mermaids and other earth angels in Doreen Virtue's divine "Earth Angels" handbook.

~More elemental fairies at SPC

earth

grateful offering

Every afternoon, in the golden light,
she would climb the Western mountain.
Up, up, until her legs burned
and her great lungs danced with air.

There, up the top of the mountain,
above the reach of the suburbs and the world,
she would curl up among the fallen tree logs,
and the grandfather rocks.

She would breathe in the sky,
letting her eyes flight with the birds,
watching the moon rise above her,
and remembering herself as a child
of this beautiful Earth.


mountain girl (prints on etsy)

may you be healed by mama earth today ~
leonie


* more turquoise journey here
* more water ~ air ~ earth ~ fire @ self portrait challenge

Self Portrait Challenge

It is winter here:
the descent of the Goddess Persephone into the underbelly of the Earth, reuniting with her lover Hades. The story makes sense in the changes here, down in the Southern Alps, but not so much in the year-round tropics of my birthplace..
I was born in a town 2000 kilometres north of here - a town named by the Roman's name for the Goddess - Proserpine.
Born in the land of Persephone under the sign of Scorpio, choosing to pair with another Scorpio ~ welcome to the landscape of a woman on the discovery for the deep.

It is winter here:
watching the Poplar leaves turn yellow gold
the Manchurian Pear leaves a brilliant, ruby red,
then finally, they are all gone.

Only the release of disintegrating leaves,,
and bare limbs, naked and strong.
Can I learn the lessons of the trees?

Outside at night, we beckon to the moon,
planting our feet into the frozen earth,
the winter breath wind coursing past us and through us.

Only Mother Earth can teach us
such a gift as this:
That life is flow:
a constant, round river,
of leaves colouring, falling, sleeping, awakening,
bursting into bloom once more.
of leaves colouring, falling, sleeping, awakening,
bursting into bloom once more.

She changes every thing she touches,
Everything she touches changes.

May I know the wisdom and clarity
to breathe through the breath,
to love what is here
and be a part of the change.

With love,
Leonie

~ More Self Portraiters in their environment here.