magical acts

Moon dancer (available on Etsy)

This lovely goddess came through me to visit my life last spring.
I remember rolling around in the grass,
breathless with joy as my hands, arms, face, torso, chest
danced in the paint and sang hues onto the canvas.
Her form and the story written behind her came once the paint dried.
She emerged just as she needed to, and has been hanging above my computer ever since.

She has been a little hidden in my alcove here, but lately has been frequenting more open walls in the house to be SEEN. (My house is a revolving art gallery)

She has emerged from her incubation period with a magical power:

She makes women dance before her.

Countlessly, my women friends walk through my house,
stop infront of her, raise their arms, and shake-a shake-a their glorious hips.

Last week two gorgeous sisters were gyrating divinely before her,
all three of them smiling the same little wild smile.

I am so grateful that so much magic is in my life...
and keeps spilling in...
from all directions, all possibilities,
seeping through my hands.

Often, I get down on my knees and give the most heartful thanks
that I am blessed with the creations that I am.
They have saved, healed and made light my life in so many ways.

I am off to catch a star from the sky...
one of my dearest friends is arriving for the weekend.

Let me play a little Nostradamus and prophecy this:
It is to be a weekend of souls connecting, nourishing foods, the beating drum, magical corn cakes, laughter, sharing in pyjamas.

I wish for you...
just this blissful moment.
some shake~a shake~a.
gratitude that takes you down on your knees to kiss the earth.
friendship adventures.

rainbow clumps of balloons,
Leonie

Offering

With burning sage
I give thanks to all that has been
and all that will be.

Beneath tall pine trees
there is a ring of tiny mushrooms
where fairies congregate.

I make an offering to the earth
for healing, release and love
for the highest good of all.

I am so grateful.
I am so grateful.
I am so grateful.


How can we more deeply celebrate and honour when the path of a friendship changes?

Today I choose to honour this change as two souls choosing to walk their paths as honestly and authentically as they can.

Today I choose to honour the beauty of those lessons and the miracle light of healing.

Today I choose to honour the great gifts of that connection.

Today I choose to trust who I need to be and where I need to go.

Today I choose to honour love ~ love as the energy that does not begin or end, it simply is.

Today I give great thanks to the Universe
For all that has been, for all that is, for all that will be.

with love, joy and trust in spirit,
Leonie

I have played with Paul Simon (and other miracles)

It's true - in a round-a-bout-six-degrees-of-separation kind of way. I am possibly even closer to Paul Simon than I am to my (almost) bestie MacGyver.

Let me explain this miracle, and other miracles.

Yesterday me, my love and my love's mum went out to the Spirit of the Forest Festival on my beautiful friend Gini's property. I wore my turquoise cowgirl hat, a sure sign an adventure will come about. The afternoon was filled with drinking chai, planting trees to honour our Tree grandmothers, watching a horse~whisperer, hanging out by the tipi, listening to talks.



Once the sun dropped behind the mountains, everyone gathered into the round building that once was a cattle feeding shed. The shadows were dreamy against the brick-hewn wall.



And the dance began. Led by Prince Mama Kiama, an Unahi tribe chief from the Phillipines, a group of men dressed in loincloths began to dance. They leapt through the air, beating on drums, running like warriors. Women dressed in long skirts sashayed around the edges with arms like gentle eagles.



I want to tell you how that felt, how my heart beat quickened and breath shortened as they danced. That somehow, seeing that Prince and those mostly white boys in loincloths dancing, made a primal owl in me screech into the night. I want to tell you how I had tears in my eyes and a snake uncoiling in my belly, wanting that initiation for every man, for these ceremonies to be a part of every one's life, for dance and movement and spirit to be the way we celebrate each and every sunset. And mostly, for some inexplicable reason, I want to bring loincloths and long skirts back. They call in me some ancient memory that is deep and instinctual, as though they are how things should be.


my love at night.

The drums kept drumming into that night. The musical instruments came out, and songs were sung. A melting pot of traditions, wisdoms, songs and open hearts. I just kept feeling incredibly blessed to witness it all.



The entirely beautiful Prince Mama.





His Earthmamadrummingloving wife Lisa.



The quietly compelling Craig Six Bears playing a Native American flute.



And then, a man by the name of Trevor Knight joined the stage. And he and Prince Mama sang John Denver songs together, as brothers. Trevor told us that in the 1960's he played the folk circuit in England, and often played shows with an upstart short dude named Paul Simon, who later went back to America to play with his mate Art Garfunkel. Yep, THE Paul Simon, one of my biggest music idols and on my Top 5 to see live list (along with James Taylor and the five member version of Fleetwood Mac).

So last night, in an old cattle feeding shed, I tucked my djembe under my arm, and I drummed along with a Philipino tribal chief and a dude who had played with Paul Simon. I drummed like there was nothing else to do but echo the heartbeat, nothing to do but herald a miracle.

I danced with that drum like a woman possessed by the earth, the music and the moon~drenched air.

All my life I have been waiting to be this woman.



Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West of Proserpine, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

(Lyrics by John Denver, as sung by Leonie Allan)


"There are two laws we have. To translate them, it means Love and also Peace."
~ Prince Mama Kiama


I will meet you in the dancing circle,
Leonie

the cowgirl hangs up her adventure hat for now

lena

I have returned, hung my blue cowgirl adventure hat on the doorknob (for now).

I have been on 12 plane flights in the last month. Adventure upon adventure. See what that hat does?

It is odd to be back here ~ I am still in two different places.

More than two actually.

I am:

Walking the streets of Adelaide.
Holding my breath, watching magnificent buffalos.
Making inspiration sandwiches with my magicmakingmistress Donn.



Making silly with my rather hilarious lil sister.


no, seriously, don't make me do that dumbass poetic look outside the window...
oh, okay then...

Breathing in the sea salt air of Hobart.
Living the pre-wedding week of my soul sister Shan and a gaggle of new goddess sisters.



Chanting by the river.
Leaving my personal belongings splayed across Australia (clapping sticks are planted in the sands of a creek. I hope the pigs don't gnaw on them.)
Dancing ecstatically with a new friend with the same mermaid hair as me.



Meeting a woman with priestess eyes and finding a crystal with stories in it.
Gathering with women for sacred rites.
Running barefoot down the dirt road of Shan's property at dusk.
Walking all the way home in the dark holding hands with my sweet friend Lena from school.
Photographing one of the women I honour most in this world marry her beloved, letting rain tears of joy and light.



Dirty dancing with my imaginary friend Patrick Swayze.
Laughing until it hurt (and it hurts so good).
Asking for healing, again and again.
Learning how to live in this world with my Spirit showing.
Meditating on a single bed with my big sister, niece and nephew. A breathing love sandwich.
Walking in the morning with my mama, finding two eagle feathers as gifts from the universe.
Meeting my mum's tai chi guru and being thoroughly told off by him in a loving kickbutt kinda way *gigglesnort*.
Looking for frogs with torches.
Laughing through the halls of a nursing home with my ancient kindred.
Being an angel.
Kneeling on the ground at my ancestral home, praying and smudging.
Playing on the see-saw with my mum and 90 year old goddess crone of a grandmother.
Crying and laughing and growing and healing and sharing all at once.
Family. Family. Family. Need I say more?
Savouring the moments at each place I travel to and each heart I meet.
Returning home to my crazily colourful and cozy home. Into the embrace of his arms and eyes, and the lickety-lickstering of my joyful dog.
I ask him: Why do we live here again? Away from our families and the land?
He doesn't know the answer right now either, but that is okay. We know for now, we are here. And we are here for a reason that is simultaneously unfurled and still blossoming.

This is where I am at.

I am a radically blessed woman,
Leonie


on the travels, charters towers beyond my window

divinely guided: summer solstice

A few weeks ago, a chance conversation happened.

We were driving through the toll booth as we do everyday. I was soaking up the attention of the old toll booth driver who we have named "Wilfred." All in a day's work really - talk about the weather, laugh about the traffic, anything to have some small talk with a stranger.
But this day he says something unusual:
Only a few more weeks until the longest day of the year!

I exclaimed my surprise, we waved our goodbyes, and drove on.
From the backseat Mr P berates me joyfully:
REALLY Leonie! What kind of PAGAN are YOU!!! Not even knowing about Summer Solstice! I mean REALLY! I thought you would have been up a hill celebrating it naked with your womens friends or something!

I laugh at my pagan ignorance. I've never had the opportunity to celebrate a solstice before in other circles, but now I have my own circle, and the opportunity lay before me.
A seed was planted, a resolve grew:
YES, I must celebrate summer solstice.

So I sent out the call. A few responded, as I expected. Christmas falls so close to Summer Solstice, I knew my sisters would already have plans.

I did some research, and felt like I was learning about a history I hadn't heard before. I knew about Christian festivals created in the last two thousand years, but what of before then? Cultures all around the world have celebrated the longest day of the year with various festivals. In the ancient region of Sweden, a midsummer tree was set up and decorated in each town which would be danced around. Women and girls would bathe in the local river as a magical rite to bring rain for the crops. You can read more about the traditions of summer solstice here.

Last night I drove to the local river, dressed simply in a blue skirt, a black singlet and a serendipitous, sacred goddess necklace received in the mail today, woven with love from the hands of Darlene.

Another woman soon arrives by the river, and after waiting some time we decide the Universe has gifted us with the opportunity to experience a two woman circle.

We walk through water to create a simple circle of white summer roses. We ground to mother earth, watch father sun descending into the mountains, meditating, sending healing energy out into the world, chanting, telling stories of the old days, praying for rain, honouring the warmth, energy and light that the sun gives us.

When we close I follow the old swedish practice. I leap into the river water, baptising myself as the light fades, calling the rains with laughter.

When we leave, we look back. I say to Mich
"Would we have done this? If I'd said to you - meet me at the river, just us two, to meditate as the sun went down, would we have done it?"

I'm not so sure - and yet we DID.

And that is the most beautiful thing of all about this work ~ doing things we never thought possible, living life in the wildest, most alive way possible.

Happy Summer Solstice.

May your world be blessed with ancient traditions, divine guidance and ceremonies "just because."



Today we paint the hallway spontaneously a deep red, womb red, henna red. An entryway into new possibilities, an initiation into the womens way.

Today a rain descends. I cannot stop from smiling.