When we come to a healing path – or any path of committed spiritual endeavour – we often do it to fix something in particular. For me, the healing path makes sense because of my magical background and heritage! But actually, I didn’t really come to it that way, or at least not so consciously. I was looking to make change: change to my body, which was in those days often clutched by pain, and change to my life, which at that time was complete bloody chaos.

The chronic condition I’d suffered with for years was dispatched relatively quickly. The other stuff – the real work of it – is about who I am and the life I live. The healing path isn’t about changing one thing, and it isn’t even really about changing our lives, even if that is the desire. It demands that we know ourselves, take responsibility for how we move through the world. It is a path back to our true selves – something hard to understand, and damn near impossible to write a blog on.

So, I’m not writing about the big work of a lifetime on this random Wednesday. Today I just wanted to ask you when was the last time you acknowledged a glorious sign that the work is actually working? That your life and, yes, you are getting better? Sometimes life is still hard, of course, but if the work is working, we will see a stripping away of the old patterns and the drama that used to accompany us everywhere we went. If we are getting closer to our true selves, we meet discomfort in a different way.

Let me tell you the story of Ingrid, the Rose and the Witness…

It was a Monday afternoon in May (yes, a couple of weeks ago). I had a lot going on – it already wasn’t my best day ever, if I’m going to be really honest with you. I was pulling on a fair amount of will power to stay on track that day – but on track I was, sat there at my kitchen table working. Suddenly there was a fairly awful crashing sound outside. When I looked out the window to see where it came from, I found a large van on my front lawn. It’s handbrake had failed and it had rolled from its parking space, down the hill, through some gardens and onto my lawn and driveway. The crash was the van hitting my beloved car, Ingrid the Golden Chariot is her name, and knocking her into a distressingly diagonal pose.

This was not good. I came out of my house and stared at the scene, and the first words out of my mouth were not spiritual, they were something along the lines of “what the actual fuck?”. There were some witnesses to the crash, who very kindly stopped to check in with me and share their details. I took some photos, messaged my brother for moral support, then went off in search of the van owner. In the process I met some lovely neighbours I didn’t know before, and found out the name of my favourite little cat on my road – all nice things.

At one of the houses I was pointed towards where the driver (a workman, not a neighbour) could be found, and we had to talk through our situation! He was in quite the panic, and I remember stopping and talking him into calmer breathing, letting him know that no one was hurt and if he was insured (thank the gods, fully comp) then everything going to be just fine. He was cooperative and put in his claim immediately, admitting liability and putting me in the best possible place to make a claim.

It doesn’t really sound like a story that shows the work is working. In fact it is a sad story about what may yet end up being the death of Ingrid the Golden Chariot, and it happened when life was already being quite life-y. But… there are two little details:

1: The Rose

One of the witnesses I mentioned earlier had a little black dog. I recognised him, because I want all dogs to be my friend and this particular dog is nervous and doesn’t like to be approached by strangers. On this occasion, though, the dog came over to me and let himself be petted, much to his owners’ surprise. He had a ball and something else I couldn’t see in his mouth. At the end of our encounter he dropped them at my feet, picked up the ball and trotted off leaving the other item at my feet. It was a perfect rose, one of the orange ones that are darker around the edge of the petals. These are the type of roses I place on my Hekate altars (and black dogs are sacred to Hekate, of course).

When we are on a path like ours, sometimes things happen that are outside of our control and those things might derail us. It is good to keep our eyes open for signs that we are still being taken care of (my mum always sees white feathers at those moments – clearly I was in need of something more dramatic!). Do you acknowledge those signs, and take a moment to reset?

2: The Witness

The witness came to me just the other day, when I was returning from the garage having dropped Ingrid off at last to determine her fate. This wasn’t one of the witnesses to the accident – but for me she turned out to be far more important. This lady was the neighbour who had directed me to the right house to find the driver – and watched the rest of the story unfold from her doorway.

She came to me and said she’d thought about the incident a lot since it happened. She thanked me for being calm, and told me the driver was a lovely man and she appreciated my kindness to him in the moment. She said to me, “you must tell me how you do this. I’ve told everyone about your energy in that moment – I want to emulate this! Tell me, how did you not lose your centre in that moment?”

We had a fun conversation about meditation and healing, about my “what the actual fuck?” moment and the dog who gifted me a Hekate rose. We laughed about it and she wished me luck with Ingrid.

There was a time in my life I would have been surprised to be called calm! And it is always nice to know that in a sticky situation I can still be kind. But sometimes it takes a witness to let you know that, despite how many things are happening, you really are different. You really are better than you were, and the old reactivity and patterns aren’t your reflexes any more. You are able to meet discomfort as yourself instead, at last.

Where are your witnesses, reflecting this important message back to you when you need to hear it? I hope you see them – and I hope you are able to see, in these small moments, how far you’ve come!

Check your progress: a 3 day Solstice healing

Summer Solstice: A healing sunrise
19 – 21 June 2024

This healing offering, beginning as the sun approaches its highest point, is a perfect point of power and reflection. The longest day of the year (this year on Thursday 20 June) is not only a celebration of the strength and growth that has occurred since the sun’s rebirth at midwinter. It is also the moment that the wheel turns again into descent towards darkness. Over the course of the three days we will move from a re-energising healing, through a review of our journey, and finally to resourcing ourselves for the the first descending steps through the shortening days.

Day 1: Recharge – a powerful solar healing

Day 2: Summit – stand at the highest point

Day 3: Resource – take in power for the descent

This remote healing event is delivered into your inbox every day on 19, 20 and 21 June. You will receive a teaching video and a guided healing journey to be used in your own time, as well as a remote healing sent by me for the group each day.

Sign up for the Solstice edition of Healing Through the Wheel of the Year for just £45.