breathofgreenair

The Birth of Magic

Posted on August 2, 2014 by greenmackenzie

There’s a hill, just beyond the hill behind the last hill you can see, rolling away into the distance. On the breast of this hill magic is brewed each and every day. It rises in soft white and purple clouds into the sky above the hill, and spills out from here across the land, carried on the soft breeze. The breeze breathes magic across the green earth, and draws it back into the hill at the end of each day, as the sun passes her power to the moon. If you follow the path of the clouds you will find the gate which separates the home of magic from the rest of the earth.

Not many people pass this way, and the path is overgrown, but don’t be fooled. You’re on the right path, and through the lush ferns and the tall grass the oak gate guards the entrance. Strange shadows and light dance across the space, and if you whisper the words just behind the tip of your tongue, the gate between worlds will swing open, inviting you through.

If you walk deeper and deeper beneath the twisted arms of the oaks, following the sparkling light and the bells of silence, you will come to the pool where magic is birthed. There’s a strange silence, which is filled with sound, and strange shadows filled with light, which pour out from this mystical pool. Everything is tinged and infused with the green light of the earth and all her wild magic. Fairies ride dragonflies with iridescent wings and glittering blue bodies, and mice with spiderweb reins carry will-o-the-wisps all around the edges. Butterflies with rainbow filled wings tumble out of the water and pour into the world among the clouds of magic. Every beautiful surprise you ever imagined was born here.

Behind the pool lies the circular temple of form and image, where the magic takes shape. Within the carved pillars, shapes and patterns are dreamed and born, and sometimes the power of the magic cracks the clouds and lightning spills through. The clouds here are tinged with purple, and the ground trembles. When you leave be sure to close the gate behind you or else the magic will escape and follow you home, living within your shadow twinkling with mischief.

Posted in Celtic, elemental, mythology | Tagged birth, Celtic, earth, elemental, fairytales, imagination, magic, myth, nature, photography | 62 Comments

Sun Worship

Posted on July 28, 2014 by greenmackenzie

Summer lovin’ Bastet style. Nobody soaks up the suns heat as stylishly as cats, and our Bengal positively shimmers in the solar heat. The Egyptians worshiped cats, and cats worship the sun. Perhaps they have a drop or two of wisdom to share about looking beautiful and catching the solar light. Certainly it’s a love affair with heat. Her fierce leonine side was tamed with opium infused beer…..

Posted in mythology, relaxation, weekly photo challenge | Tagged cats, Egyptian, golden hour, mythology, photography, postaday, relaxation, summer, sun, worship | 37 Comments

Dog Days of Summer

Posted on July 27, 2014 by greenmackenzie

It was hot, the air was heavy and languid, and none of us felt like moving. The dog days of summer had arrived, bringing heat and lethargy, so there was only one antidote….some sea air.

The dogs had been snoozing and panting in the shade all day, but as soon as their paws hit the cool sea water they sprang back to life. While Maisie was content to simply stand belly deep in the gentle waves cooling off, Molly and Willow had a race.

Stretching their muscles and legs as far as they could reach, they thundered down the sand, along the edge of the sea as though their life depended on it. Throwing up the water behind her Molly caught up with her mother, and you can feel her glee as she comes alongside.

Pulling into the lead she pounds through the waves, forgetting the heat and the sun as she plays in the water. The cool ocean is the perfect place to breath some energy back into over heated bodies.

The extra heat at this time of year was believed to come from the brightly burning Dog Star, Sirius, which rose alongside the sun during these 40 days of summer. Combined with the sun, the heat of Sirius was seen as so intense that lethargy fell across the earth, and dogs turned mad. Looking at my two careering through the waves you might be inclined to believe the legend, after all there’s a thin line between fun and madness.

On the return leg of the race Willow pulled ahead, long and lean she cut through the waves, feeling pleasure with each paw beat. Soaked by their own spray the dogs were happy, cool and stress free, despite the summer heat, so I decided to join them in the water. The coast really is the best place to be, to love and enjoy the long hot dog days of summer.

see more summer lovin’ photos at the WP Weekly Challenge

And here’s another Dog Days response to the challenge.

And here is a lovely response based on cows…

Posted in dogs, mindfulness, weekly photo challenge | Tagged beach, dog days, dogs, fun, holiday, nature, photography, play, postaday, summer | 58 Comments

Rose water

Posted on July 22, 2014 by greenmackenzie

Sometimes the world
is so crowded with beauty
that it’s hard to breath.

The heat and the light
Burn until we crave shade to
Sup rose water dew.

Posted in art, nature photo, poem | Tagged flowers, garden, golden hour, Haiku, nature, photography, poetry, roses, summer | 34 Comments

On Containing

Posted on July 20, 2014 by greenmackenzie

All around us, everywhere, the world is filled with containers holding things within them. The bowl contains the oranges, the orange skin contains the segments, the segments contain the juice. Most things, ourselves included, are both containing, and being contained. In psychotherapy we think of the containment of emotions as being able to bear and hold and work with uncomfortable and difficult feelings, and the act of feeling held and safe.

Without containment there would be no form in the world, everything would flow in and out with no edges. Containment allows shape and difference, by keeping one thing separate from another. Within our minds containment allows thought and understanding, and allows us to name feelings and experiences. Sometimes difficult experiences can overwhelm our minds, sweeping away the containing edges and leaving our inner world jumbled and confused. The work of therapy is then to bring containment back, to create words and a story which can hold the feelings and experience comfortably within the mind once more.

Containment can bring joy and play back into our lives, giving us new meaning and a richer understanding. The world is full of edges and containers and movement in and out, just look around you and within you…..

find more containers at the WP photo challenge

Posted in mindfulness, philosophy, weekly photo challenge | Tagged containment, emotions, health, life, mindfulness, nature, photography, postaday, psychotherapy | 37 Comments

Stone Owl

Posted on July 15, 2014 by greenmackenzie

Stone owl watches
Waiting for his flower maid
Heartache will follow

Posted in Celtic, mythology, poem | Tagged art, Blodwen, cairn, Celtic, forest, Haiku, myths, nature, photography, sorrow | 24 Comments

Two Tails

Posted on July 14, 2014 by greenmackenzie

Some times two tails, and two noses are better than one.
The smell of the freshly landed langoustines was just too much to resist.

Posted in dogs, photos, Plockton | Tagged dogs, harbour, photography, pier, scotland, seaside, travel | 34 Comments

Royal Relics

Posted on July 12, 2014 by greenmackenzie

This wonderful characterful unicorn is part of a fairytale Scottish relic commissioned by King James V. It has stood in the central courtyard of Linlithgow Palace since 1538, just one year after the young Scottish King married the sophisticated and beautiful French Mary of Guise.

It is covered in a wild and fantastical variety of mystical and mythical beasts, all linked to Scottish symbolism. Built with love and magic, lions and bears vie for space with mermaids and unicorns, and sweep you off into tales as old as the hills.

There is such vitality in these old stone relics that it’s easy to imagine them getting up and walking off across the cobbled square.

Despite the cobwebs in his mouth, it was only at the last full moon that this old lion padded across the grass down to the loch outside the palace walls, for a drink of moon filled water.

And only last month this feisty deer caught the sun in her horns and rode through the worlds edges and on into the otherworld, which lies just beneath our feet, a heartbeat away. She has secrets to share, but you have to know how to ask.

So fierce that he has to be chained, the unicorn is restless, longing to stretch his legs and pound his hooves across the green land of Scotland, ancient Albion, whose soul he holds.

And the deer who lights the path through the dark leafy Forrest is waiting to open the way to those who seek. Resting for now among the stone throng of creatures, it would take just one whispered word in his ear and a little drop of magic and desire. Your adventure into the forest of mysteries could begin on your next heartbeat.

But for now all is quiet, and this ancient stone relic sits peacefully holding its tales of wonder and magic safely in the centre of the old royal palace. Seat of the Stewart kings, Queen Margaret gave birth to her son, James V, here within these walls on 10 April 1512. He brought his beautiful French wife to live here and built her this fairytale fountain one year later. A love filled anniversary gift fit for a Queen, still beautiful nearly five hundred years later!

See more relics here at WP weekly photo challenge.

Posted in history, mythology, weekly photo challenge | Tagged fairytale, history, love, magic, myths, photography, postaday, royalty, scotland, travel | 48 Comments

Skye Clouds

Posted on July 8, 2014 by greenmackenzie

There’s an almost mythical island which you may have heard of, drifting to the west, dipping in and out of view. Here the clouds and mountains mimic each others shapes, merging sky and mountain into an impossible tantalising illusion.
Some days the clouds sink so low that the island disappears altogether into the clouds, becoming one with the sky. Other days the mountains throw off their cloud cloaks, proudly baring their rock peaks to the sun, in a naked blue sky. But my favourite days are the ones where the hills shyly lift their veil into the gathering light and warmth of the sun. By late afternoon the cloud veils are swirling in impossible dances around the mountain peaks, teasing us with ever shifting scenes of light and shadow, over their smooth sloping shoulders.
The Isle of Skye is such a tease….

Posted in elemental, mythology, nature photo | Tagged change, clouds, golden hour, mountains, nature, photography, scotland, Skye, travel | 31 Comments

Graveside Memories: Balmacara

Posted on July 5, 2014 by greenmackenzie

It was my Granny’s birthday in June, while we were visiting Plockton, and so we paid her a visit in Balmacara Graveyard. I picked fresh flowers from the garden and we drove the twisting single track road out of the village towards Balmacara, following the trail we had taken behind her coffin many years ago, in the autumn of 1999. That day a long convoy of cars had crawled snake like along the road, blocking incoming traffic, as most of the village headed out towards the burial ground, several miles away. I was humbled by the respect shown by all of these people who had lived and breathed beside my Granny in her life. Today though we had no company, and I clutched the flowers as we pulled into several passing places to allow inbound visitors to pass us by.

Perched on the edge of Loch Alsh, with views out across the water to Skye, it’s a beautiful place to be laid to rest. Returned to earth, she lies here beside her mother, father and sister in a family lair, as plots are called in these parts, and I can’t think of anywhere more lovely as a last resting place.

Her headstone is also a memorial to her husband, my Grandfather, who was lost at sea during World War II, and the names of my mother, Aunt and Uncle are also here. Although all of them are still alive, they are scattered to the far corners of the globe, to Canada, Australia and Scotland. There is something deeply moving, and yet comforting about seeing all of these well known family names together in one peaceful green spot, among these familiar hills. A sense of a circle completed, of return, and of renewal, as the dead are gathered together and replaced by the living. Perhaps future generations yet to walk this piece of earth, and yet to draw its air into their lungs, will also visit and remember.

Fore bearers and descendants of MacKenzies, MacRaes, Mathesons and Murchisons have been placed in this hallowed soil for 1,400 years. Although their individual names and stories are lost to the weathering of time, absorbed into the soft green mound of this ancient sacred site, they live on yet in the blood of the present, and the stories yet to come.

Deep at the heart of the original burial mound lies this medieval gravestone. It marks the final resting place of an ancient and powerful Clan Chief, and is carved in the local style with his huge claymore sword resting down the centre of his body. This was a Viking Sea Kingdom for 500 years, and power was carved and held at the edge of a sword. There is no doubt that the patterns and traces from this Norse blood flow still through local veins, mixed with the fierce and poetic Gaelic ancestors.

In the dappled shade of the trees, the leaves whisper stories almost lost, remembering the Culdee monks who first Christianised this holy place of the dead. Thousands of years of human history gathered in this soft green mound, and tales as long and twisted as the threads of your cloak, tracing the rise and fall of kith and kin, weave through the shadows.
‘Remember the men* from whence you came’.
An old Gaelic proverb, which seems fitting.
(*people/ men and women)
Happy Birthday Granny.