A lovely new friend of mine, Melanie O'Leary is a sound therapist and healer. We have still not had time to sit and really talk about what she does, but all I know is that she has a lovely energy and I know we could collaborate with what she does and what I do, so watch this space.
Melanie invited me to attend a Cocao Ceremony, nope have no idea what it was, but there were singing bowls and we would going to do some sound therapy and it was at my lovely friend, Andrea Clarke's place, Nectar Yoga, so I was in!
I loved the fact, I had to wear comfy clothes, bring a pillow and blanket and journal, yay, felt like I was going to be settling in for the night there. The ceremony was held in the dome at Nectar Yoga, which in itself is amazing. The ceremony was held in the evening and it was just so inviting and homely once inside! Even better, it started to rain and listening to that on the roof is so soothing.
We started by choosing cards, with the lights low and Melanie explaining what we would be doing. Cocao is a hand picked chocolate by women in Costa Rica.
Deeply feminine, aromatic, earthy, strong: our cacao comes from forested slopes, her heartland, and speaks to the power and energy held in the land. The cacao we use for ceremony comes from Doña Melba who has been tending her trees as long as she can remember. Her family goes back generations on these same slopes, hundreds of years growing the cacao, using her for medicine, for ritual, for food. Now she shares it with us, happy for the cacao to reach new hands, new hearts.For the BriBri, cacao is a transformed girl, traditionally only women were permitted to work with her. We feel for this special cacao the same need: only Doña Melba, her daughter AnaMarie, Ancel and Doña Ana have touched the cacao between harvest and shipping. Three BriBri women and a Scot, laughter and chocolate flow freely between us. (melanieoleary.com)
Melanie gave each of us a portion to sip through the evening. Now, I have not had any chocolate for nearly six years, so I was a little concerned about drinking it. This is quite a bitter chocolate, when I sipped, I still found it very sweet, but it was lovely. I only had a couple of sips through the night and that was more than enough for me. It relaxed me, but also heightened my senses. I was more attuned to everything around me, sound, sight, the vibrations in the dome. As we went around our circle and shared, the power of the work that I do and the sense of my herd and I was so strong. I have been feeling untethered for a few months, not knowing what the next steps are, am I doing the right thing working with horses. Not because of the work, I love it, but it is physically and emotionally draining. I am doing this on my own (well I have a wonderful lady helping me now with the physical part), but I am pulled in every way. Also and this is a huge personal conflict, my family suffers some times. I am still here, present with my family, but I am also pulled to my horses, their needs and wants and only I can service those. The whole point of my coming out of the accountancy was to be more present at home and even though, I am in many ways mentally, I am still not always physically present. Hopefully this will change in the coming year or so when we have our own equine facility, but for now, I am split between my home life and my horse life. So, as you can imagine, I am constantly conflicted that someone is suffering. Also, not sure if you realise this, but there is no money in horses!!! They eat all my money and then poop it out. There is no way, we can rely on this business to feed us, so thank god for my husband!!!! This sits heavily and is something I have to think about. Anyway, as I sat in the dome, all this melted away. The horses light me up from the inside, I feel them travelling with me, I feel part of the herd.
Melanie brought us into the sound therapy part of the evening, which I had been looking forward to. I love a singing bowl! I love how the energy around us can make them sing or you may just get a dull grunt from them. I love the feeling of the vibrations of the bowl penetrating through my body. My mind clears, colors swirl around my head and my body and the visions come thick and fast. Melanie took us on a journey, to our safe, happy place. Mine took me immediately to the mint bowl, which is an area at Generations Farms, where I have done all my EFW training. I love it there. I had a couple of the horses grazing with me who are very special to me there and it was a warm summers day. I was in my sit spot, listening to the trees whispering to one another. Then I was taken back to being with Rumor, under the tree in the corral at Endswell Farm. Our place. I would often sit with her out there. Her laying down snoring, me feeling the honor of being able to sit and share time with her, my back against the tree listening to the chickens and sheep as they went about their daily business. Then, I could feel Kassie, my Thoroughbred. She gives me so much cause for concern. Wondering if I can ever help her heal, bring her back to a life she deserves. I could see her kind eye, looking deep into my soul, her warm breathe. However, all of this, all of these visions are very real and very relevant, bringing me back to my body, knowing what I am doing, what I offer, the sacrifices I make are all in line with my new journey.
As our night came to a close, it was time to reflect, I was excited to be apart of this ceremony, the insight it brought and knowing the path I have chosen is the right one. I did go to home feeling a little hungover with that feeling following me to the barn the next day.
The following evening I took Kassie out for some grass with her field mates. As I touched her lead line, the energy poured from the top of my head, like a fountain, it was immense. I could feel it pulsating through Kassie. We were both thrown off. Kassie knows when my bodily energy is different and reacts to it, as she needs consistency / calm. I could feel it radiating from her, therefore, she was more on edge than she would normally be and we did have a moment of all four feet leaving the ground, dangling above my head for the most part and us having to depart back to the safety of the barn and her stable. Her poor stable mate Edgar, looked on knowing he was going to have to calm down the mad mare once again. We spent some time together in the stable later on, as I needed to explore this energy a little more. Something had released from Kassie and myself and I wanted to see where it was going to take us. I just stood in the corner of her stable, breathing in and out and reaching out to her. She settled, she could sense the change as well. We got used to one another new energy. I came home needing to sit with all of this and realizing once again, how powerful our energy can be, how we can be so blocked in our bodies and how when we work with different elements of the senses, we can release those blocks. Sound is definitely strong for me and since this session, I am more tethered, have new intentions of where I should be, have moved my relationship with Kassie into a new chapter and have started making moves to making our equine property a realty. It has cleared me.
If you want more information on the offerings of Melanie, please visit her website at www.melanieoleary.com
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