Emma Pruen, Forerow, Perth (2025)

20/06/2025

I haven’t spent a summer solstice at my home in France since 2021 so it is a delight to be here today, in 39 degree heat. Technically in the early hours of tomorrow morning it’s the summer solstice - a fire festival - so if you have a garden big enough and a clear view of the eastern horizon, lighting a fire and watching the sunrise is a memorable experience (although illegal here). If you have a home without private outdoor space then getting up early and lighting loads of candles and expressing gratitude for the light is another lovely way to start this special day.

Or if you have a busy morning routine and evenings work better find a sunset spot to have a picnic with friends, open a bottle of wine and watch the sun go down together. If you live in the South East head to Margate beach The artist J.M.W. Turner said Margate had the “loveliest skies in Europe” and it has some pretty spectacular sunsets too.

Go outside and bring something from nature home to go on your seasonal table or altar; oak and birch leaves are particularly associated with the summer solstice. If you grow your own herbs today is perfect day to harvest and start drying them.

Sing a song to the sun:

“Oh Father as you walk you skywalk
May your steps be strong and true
May the weight on your back
Be tempered by the fact that
The whole world it comes alive because of you.”

Midsummer rites ‘are often dedicated to the crowning the solar king and dedicating his male energy to the service of the goddess’ says Wiccan writer Vivianne Crowley. If you are in partnership this would be a perfect day to thank your partner and acknowledge them for all they do for you. Or if you are single make a flower charm. It is said that if an unmarried woman picks seven different flowers during midsummer night and puts them under her pillow, she will dream of her future husband.

Face south in your morning meditation and/or do the yogic exercise ‘Salute to the Sun’, the flow sequence of twelve linked asanas.

Wine and Bacchus feels appropriate for mid summer, as do fresh vegetables from the
garden, or a tea made of fresh herbs. Whichever you choose - have fun!

08/06/2025

I got back on the horse this week and facilitated a Hoffman summer retreat in France, with my dear friend . As this was a retreat I’d devised and only ever led with my beloved Matthew there were always going to be poignant and bittersweet moments. With 5 days of drum journeys, rituals, deep catharsis, emotional connection, new awarenesses and fun there are 14 more people waking up this morning deeply connected to themselves and their positive futures waiting to unfold. ❤️

01/05/2025

Wishing you an abundant and joyous Beltane. This fire festival lies in between the Spring Equinoxes and the Summer Solstice. In the Wheel of Life it is right opposite Samhain (the night to the 1st of November also known as Halloween) and like its autumnal equivalent, it is a night where the veils between the worlds are at their thinnest. Magic can happen!
Instead of the deceased joining us (as is the belief during Samhain) the unborn souls are eager to join the human realm during Beltane. In the Celtic tradition the marriage between the Green Man (representing the Sun) and the May Queen (representing the awakening Earth) was celebrated. It is said that in ancient times couples would spend the night together in the woods or fields and enact the ritual marriage of God and Goddess, of Earth and Sky. Any child being born from this sacred union is said to have been raised as a child of the Gods. This is the time for passion, fertility, creativity and sexuality - enjoy!

02/04/2025

Another fabulous few days with the incomparable Daan Van Kampenhout and now another certificate to slip into the filing cabinet never to be seen again

20/03/2025

Well hello! 🌿It’s the Spring, or vernal, equinox today, 20th March at 9.01am. This is the day that the night and day are equal lengths, it’s the time of mad March hares, eggs - from chocolate or chickens - flowers, butterflies and skipping (I made that bit up but the energy definitely has a spring in the step).

In the medicine wheel Spring is the yellow section in the East. The sun rises in the east at the start of each new day, and you could think of today as the start of a new year. As we leave the hibernation of winter, open our doors, greet the sun, you might think about what you want to leave behind from last year or how you might start afresh?

Rituals or ways to mark the day:

🪻Plant something - we are planting lavender in the courtyard, and filling our pots with spring flowers

🏡Go litter picking - or pick up all the fallen wood and branches under your favourite tree as a way of clearing up after the wild winter

🧘🏼‍♂️Face eastward in your morning mediation or do sun salutations

🌱Write you intentions on paper and plant it under some seeds

🌼 Put daffodils on the kitchen table or go full goddess and make yourself a wreath of spring flowers

🎤 Put Nina Simone’s Feeling Good on loud and dance around your living room

🐣Say a prayer to the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre

09/03/2025

I’ve had a lovely day wandering around one of my favourite cities. I’ve never lived in Edinburgh but it feels something like home. It’s where my grandparents met and married and where my dad was born, but then my grandfather was killed and buried in Hong Kong, so maybe it’s his DNA in me, that is making me want to plant myself here.

25/02/2025

A glimpse of the edge of my desk which hints at the exciting project I have lined up. I am thrilled to have signed a book contract to write about one of my favourite subjects. Bet you can’t guess what it’s about?

23/02/2025

“Discovering your unique gift to bring to your community is your greatest opportunity and challenge. The offering of that gift - your true self - is the most you can do to love and serve the world. And it is all the world needs.” 📖Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft

01/02/2025

✨🐑🤍✨Imbolc blessings ✨🐑🤍✨

Today is the half way point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, the midpoint between the dark of winter and the light of spring. This feast day celebration is connected to your home and hearth. You can think of it as the moment we move from being huddled by the fire and notice the first signs that life will return.

The energy of Imbolc was described as the beginning of beginnings. The moment you know you’re pregnant (and indeed Imbolc means ‘In the belly of the mother’), the first seed of an idea, a shoot pushing through the icy earth. Or you might be noticing snowdrops, lambs being born, and the the hint of more light and warmth from the sun.

Today take a moment to celebrate the returning life, the sun or the Celtic goddess Brigid. One ritual is to walk through your dark house holding a lit candle. You could place a bowl of milk, some snowdrops, a symbol of fertility - it could be a photo of your pregnant tummy or a corn doll - and a candle on your altar. When you’re out take a moment to face the sun and express gratitude for the life that it gives us.

Like many feast days in the ancient British calendar it was appropriated by the Christians. In this case it was turned into candlemas, whilst the goddess Brigid was christened St Brigit but otherwise we talking of the same symbol of light retuning and the same motherly figure who is connected milk, fire, the home, and babies.

Imbolc is also an opportune time to plant seeds, both literal and metaphorical.

29/01/2025

Happy New Year to all my fellow Aquarians. Today, 29th January, we have New Moon in Aquarius. This is the sign of friends, groups and community which makes it a sociable New Moon in the star sign linked to everything ‘alternative’ - we Aquarians are the rebels and the lovers of new things. As the wonderful says: “This New Moon phase has extra buzz because, the following day January 30th, the planet of innovation and change Uranus also turns direct. Uranus is co-ruler of Aquarius and therefore linked to the New Moon activity.

Uranus is the rebel planet, the inventor, the disruptor, the square peg in the round hole. If ever there was a time to stand out from the crowd and do something different, something unique, this is it. Listen out for those ‘light bulb’ moments and be spontaneous. Notice who or what comes into your life.”

Something new and exciting is coming into my life which I will share with you soon. Do let me know what is coming into yours!

29/01/2025

I found this new cairn whilst walking near Petersfield this week.

Cairns are nature’s altars.

Stones come from the earth and are one of the energetically grounding symbols. The ritual of placing a stone in a cairn is meditative and can be an expression of gratitude, an act of remembrance, a prayer, or an act of gratitude.

The Scottish Gaelic blessing Cuiridh mi clach air do chàrn translates as “I’ll put a stone on your cairn”. I’m told that before Highland clans fought in a battle (which we did a lot), each man would place a stone in a pile. Those who survived the battle removed a stone from the pile. The stones which remained were built into a cairn to honour the dead.

07/01/2025

Rokey wood, Barkway

Emma Pruen

20/06/2025

08/06/2025

01/05/2025

02/04/2025

20/03/2025

09/03/2025

25/02/2025

23/02/2025

01/02/2025

29/01/2025

29/01/2025

07/01/2025

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