Alison Strandberg - Holistic Services

08/01/2026

This is the most beautiful story and this site "Friends of the Forest" has the most beautiful posts. ❤

Before the sky learned its tidy constellations and straightened itself into order, there was a single wandering star that would not stay where she was placed.

She had no throne, no myth carved for her, no worshippers naming her into usefulness.
She was simply the one who moved when every other star stayed still.

The oldest astronomers—those who watched the night from cold stone towers—recorded her with irritation.
Their maps kept breaking around her.
She slipped their gridwork, dodged their neat lines, ignored their predictions.
Night after night, she wandered.

They called her inconvenient.

But the shepherds who slept in fields thought differently.
They said she was a woman made of iron-light and wind, a goddess shaped like a star who had once been thrown from her place in the heavens but refused to fall.
Instead of descending, she learned to walk sideways in the sky.

She carried no messages.
She offered no blessings.
She did not answer prayers.

Women in the villages liked her for this.

A being who did not care to be useful was a relief.

And in January—when the nights were sharpened down to their barest shape—she came closest to the earth.
Close enough that people swore they could see her moving with intention, threading through the winter constellations like someone searching for something she once lost.

No one knew what she was looking for.
Some said she was gathering fragments of herself scattered across centuries.
Some said she was sweeping the sky for forgotten stories.
Some said she walked to keep the darkness honest.

But those who watched her longest claimed this:

She walked the January sky because she remembered what it was to be thrown.
And she knew others did too.

They believed she listened for that particular ache,
the one carried by anyone who has lived through a shattering
and quietly stitched themselves back together.

They said she walked to show that a thing can be broken from its place
without being broken of its power.

And so the maps never caught her.
The calculations always failed.
The sky remained a little disordered in her wake.
For she refused to fall,
and in doing so, she taught the world a new way to move through darkness.

~Kathleen

03/01/2026

I hope the first days of 2026 have been gentle for you. We are still in a time of rest and wintering as the year begins to unfold. I wish you a time of peace, calm and time for reflection in these January days.

I wish to thank all my clients and followers for being a part of 2025 with me. I am so grateful for our connection. I look forward to sharing space with you again in the months ahead.

With love and gratitude

Alison 🙏❤🙏

21/12/2025

Blessings on this Winter Solstice day, welcoming a time of rest and reflection. Yesterday, on the longest night, our Gathering of Sisters released the old, and with the help of Skade, the Nordic winter goddess, we shot our arrows of dreams into the future. We ended with the annual candle ceremony receiving insights into the coming year. 🌟🔥🌟

09/12/2025

I am sharing this wonderful post. I have always loved this time of the year because of the candles and the lights in the darkness. I always have a light in the window during December. I feel the sense of connection with my own family who are no longer in this world, but also the connection with the old ways.

I am holding an online Cacao Ceremony this Saturday between 10am -12 to combine the Swedish celebration of Sankta Lucia, the bringer of light in the darkness, and a sacred ceremony of light, lighting candles to represent each month for the year ahead. As we light the candles we tune in to the guidance that flows within the light. Welcome. 🌟❤🌟

Long before electric lights lined rooftops and shop windows glowed in December, a single flame was enough to mark the season. In old villages across Europe, a candle placed in the window was more than mere decoration—it was a sign, a signal, a blessing. It guided wandering spirits gently past the home, welcomed beloved ancestors, and stood as a quiet promise that warmth and hospitality still lived inside the walls.

In Ireland and Scotland, a candle in the window during midwinter signaled to travelers that the hearth was warm and the door would be opened to those in need. Some say it honored Mary and Joseph seeking shelter; others say it was a remnant of older customs inviting ancestral spirits to step close on long winter nights. For many families, the youngest child was given the honor of lighting the candle—a symbolic act of innocence calling back the returning light.

In parts of Scandinavia, candles were set on windowsills or placed on carved wooden holders shaped like suns or wheels. These were lit not just to brighten the long nights, but to help ancestral spirits find their way during the dark season or to keep protective household guardians near the home. Light was a companion, a shield, and a whisper to the unseen world: we are here; we remember; we honor.

By the time Christmas celebrations spread across Europe, these folk practices blended into the season. Candles burned beside nativity scenes, stood watch in windows on Christmas Eve, and illuminated evergreen branches before electric lights ever existed. Families believed the flame offered protection from misfortune, illness, and wandering spirits—an ancient comfort wrapped inside a Christian holiday.

The same thread of meaning can be felt in other winter traditions: the Advent wreath, lit one candle at a time to mark the approach of the holy light; the menorah, whose flames commemorate a miracle of endurance in darkness; the Caribbean’s Junkanoo lanterns; the Scandinavian Lucia crowns carrying light through the early morning gloom. All reflect a shared understanding carried through centuries: that in the darkest season, humans answer with flame.

Lighting a candle in December is an act of remembering. It honors the ancient turning of the year, the ancestors who watched the sun’s slow return, and the spirits who walked the winter boundary. It softens the dark, steadies the mind, and invites blessings—old and new—into the home.

Even now, when you strike a match and watch a flame bloom into being, you are repeating a gesture older than memory.

A way of saying: Come in from the dark. Rest here. Light is returning.

30/11/2025

A beautiful Sisters Gathering to celebrate my experiences in Tepoztlán, Mexico with The Voices of the Grandmothers. I hope to be able to facilitate more gatherings with this special energy of peace, unity and harmony.🕊❤🕊

24/11/2025

The year of the snake is moving closer to its end. For me the year has been a time of shedding skins, letting go of heavy burdens, but also a time of knowing that something new is softly weaving itself into being. The Year of the Snake and the numerology of this year, 2025, are closely bound with the 9 year being a year of completion.

I was given a precious gift to remind me of this year of the Snake while visiting the ancient fortified city of Xochicalco, Mexico. When walking away from the Temple of the Winged Serpent I found a small snakeskin on the grass. I feel very blessed to have been given this reminder of allowing things to fall away, knowing that something new will be birthed with time.🐍❤

18/11/2025

Women Gathering for Peace, Tepoztalan, Mexico, November 2025

I attended this amazing gathering between 4th and 7th November this year. This is the second gathering I have attended led by Luzclara Camus, a Grandmother from Chile. She has followed her vision to bring women together to remember the strength of the feminine lineage and to unite in love to bring forth a message of peace. The first Convergence was held in Pisac, Peru and this time we met in Tepoztlan, Mexico, to hear "La Voz de las Abuelas", ( the Voices of the Grandmothers)....

I attended this amazing gathering between 4th and 7th November this year. This is the second gathering I have attended led by Luzclara Camus, a Grandmother from Chile. She has followed her vision t…

11/11/2025

I have just returned from a very special experience in Mexico. In 2019 I attended a Women's Convergence, with 12 Grandmothers from different indigenous cultures, in Peru. This was the second Gathering in Tepoztlán, Mexico. The love, wisdom and joy has returned with me. I have new friends now in many South American countries. I am carrying the spirit of Mexico in my heart. Such a beautiful country and such welcoming, lovely people.❤

01/11/2025

This is a time of connecting with the Ancestors. Samhain has come and gone, but the connections with those who have gone before are still very present. I recently found some words I wrote some years ago and am sharing them again.

My Ancestors I Feel You

My Ancestors I feel you
I feel you reaching out to me
In the softness within
I feel your sighs of joy as you know that I know you are there
I feel you touch me so gently
Like a dandelion clock, which floats by
The dandelion of dreams
I never doubt
I never have to play the game "He/she loves me, he/she loves me not"
I know you love me
As I do you.

27/10/2025

Welcome to a Sacred Online Cacao Ceremony on Saturday, 15th November, from 10am -12 GMT. The theme this month is "Listening to the Whispers of the Grandmothers". I am so excited to be sharing with you, in this ceremony, my experiences with the Grandmothers of the Americas. I am attending an event at the beginning of November in Mexico where thirteen Grandmothers will be sharing their wisdom.. The photographs are from the first meeting with the Grandmothers I attended in Peru in 2019.

Please contact me for more information if you would like to join. The exchange is £20.

Welcome. ❤

27/10/2025

I am so excited to be attending this amazing event. The video is from the first Women's Convergence event I attended in Peru in 2019. It was truly amazing. This time we are gathering in Mexico. I will be sharing my experiences and the wisdom of the Grandmothers when I return. ❤🕊❤

30/09/2025

Welcome to a Sacred Online Cacao Ceremony on Saturday,11th October, from 10am - 12 (GMT). The theme this month is "The Thin Veil- Honouring the Ancestors". We will be connecting with the Ancestors at this time of Samhain and easing into the darker months, which lie ahead. The exchange is £20.

Please contact me for more information if you would like to join.

Welcome. ❤