15/02/2025
Vale of the Stars has been such a wildly transformative experience. From the start of the Vale of the Stars Eco project in 2013, I had to learn so many new ways to inhabit my new Portugal adventure. It was a caleidescope of experiences, negotiating new terrains not only literally with the 4 hectares of an unmanaged abandoned farm, but the unfolding of my personal relationships where I journeyed through some really harsh and some truly beautiful terrains.
Coinciding with my menopause, I went through the descent into the underworld of my true nature, ‘innerstanding’ the soulful meaning of what it means to be a fully sovereign and embodied woman, shedding conditioning, gaining resilience and depth of insight about my heritage and the heritage to the land I lived upon. I lived a mythic story, one that felt like a transmutation of the suffering of so many sisters before me, or was it our Earth herself? Is there a differentiation anyway? I could feel the crying of the priestesses that inhabited this place once revered for it’s power. An ancient culture and their peoples, deeply connected, living a sacred existence to the Earth and the Stars, all obliterated by incoming Patriachal religions.
In my microcosmic human experience I felt the existence of my place within the macrocosm of connectedness to universe. Through community, the children, the animals, plants, stones, the water, the whole Mother Gaia herself, mirroring back to me a journey of the era of time we exist in. I experienced the great revealing of a political and social landscape that exposed corruption and distortion. Illuminating my already deepening realisation of the enormous lies and deception, humanity has undergone in this past few thousand years. How incredible, I couldn’t help but feel fascinated and devastated at the same time.
So I found myself crumbling into the ground, feeling like dust in the tumultuous Atlantic winter winds, ego fallen in tatters, dreams questioned, renegotiated and reconsidered, vulnerable as an abandoned child. The dichotomy of authenticity versus physical and emotional safety were my constant companions.
But eventually over time, the unconscious became conscious, I allowed my body to speak it’s pain and I listened, I learned. Profound truths of my inner wisdom, my embodiment trainings serving me, journalling fearlessly and fearfully, deep diving, supported by wise guidance, creating fertile compost of the dust, the seeds that had become shrunken, dry and brittle, exposed tiny tendrils of potential. My small roots searching to gain ground, it felt excruciatingly slow like a seedling determined to push through tightly packed asphalt engineered to oppress wildness. I arose so tentatively into brighter, more spacious terrain lit by sunlight, that spoke the possibility of something new.
So here I am, no wait, I will say that in capitals. HERE I AM. Roots are firmly found in a village home, unexpected fertile ground, so loved and appreciated my heart bursts in gratitude. I notice I am taking time to grow, flowers and leaves open in the rhythm of natural cycles, when the whispers in the air speak of readiness. I wait a little impatiently admittedly, but I listen to the whispers on the wind to reveal the way.
Vale of the Stars is a new creature that I nurture, not limited to one location, it finds it’s home in beautifully vibrant terrains that support Mother Gaia to heal us, to empower us and to love us back to wholeness. We all deserve to recharge, reconnect and truly remember who we are.
