Category: human nature

What Am I For?

.Reading time 4 minutes.

dawn_dusk_evening_fog_landscape_mist_moon_morning_604253

 

A bird, a tree, a rock; they know what they are for, what freedom is

Simplicity of it pierces through me breaking my heart for I can’t reach that state of knowing

Human…

I am misplaced, shapeshifted here and there, but nowhere I know what I am for

I do it all and do it well, as there’s nothing else to be done, yet there is always a bodily grumble, a jerk and a sting in the tongue, as joy is lost and never there

What am I for? I do not know

In constant searching I tire desiring for extinction, yet if not searching then what?

Grabbing onto something, anything, somewhere, but nothing stays, as it should or should it not be that way?

Is being misplaced a ‘what for’ in itself?

The non-human calls me, as it knows what is what, it had always known and for that I love it so

Thrown into this life one more time I swam and walked straight off with confidence, but devoid of knowing what am I for?

Was I for something, but no more? Seem to have had and lost too early, known too soon, aged ahead of time. Is that it? Neither a witch nor a monk, but both

I seem to know a lot of parts

A bit of everything, but no one thing and I want to be one thing

Past love returns through dreams to remind me of the loss and the feeling that burns with such purity and light

It hurts, but the pain is sweet, the pain is deadly, yet alive. Is love what I was for, but no longer?

I drop it all now and again, empty out the way for something to take shape, to become once more

It comes, it stays, and it fuels, but not for long before the craving rises up again for

What am I for?

Now and again I grab hold of the golden thread and cherish it for a time

Before it slips out of my hand once again to become something or anything, but not mine

Am I a shapeshifting entity adapting to what is? Is that enough? Is that worthy of staying, being?

Perhaps it’s always been with nothing solid or constant needed

Perhaps the flow is where it’s at, for I speak of the flow often

Why does the yearning not stop and bitterness grows at times?

Why the peace alludes me and tears always stand on ready

Perhaps, it is a part of a crying body, dark texture of a human that also wants to be

And I am a carrier of its skin and depth

Perhaps, that is just so and what if that is not me, or one or constant

Perhaps, I am the ever-changing sketch of all things life, all voices of the unknown

In times of tiredness I crave the knowledge of the way of trees, rocks and birds

It comes over and over, but a shapeshifter needs rest, space, and formlessness

Hence emptiness is a necessary part of life too

What am I for? A lifetime spent asking questions is a life worth having

Perhaps…

@copyrightNC2020

A new book announcement

.Reading time 1 minute.

final cover

Excited to announce the final cover for my forthcoming book from Moon Books. To be published in April 2021

A guide and companion on an individual journey to true self-empowerment through reclaiming the power of intuition, this book celebrates who you are, utilizes intuition, nature principles and elements and puts YOU and your magical practice at the centre. Aimed at beginners, / Pagan Portals – Intuitive Magic Practice/ is easy to follow and will help you discover techniques, methods and practices you can adapt for your own magical practice

“Great book! Trusting in your intuition is, I believe, key to working good magic. Learning how to trust it can be difficult. Natalia Clarke leads you through the process step by step with information, personal experience and exercises. Everything you need to take you on your own intuition discovery journey.” Rachel Patterson, author of several Witchcraft books including /Witchcraft into the Wilds/, /Grimoire of a Kitchen Witch/ and the /Kitchen Witchcraft/ series.

I don’t want to…

.Reading time 9 minutes.

What is the thing that you would say out loud if you were 100% authentic even if just for a moment.

This is the most authentic I have ever been probably and I am saying it out loud and it feels incredibly liberating.

When I was small I was known for saying ‘I don’t want to’ a lot. I resisted, fought, defended whatever my heart held precious and I stubbornly stamped my feet in not wanting either doing or feeling. It applied to many things and now as an adult I understand that state of authenticity and I admire it in my inner little girl even though she lost that fight pretty early on, around five years old. The ‘I don’t want to’ got silenced for life I’d say, but the inner grumble never went away although compliance took over on a scale unimaginable to her but necessary for mere survival.

I never believed or ever will for as long as I live in suppression of emotions of any kind and going against your soul I consider a crime. I have always known that. Life had different ideas, hence a coat of sadness cling to me all my life as a knowing of what’s underneath. Physical beauty only intensified the pain within and the split between inner and outer always felt unbearable. This world always felt too difficult to be in, to handle, to operate and survive. I did. We all did in one way or another. It’s not all bad, of course it’s not, as moments of sheer ecstasy and happiness did come and I can count them on one hand and remember each and every one of them like it was yesterday and always will.

So, last night I wrote this, which brought back the ‘I don’t want to’ back and this time it is near to stay, to speak out loud without shame, worry, care or fear of any kind.

What would you say ‘I don’t want to’ today to help bring yourself back home, to a state where you know yourself as best you can and there are no more cover ups or excuses, only truth, your truth!

Freedom or connection?

Extinction or restoration?

Been in conflict with this since last year and extinction is so wanted. Tired, don’t want to do it, want to be free, not in connection with anyone, don’t want to help or rescue anyone, too hard.

Freedom/death/no more/no faith in humanity/not up to me/don’t want the responsibility

But I am called to do this because apparently someone thinks that I can. Restoration needed

You have got to heal how to be a mother – wow, not that again, don’t want to

I need to be in the right place to activate this, to heal this. No, I don’t. I don’t want to

Ultimately I don’t want to even engage with it let alone dive into it aiming to heal. I feel like I am done and whatever is left will always be and I am ok. Freedom and peace is what I want. I am tired of this world and just want to enjoy whats left for me and my family.

Burn out that’s reached its ultimate peak. All the things that defined me in a forceful way but were never me and what I wanted are now surrendering and giving up. Enough they say, we are not doing it, we are not moving. Stubborn energy and some might relate to it as selfish but to me it is like a defence in the name of my authenticity. It is not avoidance or resistance it is a very firm NO. I really really really don’t want to be there for others when I don’t want or need to be. I want to do nothing. My wants are minimal, very simple and singular. I want to sit in a chair for hours and just look at the trees outside. I want to walk from

Room to room with no particular purpose, I want to write some words and fall into the flow and don’t come out of it till I want to come out of it not when I am expected to break it or interrupted to break it. With a sigh and an inner grumble I do but I don’t want to. I don’t need or want a purpose to define my being here on earth at this time. I don’t need to be somewhere with someone doing something I no longer need to fulfil needs and wants of someone else or an idea that I should. It’s stupid to me and when I have to do it I don’t feel great even though I have to. It doesn’t give me pleasure or joy or anything I’d call fulfilment really because I want none of that and never wanted it really. It all just happened, I fell into many traps and often consciously because that’s what everyone does and blah blah blah. It is boring to me, pointless, flat and dull.

I am also quite tired of discussing it, debating it, going over it like a wound that will never heal and I know it won’t until I stop picking at it and just Forget it is there. It wants to be forgotten too I think. It doesn’t want to be a reminder either. We all want peace and that’s as simple as that. I am not driven to save the world, I am not in a chase after recognition or validation or approval. It gives no value to my life at all. I want don’t need any of that. What I want is just be, observe, be present with my surroundings and write my reflections on what I see, feel and think. I don’t want to make an impact or earn a lot of money or worry about things like school and politics and society in general. Island is my favourite type of land for dwelling where I literally feel cut off and unreachable by anyone or anything. I want to be felt like I am far away or not even existing. I want to be in that sort of hiding and not be interrupted by life as others know it or think it should be. I want little, hardly anything.

Frustration grows in me with this life. I am pushed and pulled and demanded upon and I do love my boys and I am lucky as they understand my need for being, just being with not needing to attach to anything. I do like looking after them but often I don’t want to and that’s ok. We all get it and I am grateful for that.

Lessons in challenges 2019

.Reading time 5 minutes.

Now is a very futile time for psychic material to align with the universal wisdom. This year has been challenging, but what is beginning to transpire that this time round challenges are dressed as opportunities. More than that these opportunities present themselves as a deeper way of working with what we need and want in order to shift and move forward towards thriving. The goal now is to change how things are done on a more meaningful, conscious and intentional level.

You might have been experiencing creation of space or an ‘emptying out’ effect. This is true for me. Emptying in a way that might look like ‘lack’, but actually it is clearing the ground for us as an opportunity to create completely anew. It is challenging us to see whether we fall into our old patterns of thinking through our core believes, defaulting, or going towards needs and wants with clear intentions instead. To notice is the key here.

When you observe your reality right now, what do you notice? Do you feel a certain shift in energy and things around you lately? How does it feel to you? What do you think this shift is asking of you? Remember that whatever happens in the universe at large it always has your best interest at heart. It wants you to grown, thrive and be your best creative self. It wants you to manifest, so it is a positive even though it might feel as negative.

If it does feel bad to you ask yourself what your instant reaction is? Do you see yourself resorting to old ways of trying to bring back what you think you are losing. Any shifts, chellenges or changes are designed to trigger you, but if you are aware of what is being triggered and why (doesn’t matter what triggers you), then you can catch it and resist an automatic reaction that you had always used. Instead stop and be with what is happening.

For example you might experience a decrease in sales in your business or a number of your regular clients dropped to a minimum. One reaction could be fear and panic, which is being triggered and we automaticallly beginning to think of things in a way of ‘surviving’ and then making choices based on what we think will stop us feeling that way. Natural, but there’s another way. Notice how your intentions in such cases come from ‘lack’ rather than what can be possible or in other words, abundance. Another response could be to say it is ok to be where you are. Pause, reflect on whether what you have been doing had been fulfilling to your true heart’s desire. You might be surprised. And if the answer is no, exactly that empty space is offering you an opportunity to create anew and move into your next stage of consciousness with your true needs and wants in check. It is not something you are doing or not doing, none of it relates to your abilities and gifts it is all about applying default, historical patterns of thinking to one situation after another. Time to change the method itself.

It is this month in particular that is so opportune for old stuff ‘exploding’ in our faces, it is a build up of energy (Solstice in nature) that is not often pleasant for everyone. Cycles begin to go back to zero, resetting time, which is an opportunity to create again consciously and with a clear intention. It comes as a tough test to see if we fill this space with stuff that’s coming from fear, position of ‘whatever it takes to feel safe, doesn’t matter what and how’ or will we allow for things to come to us via intuition and awareness, therefore, manifesting what we truly need and want.

Emptiness triggers fear and pulls us back into ‘unsafe’, ‘not enough’, into a survival mode, but what if we looked at emptiness as an opening for creation, a blank canvas where anything is possible.

Go ‘outside’ to come back ‘within’

.Reading time 5 minutes.

By going outside one goes deeper within whether it is outside in nature or outside of your comfort zone or out out into a company of people that you might never do.

Sometimes we have to challenge ourselves to ‘step out’ to come back to the core of things that matter. I took a trip recently that reaffirmed me further into myself, what I am, what I want and don’t want and most importantly what my soul needs. Solitude and quiet have become essential parts to my everyday everything. I almost feel I will not be able to survive and certainly won’t thrive in conditions other than what my soul needs. My body talks loudly to me now as over the years through a lot of work we have finally made friends and my body and soul are good pals too these days. Mind is a useful companion but it also knows when not to interfere with a voice that is always louder being it my body or my soul.

I feel I am becoming more and more inward-looking and my preferences are always away from noise, crowds and rush that happens everywhere. I feel my whole body constricts to a point I can no longer tolerate and before I could but at a high price. Switching off amidst chaos is a tough gig as everything in me absorbs things instantly and getting rid of it takes time, so I aim for minimum exposure.

Being on this trip I felt like I froze and now understand it as a defence that drowns the noise and protects my shell from being penetrated. It is protective. There’s a lot of energy and vitality on the inside yet i found this time it didn’t get affected and I became more of an observer than a participatory partner in it all. I don’t mind observer, it is my other state that somewhat helps me keep calm within, but curious on the outside. Observer state can teach us so much about ourselves, others and how we all fit. I noticed things I never had before and that’s been wonderful.

It has been a year of settling back into yourself but on a much deeper level or one might say yet another spiral downwards got revealed and reaffirmed. There are many cycles or spirals on our journeys towards what we seek. It has not been without challenges but one thing for sure is that it is much harder to know what’s really desired without it being challenged. I find the work interesting as once you know what you don’t like you immediately know what you do like very often.

I enjoyed spring this year immensely and through the years of building a relationship with the seasons I can now say it is my favourite season starting from very early spring to the end of May and beginning of heat. Now as we are building up towards Summer Solstice my retrieval into myself (more than usual) feels like an intentional preparation for my seclusion for summer, which is my least favourite season. It makes sense. I go into hiding, so to speak when the sun rises high and peaks at Litha. I learnt not to rage against it, which I had done for years but to soften instead and focus within giving myself exactly what is needed. I concentrate on early mornings and watering my plants. Enjoying bike rides in the cool evening air when the sun goes to rest. I learn to use water element when fire rises just like in nature. Nurture and compassion instead of rage and harshness, coolness instead of heat. Rather than ‘instead’, perhaps we go for ‘in addition to’ or ‘in compliment to’, as we always aim to balance elements out rather than dominate one over another. I have created a set routine for myself, it seems that neither judges or forces, but flows instead and here I am staying for now watching the year unfold further.

Nature is the original source

.Reading time 2 minutes.

17657_10153374378676873_9222804889165600000_n_10153374378676873

Land is a godly thing, it is of the sacred and the original. It is a being one, open one, the one that offers a choice of whether to transform or not and in no way based on doctrine, assigned attributes, it is free flowing, evolving and constant. What happens when you get touched by land? For me and others, I have heard, it is a realisation of how small we are in the grand scheme of things, which is the land and all life on it, amidst time and historical platform. “We are no different to a blade of grass,” someone said once and I felt it was beautiful put and I believe precisely that. We all come from one place, natural and evolving. There’s a beginning and an end with a purpose woven into the whole journey. What that purpose is often unknown, or, as I like to think, rather hidden from view. Some seek to know it, really know it through a journey of digging deeper into themselves and some simply live according to what they decide works for them or feels good. Both can be connected, but do not have to be. Others adopt laws and rules of a society, community, religious views amidst other things, by which they construct their lives. It is all valid I’d say as we are present on our journeys here on Earth with divinity intertwined into whatever manifestation we choose.

Nature is the original source and its magnificence in multi-presentations and intricacies of its ways of being and ancient knowledge can wake up and sustain our consciousness and bring us back to ourselves more than anything else can.

Image: original by Raw Nature Spirit

Can Nature…?

.Reading time 1 minute.

Can nature heal

Can earth bring us back to our knees and pierce its ancient dagger through the heart

Can nature teach you who you are

Can a bird song inspire, delight and speak of both sorrow and joy

Can river wash away the debris of the worldly matter

Can mountain hold you in such a way you never wobble again

Can spring flowers inject a hope into our being

Can roaming animal body remind us of the raw wilderness within

Can the falling snow cover us in sheer enchantment

Can rain drops on the skin put us in touch with our bodies

Can a flight of an eagle inspire strength and power waiting to take flight inside of us

Can God bow before its majesty and weep tears of love

What is it that nature does and doesn’t that makes our lives worth living and speaks of meaning old as centuries

Of nature we are born and to its body we return

As outside so is within

What can be more life, meaning, strength and delight all at the same time

Nature is magic and matter, spirit and body

Bones and blood, skin and intelligence

All embracing…

One place we become whole, we come home, we know what we are