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Jun
11
The heartwarming welcome I had in a black church that moved me to the core of my being

First of all, I would like to address our black women and men in my community. My heart goes out to all of you and it breaks a thousand times to all the injustice, the brutality, the ignorance, and the pain you had to go through. I’m truly sorry! I grew up in Switzerland and still live here. What happens in the US happens everywhere and even if it feels that I live so far removed from all the injustice, I know it is a daily reality here, and everywhere in the world. I’m not sure what I can do, but educate myself and listen to black voices. I’ve started to read books, and listen to podcasts to help me understand more and become a better person. That allows me to be the change, not hope for it on the outside.

Now it’s time to do a lot of things. 2020 is bringing so much to the surface, it’s time we face what went wrong for such a long time. We all have the chance for change, we all must change, we all have to be the change. Issues are brought to the surface that we need to tackle now so we can together move into a better future for everybody. 

We all live on this globe together and none of us can be really and truly at peace and live a mindful life when someone else suffers. It’s time to take a good look at society—but also at ourselves. As Gandhi said, you must: “be the change that you want to see in the world.” 

So, today I want to share a very unique experience I had, as a white European coming to America and ending up in a black church outside Charleston. This experience moved me to the core of my being—and I think reading about it will do the same for you too.

Growing up in a small town in Switzerland, I never saw a black person in my childhood. 

Later in my teens, I moved to London, a city of my taste! Vibrant,loud and modern—plus in every way more diverse. Foods from all over the world, new friends, punks on the street, and sex pistols glaring out of loud stereo boxes in scruffy pubs (it was the early 80’s). 

For the first time in my life I ate Indian food and my tastebuds exploded. Never before did I see people from all over the world with all kinds of different backgrounds, religion, color or upbringing. I was brought up in a country that had at the time 6 million citizens, much smaller than the city I now found myself in. I loved it!

My best male friend was Brian from New York, he was a model, a crazy queen that had a tendency to pitch my miniskirts and wear them himself, a man with a big heart of gold and black skin. He moved to London because he felt not safe in New York. Looking back, he never said much about his race, he told me about how he faced oppression from society because of his sexual preference, but he never mentioned his race.

I made more friends, some of whom were also black—and I never asked them how their upbringing felt, I never asked if they encountered racism. It never came to my mind. I was not aware that my experience was very much different from theirs.

The first time racism hit me in my face was when I was coming to America on my honeymoon with my husband. We traveled to New York, South Carolina, New Orleans, and finally, ended up on a beach. 

Since we lived together already, our wedding presents were not plates and platters or glasses, but travel miles that enabled us to spend time together and see more of the world. 

After touchdown at JFK Airport and a wild ride to Manhattan, we entered the lobby of our hotel and there were two guys at the lift. One man was black, the other white. The black man carried our bags, he opened the lift for us and stood back (basically he did all the heavy lifting and work) while the white man pressed the button to our floor. The black man then carried everything out. That scene was just so unreal to me. I was shocked. It was not just the injustices of the work balance between them. It was the sense of superiority that the white man was feeling that felt so wrong to me.

Later in our beautiful journey, we arrived in Charleston, a city I fell in love with immediately. Pre-internet, we planned our trip with an old fashioned travel guide book. There it said that it was so easy to find a lovely bed & breakfast in Charleston – they seemed to all have been booked out and after a 4 hours journey and a more and more desperate search for a room (and a loo) we ended up at a tourist information center near a university, which was closed, but the cleaning lady opened it for us to help us lost honeymooners. It was Parent’s Day, all parents across the states came to visit their children who studied at the University of Charleston. Ha – that is something we don’t get here in Switzerland since everything is just about 2 to 3 hours apart from each other. Literally you can drive through the whole of Switzerland in 3 hours flat. 

But we had been looked after in such a wonderful way and she placed us in the most beautiful little hotel one hour north of Charleston on what used to be a sugar plantation. The hotel was owned by a male model that lived over 30 years in France and just moved back to his hometown, renovated the house, and turned it into a beautiful hotel. The first time in our travel journey I felt there was acceptance and kindness between all people working there together. It was pure bliss. 

Since it was the weekend, I asked at reception if there would be a church nearby. I told them I would love to visit a church service with gospel. One of the young students working there said he would love to take me to his church and so we agreed that he and his sister would fetch me on Sunday morning. Before I left, the white women at the reception asked me, if I was aware, that there would be only black people at this church. I told her that I would not care and she smiled and wished me a nice service. These next few hours in a black church outside Charleston moved me to the core of my being and it makes me tear up every time I think of it. 

I was invited to sit with a few hundred people in a most beautiful wooden church packed with young and old. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the gospel songs, and by the way, the priest shouted, laughed, and prayed. I was shocked that the congregation shouted between the priest’s words (something I never saw back in Europe – but then I hardly ever went to a church service). I loved the liveliness, the community, and the spirit in that church. I listened carefully when the priest told their younger members of the congregation to work harder, to study more, and to be better than others. It dawned on me that this was what it meant to be black. You had to be so much better than the world often was to you. All the very small children that had to come forward, to my utter astonishment, they read the same children’s book to those small little girls and boys that I read to my lovely daughter. It was written by a Swiss author named Marcus Pfister and I never thought that it had been translated into English. 

It was the story of “The Rainbow Fish.” The little fish looked so different from all the others, he had fancy rainbow-like scales and was the most beautiful in the water. But he felt lonely and the other fish would not play with him. So, in the end, he gave everyone rainbow scales and they all looked the same. 

The service was magnificent, moving and full of life. The gospel songs were sung with the most beautiful voices and it was just a moving experience to be able to share it all together. At the end of the service, the priest came up to me and thanked me for being there. He was such a lovely force of nature. I thanked him for having me and invited my two companions back to have tea with me and my husband at the hotel. But when I started to walk out of the church, they formed a tunnel, much like on my wedding day only a week ago, when my family and friends congratulated my husband and me. Hundreds of strangers stood there, every single one of them shook my hand and thanked me. Thanked me for coming, thanked me for being with them on this Sunday morning. It was surreal, I was the one who was so, so thankful to have been able to join them. An elderly couple told me about their trip to Europe and the cities they visited in Switzerland. Some had tears in their eyes and I was moved and overwhelmed by all the love and kindness that they brought towards me. After shaking hundreds of hands, hugging and tearing up, someone finally told me that I was the first white human who ever come to their church. That was 1996 and I was shaken to my core. 

I was saddened how nobody ever visited them that had the same color as I had, I was deeply shocked that people still separated colors and race. I was moved and overwhelmed and thankful to have been invited into their fold and that they have shown me how to celebrate God. I was thankful for their kindness and open-heartedness and that they accepted me in their holy Church and shared their songs, prayers, and laughter with me. It was the most moving day of my life. 400 years of slavery, suppression, segregation, and racism, but there comes a white woman and they open their arms and hearts and let me in, just like that. I’m forever grateful for that shared Sunday morning near Charleston in a small little wooden church.

Later on our trip we visited New Orleans and took a tour on a plantation there. I found two books that I brought with me and still have on my bookshelf. They moved with me to many places and got read again and again. The books have been edited by Belinda Hurmence and the stories are Oral Histories of former South Carolina Slaves. Now it’s the time to re-read them. I saw that there are still on the market, even on kindle and I can highly recommend them to you:

Before Freedom, When I Just Can Remember: Personal Accounts of Slavery in South Carolina – edited by Belinda Hurmence

We Lived in a Little Cabin in the Yard: Personal Accounts of Slavery in Virginia– edited by Belinda Hurmence

I also listened to the following Goop podcasts to educate myself on anti-racism.

Also watch: Police: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

My lovely American friend Caitlin has many tips for you on where to find information, where to donate, what to read, and what to listen to – these are her tips.

Thank you so much for being here, keep educating yourself, and be the leading light the world needs and deserves right now.

“Be the change that you want to see in the world” –Mahatma Gandhi

Much love,

Carollyne

May
12
When the Time Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going

Who is bored out there and totally fed up with staying at home? I guess you are not alone. A few billion people feel the way you do—and I do too. I have been in isolation since the end of February. Even though I find it hardest to not see my son and daughter or our friends. To look at our huge, very long and very beautiful wooden dining table in the garden that was built by our son with the help of a carpenter (well, actually quite the other way round…) to entertain friends and family—and it now sits lonely and unused, surrounded by mountains looking rather sad.

But there will be time to celebrate again. But not quite yet. We have to sit tight, even if we are no longer motivated to do so. But what is it, that you care about the most? Is it the freedom to go and do whatever you want? Or maybe just physically meet your family and friends and hug them? Are you bored with your own company – or do you feel miserable to be stuck with your family?

I guess all is ok, and maybe you feel all of the above at times. To sweeten your time, of course, I would say: go and read through the Intuition Guide I have sent to you, or download it here again:

Click here to get it.

It is filled with tools to integrate into your life that really make a difference, once you start to use them.

If the time gets tough, the tough get going (love the song and love the movie Easy Virtue where it is the final song) Another thing you could do while sitting at home is watch that! Jessica Biel is a joy to watch in good old England.

So again, lovely, when the times get tough, the tough get going. It has been swirling around my head for a while now. I wonder how you feel about it. Is there anything that has been on your mind lately? A “thing” you feel pulled to start, end, begin or take up but don’t really know how? Please let me know, I would love to hear all about it!

At times like these where the world seems upside down and nothing is like it used to be, many of us feel that pull towards stepping into action. Stand up and actually change things in our lives, in our community or as a whole. There is no better time than now to get going.

So, what is the most important goal that you want to accomplish one day? Just hit reply and let me know.

Caitlin is a dear friend of mine and her biggest goal was to write and publish a book. This is not a promotion nor do I make any money with the link below! I just wanted to share this amazing book with you. Sometimes dream do come true and I hope you will be one of the toughs that get going too!

And she did! She released a new book of essays this week that I want to share with you! It’s about all the mistakes we make in love, the reality of personal growth, and what it looks like to let go of what hurts to move to the other side of life, joy.

I wanted to be supportive and download it, expecting to find it really enjoyable. But I can’t tell you how absolutely funny, hilarious, witty and joyful it is to read it. This book made me stay up far too late and irritated my lovely dog Coco, cause I kept on laughing out loud in all hours of the day (and night). Best you read some parts of it yourself, right here, just to lighten the mood a bit while you are at home…

The bus in Lake Titicaca:

Mentally, I was in a kind of transitional place. I felt really far removed from my life back home. Yet little things could still bother me. I guess distance gave me a bigger perspective. And I could see a lot of things more clearly—which caused some pain, but it was really just growing pains.

I was able to jet over to Lake Titicaca too. And by jet, I mean take a Peruvian bus – which was not a highlight. On the overnight ride to the lake, I was lucky enough to get a seat next to a broken window. Sleeping on a bus with the cool mountain air howling in your face is quite soothing. I think my seat was on a jet stream.

On the way back I was even more fortunate because this time my seat was conveniently located on top of a heat vent! While my organs slowly roasted, there was a salesman who stood in the aisle and presented a lengthy pitch for an Inca-inspired herbal weight loss supplement. If I never get on a bus in South America again, I will have lived a good life.

The coca tea:

A guy I met in a cafe in Cusco was telling me that the energy was different in Machu Picchu. That people came from all over the world just to soak it up.

I was minding my own business, sipping my 19th cup of coca leaf tea (it was becoming a problem). I honestly tried to avoid talking to random men, seeing as I was alone and didn’t want to advertise that to many strangers. I shifted my hand so the Claddagh ring on my wedding finger was visible as we talked, a signal I hoped would let him know that I was not “available” (even though I was).

He looked me in the eye when he said:

You know, there’s a special energy there, especially right now. 2012 is a very important year and this is a big energy shift, especially in the next few days. You’re going to feel some pretty cool things when you go there.

I nodded and thought to myself: This man has lost his marbles.

It wasn’t until a few days later, when I was sitting there, on a rice terrace in the farming section of Machu Picchu, that I realized he was right. I did feel something different.

Running into a flock of sheep in Peru:

Peru was a country with so many beautiful things to see if you had the money to do so (like many places). Many people that lived there did not. There was so much need there, as there were in so many other places around the world. Need for safety, security, homes, money.

I was doing what I could to fulfill those needs at the new place I’d started to volunteer at, a home for teen moms in the San Jeronimo neighborhood, a solid 45 minutos commute from downtown Cusco. The ride was just a straight shot down the Avenida del Cultura with one to fifty-five pauses, depending on how many BAJAS! we had. It was kinda difficult to tell where your stop was because there weren’t many landmarks. It made things exciting!

I can still picture all the locals’ faces when they’d hear a random, soft-spoken baja, said in a Chicago accent, coming from the back of the bus. They’d all look perplexed as a random white girl was getting off in a random neighborhood, alone. I never felt unsafe because people were usually just so confused to see me in a place not many other (blonde) tourists went.

The home for teen moms was on a calle tierra. On my first day there, I took a cab because I wanted to be on time. My cab driver and I got completely lost as I used a mix of charades and Spanglish to direct him around dirt roads with no signs, using the directions I’d been sent in Español.

The simpatico cab driver had to get out of the car and remove a few rocks from the middle of the calle tierras. At one point, I’m not kidding when I say, we had to ask an old man and his flock of sheep for directions. I couldn’t contain my laughter, how did I end up here?! Luckily, we eventually spotted the purple gate (with painted cute little angels).

The book is called EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN and takes the reader around the world, from India, Peru, Bali, Vietnam, Ireland, Costa Rica, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands—as well as to places with the most vulnerable amongst us, like a nursing home and a food pantry.

This book will make you feel like you have traveled the world and at the same time, gotten closer to your own soul. When you read this book, you are nurturing yourself as well as making a new friend. It’s a fun, lighthearted adventure.

The BEST part is 50% of all proceeds will be donated to a home for teen moms and their children in Cusco, Peru. They have been hit very hard by the pandemic and had to close the store they normally sell goods in which finances the home.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3dhwWyf

If you would like to read on, here’s an excerpt from the intro:

I’ve found travel to be a tool for compassion, a cure for ignorance, and an initiation for awakening. My greatest adventures consisted of exploring three types of places:

1. the spaces on the outskirts filled with the most vulnerable people, the ones who have been pushed to the edge of “society”

2. ancient sacred sites, built all over the world, all (magically) aligning with the stars

3. the dark transitions that we all try to avoid, like heartbreak, sickness and death

I’ve found that outside the rules and amongst the poor and the ancient and hidden in the dark, the truth lies snugly, waiting to be recovered and remembered.

Along the way, I discovered pieces of who I am in others. Like orphans, unwed mothers, remote villagers, the homeless, immigrants—people who have something money can’t buy: integrity and spirit. It shines out of them because they’re not trying to keep up with…anything. They’ve shown me that job titles, diamond rings, and number of followers aren’t what’s truly valuable in this world. Resilience, strength of character and vulnerability are. They are the ones that sparkle and they are sparking change.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3dhwWyf

I hope you enjoy this read as I have, (and still am – I can’t wait to get back to it!) and sending much love to you.

Much love,

Carollyne

Apr
10
Guidance on How to Cope When Life Is on Hold


Life is on hold. Since this is a daunting and upsetting time for so many of us, I wanted to drop in and give you some tips and share some insights to get over this crisis and to get through it in better mental shape than when this whole thing started.

I’m here in the Swiss Alps, rather close to the Italian border, where the pandemic outbreak really started to take its toll in Europe.

My heart goes out to all that have either been infected with the virus, suffered from going through a rough time financially during the lockdowns, and especially to those who have lost a loved one through it all.

I also wanted to say how much I admire the workforce in the healthcare system, doctors, nurses, first responders and many more that fight each day and night for other people’s lives. Shocking and saddening – often they seem to go without the right equipment in many countries and that of course is shocking, upsetting and outright terrifying.  

I’m in the high-risk group

I’m top of the list of patients at high risk and of course, this brings lots of change into my life. I’m very glad to be able to socially distance myself from other family members that still go to work. At the moment, my husband is the only person I see over the weekends, and that is only possible because he works from home and practices social distancing from our son… So we all give up things, in order to either stay healthy or not infect others. We also do it to not bring the health system to a breakdown and help flatten this curve.

I have not seen my daughter or son for more than a month now and thanks to WhatsApp calls, we at least can sit around a table and eat together, while we are each virtually present at each other’s dinner table. But the reality is, that this will not blow over in a few days… We are in this for a while and that is what I want to talk about in more detail.

When life is on hold, which it is for more or less each one of us right now, we go through different emotions. We might be scared, shocked, overwhelmed. We may be quite OK until we realize that staying at home is not as fun as we thought. We might be really worried about our business or paycheck or where the economy is heading. 

This is the reality

Now the reality of all of the above is, that we don’t know for sure what is coming our way. And if we keep concentration on the unknown, it can be a fearful and scary place to be in. What we do know is in the right now. 

Yes, it is possible that I might be infected, and yes if I would be, statistically I might end up in hospital on a ventilator and might even die, because of my preexisting conditions. 

But all I do know is that I’m healthy right now and take any precautions I can take to not get infected. I enjoy the sun on my skin when I sit outside, I watch my lovely dog Coco run around in the freshly grown spring grass and I cook dinner each night and while eating it, chat with my family on video. 

It could be much worse and there is no point in hanging onto what might be, instead of accepting what is. And there it is – that one thing that is so difficult to so many of us. Accepting what is right now. Being in the present.

Now what I feel this boils down to is, by accepting what is, we accept who we are. Because we are asked to do this right now, we are asked to sit tight and be with ourselves. And that is why so many struggle. To be and not to do anything. To sit tight and accept.

I have learned this lesson a while back and I can assure you, I’m a pro by now. My accident a few years back has taught me. Five operations later, with the last one only 6 weeks ago, now feels like ten years ago because of what happened since then. I have learned to accept what is. 

First I was unable to walk and needed many operations on both my feet, but then 2 years ago, waking up from an operation, I also had what I call brain fog. I had the feeling that my brain had been shot into the universe and had not really found its way back. 

Now after accepting not being able to walk for a long time, I needed to accept that my brain was not functioning the way it had. I was not able to read books or watch a movie, because my brain was over exhausted for a few months. Again, I learned to accept.

But don’t feel sorry for me, I’m much better now and the process has been a great teacher to me. All my life I wanted to work on what was bothering me and I did. Step by step I unpacked the luggage that I had with me and with the help of different methods I worked on myself and on what was coming my way. I never stood still, I always wanted to know more, go deeper, unpack all and bring it to the service, so whatever was bothering me was brought to light in order to look at it, analyze it and accept or change it.

This is where life brought me

That brought me here, happy to sit around with myself. Happy with how I am, where I am and what I have to offer. When everything is stripped away from you and you sit here right now with billions of others around the world and have to live with the circumstances that life throws at you – then you are at the right time to make peace with what is and who you are. It is also a wonderful time to reflect on where you are, what you might have given up in the process of life that actually has meant a lot to you. It is the time to listen to your true self and deeply connect with your soul. Because, in the end, this is all we have. 

When everything is stripped away from you, then it’s time to listen within and before I share some breathing techniques to calm you, I invite you to download my free guide here to dig deeper into your knowledge about yourself and find some great tools to help you along.

Click here to get it

I would love to show you a breathing technique to instantly calm you down. You can do it whenever you feel that anxiety or fear overwhelm you or when you have the feeling that you need to just get your head in the right space again.

Breathe in to the count of 4: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Hold your breath to the count of 4; 1, 2, 3, 4.
and breathe out to the count of 8… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

How does that feel, lovely?

Do this a few times and listen to what you hear outside. You are here in peace, whatever is happening outside or outside of your control.

Here is how it goes:

Breathing in to the count of 4, holding your breath to the count of 4, and breathing out to 8. Breathe in such a way for 3 to 4 minutes and then go slowly back to your normal breathing. Coming back in a much calmer and more collected way.

If you would like me to do a Q&A or share more, please comment on this post and let me know. I am happy to serve at this time of turmoil.

Stay healthy, stay safe and stay sane.

Much love,
Carollyne

Please pin this post if you like it!

Guidance on how to cope when life is on hold
Dec
22
The 12 Smoke Nights

As the year draws to an end, and the festive season is just around the corner, I wanted to send you lots of love and wish you and your loved ones a peaceful, rejuvenating and happy festive season together. 

It’s typically the time to reflect and also the time to look ahead, especially with a promising new decade ahead. I hope that you have already had a fulfilling year and that the next decade ahead will be a happy one for you and your loved ones.

The 12 days “between the years” (and this time even between the decades) we call here in Europe the “Smoke Nights.” You may ask yourself what I mean with between the years or decades—and I know it sounds strange to our ears today, but it has its origin in a time when humankind lived by a lunar calendar. The moon needs 29 ½ days from new-moon to new-moon and 12 months are in that calculation, 354 days in moon-year. That is how in the olden days the people looked at the lunar calendar. But the sun needed longer to get to the original place in the sky, precisely 365 days. That is why we talk of the 12 special nights (and 11 days) between the years. This way, those 12 nights are outside the laws of the moon or the sun.

These days when the moon cycles have ended, the year and the sun has not yet returned to its original place in the sky, our ancestors took the time to take care of the magical moments of the year. The between lunar and solar time was most mystical and magical. A time that gave our forefathers an opportunity to peek behind the curtain of what is real and what is intuition and mystic. A time for rituals. A time to bring light into the dark days of winter. A time to smoke out bad spirits or bad habits. 

So it was a time for renewal and reflection and definitely a time for magic. This year, I hope you find time to let some of this magic into your life and there is a ritual that you may find interesting to try out over this magical period ahead.

Each night has a special bound of rituals and each day can be looked at as an opportunity to reflect, empower and renew. You are free to make up your own ritual or you might want to research one that is appealing to you. I find it most important to feel intuitive about what kind of ritual you want to celebrate. Feel free to just meditate on this too, like always, it must feel right for you. You can also sit and write or even draw intuitively to the night’s special aspect. (find them listed below):

Setting intentions to give yourself the time and the space to use these 12 magical nights is an exciting prospect and to get things going, start with clearing out 30 minutes per night or day for yourself. I know this is not easy around the holidays but you may find it exciting to stay up a bit longer and gift yourself with this magical time. Go to a space in your home where you are alone and light a candle to make this space sacred.

Concentrate on yourself and how you wish to move your life forward when you take up this Smoke Night ritual. There are many ways to go about it and you will pick the ones that suit you most. It is all about taking the time to reflect and feel inspired. Connecting with your senses and being lead by your intuition. 

Before you begin your daily rituals, you should smoke the space you like to spend these magical nights in. This can be done with sage or frankincense or any other clearing and smoking ritual. You can use a scented candle and just have the intention to clean the rooms and clear the space for yourself.

Whatever you pick one or all 12 days to give yourself time to sit, meditate or reflect, enjoy the moment and the fact that you make space for yourself. It’s about allowing yourself to sit down and give yourself a bit of time off. A bit of time to reflect and rejuvenate. 

First smoke night

Night of the 24./25. of December
Archetype: The wild women
Aspects of yourself you want to reflect, free and empower: Original instincts, drives, feelings, body wisdom, grounding, vitality, wildness, fire.
Ritual: Grounding ritual: connecting with the earth

Second smoke night

Night of the 25./26. of December
Archetype: The warrior women
Aspects of yourself you want to reflect, free and empower: Strength, determination, self-assertion, assertiveness, steadfastness, enthusiasm, determination, dexterity, self-protection, power.
Ritual: Forgiveness Ritual: Heal the warrior’s wounds

Third smoke night

Night of the 26./27. of December
Archetype: The priestess
Aspects of yourself you want to reflect, free and empower: Compassion, universal love, comfort, promise, selfless service, mystical intuition.
Ritual: Grounding ritual: Heart opening ritual: feeling unconditional love in the heart

Fourth smoke night

Night of the 27./28. of December
Archetype: The mother
Aspects of yourself you want to reflect, free and empower: Kindness, care, security, rhythm, naturalness, growth, fertility, security.
Ritual: Ancestral ritual: thank the female ancestors

Fifth smoke night

Night of the 28./29. of December
Archetype: The companion
Aspects of yourself you want to reflect, free and empower: Trust, respect, loyalty, encounters, eye level, sisterhood, friendship, intuitive communication.
Ritual: Alliance ritual: strengthening friendship

Sixth smoke night

Night of the 29./30. of December
Archetype: The healer
Aspects of yourself you want to reflect, free and empower: Intuition, healing, wholeness, becoming whole, integration, ancestors, rituals, tradition, ancient knowledge, connection between the worlds.
Ritual: Healing ritual: activate your inner healer

Seventh smoke night

Night of the 30./31. of December
Archetype: The Lover
Aspects of yourself you want to reflect, free and empower: Femininity, charisma, give and take, closeness, devotion, eroticism, desire, sensuality, pleasure.
Ritual: Love ritual: giving and receiving love

Eights smoke night

Night of the 31./1. of December/January
Archetype: The artist
Aspects of yourself you want to reflect, free and empower: Imagination, creativity, art, self-expression, truth, creating, creative source, painting, writing, drawing, cooking, gardening, designing.
Ritual: Creativity ritual: draw from your inner source

Ninth smoke night

Night of the 1./2. of January
Archetype: The Virgin
Aspects of yourself you want to reflect, free and empower: Self-development, laundering, self-discovery, renewal, flowering, beauty, development, living in the here and now, liberation, reorientation.
Ritual: Renewal ritual: start a new with fresh empowerment

Tenth smoke night

Night of the 2./3.. of January
Archetype: The wise women
Aspects of yourself you want to reflect, free and empower: Knowledge, wisdom, self-knowledge, self-revelation, tolerance, serenity, solidarity, shadow work, fate, intuition.
Ritual: Initiation ritual: discover truth and wisdom

Eleventh smoke night

Night of the 3./4. of January
Archetype: The converter
Aspects of yourself you want to reflect, free and empower: Let go of the past, say goodbye, transition, upheaval, transformation, transformation, a new phase of life, liberation.
Ritual: Farewell ritual: honor the change

Twelfth smoke night

Night of the 4./5. of January
Archetype: The Queen
Aspects of yourself you want to reflect, free and empower: Recognition, self-confidence, authority, dignity, willpower, connection to the cosmos, unity, leadership.
Ritual: Feel-good ritual: the Queen’s bath

I wish you a very empowering time between the decades and hope you enjoy the ancient rites and thoughts about those days.

On a personal note, I will spend these days up in the Swiss Alps and enjoy family and friends, light candles, decorate our home and celebrate this delightful time of the year. Laughter and discussions and delicious food will be part of our celebration, but also a time to reflect and look forward to new ways and new options in the new decade ahead. Most of all, I will enjoy myself after a year of surprises and healing.

I will make time to celebrate all of the 12 smoke nights and think of you and hope you will join in too!

Wishing you a very merry festive season!

Much love,
Carollyne

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Dec
08
Preparing for 2020

I’ve been up in the Alps, taking time to rest and refresh myself as we prepare for the new year. I’m still healing and doing all I can to feel better, and I will share more on that soon—but most of all, I wanted to share this with you on preparing for 2020…

As we go into a new decade, 2020 will be a time to look inside of us for answers and guidance and letting go of “the guru.” So many of us run around looking for answers from the outside, hoping someone else can give us the answer we need. 

I want to tell you that you can find the answers within yourself, and in order to do that, you need to have a solid system that you can rely on. And that solid system is your intuition.

We are equipped with everything we need. We need our intuition for 2020 and we need to learn to trust it, even if it will take a little while.

Go and start to reconnect with your gut feelings. Once you have a few positive experiences with this, you’ll start to trust it again.

A big part of learning to listen to your intuition is knowing which voice to trust. We all have little voices in our head, some are clutter and filled with the opinions of our parents, family, and friends. Even if their opinion is shared out of love, most people can only give their perspective on something. It’s so important for you to be able to identify which voice is talking to you inside your head. Maybe you’ll think: Okay that is not me, I think my Aunt Marlis said that!

It’s about really getting to the nitty gritty of using that inner voice and getting to know the real one, the one that is YOU.

If you build up and train yourself in that, you will more and more start making right decisions for yourself and you’ll be more connected to what you truly want.

Instead of running after another big guru and another big thing, stop and listen to yourself. There is no one size fits all, we all come from different backgrounds, being raised in different societies, being influenced by the ideas of teachers. To find what’s true for you, it’s sometimes buried underneath all these teachers in your life.

To prepare for 2020, you need to find your inner voice again. When you do, you might find yourself thinking: Wow, I don’t actually dislike this, that’s something my family labeled is “bad” but I rather like it!

When you get that connection to yourself again, it will be so freeing.
To do that, you need to know a little about energy work, a little about your higher self, and you need some tools to help connect with that again. I’ve put all this information into a Next Level of Intuition guide for you, so I hope you will take some time before the New Year to sit with this and deepen your connection with your inner voice.

Download the free guide here.

Having this reliable system, you can lay back and say: This is where I can comfortably make a decision and I will know that decision is right for me!

Much Love,
Carollyne

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Jun
02
What it Means to Be a Mother in this World

After celebrating Mother’s Day this year, it has been a beautiful time to remember both what it means for me being a mother and having still a mother of my own. Not just the latest events or happenings in my family, but also how I became a mother, what all these years of being a mother (now almost 29 years) meant for my personal development, but also, what kind of mother I always wanted to be.

Quite honestly, when I was younger, I always told anyone who would ask me what I wanted to do and be in the future, that I would never have kids and almost certainly would never get married. I could think of having a boyfriend (that came naturally a bit later) but with the family business, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with being a mom. Right up until one of my jobs as a teenager was babysitting. Mind you, this was not my first, second, or third choice – naturally.

My early jobs had nothing to do with being a mom. I worked at a videothek (video shop) and at the time (pre-Internet and pre-TV rentals), you had to go to a video shop to be able to watch porn. And I guess I had such a turn and accusing look on my face whenever someone would ask for this special black book (where the porn videos have been listed) that no one ever rented one on my watch!

Catering at a huge luxurious company was also a job I did and it was by far the best paid. They always hired me to be on site first and do all the decorations, which I loved. We did events in circus tents, in huge old Victorian villas and on the lawn of politicians or TV personalities. I loved to work there but the hours were horrendous. As I started at about lunchtime on a Saturday, I was up till nearly lunchtime on Sunday, till all was done and packed. Most of my colleagues were drinking champagne and eating the dinner leftovers, but I just wanted to get home and back to homework. So I needed to find something that would be easy and pleasant and did not involve staring down potential sex video watchers or being on my feet for 24 hours…

I had to get another job that was easy and I accepted, that it would be paid less. But as I read the advertisement, I thought that looking after sleeping babies would be the job, since they did not want to give me more than $5 an hour, (I assumed that the baby I was sitting must be asleep 😉 So at an age were others seek to go into jobs that pay well and are exciting and adventures, I got into babysitting. But thanks to my mum, she financed my studies and I did not really have to work, I guess it was more of a symbolic gesture that I wanted to show her that I was doing something additional to my studies.

However, it was the job I first learned to really appreciate children and something in my heart opened and for the first time in my life, I could imagine to actually have kids one day myself. (and they came much sooner than planned or imagined!)

In the new babysitting job, it was different from my imagination, my job to put them to bed, which was a first but lasting impression of how wonderful and sweet it can be to spend time with kids. (They had been 5 and 8 years old) Bedtime stories had been sweet, but talking with them afterwards about it, had been so enlightening. Of course, they had all the questions in the world, as it kept them from having to go to bed.

But I loved to talk to them and to be reminded to see the world and the books we were reading through their eyes. Nothing is better than to see the world through the eyes of an innocent child. The questions, the answers, all of it is so easy. Nothing is clogged up yet with bad experiences or fears. They are open and so self-evident.

 

My life as a mum will never end. That is the way it is, but I’m not any more primarily a mum, since both my children grew into beautiful adults. So I was thinking about mothers in general, how being a mum changed me. It was when I was pregnant with my daughter, I was reading about nutrition—and it is now been 29 years since I started to buy organic food. So much has changed since I first traveled to find an organic farmer and bought his produce in a little farmyard. Now, you can buy organic food in all food stores in every village.

I also started to think and act much more in a way of what kind of world do I want my child to grow up in and further down the line, what kind of world do I want my children and their children and their children’s children to live in.

One thing I learned is that each generation needs its own unique skills to manage their unique problems. Each generation will move forward, what once was progressive thinking on my part, is now the new normality and so the cycle goes on. We are here for a certain amount of time and can only give our best (raising our children, taking care and standing in our responsibility to the problems that we face, innovate and move forward, work on a better world, a better life, a better tomorrow for ourselves and for everyone that comes after us).

So as a mother, and as a sister and as a daughter, we have a call to involve, to take us and all after us seriously, and we’re not just raising the next generation and encouraging them, we also have our soul’s calling to do our best in everybody’s interest to move forward as a society.

I just got back from a wonderful break on the beautiful Greek island of Corfu. It is a magical place and my husband and I had a wonderful time together. The Island is covered in the most wonderful agent olive tree forest that dates back hundreds of years. We enjoyed a wild trip and an even wilder thunderstorm, crossing the big mountains in the north of the Island in our small little Mini Cabriolet. It felt, at times, like our roof was going to give in and we would be exposed to Nature.

We have been putting our feet into the crystal clear turquoise water in the south of Corfu, to the sound of the waves at our feet and birds above us. A singsong of sounds that places the most restless souls at ease (and us at pure tranquility).

The only downside of this holidays made me think so much of another mother. I’m talking of course of the only mother I did not mention here yet – Mother Earth. What a privilege to live and enjoy life on mother earth. And what a shock we had, when we saw that the rubbish was piling sky high up in Corfu.

We have been informed, that they have a rubbish burning place, but it is not able to cope with the rubbish they produce. It has been planned to build a new site on the small part of the Islands in the south, were all the Corfuaner live. Even if the north would be so much bigger and more suitable for it. But the North is where all the villas are and the rich people of the island live. So there was no way they will let that happen. So since no one was willing to accept a waste incinerator, rubbish is piling up now to an extent where it is saddening and obvious that the paradise that once inspired the great Gerald Durrell to his much loved, delightful novel “My Family and Other Animals” will now be covered in garbage.

Although I’m very aware that the waste and rubbish problem is a complex theme, not just on the tranquilent island of Corfu, and it’s not just for the people of Corfu island to tackle, it needs those future minds to come up with great new, innovative ideas – thought by minds that somewhere developed into outstanding people, raised by mothers. So, in the name of a mother that sees innovative, outstanding minds all over our great planet, a great thank you to all mothers, who raised their children in the best way they could.

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a mother, becoming a mother, being a daughter and son, inspired by their mothers and honoring and respecting Mother Earth. She really needs our respect and our ability to move forward with open and most of all, loving and outstanding minds.

Much love as always,
Carollyne

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Mar
10
The Magic of the Blue Hour: The In-Between Time When Everything is Possible

It’s just again this time of year when here in Switzerland, the blue hour is most beautifully felt. It’s the time when the day is ending, but the night not yet started. It’s the time of the day when the hustle has ended and the promise of what the night brings is vivid and alive.

The in-between time, which holds the promise of “everything is possible” just as well as “listen within and you will get guidance.” Both promises, feeling like a sweet temptation. Giving us the time and the space to look behind the curtains. To celebrate this “in between time.”

It’s a magical time

I love this time of year, as the blue hour is so beautiful and magical. The snow still lays on the ground and this pure whiteness reflects the last light that shines on the sky, just after the sun goes down. The sky is light blue when it actually is dark already – something quite magical by itself. The stars are not yet out on this blue hour, but the promise of them seems to loom above and the moon can be seen already appearing on the sky.

The day is gone, we have done what we could, it’s almost like we are lost in the stage of hustle and bustle and know with the fading of the day, so is the fading of our will to create. The night might promise excitement, amusement or rest. But it is not quite here yet and this in-between hour is the right time to reflect, to listen to our own voice and to be inspired. As this is the time to plan the next step, dream about the adventures ahead and relax into the mood of the rising moon.

The rising of the moon, or rising of the feminine, is the hour to reflect, rejuvenate and rebirth new ideas. It’s the time to look within us and be still. Listen to what our soul is whispering to us and plan to bring the sweet whisper to life.

There’s an energy shift

The perfect time to sit still and watch as nature shifts from the busy energy of a full day into a calming presence of the night. It’s when foxes start to look for their dinner and cats wander off into the near dark. I can see this happening right now, while I write this for you. I saw the fox dribbling through the snow just outside our birch tree in the shadow of the branches, believing to be unseen and unheard. Yet dinner has to be served for Mr. Fox, but it seems at the look of his smirk, everything is possible.

And I ask myself, is this blue hour the one time in the day where we believe that we can just get away with something that we usually cannot? I somehow feel, while I watch today’s blue hour unfold, that it somehow has this promise of getting away with more than at any other time of the day.

I don’t know if you ever spent this hour sitting quietly and just watching what happens outside of your window. Here I have an amazing view of the Alps, covered with fresh snow from last night. That, of course, gives it an even purer and even more silent vibe. Don’t you love a snow-covered day where everything that might usually look right out ugly seems to turn into something magical when covered in fresh snow? So yes, looking outside and taking in this amazing blue sky and the moon rising above my old lime tree, it feels like everything is possible.

 

A moment of rest and reset

It’s this in-between hour that gives the opportunity to gaze behind the curtain of the consciousness and gives a hint of the world that expands much further and deeper into your soul. A moment of rest and reset, before the night arrives and after the day has ended. The possibility of a pause. Are you enchanted to take a glimpse into the unknown?

What would happen, if you were able to press the pause button today at the blue hour? And what would you like to find out? What would you like to know? Are there any burning questions or would you just rather enjoy the pause and the stillness?

Be aware of the blue hour

Aware that this hour exists, you might want to follow my lead and explore what lies behind the mist of the unknown. I have sat and watched the blue hour for 2 months now and the most magnificent revelations came of it. Sometimes I meditated, sometimes I just watched nature prepare itself for a long cold night in the Alps. Always I felt connected to my past and to my present as much as to the potential future ahead. My pulse would go slow, my breathing would deepen, even if I was not meditating. I felt more connected to nature and to the rhythm of it. The natural circle of day and night left room for this in-between hour, with the beautiful dark blue sky and deep stillness of the night that seemed just around the corner.

Seldom it is more peaceful and still and nurturing here in the Alps. Wholeheartedly I can only recommend you to make some time this week or maybe even today to embrace this blue hour, wherever you are!

Even if you feel that nothing has been revealed to you, the time spent still at this time of the day will shift and move you and your thoughts. Give it a try and let me know how this pause between day and night feels to you – I would love to hear your story!

Much love,
Carollyne

Jan
31
Winter Ritual for February: Imbolc

Imbolc

The name Imbolc comes from the Old Irish imb-folc, meaning “all-around washing”—and it marks as a cleaning festival, but it also literally means “in the belly” in the old Irish Neolithic language. It is one of the four major “fire” festivals, referred to in Irish mythology. The other three festivals are Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain.

At Imbolc, in early February, the light born at the winter solstice has finally triumphed. It is true that in most northern countries, winter is still very much there, but the days have become noticeably longer.

And if you should live in a place that has not such strong winters, or even all of the 4 seasons, I can assure you that in December, there is nothing more romantic than when you can light all the candles around your home and drink hot Chocolate (something we Swiss are crazy for)—but once February comes around, I personally really crave for the days to get longer again. For the light to return and for the spring to be within reach.

For the ancient people who persevered in their wooden houses during the icy winter months, it was time to drive out the old mold and winter diseases from the house. A spring cleaning for body, house and yard. The shedding of unnecessary heaviness that has accumulated over the winter. Physically as well as Psychically, to experience a holistic spring restart.

The Festival of the Bearer of Light

Traditionally, Imbolc is celebrated on February 1st, and the festival begins on the eve of February 1st and still is used today in rural Ireland as the Day of St. Brigid. The ancient celtic Goddess Brigid is the bearer of light. Her name is interpreted as the bright and the radiant and is also found in other traditions under the name Brigantia or Brigindo, the tribal deity of the Celtic Brigands and the Germanic Perchta and maybe the Welsh Ceridwen.

Brigid is said to walk the earth on Imbolc eve and as she is said to have the power that will bring people from the dark season of winter into spring, her presence is very important at this time of year, especially this year.

Celebrate your own unique Imbolc

But it’s about choosing the right time for you to celebrate your own Imbolc and let go of everything you no longer need.  If you feel like a fresh start and want to integrate this ancient tradition, you can do it in your very own and unique way. Adding these old traditions is all about bringing them into your life in a modern approach. You could start a food cleanse today or bring in the light of Imbolc by making scented candles and light them in the evening. Infusing them with the anticipation of change and a fresh start.

Imbolc also means to find your vision for this coming year and that would be a wonderful way to integrate into a meditation. Make sure you add some light and candles to it, to make this intention of seeing the light and the vision of 2019 even better.

How to clean off old heaviness that you no longer want to carry around with you

Breathe in and out several times until your breath comes to rest and you breathe evenly. Pay attention to your solar plexus, your power center (3rd chakra).

Here is where your emotional “slags” and mental “toxins” stored, that have accumulated in the last year and you can now safely put off to start a wonderful new beginning.

Imagine how the bright flame of St. Brigid’s is kindled in your third chakra and shining deep into each cell. Summon this beautiful flame that enlightens everything that no longer belongs to you or fits on your life’s path. Even what wants to hide. Cover it with your loving thoughts and trust that you let go completely.

 

From the center of the third chakra, a violet flame lights up, which slowly grows larger. It is the flame of transformation that lovingly dissolves all visible “slags”.

All emotional heaviness, which has accumulated in the last year but also over the years, can and should come to light. Long-suppressed emotions, old sorrows, fears and blockages are re-illuminated and safely transformed into the violet flames of the fire of transformation.

The violet flame leaves nothing unclean, transmutes and enlightens all that was deeply hidden.

When the violet flame has extinguished and cleaned everything, look carefully inward. Everything is pure and radiant.

Let that light that now shines in your interior shine in full force. Let it spread to the whole body. Fill every cell, every corner with this radiant light.

This beautiful radiant light spreads love and trust in your whole being. Thank Brigid for this beautiful expanding light in you. Let this inspiring and empowering light fill your whole being with an ever expanding,  peaceful and loving feeling.

Whenever you are ready, slowly open your eyes and look down at your feet. Then slowly up above you. Then to both sides.

Come back to the here and now.

To intensify, you can have a candle burning, but it must be supervised.

Why Do Rituals

Rituals help us find our unique rhythm in life. Now more than ever, we need time to rest, time to quiet down. Time to disconnect and time to rejuvenate yourself. In a time where information is freely flowing in and out of our minds constantly, it is easy to forget to take some time out and just be. Nurture, listen and follow our inner voice.

You don’t have to live in a Nordic country in order to give yourself the Rhythm of the seasons. And with that, the time to be quiet, the time to be seeding your thoughts and the time to rally up and energize yourself to then come to the time of harvest. With Imbolc, our ancient wise ancestors wanted to free themselves from unnecessary heaviness, and then, become freshly strengthened to see the spring and the light.

Even if there is still frost over the land in nature, at the beginning of February, spring has already started slowly in nature – be rest assured.

So with the promise of Spring and all things renewed, I hope you have an inspiring and cleansing February!

Much love,
Carollyne

Have you ever tried this winter ritual before? Or maybe you know a different ritual? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below!

Jan
07
A New Way to Talk About New Year’s Resolutions

I’ve always had a bit of a difficult relationship with celebrating the new year. I’ve always found it too hard to part with the old one.

I remember vividly (I was a sensible 5 year-old girl with curly blonde locks and a penchant for the dramatic), having such a hard time on New Years Eve. I stood outside on the balcony with my mum and her friends to wave goodbye to the old year and cheer in the new.

And I asked my mum, “What will happen to the old year?”

And she said, “The old year has to die so the new year can come!”

This tipped me off and her party was spoiled. I cried uncontrollably for the “poor old year” that had just died (and had no other chance of living further, maybe in the woods or hidden away somewhere, so at least it had a good place in it’s old age…) I felt so deeply for the old year and could not stop my sadness for hours!

Since then, I can’t say my relationship with celebrating New Years Eve has changed dramatically. I simply love the holiday season, and as such, the New Years celebration for me is part of it. But even when I was a wild, young 20 year-old living in London, I found the celebrations too crowded and chaotic. Instead, I went to the countryside in Norfolk to ring in the coming new year like a right old bore!

I always felt the need to change things – I didn’t want to endure, or to take it in stride to wait until the new year to change things. New Years resolutions weren’t for me. I tackled my challenges and troubles “year round”.

Resolutions: is it better to look back or to look forward?

How do you feel about this? (let me know in the comments below – I really love to hear from you!)

Over the last couple of years, I’ve realized that this is a very personal and unique question for all of us. I worked for years to look at my issues and I always felt that I had to find the root cause for all of them. I dug deep, went backwards to find the reason behind it, looked at it from all angles and all aspects, and only moved forward after I understood deeply what it meant.

However, working with so many different inspiring women (and some great men) over the years, I’ve found that we all have and need a very unique way to approach our issues. Some will want and need to go deep into their past to uncover hidden blocks and family patterns to understand what they really have and want to let go.

 

Others may love to do this, but would energetically be too absorbed and involved. They would find it harder to let go of what they’ve found if they dig too deep into the past.

Others thrive when creating the “new me” instead of looking back and reducing their energy. (While they could actually really boost their energy by looking into the future.)

There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but it is always good to know where you stand and how you embrace forward momentum in the new year.

Time to be kind to yourself when making your resolutions

Whatever you do this year, be kind to yourself. That may sound superficial and too simple. But I really mean what I say.

Especially at the beginning of the new year, when we have filled the blank pages with our wishes, dreams, and hopes, we get so caught up on change.

But how can we change our biggest issues and fears for the better if we use the same tools and strategies that we’ve used for years?

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

So be kind to yourself. Instead of New Year’s resolutions (that will be a pain in the a.. to create), start with a different approach this year! Well – actually, why don’t you grab yourself some plain pages of paper and write down 1 resolution right now?

A different way to talk about your New Year’s resolutions:

+Take one page per resolution and clearly define your end goal on top. Then write down the positive effect this changed circumstance would have on you and your life. This feels good, right?

+Now take out another fresh, blank page and write down what in the past has kept you from achieving this goal. As it is a issue you want to change, I’m sure you’ve tried many times to get to the bottom of this issue.

+As you read through those things that keep you from changing it, try to find a common issue behind them. They may not look related, but if you are open and give up old thinking patterns, I’m sure it will strike you. (if not, it might be a good time to contact me!) Jokes aside, most issues that affect our daily life can be broken down into a few single roadblocks or patterns that don’t serve us but for some reason, and we seem to fall back on them again and again.

+Seeing these issues collected on paper, consider what’s keeping you from making the big changes you want in your life. When done right, this exercise makes it much more obvious what your true resolution should be.

Let me give you an example:

Your new year’s resolution might be: leading a more balanced life.

On your first blank page you title it with – exactly – “Leading a more balanced life”

Below this goal, you write how this will make you feel, and what affect this changed circumstance will have. Like:

“I will feel much more satisfied by the end of the day, week, or month. I’ll wake up in the morning and really look forward to how the day will unfold. My family and friends will invite me more often. Time spent in the office will reduce. My exercise regime will be fun. My weekend will be refreshing.”

The issues that hold you back from it and that you will write down on your second blank page are:

“However hard I’ve tried to change, I somehow never get the results I want. I find it hard to turn down a client or friend, even if I know that I don’t have the capacity to say yes to them. When I start to work, I often lose track and find myself lost in it for hours. I often don’t realize how time flies. Every time I approach a new way of working less, I seem to attract some kind of drama and I end up working more. I have to cut back on “me” time every week.”

Now looking at the second page. One of the core issues here is that everything else seems to be more important than you. Losing yourself in work, never having time for yourself, you can’t say no to friends, colleagues, or clients. You can see the core issue here – right?

It’s about setting boundaries and standing up for yourself.

Now, if you go back to the first page, where you placed your new year’s resolution and the feelings and circumstances that this would bring you, (leading a more balanced life) you see what is keeping you from the results you desire – and you can choose to tackle it differently.

I hope this inspires you to be kind to yourself and shed a different light on your 2018 resolutions. Give yourself the chance to investigate the root of the issue and slowly change what you have been carrying around for years.

Wishing you all the best in 2018!

All my love
Carollyne

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Dec
25
The 12 Days After Christmas

The 12 days after Christmas are a magical time.

Also known as the roughnecks, the bells nights, smoking nights or consecrated nights, these are the days starting on Christmas going until after the New Year.

In most regions of Europe, these twelve holy nights begin at night on the 25th of December and end on the 6th of January, the Epiphany.

This magical time is full of legends, fairy tales and myths. During this time, the Rauhnächten people still perform well-known rituals such as lead pouring, the smoking of houses and stables, and the star singing on January 6th.

The positions of the solar and lunar year form the annual cycle. With regard to the seasonal key points, the sun determines the great rhythms as the seasons, while the moon determines the earth-bound cycles in the annual cycle.

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The 12 Rauhnächte

(The 12 Days after Christmas) are also a symbol for the 12 months of the following year and form a bridge between this world and the afterlife. In the bells, beasts should speak to the dead or appear ancestors and spirits.

The term Rauhnacht probably comes from the incense, because in the period between the years various herbs were smoked. At that time people were hoping to avert evil, bad and unpleasant things by burning them up.

The numerous rituals, customs, and forebodings in this particular time have been preserved in many regions of Europe. On Christmas Eve, ghost beings should have a very strong power, which is also the reason for the ringing of the church bells (din of bells) until the midnight mass.

The “Wild Hunt” in the Bavarian Forest drives, led by Mrs. Holle and Odin, their mischief at the time of Rauhnächte is another tradition. In order to propitiate the beings chasing through the air, residents put meat, cakes or legumes in front of the door. If someone hangs up white laundry at this time, he has to expect that Odin (god of the Vikiner) will grab a piece of laundry to use it as a shroud for the owner of the laundry.

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One of the Rauhnächte rituals is the smoking of one’s own home. It serves to cleanse, to let positive energies flow into the house and drive out “evil spirits”.

As smoking plants, these are particularly suitable:
• spruce resin
• elder
• mistletoe

With the incense made of plants and resins, the incense burns through every room to energetically neutralizes each room and then fills it with thoughtful love.

In the time of the Rauhnächte, our perception is increased and we are more intuitive.

Meditating daily for a few minutes brings us serenity and inspiration. It is the time between the times. A sacred time in which this world and the hereafter merge. A time of love, of light and of reflection.

Get a notebook and write down what insights you have each day. Then, let me know in the comments below what comes up for you!
Wishing you and yours a happy new year ahead!

All my love,
Carollyne

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