A new chapter.

Imbolc.

The time of year when Life wakes up out of the deep, long, cold slumber of winter.
Birds are chirping, and a few brave plants dare creep above the cover of snow, in search of sunlight.

Well, usually, anyway. This year Brighid started her work quite early, and the Holly King of Winter was so focussed on the land on the other side of the Atlantic, that we hardly saw any winter.
It was mostly grey and wet, and now, the sunlight returns, as the year moves towards spring.

But that doesn't mean that it's not Imbolc. The beginning of a new year. The time of vital, fresh, young life. Whether it be within the world of plants or within the soul, this is a time of change and fresh starts. And I'm seizing it.

About three and a half years ago, I started this blog. It was supposed to be an online portfolio, where I would carefully document my proceedings throughout the adventure that was: "Arts and Educations."
Studying at art school. On my way to become an artist as well as an art teacher.

Spoiler alert: I quit.

The arts weren't the problem; I loved the arts.
It was the training to become a teacher within this system of schools that we know today, that did me in.
That, and the fact that I was in a school-system that was trapping me (or so it felt).
Assignments piled up, motivation went down the drain as the looming threat of failure grew into a fear which paralyzed me, and I even did something that I hadn't managed to do in... Well, as long as I could remember, really.
I stopped drawing.
You see, when I was a kid, I drew constantly. Whenever I got the chance. One day a friend dared me to not sketch anything for a week. I accepted the challenge, and lost within a day.
By the first year of art school, I was good. I wouldn't have admitted it at the time, of course, but now I think I can say that I was.
Yet somehow, by the second year, I drew much less, and by the third, it was gone. I didn't make anything anymore.

So anyway, a long story short, it took me FAR too long to realize that I was in the wrong place, and to build up the guts to quit. When I finally did, I felt liberated and free, and fully intended to keep on making art. But after art school, I needed a break. That break stretched out, to become longer and longer, until I reached an impasse.

I think this is probably a good point to mention that for quite a while now, I've been actively walking a very spiritual path.
It started somewhere in high school, with making energy balls. Yes, you can make energy balls. And no, you won't go to hell for it.
I believe that things like that are not supernatural. They're perfectly natural. They're just also forgotten and feared by many, which is completely unnecessary.
After taking my first steps, I wanted to learn more, and started reading about Wicca and Magic. After that I read about Witchcraft. I went on to read, and learn, and do many things related, which eventually lead me to where I am now.

So am I a Wiccan? Am I a Witch?
I would say no.
I am me. I am human. I am a spirit. I am alive.
I'm also eclectic. Which basically means that I look at lots of different sources, seriously consider what I find there, then pick out the bits and pieces that I think are right for me, and use them, without binding myself to the rest of it.
So I work with parts of Wicca, parts of Witchcraft, and parts of loads of other things.

Last weekend, that path led me to a red tent. A place where women gather once a month to do women's things. I'm afraid I can't divulge very much - what happens in the tent stays in the tent, but I promise it's nothing scary.
But at the red tent, I met a few people, and received just the things that I needed to wake up to a lot of truths. It was huge for me.
And it motivated me to do a lot that I had lost.

Then, just this morning, one of the people who I had met at the tent, asked me if I could show her any of my work.
I realized that I had no recent work to show, but that I did want to have work to show her, and that I wanted to do something about it.
I remembered this blog, that I hadn't done anything with in about a year and a half.
Two plus two made four, and now I'm reviving it.

If you're reading this, and you made it all the way here, then thank you.
I send you love and blessings, and hope that you will find what you need to feel as happy and inspired as I do now.

-Thessa.