Oh my god you guys.

You know those annoying people who say things like “This is work I was called to do”, and “I feel like I’ve come home”, and “I feel like I know of my purpose in the world is now”?

I’m really sorry but I’m going to be one of those people for the next 5 minutes.

I have no idea how to explain this last weekend to you.  Last weekend I started my training in Glastonbury to become a Priestess of Avalon, something I have been wanting to do for the past six years.  I came in feeling overwhelmingly excited, but also feeling under qualified, with no real idea why I was there, and with no idea what to expect or how I would react to the weekend.  I haven’t done any spiritual circles or group before apart from an incredibly disappointing experience with Zusanna Budapest a couple of years ago which actually put me off goddess spirituality for a while.  I was nervous about working with other pagans as almost all my previous experiences have been pretty crappy; a lot of egotistical I-know- more-than-you kind of people, and a whole bunch of look-how-alternative-I-am kind of people.  So let’s just say I was mega excited and worried at the same time.

But it was just incredible.  Incredible.  I met the most wonderful, gorgeous, inspiring, dedicated people who I absolutely fell in love with. I have hugged and kissed so many people who truly felt like family – it’s freaking weird being back in the real world where you don’t hug and kiss and support everyone.  I felt sense of home and rightness in my spirituality that I have never felt before.  And I felt a sense of home and rightness in my desire to become a Priestess that I’ve never felt before – I truly 100,000% feel and know that the Goddess has literally called me to do this training, she is calling me to actually become her Priestess and that it is what I should and need to be doing right now. From someone who was just coming to terms with the idea of being a Priestess, that’s a huge step.

Almost from the second where we sat down in circle, and our teacher, the wonderful and inspirational Priestess of Avalon Erin McCauliff, started to talk I just had tears running down my face, and it just continued all weekend.  Literally all weekend. I had real puffy eyes on the way home Sunday night.  It just felt like and home.

We did a whole bunch of stuff: we learnt about the Avalon tradition, the wheel of the year and about the season of Samhain, and the wheel of the year. We went out and walked the land, and for the first time I understood what Kathy is talking about in her book about the embodiment of the Goddess in the physical landscape of Glastonbury. I really felt it, dude, I really did.  We did some incredible, deep, absolutely transformational ceremonies where I cried (some more) and felt so much love for my brother and sister priestesses-in-training and so much to love and strength from the goddess, deeper than I have ever felt before.

We also popped into the magical White Spring, where I’d never been before, and it was just the most magical place I’ve ever been too. Wowzer. And myself and my sister priestesses spent a bunch of time in the Goddess Temple on our lunchbreaks, which was al Samhained up with candles and darkness, so it was like a big ol’ cave full of great smells. It was, like most of the stuff I have told you before, amazing!

Sigh. It was just the most magical time – I totally feel transformed, which I was not expecting, and am really looking forward to doing it all over again at Yule!