Hawthorn - Deep Heart Nourishment

Walking the Hawthornevale Path in Edinburgh, I feel its connection to the upcoming spring cleanse. The Hawthorn has been a key thread in my Shamanic journey, from my training in Balerno, "Place of the Hawthorn," to a bee carrying heart medicine to me. Now, as I explore this path with a fellow teacher, I see how these medicines weave into my work.

Here near where I'm staying in Edinburgh there is a path called the Hawthornevale Path. Not only does she remind me of the deep heart nourishment required for the upcoming cleanse of spring here in the Northern Hemisphere, but also the places she grows are creating a significant thread in the tapestry of my Shamanic Life.

I was taught in a place called Balerno, which means Place of the Hawthorn. When I was sitting in my teachers garden, after my teacher training, a bee flew out of the Hawthorn there, circled towards me touching my heart and then back into the Hawthorn. In my first transmission ceremony as a teacher I had brought through Bee Medicine and blew it straight into my teachers heart.

I love seeing these threads of Bee and Hawthorn Medicine cross and how they have alchemised into becoming part of the team for my teaching work.

Yesterday I walked along part of the Hawthornevale Path, knowing it will become a regular route of exploration for me while I am staying here. The friend that I am sharing with, is someone I have trained shamanically side-by-side, and now, as we are starting to share teaching medicine together, the Hawthorn shows up strongly.

When I tracked the path on the map, it ended in a place called RoseBurn, Burn means river or stream in Scotland and it reminds me of the time I spent by the Rose River in the Appalachians. I felt a strong connection to this place and had some very powerful memories of a life lived here, one where I and my community of the Mountain People, who were early settlers, were dispossessed to make way for the state parks. By this River, the powerful question arose "What and where is Home now?”

Seeing these haw berries left over from the autumn with the silver birch, felt like a message of timing … from autumn to spring … a cycle, a circle is closing. I am bringing something home and I am curious to see how it will unfold.

I feel I will be making a Pilgrimage along this path to RoseBurn in the Spring. Many of these place names in the States originated from places where the new residents had come from, so this feels as if I'll be completing something and bringing it home - whatever that 'it' is.

I hope that you will continue on this part of this journey with me,

With much love,
from my heart to yours,

~ Aurora White Crow ~