Dorset's chalk ridge refers to  dramatic chalk escarpments like the  Purbeck Hills  and the  Wessex Ridgeway , formed from ancient seabed limestone, offering panoramic views,  chalk grassland , woodlands, and historic sites like  hillforts . Key sections include the Purbeck Ridge (Flowers Barrow to Ballard Point), notable for its windswept paths and views of Poole Harbour and the coast, and the Wessex Ridgeway, an ancient route with landmarks like  Hambledon Hill  and  Cerne Abbas . These ridges are popular for walking, cycling, and horse riding, showcasing distinctive landscapes and rich geology. Today, the patron saint of Dorset is recognised as Saint Wite  (pronounced Wee-ta)  aka St Candida, her name referring to the white chalk. My theory is that she is an echo of a much older goddess.  Legend has it that she was a 9th-century  Saxon  holy woman from  Dorset  who was killed by marauding Danes.  Loc...

Well we can say that I've had a bit of a rough time lately. I am thinking about my precious time on Earth, and that life can end at any moment. When I die, the world will still be here, and I hope that my impression upon the lives of others will be valued as a positive influence. This is my only hope, that I can serve humanity, and all life on Earth, in whatever tiny way I can. I want to offer you something inspiring, something beautiful, something to enrich your life. My best ideas so far have been to paint you some pretty pictures and to make some videos that you might enjoy watching. This is my humble offering to you. I just want to be of some service to the world, even if it's just to find you a dress to wear to your Christmas party, at the clothes shop where I work. All my life I have been thinking "what will be left when I'm gone?" What can I leave behind that will be of any value to you? I could be dead tomorrow, and so could you! So let's ma...

This will be the last Supermoon of the year, as the moon begins to move further away from the Earth. The energy of Taurus is one of grounded reassurance and perseverance against all odds. Solid and persistent, just like the bull, the energy of Taurus brings out your stubborn streak. You may find comfort in age old traditions and ancient customs which seem to call to you from the mists of time. Indulge your senses in the incense and music of earth-centred, life affirming ritual. You will benefit from giving your home a little make-over, adding decorations that remind you of the beauty of nature. This is a good time to go outside and collect pebbles, shells, leaves, flowers, or anything else that may call to you. This full moon reminds you that despite any problems you may face in life, the trees and rocks are still standing solid, and they will still be there long after you're gone. It gives you a sense of perspective, and asks you to consider what will be remembered and wh...

This is my confession. I cannot resist cheap clothes. Primark (which is a very affordable fashion retailer by the way) seems to have a magnetic force which pulls me in. The force is especially strong when there's a big red SALE sign in the window. I just get sucked into this huge shop full of poorly made clothes. I look at all that synthetic fabric, in all the pretty colours, and I just can't help myself. It's a disease. I just can't seem to kick the habit. I know that what I'm doing is wrong, but I keep on doing it. I keep going in there and buying their cheap clothes. Help me! The prices are just too low for me to resist! Why is this a moral dilemma for me? I'll tell you why. Firstly, synthetic fabrics are terrible for the environment. They're really terrible. Synthetic fabrics are made using a number of complex chemical processes and treatments. Polyester, nylon and similar fabrics are made from petroleum, causing a lot of energy consumption and...

My trees, real and fake! What is Christmas/Yule without a twinkling fir tree, laden with baubles? It has been a custom to decorate spaces with greenery for festivals since pre-Christian times. Medieval churches purchased holly and ivy for Christmas decorations. In the town of Rye, holly twigs were wound up with broom and candles placed among them. Private homes were decorated likewise, with holly inside and ivy on the porch, and anything else that could be found green at that time of year, like rosemary, bay laurel, yew, box, broom, and mistletoe. The Protestant reformers weren't keen on all this "paganism" and sought to ban Yuletide festivities altogether. Christmas decorations disappeared between 1645 and 1660 when Christmas was actually illegal in England. When Christmas made a comeback, the 'kissing bush' was invented. The custom of kissing under a bush of foliage, five or six feet round, spread across the whole of England by the nineteenth century. Elab...

Alright, it's time to get serious about being an adult human. This means taking responsibility for your actions, and actually thinking about the way your daily actions impact the rest of the world. I know there's a lot of nasty shit in the world that you don't really want to be part of your life, so you'd rather ignore that stuff. But what if you could change the world? What if the tiny parts of your seemingly insignificant life could actually CHANGE the world? Yeah yeah, what difference does it make if one person starts doing things differently? Well you know what, that one person can be a shining example to the people around them, and then bam, five people have changed their lives. Those five people all influence another five people each. KABLAMO. The pattern continues, and before you know it, a shit tonne of people have changed the way they live, and are positively influencing the rest of the world. YOU can be one of those people! Are you ready? Let's go.... ...

It was in May 1997 that I decided to myself that I was "pagan". As far as I understood, this meant having an Earth-based spirituality, a connection with Nature, reverence for the Earth. I figured these sounded like lovely things, and it was at that time of year when Nature really comes to life and everything is wonderfully green. I knew that I felt a strong connection with all this Earthly stuff, and that this was what fed my spirit. The word "pagan" derives from Latin "paganus" which means “rural”, “of the countryside” or “outside the city”. It inherently has connotations of the uncivilised, the peasantry, the wild. In reference to religion, we are talking about the diverse temples and holy sites of country folk. When the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion, it was out in the wilderness that the ancient folk religions continued. Paganism referred to those practices outside the control of government officials. Before the...

January 2014 has been pretty special because we've begun with a super new moon, then we had a micro full moon, and as the month draws to a close we have another super new moon. "Super" means the moon is especially close to the Earth, and "micro" means it is especially far away from the Earth. If you imagine the moon travelling around the Earth, it doesn't travel in a perfect circle, and it doesn't travel at a consistent speed either. So, sometimes it goes round closer and faster, other times it goes round slower and further away. That's why the current lunar month is 29 days, 10 hours, and 24 minutes, but the next lunar month will be 29 days, 10 hours, and 21 minutes long, and the duration of the lunar months continue to vary throughout the year. In preshistoric times, looking at the moon was one of the easiest way to track the passing of time. Some cultures measured the start of a lunar month to be the new moon, others thought of the first cr...

May is named after the a ncient Italic goddess of spring, Maia. She was identified with Terra and Bona Dea by the late antiquarian writer Macrobius. He also associated her with Fauna, Cybele, Ops, Juno, and Carna. This treatment of the goddess was probably influenced by the 1st century BCE scholar Varro, who tended to resolve a great number of deities into one archetypal Mother Earth. On the first day of May, observed in the lunar calendar with the first appearance of the crescent moon, ancestor spirits were honoured and a pregnant sow was sacrificed to Maia. On the full moon, Maia's son , Mercury, was honoured as patron god of merchants.  According to Greek mythology, Maia was the eldest of seven sisters , the Pleiades. Hers is the fourth brightest star in the Pleiades cluster , also known as the Maia Nebula, which is part of the constellation Taurus. " Maia of the lively eyes: Atlas fathered her, outstanding in beauty, among his seven dear violet-haired daughters w...

Through our daily earthbound life, we recognise the sun rising in the east (northeast in the summer and southeast in the winter) and mounting the sky. The sun rarely passes directly overhead, and rather we see it moving toward the south, if you're in the northern hemisphere. The sun will then set toward the west (southwest in the winter and northwest in the summer). This all changes if you're in the southern hemisphere, where the sun will appear to travel through the north, rising in the southeast at winter and the northeast at summer, and rising in the southwest in summer and northwest in winter. The following diagram shows the perceived passage of the sun for each hemisphere. For this reason, I would place my altar in the South and draw the circle anti-clockwise if I were in the southern hemisphere. Whether we are in the southern or northern hemisphere, the altar is placed in the darkest quarter of the circle, where the sun is perceived to travel under the earth. Psychol...

  (Nature Unveiling Herself to Science by L ouis Barrias in 1899, Musee d'Orsay.) "Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess, She in the dust of whose feet are the hosts of Heaven, whose body encircleth the universe. 'I who am the beauty of the green earth; and the White Moon amongst the Stars; and the mystery of the Waters; and the desire of the heart of man. I call unto thy soul: arise and come unto me. For I am the Soul of nature who giveth life to the Universe; From me all things proceed; and unto me, all things must return.'" The Prose Charge The Great Goddess of Wicca is described as Mother Nature Herself. She is the creative force of the Universe. Nature is envisioned as a Mother because the Latin word natura means "to birth".  The personification of Mother Nature, was widely popular in the Middle Ages. Mother Earth or Eorthe in Old English was also popular. The Norse personified Mother Earth as Jord . The Greeks called Her Ma-ka (translit...

Shortly after the summer solstice, I took a walk to the cliff tops, just ten minutes from where I live. I have been thinking about doing this for a long time, debating with myself whether or not it was a good idea. I decided to put a face to the name and say hello to you all. I have just uploaded this video and my palms are sweating with anxiety. I am quite a shy person. I speak in a hushed voice around people I don't know and struggle to meet them in the eye when I'm not feeling confident. It took me a long time to build up the ability to stand in front of a group of people and speak to them. When I was in university and had to give a presentation to the class, I would feel sick and quake in my boots! But when I started to make videos, I felt a lot more at ease. I gradually became less shy about public speaking, and would fearlessly offer my opinion infront of the class in university. I'm still very awkward around people and it takes me a long time to get to know someo...