Blossoming
Spring is in the wings. Someone tell the weather?
Quick jump to events, info and links? Here you go…
Hello everyone
Here in Goa the heat is on - or rather, the humidity. The temperature doesn’t actually fluctuate that much through the year here, perhaps there’s just a gentle dip in the night-time mercury over the ‘winter’ peak in January. It’s the humidity that really runs the show, or rather, the global monsoon cycle.
It’s now the kind of back-dripping dew point that means at least three changes of clothes in a day, and ditto for showers. Although you pretty much sweat IN the shower during the day so it’s hardly worth it really. The Arabian Sea is like a bath (I’m often heard lamenting the lack of actual bathtubs here - my Scorpio soul is convinced I’d still have a ritual soak even in this heat - and it generally feels that whatever water you managed to consume in a day is at least 2 litres short of what you need.
But I love it all the same. And the rising humidity means the seasons are changing. The rain is coming. The clouds are blossoming over the ocean - not yet close enough to land, but soon. Soon now, the monsoon is coming.
This is spring, in the language of the southern side of this great and beautiful land. Close to the equator where the changing seasons are less of a transition and more a handbrake turn.
I hear it’s not especially springlike in the UK either just yet - after what a quick Google tells me is one of the wettest starts to a year in decades. But all meteorologically attuned Brits know that a rubbish winter means a heatwave in high season, so let’s cross our fingers!
But as Beltane eases into view, the shimmering of spring is nonetheless evident all over the northern hemisphere, and I always think of the cherry blossoms on the streets of north London at this time. I mean - Kyoto too, of course. Although I’ve never been there, just seen those amazing pictures. But I do remember the daily dusting of petals on my walk through leafy Islington to the tube station, and the sense of any day now, the moment being right to leave my coat at home, or perhaps to think about the interminable risk of the first open toe sandal of the season.
After an energetically chaotic and astrologically aggressive first chunk of 2024, things are easing up a touch - I mean, thank goodness. The back end of Taurus season starts to actually LOOK and feel like an earth energy, with the eclipse corridor now closed again until the autumn and the big Jupiter x Uranus moment in the rearview. Mercury is direct again which I don’t particularly rate beyond the fact everyone can stop blaming the tiny but mighty one for literally every misspelled message or laptop vs liquid fail.
Incoming, we have Pluto Retrograde from 2nd May, and another Sun x Uranus cazimi on 13th, but the big lunations are looking a lot more cuddly than recent times (how are you doing post the Scorpion sting of this week’s full moon?) and even the onset of Gemini season from 20th, which usually sends a teeth-gritting gulp through my nervous system, is for once looking more on the korma side of spicy.
So all in all - it’s time for a collective exhale and a chance to reflect, reset and review this past couple of months, and perhaps in the shadowy wake of the Scorpio moon, the last 6 month cycle (from new moon in Scorp on 13th Nov to the full completion on 24th April).
In my old career in fashion advertising we would call the review of a shoot or project the wash-up, or sometimes the tissue session. Meaning everything had to be blasted out and put on the table, no matter how much we all wanted to look away. Perhaps the tissues were also for all the crying. Who knows (anyone still in advertising - tell me! I realise now that I never knew). These final few days run-up to Beltane, the Celtic festival of the dawn of spring (May 1st) are nature’s ideal moment for such reflection.
As I move into my final two weeks in India before a 6 week stint back in the UK, the changing temperatures here have provided the perfect stillness (you can do nothing and I mean nothing between 1pm and 4pm) in which to sit under a fan and take notes, inventory, to trawl through what’s worked, what hasn’t, what felt great and what totally sucked. What exceeded expectations and where I fell short, and mostly, what has made me happy. It’s a beautiful time for you to do the same, also acknowledging the blossoming AT LAST of seeds planted back in the cold earth of winter solstice, just before Christmas.
Last night I went to a fantastic class called YIN + PIN - a 45 minute magical heart opening yin led by my dear friend Prianca Shharma**, supported by acupuncture by the lovely Frankie Corvino during the subsequent 45 minute embodied yoga nidra. Acupuncture during yin! It was amazing. At the end of the class I pulled a card from a deck our hosts had laid out, one which I also own and one of my oldest actually - the Osho Zen tarot. This is what jumped out for me, and it felt like such a great collective message as we land in soft spring evenings and more gentle grounding.
** A dedicated ashtanga yogi of the sort you just don’t meet often, and all round wonderful human, friend, mother qand creatrix - Prianca is one of the best yoga teachers you will ever meet and you’ll be hearing a lot more about her as she and I are working on a joint training offering in YIN & SOUND HEALING which we’ll be hosting here in Goa in the autumn. Watch this space!
But for now you can follow her here and if you are looking for a summer retreat, join her - and me - in Bali in July for her ATMA PREMA self-love journey…
Seven of Rainbows Osho Zen reminds us somehow now is a time that requires vigilance, patience, and waiting. There will be times when all you have to do is wait. The seed has been planted, the baby is growing in the womb, the oyster is coating the grain of sand and making it into a pearl.
The woman in the picture here is in that state. Contented, with no trace of anxiety, she is simply waiting. Through the phases of the moon passing overhead, she remains patient, which is so in tune with the rhythms of the moon that she has almost become one with it.
She knows now is the time to be passive, let nature do its thing. But she is not sleepy or does not seem to care; she knows that this is the time to prepare for something important. This is a mysterious time, like the moment before dawn. This is when the only thing to do is wait.
The teaching from Osho for the card reads:
We have forgotten how to wait; it is almost an abandoned space. And it is our greatest treasure to be able to wait for the right moment. The whole existence waits for the right moment. Even trees know it – when it is time to bring the flowers and when it is time to let go of all the leaves and stand naked against the sky.
They are still beautiful in that nakedness, waiting for the new foliage with great trust that the old has gone, and the new will soon be coming, and the new leaves will start growing. We have forgotten to wait, we want everything in a hurry. It is a great loss to humanity… In silence and waiting something inside you goes on growing – your authentic being. And one day it jumps and becomes a flame, and your whole personality is shattered; you are a new man. And this new man knows what ceremony is, this new man knows life’s eternal juices. Â
Source: Osho Zen: The Diamond Thunderbolt Chapter 10
It reminded me of the magic of sadhana, daily practice and ritual, whether a full flow or simply sitting. Of taking time to observe the perennial patterns of the sky and the moon. Of sitting watching the ocean talk to the sky, or lying in the park or on the sand and gazing at clouds. All season I’ve made no time for any of this, but this week FINALLY I found a few moments to lean back into the sacredness of just waiting. I can’t believe what a game changer it was.
It may seem like it’s never coming, but spring really is just around the corner - energetically, at least.
Wishing you a beautiful Beltane
Janie xx
SOME UPCOMING HAPPENINGS!
Lovely Amy, pictured here on Level 1 of my training in India in February, loved it so much she is taking Level 2 in Kent next month. The best kind of testimonial!
Alchemy: Total Sound Training
I’m super thrilled to be hosting my first ever SOUND HEALING TRAINING in the UK on this return trip during May/June. I’ve built a course which I’m so proud of, bringing together everything I’ve learned over the past 15 years of soundwork and serving it to you in my own language and tone through an array of creative exercises and experiential tools. I truly believe it’s a unique and powerful container and it’s one of the things I’m most proud of EVER!
Level 1 (perfect for integrating sound into other modalities or just being damned curious) is happening 28th-30th May and Level 2 (getting you up and running with your own orchestrated sound sessions) runs right behind it from 31st May - 2nd June. The training is at the beautiful Quadrangle retreat centre in Kent, just off the M25. EARLYBIRD CLOSES this weekend so if you wanted to save £50 on one of the last couple of spaces, now is the time.
You can download the full brochure below or just drop me a message on jane@silenceandnoise.co.uk or via WhatsApp on +91 93071 15079 to get started.
The Healing Power of Sound
My book is being published….eeek! Originally it was due to be out on the day I head back to the UK (May 14th), but something to do with a barge and a bridge in Baltimore and shipping delays into the US means it will now be June 18th. Which is much nicer astrology so I’m happy with that!
You can pre-order from all the usual places, and my publishers tell me that if you want to support independent bookstores you should go HERE. Annoyingly the cover image hasn’t been uploaded to the UK site but you can see it below when my parents opened the first copies last week! I think those that got in super quick (thank you!) at Waterstones may also have a copy as they started shipping too early! Let me know…
I’m planning to hold a little launch event in Cornwall and another in Brighton, both towards the end of June. I haven’t quite organised them yet but I imagine there will be a free mini sound session, snacks and fizz of course. I’ll keep you posted and hope to see lots of you there!
UK Events
I’m back in the UK doing friends and fam and a bunch of my fave regular retreat clients, so don’t have many public events. BUT these are happening! I’m trying to get everything live and bookable over this weekend but mark your diary and give me a nudge if you’re keen.
CORNWALL - Full Moon Sagittarius Sound Session at The Zen Den, Watergate Bay - May 24th. This one sold out but I have a couple of spots available again - grab them HERE.
CARDIFF - Cancer Season Sound, Yin & Magic with Liv Duffin/Yoganic - June 30th. Going live to book any day now via www.yoganicuk.com
LANCASHIRE - New Moon Cancer Sound Session at The Rewilding - July 5th. Also holding my signature workshop, the one day HIGH VIBES: Introduction to Sound Healing here during the day on 5th! And creator and founder of the venue the amazing Michelle and I are co-hosting a COMING HOME WILD RETREAT DAY on Sat 6th July full of wild dips, sound, delicious eats, community and creative cool stuff. LMK if you wanna come! Tickets launching this week.
Plus, there will be a couple of book launch events… TBC!
Online Courses
I find it INSANELY hard to work on my digital offerings when the season is in full swing here in India, the shala takes up so much bandwidth and the tech limitations in rural Goa can be frustrating - even while writing this post to you the power has dropped out three times! It makes uploading videos and heavy sound files kind of a pain.
Which is why it’s taken SO LONG to get the raft of online courses ready for you that I know I’ve been promising for rather too long.
The good news is - they are now in final mastering (ie. the audio guy has them and is cleaning the background noise out for you!) You can pre-register - no cash changing hands at this stage - to make sure you get sent the links when they go live, which I hope will be next week. Pending internet fails, obvs. At least once they are done THEY’RE DONE! And you have them forever as a great little resource tool for life.
Sound Healing for Yoga Teachers: A Mini Course
Star Nomad: Become Your Own Astrologer in a Week
Sending you all the love from gorgeous Goa
Janie xx