Letter from Cressida Pryor
December 19, 2020

Dear Friends,

I hope this letter finds you safe and well...

I have been thinking recently what to write for this particular occasion as so much has already been said about ‘this unprecedented year’...and my mind flits back to another ‘big year’ in my life which was exactly forty years ago. It was the year I got married, and that surprised me as I never planned to enter such an institution but I did! And then later that year at the time of the Solstice my dear mother, Olivia’s older sister died unexpectedly; a dark time in so many ways. Two huge changes in mine and others’ lives that were to have long reaching consequences...

What consequences may we reap from this year’s extraordinary passage? Of course it is too early now to say but I hope one of the harvests will be a continued willingness to reach across barriers to work together for the common good...if a vaccine can be developed in under a year, instead of ten, through collaboration and hard work then surely we can have a similar focus for the needs of our challenged planet and other causes. It is through coming together, listening and working together that extraordinary change can happen...

As a fellowship that honours and is guided by the divine feminine I feel her light within each of us needs to be strengthened and rekindled at this time especially when it is so dark outside, with the pandemic, climate catastrophe and economic challenges. We can still reach our hands out to complete a ‘virtual’ circle of connection. When I used to circle dance there was the cry ‘thumbs to the right’ when we fumbled to hold our neighbours hands in some sort of uniform pattern...however we grasp hands metaphorically, whether it be linking little fingers as the Bretons do, or a firm grip as the Brits are won’t to do....there is connection and a flow of energy. As I write this the holding is still virtual for most, but remarkably the flow and linkage is still there.

So reach out now and hold hands virtually with the hands of others in the world...with those you know and those you have not yet met, from different continents and customs, different languages and livelihoods. For ours are the hands with which the Goddess is to bless and connect with all beings.

Spend a moment in this connection, a connection of gratitude for our common humanity, a time of forgiveness, reconciliation and a time of sadness for many and a time of joy.

For the light is returning.
There is hope.
And may we have the courage to give ourselves to this connection entirely.

Go well, and love in the light of the Goddess

Cressida
FOI Steward