Here I am, a little flabbergasted and amazed as Larry, my husband, and I received the United States President’s Lifetime Achievement Award, signed by President Biden. This is the highest award one can get from the president’s office, there are ascending levels in that award and various categories. Here I am doing my little life being part of a subculture that pretty much works under the radar as we do our work for the earth and all her children, when suddenly this comes flying into my space. I have a sense I may be a door opener for more of us to come out of the woodwork. Larry has been collaborating with UMass and the former president of Hampshire college to create a mentorship program. They reached out for funders and Mary Schreiber Swenson stepped forward; I found out later that she was nominated for this award herself. Larry always drags everybody into our home to see my studio and encouraged me to show one of my videos on water. So, Mary came with a group of people, I showed them my garden, fed them from my garden, showed the video, and shrine room. She experienced me in circle praying and singing, and of course it blew her away. I told her that I struggled to get my work out into the world because of my garden commitment to grow food to feed us all year. She asked me if I knew that I was a genius and on some level I knew. She decided to nominate me for this award and put me on the phone with the person in charge who interviewed me. I had no idea who I was talking to and what this all meant. He commented that I was a good story teller.
I was somewhat in disbelief. I am happy and joyful that I am recognized for all that I have created to consistently inspire and bring magic to the world we live in mostly without pay. I have been going through a whole bunch of feelings including ambivalence, gratitude, accepting it, rejecting it, and frustrated as it may change my life and I had set this time away to write. We were scheduled to go to Washington to receive it but it was going to take a lot of my money and time to make this happen and I declined. However it has to be honored by a ceremony by our community which we did on March 16, 2025 at our local townhall.
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Vernal Equinox Ceremony Saturday March 21 2026, from 1-4 PM, at America’s Stonehenge
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For the full info, what to bring and prepare will be posted closer to the event .
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Please, join us in the annual Vernal Equinox, which is an outdoors event, to midwife us and the earth into the new era. As the world as we know it collapses we focus our compassionate heart on the world we envision to come into existence based in love and oneness. This is a time of great awakening, when we take responsibility for what we create with our thoughts, words, feelings, and actions. We are moving into the era of the heart that will be our compass. We are totally held in this process by the movement of the stars, planets, and comets, and the guidance of the Galactic beings.
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We are in an amazing shift right now, as the energies are lining up, announcing a new beginning. Things are going to accelerate rapidly as old ways of being are shed. The year of the introspective wood-snake has ended, we are shedding the last vestiges of our mind centered egoic existence and move into the heart, expressing compassion, love, and deep connection to all of life. The solar eclipse on the 17th of February marks a new era with the year of the Fire-horse, galloping into the future towards freedom, transformation, perseverance, passion, speed, and bold action. Feeling light without the heavy skin of an old way of being it dashes off. Know what you want to manifest in your life, so you gallop into the right direction and do not kicked of its back. It is a time to be centered, as this fire is a yang fire, connected with the sun and also with our heart. You want to come from a balanced heart, and this heart is awakening now. There is the Saturn-Neptune conjunction at zero degrees of Aries, as these two planets hold opposite qualities, Saturn can bring structure to the ideals, imagination, and creativity of Neptune, it supports us in actualizing our dreams, with maturity, responsibility, and integrity. Aries is the sign of action and desire. This conjunction has not happened in 6000 years when the Kali Yuga started. As the Kali Yuga was our descend in our deepest egoic expression and separation, we are now entering the time of remembering, who we are, remembering the ways of the earth, remembering living from the balanced divine feminine and masculine within ourselves, remembering ancient ways of healing and restoring balance within our body and the earth, remembering our wholeness, divinity, and oneness. The planets are lining up as well as a lot of the outer planets move into fire and air signs reflecting speed and sudden changes, creating a restless quality. In the Dagara cosmology of West Africa we are in a water year, which brings clarity, flow, and we may encounter rapids and more floods this year. At the same time it connects us with the rising of the Divine Feminine, and the sensuality of our bodies. The Earth is going through her birthing process and there will be shaking and ruptures as birthing is always a breaking out of an old skin. This is a time of great expansion, the seed burst out of its limiting shell having dreamed its new existence and is ready to move into the light and bring it into a tangible reality. We are coming out of the chrysalis state to become the butterfly, flying with playful joy on our wings of freedom. The deepest shift is within, as within so without, through which we actualize the change without towards a vision of the new Earth. We enter into resurrection, of the Divine Feminine, of claiming our lost parts, and ancient gifts of our Divine blueprint and with it comes a death, an ending of an old way of being and era, and it will feel right and complete.
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More information about this Vernal Equinox and what to prepare for will be posted closer to the event. Admission rates for America’s Stonehenge is $18 and additional donation of $8 if you can or more at the ritual site.
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Water Videos
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This video page has multiple full feature productions of water’s journey mainly through winter that can be purchased and short videos that can be watched for free. The images, sounds, improvisational singing and compositions, poems, voice and editing are all done by Katja Esser. It has been a 10 year project in which each winter has been spend gathering, creating, editing, and huge amounts of listening, and returning into the field to record over and over again, the nature sounds, songs, and poems while dealing with lots of waiting for the air travel to subside or the right bird to call without traffic noise. It has been a labor of love, patience, and lots of challenges.
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Vernal Equinox Ritual
The Vernal Equinox is a moment of balance when night and day are equal length. It celebrates the awakening life when all is popping, bursting, and cracking open. The silent and immobilized state of Winter is broken as the hard frozen Earth becomes mushy and soft. The waters begin to flow again; seeds swell and saps rise. The mother is birthing. More info will be posted closer to the event.
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Summer Solstice Ritual
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The Summer Solstice celebrates the optimum light when the sun has traveled to the furthest point to the North, appears to stand still for a couple of days before it starts the journey to the South again. The rapid growth begins to slow down, sprout has come to flower and the process of maturing begins. We celebrate this vulnerable yet full expression of the flower and bless its journey so flower can make it to seed to assure the future of life. More info will be posted closer to the event.
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Autumnal Equinox Ritual
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The Fall Equinox marks the moment of balance, after which the nights become longer again. This is the culmination of the growing season; seed has moved from sprout, to flower, to fruit, and to seed again. We enter the time of the final harvest and begin to prepare for season ahead when the fields lay barren. It is a time of gratitude, abundance, and celebration. More info will be posted closer to the event.
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Winter Solstice Ritual
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The Winter Solstice ritual honors the moment of the deepest darkness in which the seed of light is born. For the Earth it is a time of gestation, cleansing, and strengthening to prepare for the coming growing season. For us it is a time to slow down, go within, and enter the dream time. The rituals take place out of doors. The intention and details will be posted closer to the event.
Life continues to show up, presenting us with losses, changes, and situations that are final and irrevocable. A cascade of feelings emerge when we face the reality of what is. When there is not a supportive environment to express these feelings fully, it can lead to depressions and illness. The grief ritual is designed to create a safe container to fully give your grief over to the ancestors in whatever form it comes out. Full info…..
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Deeper Roots – Feeding the Ancestors
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As we enter the ceremonial Now- where past, present, and future are One… how we move forward is tied to how we deal with our past and our Ancestors. We have come to this moment in time in part because of the choices of our Ancestors in the past as well as our own choices in the present. Full info….
The sound circles are a loosely structured gathering where we use our voice, sound makers, and instruments to open our heart and soul to the infinite universe of sound and vibration and allow it to weave a tapestry of texture, color, and melody that opens doors to joy, vibrational healing, expanded realities, and more. Full info…
The Vernal Equinox is a moment of balance when night and day are equal length. It celebrates the awakening life when all is popping, bursting, and cracking open. The silent and immobilized state of Winter is broken as the hard frozen Earth becomes mushy and soft. The waters begin to flow again; seeds swell and saps rise. The mother is birthing. More info will be posted closer to the event.
The Fall Equinox marks the moment of balance, after which the nights become longer again. This is the culmination of the growing season; seed has moved from sprout, to flower, to fruit, and to seed again. We enter the time of the final harvest and begin to prepare for season ahead when the fields lay barren. It is a time of gratitude, abundance, and celebration. More info will be posted closer to the event.
The Winter Solstice ritual honors the moment of the deepest darkness in which the seed of light is born. For the Earth it is a time of gestation, cleansing, and strengthening to prepare for the coming growing season. For us it is a time to slow down, go within, and enter the dream time. The rituals take place out of doors. The intention and details will be posted closer to the event.
Life continues to show up, presenting us with losses, changes, and situations that are final and irrevocable. A cascade of feelings emerge when we face the reality of what is. When there is not a supportive environment to express these feelings fully, it can lead to depressions and illness. The grief ritual is designed to create a safe container to fully give your grief over to the ancestors in whatever form it comes out. Full info…..
As we enter the ceremonial Now- where past, present, and future are One… how we move forward is tied to how we deal with our past and our Ancestors. We have come to this moment in time in part because of the choices of our Ancestors in the past as well as our own choices in the present. Full info….
The sound circles are a loosely structured gathering where we use our voice, sound makers, and instruments to open our heart and soul to the infinite universe of sound and vibration and allow it to weave a tapestry of texture, color, and melody that opens doors to joy, vibrational healing, expanded realities, and more. Full info…