The Wells and the Magdalenes

The wells had started calling to me a few years ago, or perhaps they had been calling me all along, I was just beginning to listen again.  I did a Magdalene initiation meditation in Rebecca Campbells membership where we travelled to the chalice wells and connected to the Magdalene lineage.

It was soon after that, when was working with my clients, I was drawn to the womb and had a feeling of needing to support my clients on a deeper level. So I started my journey to learn more about about womb healing and women's health.  And of course as a result I started going deeper into myself. 

I went on my own journey then, a deeper journey of healing and awakening too long to share here.

At the beginning, when things started happening very fast, I had a healing to ask for guidance. I heard a word 'uraeus' which I couldn't find the meaning of anywhere. The next night I woke in the middle of the night reading a book I had seemingly downloaded while half asleep, it was Mary Magdalenes story and she spoke of the uraeus, a snake like energy moving up the spine, and she also spoke of the well. This book was a great support to me at the time as I worked with this energy, and it also helps me to see looking back now how the wells and feminine awakening are so interwoven. This is just one of the many ways I felt her unseen support.

I first actually went to the chalice well for the fist time a year later, on the day I qualified as a womb wisdom practitioner. I was ready to branch out with my work into the world, I had just left my full time job as a nurse and I was excited.  The chalice well was beautiful and it felt really special to be there, where I felt it all started. My best friend and I sat and meditated in the gardens and I passed on the rite of the womb to her next to the well.

We then went across the road to the white springs. This was at a time when I was working with moving more out into the world with my business and facing my fears of being visible so as we stepped into the candlelit chambers, I naively asked the dark goddess to help me to release shame around being seen.  As I started to take my clothes off to enter the well some men came in and they got naked and went in first,  I am not usually shy or ashamed of my body but suddenly I was overcome with humiliation and felt embarrassed about walking in after them, it came from nowhere but was overwhelming.  Worrying too much about being seen, I didn't look where I was going, and I fell into one of the pools naked and landed with a bang on my foot,  the shame intensified and I pretended nothing had happened. I was shaking as I limped into the well, submerged myself under the cold water and repeated my request.. and I guess that's was what was happening, I was meeting those fears in that moment!  

My friend and I knew something big had happened, we quietly got dressed and walked out, as we stepped into the daylight and out of sight, I burst into first laughter and then tears, the pain was unbearable and so were all the emotions I had felt in there.  I spent the afternoon in our B & B with frozen peas and pain relief and somehow made it home.

When they told me in minor injuries that I had broken my foot, I sobbed, I had literally just left my full time nursing job that had sick pay with a plan to take on extra shifts while I built up my business and now I couldn't work as a nurse at all. And I had 3 kids to support. In that moment I was so angry with the dark goddess! On reflection however, I had no choice other than to move out into the world with my business which is exactly what I had asked her for. I sobbed again on the phone to universal credits thinking we might lose our house, but was told I could have a years self employed support. So I took it all back and thanked the Goddess again. A pattern I would get used to!

I built up my business, and I loved the work I was doing. I felt that I had been on a deep and profound journey that the white springs had been the low point of and I was coming out of the other side, stepping into my new role. It's funny though this journey, and it turns out there was a little more too it of course...I was soon to learn that it is all a spiral and this was just one layer-but that's another story.

Through all of this though, since that first meditation in the Chalice well, I had felt a new level of support, I had things come to me at exactly the right time, people, places and information that would support me on my journey. I also had times where I felt that maybe I was actually channeling Mary Magdalene.  I just felt this beautiful strong feminine presence almost take over me that reminded me of the way I feel when I connect with the energy of Mary Magdalene and all that she represents. 

It had happened quite a few times, usually at important times when I had to make decision or take aligned action. I felt like I was being supported in taking the steps I needed to. 

A year or so ago, I was in a deep state of relaxation at a soundbath in a tent at a festival.  Suddenly there was a loud bang on the outside of the tent we were in.  I remember a sudden jolt, freezing in fear, and memories flooding back to me of times in previous lifetimes where I would have been gathered with others in sacred space and I had not been safe.  

But then I looked around me, my friends were near, people were laughing outside.  It had just been some kids messing around.  My breathing slowed again and I realized that I was safe. I was safe to be in this space, I had been safe to relax, and I was safe to here in my body. I could let this fear go now. 

In that moment I felt that presence again, the feeling I associated with Mary Magdalene, like I had felt at the Chalice well, but I realised that it was not anyone else.  It was all the parts of myself that she was reflecting back to me, the parts of myself that I had been hiding because I didn't feel it was safe. Like so many of us have. 

I felt she was reminding me that I WAS safe now to embody these parts of myself. 

And so that time she or rather 'I' stayed. 

(With waves of wellness, Lexi dells after the soundbath)

A few days later I found myself driving back to Glastonbury on my own after hearing the word baptism in a dream and feeling a pull to submerge myself in water. I took myself back into the white springs. Although I felt scared, it felt like it was time to revisit, this time acknowledging how far I had come and more ready to step forward in faith. I felt that in a way I was ready to fully let go of what had been holding me back and embrace these parts of me I had been hiding that were ready to be being reborn. I had a beautiful experience in the white springs that day and I came out in one piece! or perhaps even more whole.

My middle name is Mary (the lesson again that all you need is within- that energy and support that I felt was never outside of me)  and so I decided to celebrate this return by using this part of my name instead of my married name which to me represented who I became as a result of hiding. So I am now Elena Mary.

And this is my story but really it is the story of many, a reminder of all the magic in the world and ourselves, and perhap a reminder that it is safe now to embody all aspects of who we are ❤️

Elena Mary, Body Soul Alignment

I now hold retreats throughout the year at sacred sites (with Waves of Wellness, Lexi Dells and Louise Mccutcheon of Mmmyoga), and offer a number of healing sessions, trainings and courses. My passion is for us all to be reminded of the wisdom we hold within.

You can join my mailing list below to keep updated.