Crete, the holy oil Priestess and the serpent

Crete is a beautiful living Rose, an island of deep wisdom, and beneath what we see lie many layers, many keys and ancient civilisations held just beneath the surface of what we think we know, often felt rather than fully remembered.

What feels so special about this journey is that I did not know I was coming here. I was taken to Crete as a surprise for my 45th birthday by Olivier, my beloved, and I didn’t even know where I was until we arrived on land. In the air as we descended after sunset into the cove, I felt my heart open in a very beautiful way. It was sweet and powerful because it was soft.

Crete carries the imprint of an ancient maritime culture, often spoken of as Minoan, a queen-led society where feminine beauty and ritual were woven into everyday life. A people who lived in close relationship with the earth and sea, with the movements of the stars and with the subtle intelligence of nature itself. There is a sense that they held keys, as a civilisation, but also as part of a relationship humans once had quite naturally with the land, nature, animals and sea. There were no signs of them knowing war, but rather of a relationship with land, with water, with spirit, with the unseen forces of life.

I feel this so strongly in the caves, as though they are living chambers of the earth. Womb spaces, places where sound, silence, water and stone meet in a way that softens time, where you can connect with the serpent mother directly. There is a remembrance here of priestesses who worked with sacred ritual, serpents, the cycles of nature, oil, the body and offerings made in devotion and right relationship with the cosmos. A life lived in communion with the living world, how incredible....

This is not something that belongs only to the past, as it feels like many souls now want to experience this way, to stop pushing and be true to who we truly are. The water has a different language and a noticeable current that was very abundant and flowing in its molecular movement and structure. The springs, the sea, the hidden flows beneath Knossos that have recently begun to rise again after thousands of years, all of it feels like memory returning to the surface of life itself. As though the earth is gently opening, the Goddess Gaia is speaking to us.

And something in me recognises this as something within me, almost a prophecy of this time when I chose to be here on earth. Each of us will have a different path to walk in our remembering, but this is what I experienced, the calling to my mother to share my name with her, and actually coming into the field of Crete to anchor in my soul.

Whilst on the surface there is much beauty, there is still a lot of density in relationship to the land, over tourism, airports being made on top of sacred sites and this being hidden and the cruelty and impact relating to animals which I take deeply into my service work in my communion with Gaia and the animals. And whilst all the gentleness of turning 45 met me like honey and the retrieval of my birthright restored there, there is still a lot of healing around human consciousness, animals, and the restoration of sacredness to all of life.

And this is why some of us came as priestesses at this time of transition, to remember a different way of being. A woman rooted in herself, no longer needing drama or validation, choosing peace through raising her vibration, creating a charity, and choosing depth and quality over quantity. Her time is sacred. She is beyond comparison or jealousy, in support of her sisters and their awakening, grounded in what she knows from within. We are moving beyond striving to be seen and returning to what is lived and known inside. A woman who creates with care, walks the earth in communion and offers her fire and devotion where it is needed most, including to animals and all life.

Thank you, Crete, for preserving the priestess ways in the earth, in the water, the oils, in the devotion of the sacred act of tending life in its most subtle and powerful forms.

For me, it was a soft gift of returning to what has always been here, quietly living and present for those with time to slow down, listen and open their hearts.

Blessed be.