DAY 32 TO 42 – Warburton Victoria
Arriving in Melbourne – I had to go straight to a train to get me in the direction of Warburton – it was still going to be a 3-hour journey and it was already the end of the afternoon. It is good to explain why I was going to Warburton. A few years ago, Keith stayed in my Airbnb in Glastonbury and he told me about Warburton where he was living. He explained that it had some similar energy like Glastonbury with people working with spirituality and awareness. I got a good feeling at that moment and I told him that if I would ever go to Australia, I would certainly try to visit there. When I started planning my journey, I had contact with Jessica who was living in Australia and she told me she was at that moment staying in Warburton. No coincidence, and she even knew Keith, small world. She confirmed that it was a spiritual place with beautiful nature, so I asked her to help me find a place to stay for about 10 days. I had met Jess years ago in Glastonbury where she was living at the time. She is funny, witty and sweet – and we had kept in contact over the years. She came through for me, as she is a great networker, and found me a house for house sitting right in Warburton, owned by Nicole who was going to be away for that period. Now I am a big believer in synergy and synchronicity so it all pointed to me actually being there. Now I was on my way and I was looking forward to some down time and connecting with likeminded.
During my train ride I had Jess on the phone, who herself was house/dog sitting in Warburton. She was intending to meet up with me and show me the house. It all went a bit different – as the dog ran away and she had to go find it and I got to the house myself. It was all good – I arrived in a very comfortable beautiful house with green all around. My deluxe living that had started at the beginning of my journey was continuing and I was very grateful to Nicole for allowing a total stranger in her house. The next day I met up with Jess in town to have some coffee and it was like I had seen her only yesterday. Chatting and catching up – it was so nice to see her again. The town itself is small but so charming with forest, a river running through the centre and a lovely street with shops and cafes. I knew I was going to love my stay here. There was one new age shop in town which I visited that morning and I got to chat to a woman who worked there and who had never heard of Glastonbury or even Avalon. But she got Goosebumps when I talked about it and then her colleague showed her a book he had about Glastonbury. I like to talk about Glastonbury and Avalon – it is a special place where we do things a bit different than in the rest of the world. And I like to connect with places that also have a more holistic approach to life.
The second evening I was staying in the house, I looked into the eyes of a mother deer who was in the garden with her baby Bambi. This was a good sign and it felt like a welcome of the animal world. I did not see them again after. New year’s evening was coming up and I asked Jess what the plans were. She was considering going to a garden party of some of her friends and after I also met them one morning, it was decided that we would join that party. It was hosted at the house of Kathy and her husband Piggy – who lived in the forest. They were going to do a fire ceremony called Agnihotra – which is done at sunrise and at sunset to bring in good fortune –(for more information: http://www.halepule.com/agnihotra.html). This ceremony was done at sunset in their garden and it felt nice, but then I always like ceremonies. Afterwards we gathered in the garden around a fire with about 10-12 people and waited for the new year to arrive. There were drinks and snacks and lots of laughter because of the decorations in the garden around us set up by Pete: green alien balloons with lights inside and portals made out of strings of lights. I like it when people can make fun of a topic which they are actually very serious about normally. It was a relaxed and chilled evening and we toasted the new year and hugged: 2018 had started in a very mellow way and I hoped that this was going to the theme and energy for 2018.
The next day, 1 January 2018, the same group invited me for another fire ceremony near the redwood forest to celebrate the full moon. We sat underneath a majestic oak tree and did the ceremony. I closed the ceremony with a song standing in a circle. The energy was magical and the Red Wood Forest was pretty special – as soon as you walked in, you could feel like you were entering another world. 2018 had indeed begun in a magical way. I decided to organise an Avalon talk and meditation as I felt that the people in Warburton were open to connecting to the Avalon energy. I asked Jess to help me and promote in her network which she did. I also asked her to help me promote my readings. Meanwhile it was predicted that we would have a very warm day in Warburton, about 40 degrees Celsius, so we decided to organise the talk the day after in the garden of a small community space near the river. We had no idea how many people to expect but I just let that go and just enjoyed myself with some Warburton life and walks. Jess had come to stay in the house with me and it was nice to hang out and chat.
On one of the days my friend Keith had promised to take us up Mount Donna Buang – a mountain which was considered sacred by the Aborigines and was connected energetically with Ayers Rock – Uluru, the third chakra of the world symbolising the Self – energy. There is a spring up there which seems to have pure and healing water. We also did a walk over the Rainforest Gallery – a built platform walkway to see the rainforest from nearby, which was very impressive. Then he left us at the start of a walk to the La La Falls, great name by the way. It was indeed a lovely waterfall, and I like waterfalls, so we just sat there and relaxed, listening to sounds of the water, the trees and the birds. After the walk, Jess suggested to visit her friends Sioux house which was nearby – Sioux is an artist and her house is like a big piece of art. I was very curious and luckily she was home, so we set off to see the house of magic. Sioux works not only as a painter, but she also makes sculptures and made her house into one big sculpture with beautiful round forms. I felt like I was in fairy land – and I wondered why we on earth do we live in these boring not inspirational concrete homes, when you could be living in an art work. Sioux had also done some enchanting Goddess paintings and I could see her easily in Glastonbury, maybe showing her work at the Goddess Conference.
The next day was such a hot day, it was about 40 degrees Celsius and everybody was just sitting in the stream down the hill, cooling off. I also went there with Aurore, who I had met 2 days before at a café in town. We connected and as she was French speaking, I got a chance to practice my French and she was happy, because she had not spoken French in a long time. Aurore is from Guadeloupe, a Caribbean island where people speak French. She was travelling around New Zealand and was staying for some weeks in Warburton. She asked if I knew a healer and I offered my services and in exchange she offered a massage. I feel that exchanging services is the way of the future as we all have something to offer. I survived the heat, though I did experience a headache, but then it cooled off and the next day things were better.
This was the day of my talk and I did feel some excitement and I looked forward to it, I had prepared a little slide show with pictures of Glastonbury so people who had never been there at least got an idea of the sacred sites I was talking about. The talk started at 4 pm and Jess and I prepared the small garden space where we placed chairs around a tree and set up a little altar table. We had no idea how many people were going to come and frankly that was ok. But in the end, we had about 24 people showing up and during the talk I felt that they were open to the message of Avalon: the unconditional love. I did a guided meditation and brought them into Avalon and afterwards everybody seemed to be feeling very relaxed and peaceful: the talk and meditation were a success and I felt delighted. A few people asked for a tarot reading for the next day and so that was all arranged. I felt I had done something useful and hopefully inspired some people on the way.
The day after the readings, it was time to leave so I was taken to the train station to go to Melbourne. Pete was kind enough to take me there in exchange for a tarot reading and we talked about his plans for a nature school/community which sounded interesting. I hope he will manifest this. In Melbourne I stored my suitcase and did some walking around the city, but I was not too impressed by this place, but then I am not into cities that much anymore nowadays. I had a late evening flight to Christchurch in New Zealand and I felt a bit sad leaving Australia. I really enjoyed this country and its people, and I was certain that I will be back there to visit again.