Roots Hawkwell CIC

26/11/2025

🌿With some spare time on my hands I think I may just make some more traditional decorations for my tree this year to honor the light, and share the symbols of abundance and protection and the added bonus that they make my house smell Beautiful and I can also put them in to my compost bin after Christmas 🌿

The Pagan Roots of Christmas & the Yule Tree (shared from Occult page)

Christmas, as we know it today, is a blend of pagan and Christian traditions. Long before the celebration of the Nativity, the peoples of Northern Europe marked the Winter Solstice with rituals honoring light, rebirth, and the return of the Sun. This festival is known as Yule, one of the most important celebrations in Pagan and Northern European traditions.

Yule: The Return of Light

Yule celebrates the longest night of the year and the gradual lengthening of daylight. Pagans viewed this point in the cycle as a time of death and rebirth for nature.
Common Yule symbols included:
• Green branches, representing life enduring through winter
• The Yule log, burned for protection and prosperity
• And the sacred tree, brought indoors or decorated outdoors

The Ancient Yule Tree

Long before the Christmas tree existed, Pagan tribes in Germany, the Celtic lands, and Scandinavia honored evergreen trees—fir, pine, cedar. These trees were believed to hold the life force of nature through the darkest season.
People decorated them with:
• Fruits, as symbols of abundance
• Branches or ribbons, for protection
• Lights or candles, to call back the Sun

The Yule tree served as an axis between worlds, connecting heaven, earth, and spirit. It also symbolized the World Tree (Yggdrasil) of Norse mythology.

From Yule Tree to Christmas Tree

With the spread of Christianity in Northern Europe, many local traditions survived, blending with the new celebrations.
The Yule tree became the Christmas tree, retaining its pagan essence:
• Evergreen branches symbolize eternal life
• Ornaments were originally charms of fertility and good fortune
• Lights represent divine light—whether of the Sun or of Christ

Today, the Christmas tree may be seen as a Christian tradition, but its roots are deep, pagan, and intertwined with the magic of nature.

The Message of the Tree

Whether called a Yule tree or a Christmas tree, its essence remains the same:
In the darkest time of the year, we light a spark and honor life that persists, awaiting rebirth.

14/11/2025

🌿 This is not something I envisaged I would be writing, but with immediate effect Roots Hawkwell CIC is no longer based out of the hall and garden that we have had as our home in Ironwell Lane. 🌿

When I initially wrote this post I went into detail about what has happened to really fight my corner, but for my own peace I don't want that anymore. I am heartbroken and tired. I have invested so much of my own time and money into what I was trying to achieve at Roots and this is without even considering what some amazing volunteers, local businesses and my family have done at the hall and in the garden.

We have also been lucky enough to gain some funding in this time from committees who really believed my vision and the impact being based here would have in the community (the funders of the grants that have been donated in good faith to Roots have been advised and those donations have transferred over to 1st Hawkwell Scouts for however they utilise the hall moving forwards).

I would like to say a massive thank you, to each and every one of you for your support, your volunteering and your involvement 🙏 Look at everything that we achieved at our home in the photos below! I am proud of the journey; including baking over 200 cakes🎂, facilitating over 150 groups, growing a produce rich community garden, supported individuals through some really tough times, all that it has personally taught me (including the ability to walk away), and it has ultimately shown me what I can achieve when I put my mind to it!

Watch this space for the plans for the future and I will share when I know what that looks like but for now, thank you from the bottom of my heart! 💚

14/09/2025

Good morning Roots followers, I hope you are all well!

Just a quick share of a post that I felt was really prevalent in the world we live now... I'm a massive overthinker; especially as I've got older. And those who come to my groups know I love Donna Ashworth perspective so here goes 💚

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FqyrFazek/

I am an over-thinker, my mind is rarely quiet.

And I have learned over the years to feed it before it’s hungry, lest it become ravenous and impulsive.

I’ve also learned that as with most healthy organs, it needs a fairly clean diet.

I whittled out the gossip, the click-bait news and the salacious stories the media was serving up daily and replaced it with a balance of beauty, hope, goodwill, fun and laughter - and plenty ‘real-talk’ of course, to remind it we are not alone.

But this clean diet I live on doesn’t shy away from life’s sadness or difficult topics, as you may think. Not at all.

In fact, I really go there … but with real information as my recipe, no dramatics, and always, always, adding a side dish of comfort and hope.

We were never meant to know all of life’s troubles all of the time, you see. No human condition was ever supposed to worry for ALL human conditions.

It is too much.

So we must filter, prioritise and arrange the world’s worry, in order that we don’t become overwhelmed with hopelessness, misery and fear, becoming no use to anyone, let alone ourselves.

We must allow ourselves more ‘actionable stress’, than ‘non-actionable stress’ (stress we cannot do anything towards). Studies clearly show that actionable stress is far less dangerous, simply because we can take steps to overcome the issues, we can do something towards it. And your nervous system needs to do something to feel safe and useful.

So, my tip for anyone with a never-quiet mind is to be picky with your diet.

Be choosy over what worry is for you to take on and what worry you truly cannot do a thing about.

And if your mind runs dark as well as loud, you need to seek calm, intentionally. Seek beauty, deliberately. Seek out the joy, hope and light. Use it to shine on the heartbreaking stuff and show hope amidst the chaos.

If we take it all in, every day, these little boats of ours will go under.

Fill your boat with what you can fit, and be safe.

The world looks like it is getting worse every day, I know. But I think it is because we can see so much more now.

So choose what you see. Save what you can. Keep seeking light.

And love. Always.

D x

📕: https://amzn.eu/d/iTHcBGT

04/09/2025

Hello roots followers! After a lovely summer off we are starting to get back into the swing of organising the hall and have a morning in the garden tomorrow if anyone wants to come and help tame the jungle that's appeared!

Anyway, below you will see some lovely furniture that we've either bought or had donated over the last year and we are now trying to reduce clutter in the hall. All of this furniture is available for a donation to the roots pot, please do message if you are interested and I can provide more photos/welcome to view if necessary.

I have put some info under every picture too!

Many thanks
Lou Roots Hawkwell CIC 💚

10/08/2025

💚 Lovely to be back in the garden! Produce is still going mad and scroll through to see the size of the pumpkin! 💚

Hope you're all having a lovely summer holiday so far!

25/07/2025

🫑Our first pepper, the chillis look great, we have pumpkins, squashes and courgettes aplenty. The broccoli and cabbages have succumbed to the white butterfly larvae & aphids again though! 🦋

24/07/2025

Calling anyone who may like the allotment experience but without the costs!

We have installed four raised beds at Roots Hawkwell CIC this year and they are just being harvested. Moving forwards I would like to offer them out to members of the community who can help me maintain the garden in exchange for their own raised bed! Up to you what you grow and we have a potting shed for your seeds too!

Please do PM me for more information!

23/07/2025

The fruits (or vegetables) of our labour!! So rewarding growing your own 🥰

10/07/2025

🐞 Ladybugs everywhere 🐞 The recent 'infestation' has been wonderful for Roots Hawkwell CIC today as they are eating my aphids on my cabbage plants... Keep eating away little Ladybugs eat them all up!

🌱 We are open for our Friday Gardening Community Group @ Roots tomorrow from 10-2.. Just message to book your space, you can come for as long or as short a time as you want within these times & all we ask for is £5 donation! Would cost more to park in Rayleigh and buy a Costa but for half as much enjoyment! 🌱

10/07/2025

🌕 It's full moon day 🌕 I don't always share the different moons as much as I'd like to because I know it's not everyone's cup of tea! But this full 'buck moon' really resonates with me and what we offer at Roots. This full moon offers a powerful shift to consider self care at the core!

This moon offers the opportunity and in fact the requirement of self care, in order to be the best version of ourselves we must stop and recharge:
'You’re being called to flow, not force. Returning to your intuition and offering your service with boundaries—not as a sacrifice, but as a gift—is one way to anchor yourself in authenticity. It’s time to slow down so you can see yourself clearly.'

'We live in a world that rewards burnout and glorifies over-functioning. But exhaustion isn’t a badge of honor—it’s a red flag. This Full Moon asks: how can you build the life of your dreams if you’re too drained to dream? Even if summer feels like it’s starting slow, this Buck Moon marks a potent shift. The universe is whispering: Self-care isn’t a side quest—it’s the actual plot.'

This full Moon is all about focusing on what truly grounds you and helps you create balance in your life.

Capricorn connects us with our life’s work, which isn’t necessarily a career or a job title. Your life’s work could be raising children, tending the garden, writing poetry, or cultivating a spiritual practice. As the full Moon illuminates, it asks you to explore what constitutes meaningful work in your life. What activities align with your soul’s mission? What efforts make you feel purposeful at the deepest level?

In the local area we are quick to compare and try to keep up and many women in my women's circles will know 'comparison is the thief of joy' as my go to phrase.... But I mean it, consider what makes you happy, could you not have the fancy car or designer gear and instead invest in retraining? Could you skip the takeaway in place of yoga once a week? How can you commit long term to your self care? And this time the buck moon is telling you the same thing as me, so take some time for self reflection and self care. Stay rooted in you 🌱

10/07/2025

💐 This week at Roots Hawkwell CIC we have been making wooden flowers by using marbling ink 💐

They look so effective and it's lovely for me (Lou) to learn a different craft to share with the groups!

03/07/2025

🌸Tomorrow's You Grow Girl @ Roots have these beautiful journals for tomorrow! Do you think they will notice if I keep one too!?🌸

As part of our weekly offerings we are aiming to educate young women on different ways to manage their wellbeing and journaling is a great tool for this!

Do you know a secondary school age young lady who would benefit from joining this group then please do message me to book on! £5 per session and based in Hawkwell near Clements Hall!

These session are delivered alongside the wonderful Essex Youth Service