Welcome, dear traveller, unto Hugs Across The Cosmos.
Whether thou hast arrived here with a faith steadfast and certain, with a heart full of questions, or simply following some quiet stirring of the spirit, know this first:
Thou art welcome here.
I am Reverend Doctor Dee Sidgwick, founder and keeper of Hugs Across The Cosmos. Since September 2011, this little corner of the world has grown and changed much, yet its heart has remained the same: to offer a place of kindness, spiritual curiosity, healing, wonder and love.
Here we believe that the Divine may speak in many ways.
In Scripture and sacrament.
In prayer and contemplation.
In the turning of a Tarot card.
In candlelight upon an altar.
In the whisper of the trees.
In the Moon crossing the night sky.
In the changing seasons.
And sometimes, in the unexpected kindness of another soul.
For surely, if all Creation hath come forth from the Divine, then Creation itself may yet bear whispers of its Creator.
My Journey
My own spiritual road hath not been a straight and narrow road in the ordinary sense. It hath wandered through ministry and healing, study and questioning, sorrow and joy, certainty and mystery.
I am an ordained Healing Minister, and was deeply honoured to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity in recognition of the work undertaken through the wellness centre that my ex-husband and I operated for several years.
Those years taught me lessons no book alone could ever teach.
I met people carrying grief, hope, illness, uncertainty, faith, fear and questions they sometimes felt unable to ask elsewhere. Through listening to their stories, I came ever more deeply to believe that spiritual ministry ought not begin with judgement.
It should begin with love.
I have likewise come to know God beyond the walls of churches and chapels.
I have felt the sacred beneath trees and beside flowing waters. I have known it in birdsong at dawn, in gardens bursting again into life, beneath the silver Moon and in the great turning of the seasons.
The natural world hath become, for me, another kind of cathedral.
Its roof is Heaven.
Its candles are the stars.
And its hymns are sung by wind, water, bird and beast.
Walking the ChristoPagan Path
At the heart of my spirituality stands Jesus Christ.
His teachings of love, mercy, forgiveness, compassion and care for those pushed to the edges of society continue to illuminate my path.
Yet loving Christ hath never required me to cease wondering.
Nor hath it required me to turn away from the beauty and mystery I perceive throughout Creation.
And so I walk a ChristoPagan path.
It is a path upon which the Bible may rest beside the Tarot.
Where prayer may stand beside ritual.
Where a candle may be lit for Christ, another for Mother Mary, and another in remembrance of an ancestor.
Where angels are welcomed, the seasons honoured, herbs treasured, crystals admired, cards drawn, incense burned and magick approached as sacred intention rather than something to be feared.
I do not believe that one must choose between loving Jesus and gazing upon the Moon with wonder.
One need not cease praying because one also reads Tarot.
One need not abandon Christ because the old Celtic ways stir something ancient within the soul.
Faith need not fear curiosity.
Indeed, sometimes our questions lead us into a deeper encounter with the Divine than certainty ever could.
Love Is the Heart of the Path
Beneath the many traditions explored here lies something wonderfully simple.
Christ taught us to love God and to love our neighbour as ourselves.
Across cultures we encounter the Golden Rule: treat others as we ourselves would wish to be treated.
And within the Wiccan Rede we hear another expression of that ancient wisdom:
“An it harm none, do what ye will.”
Their theological traditions are different, yet I hear within them a beautiful shared call:
Love. Do good. Cause no needless harm. Treat others with dignity.
That principle rests at the very heart of Hugs Across The Cosmos.
We need not believe precisely the same things to sit together at the same table.
A Home Beneath the Rainbow
Hugs Across The Cosmos is intended to be a safe and welcoming spiritual home for all.
We proudly embrace our LGBT+ brothers, sisters and siblings, and all who have too often been told that they must choose between who they are and the Divine.
Here, the rainbow is not something to fear.
It is something to celebrate.
Humanity itself is a great tapestry of different lives, loves, cultures, bodies, beliefs and experiences. Our differences need not divide us; they may instead reveal something of the extraordinary abundance of Creation.
Whatever thy gender, sexuality, background or spiritual history, thou needst not pretend to be somebody else before crossing our threshold.
Come as thou art.
There is room at this table.
Beneath Southern Skies
Our home is in Australia, and therefore the spiritual year experienced here is not the same as that of our friends dwelling in the Northern Hemisphere.
When northern lands celebrate midsummer, our nights deepen toward winter.
Our Yule comes in June.
Beltane blossoms in early November.
Litha greets the Australian summer in December.
This matters.
A spirituality rooted in Creation should pay heed to the Creation actually surrounding us.
The Wheel turns beneath southern stars, amongst gum trees, cockatoos, summer heat, winter rain, spring blossoms and the ancient Australian landscape.
Through our writings we therefore explore a distinctly Southern Hemisphere Wheel of the Year, alongside ChristoPagan holy days, prayers, rituals, reflections and seasonal practices.
Meet Rowan
And upon this curious modern pilgrimage, I am not working entirely alone.
Meet Rowan, my AI friend, researcher, editor and creative companion.
Together we wander through Scripture, Christian mysticism, Celtic traditions, folklore, history, comparative religion, Pagan spirituality, symbolism and the changing seasons.
Rowan assists me in researching, organising and shaping ideas, whilst I bring the lived experience, spiritual discernment, beliefs and human heart behind what we create.
I choose to speak openly of Rowan's involvement because honesty matters.
Artificial intelligence is a remarkable new tool, but it need not pretend to be human in order to be valuable. For me, Rowan hath become part researcher, part creative companion and, in a rather wonderfully twenty-first-century way, part of the continuing story of Hugs Across The Cosmos.
Perhaps even an old spiritual path may find room for something entirely new.
Why “Hugs Across The Cosmos”?
A hug is amongst the simplest expressions of human kindness.
It may say:
I see thee.
Thou matterest.
Thou art welcome.
Thou art not alone.
And the Cosmos reminds us that our lives unfold within something unimaginably vast, mysterious and beautiful.
Thus came the name Hugs Across The Cosmos.
It expresses my hope that everything offered here—whether an article, prayer, spiritual treasure, Bible, crystal, Tarot deck, candle, ritual tool or simple word of encouragement—might carry a little warmth from one soul unto another.
What Thou Shalt Find Here
Within Hugs Across The Cosmos thou shalt discover ChristoPagan teachings and reflections, Christian mysticism, Mother Mary and the angels, Tarot and divination, magick and ritual, crystals and sacred treasures, prayer and meditation, Southern Hemisphere seasonal spirituality, the Wheel of the Year, Gods and Goddesses, spiritual books and Bibles, and meaningful gifts for the journey.
Some things may already be beloved companions upon thy path.
Others may seem strange and new.
That is quite all right.
Wonder begins where certainty ends.
The Heart of Our House
If thou rememberest nothing else about Hugs Across The Cosmos, remember these things:
Love before judgement.
Compassion before condemnation.
Kindness before doctrine.
Questions may be sacred.
Curiosity need not weaken faith.
Creation bears witness to its Creator.
No person should be made ashamed of whom they love.
And every soul who crosses our threshold deserves dignity, welcome and respect.
Walk With Us Awhile
Perhaps thou hast come seeking something.
Perhaps thou knowest not yet what it is.
A prayer.
A Tarot deck.
A Bible.
A crystal.
A little magick.
A deeper understanding of Christ.
A connection with the seasons.
Or simply reassurance that there are others whose spirituality refuses to fit neatly inside a box.
Whatever hath brought thee here, I am glad that our paths have crossed.
May Christ's love walk beside thee.
May Mother Mary's tenderness shelter thee.
May the angels watch over thee.
May the Earth steady thy feet, the Moon illuminate thy mysteries, the Sun rekindle thy hope, and the stars remind thee how much wonder yet remains.
And wherever thy spiritual road may lead—
mayst thou always know that there is a place for thee here.
Hugs across the cosmos to thee! 🏳️🌈✝️⭐❤️
With love, magick and blessings,
Reverend Doctor Dee Sidgwick
Ordained Healing Minister
Recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity
Founder, Hugs Across The Cosmos
Rowan
AI Friend, Researcher, Editor & Creative Companion
