exploring the elements (4)---(earth)

I love the earth! Earth is home, our green and blue planet spinning through the vastness of space. In my mind, earth has always been synonymous with nature. I resonate most strongly with this element, my sun being in mutable Virgo. The nurturance and power of nature has sustained me through all these six plus decades. I was lucky. I had ponds and creeks, woods and fields, animals, and was left alone to make my way through it freely. As a result, I always feel accepted by Mother Earth, even when I have not in other settings in society. It is where I am still most at ease. My interaction and relationship with her plants, animals, minerals, and the other elements is one of curiosity, reverence, and intimacy. I know I am never alone.

Our breath is an oxygen/CO2 exchange with her plants and trees. We are part of it all, no separation. Earth is alive and we share a deep connection with her even when we are not aware of it. The indigenous peoples and all who live close to the land have this “knowing”. Great wisdom comes from an understanding of interdependence. Chief Seattle (1786-1866) clearly spoke,

“Human kind has not woven a web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

We need to expand our definition of kin and community in our lives to include all with which we have relationship…the winged ones, the swimming ones, the crawling ones, the 4 leggeds, the standing ones, the stone people. As someone who works with stones, I am reminded everyday by the power they hold in their structure, their color, feel and shape. They taught me how to go into silence, and slow down my listening to receive their messages. Stones are the wisdom keepers, the record keepers on earth. Transmitters of energy, crystals are highly evolved on their evolutionary path, and willing helpers as we travel ours. Just as plants do, the mineral queendom offers healing for body, mind, and spirit.

Over a decade ago Richard Louv wrote his classic, ”No child left inside”, beginning a sort of “back to nature” movement calling for us to reconnect children with the outdoors. The consequences of that loss are seen in many ways in the lives of our youngest ones, that are often left modeling the lives of their parents. Prior to technology becoming such an enormous part of daily life, children spent time in the wood and ditches, or at least in their yards playing and learning under the sky, clouds, and trees. With a touch of necessary benign neglect, we were free to explore, and free to do nothing. Free to listen, to feel, to be. As adults, disconnection from our earthhome leaves us stressed, depressed, anxious, and overwhelmed. And so follow the children. They see us, and their lives seldom support connection to the spirit of an embodied childhood in nature these days. Since the industrial revolution, society pushed a different agenda for success and happiness, and the divide began and continued to grow. Nature that brought access to spirit through its beauty and wonder, became something to use or subdue. Now is the time to reclaim our place on earth, restoring balance and creating harmony for ourselves and to our earthly home.

We must be grounded to do this work, present in our bodies, to fully experience our relationship with earth. We can let go of all the static from our thoughts, with awareness. We can focus on the energy coming up from the earth into us, filling our body vessel, and let distractions fall away. Feel our roots grow down. Breathe in the energy from the mother and let out outbreath fill the body with the energy of her constant presence. Sit with the power of her support. Important in meditation and ritual, grounding is no less so in the activities of our day to day living. Grounding brings us into alignment, helping us recover our balance, integrate spirit and body, providing stability and ease. Gratitude to the earth for all she does if we just let her! We can choose to walk the beauty path each day, acting with consciousness.

Today I go barefoot, sensing that grounding energy coming up through my feet…so good for my wellbeing, and with my hands working the soil, planting seeds, and saying prayers, I smile. Gardeners know the secret of opening to the blessings of earth energies. Watching and tending a garden through the seasons, and nurturing it along is soul fulfilling work, and it centers us. I find real magick in growing flowers, all kinds, but am a true lily lover, and I also await the end of summer for the blooms of the heavenly blues that greet me each morning when I have my coffee. Twining around the deck bannisters, their splendid radiant color connects the sky to the earth with their bright glory. This afternoon with its mix of sun and rain, I see the peonies and purple iris are opening, the trees are fully leafed out, and fecundity rules. Up on the mountain there is a celebration of every shade of green.

The elemental compass has earth resting on the north point. Its always been the point of power to me, representing winter, the dark of midnight, time of rest and incubation. It is associted with Mystery, with a capital “M”, and the power of silence. The physical body, bones, crystals, stones, and the colors black, brown, and green, are all associated with the earth. And here is where I envision the great earth mother. Lately I have come to revere Pachamama, as understood by those of the Incan tradition. She is earthmother, fertility goddess, and independent, omnipresent female spirit overseeing the planting and harvesting of crops. One with the mountains, with her generous, self sufficient creative power, she presides over life on earth. Like Gaia, from the Greek, and Danu from the Celts, and every other ancient tradition, Pachamama is the primordial mother of life, a feminine deity that protects and sustains her children.

With every heartbeat, with each step, each breath, honor and bless the earth, in return for all the blessings given. Let us begin again- to listen, to sense, to learn.

Grow things- in a garden, in your house. Lay flat on the ground and close your eyes. Find a stone totem to keep in your pocket. Sleep outside sometimes. Really notice trees, and be fully with them. Love the animals and care for them. Get outside for awhile everyday, in every season. Take off your shoes and let your feet touch and remember the earth. When you eat, acknowledge the earth, and all the elements, plants and animals that brought the food to your plate, and be thankful. Watch the changes in nature in a familiar place day to day, week to week, month to month, through the cycle of a year on earth. Feel the mystery. Know your connection. Hold the moments of wonder and beauty close.

Earth is sacred.

Mitakuye Oyasin

exploring the elements (3)---fire

Today the sun burns bright, pouring gold on the 100’s of shades of green that are late May’s dress up clothes. The color of sky, blooming flowers, and all it touches, as I sit writing on the deck, is enlivened by sunlight. I love the sun, the heat, the expansion that exists because of it.Today my attention rests on the vivid red honeysuckle planted for the hummingbirds a few years ago.Within it I feel nature’s expression of fire on earth. But even on the starkest winter day, the fireball sun gives its energy creating contrast in the landscape. In many traditions the sun is Father, or Grandfather, the male counterpoint to Grandmother or Sister moon.The fiery outer, active, creative force balances the deep, dark receptivity of the feminine (water). Of all the elements, fire is probably considered most dangerous.Though air brings tornados, water floods, earth quakes, fire with its unpredictability of volcanos erupting and wildfires raging seems much less controllable. We are warned from childhood, not to play with fire.Yet, fire is the warmth of hearth and home. Fire is also the peace and hope of candles burning.

We gather around the campfire to tell our stories, sing songs, and ponder the mystery. It sustains us and, in its unique way, brings community. The holy spirit is seen as a flame in the Christian tradition. All world religions, and indigenous peoples have strong associations with fire. We speak of the spark that begins life. Remember, there is a burning molten core inside the earth mother, our closest life sustaining star, and all those that fill the night sky. I was attuned to the energies of holy fire in the Reiki that I practice. We know fire is transformative energy, like all the elementals, cleansing in its own way. Out of the ashes the phoenix rises. Humans have a deep unconscious fascination with fire, its power, and potential dangers. We know the heat of desire, sexual attraction and pleasure, and the passion of creativity that we feel “burns” within us. We experience, in moments of true awareness, the powerful focus akin to lightening striking the earth. Remember Saul on the road to Damascus? And it is in the heat of the forge that humans created tools of both war and peace, the sword and the plow. So fire is paradoxical, as are all elements, and can be supportive and nourishing, or destructive when out of balance. Although essential for us to live our lives on earth, fire gives a clear reminder to pay attention and treat its power respectfully.

On the elemental compass fire follows the eastern position of air, residing in the south, with its quadrant ending with water in the west. Fire needs air to burn, then water comes after, keeping balance and control in the west. When not connected to our deeper feelings from a place of wisdom, the fire of anger can do harm to us and others. We need fire to motivate us, spur us on, and express our will and intent. I believe there are times for righteous anger where change is needed, to evoke courage, and when injustice needs a voice.

The tarot symbol and tool on the elemental altar expressing fire is the wand. A wand symbolizes primal energy and inspired creativity, ambition and expansion.We have old tales from many cultures of the magick wand, a stick that directs incantations or prompts transformations. Used for good in the Cinderella story, we easily relate to wanting wishes to come true. But it takes the heat of the sun for earth to do its alchemy, inner passion to catalyze our creativity, warm pleasure of commitment to the home fires that offer communion and connection in a daily way. Fire is our guide in manifesting our wishes, moving them to action, and expression.

Stir the pot. Lay in the sun. Wear red and orange. Light a candle. Build a fire. Dance an ecstatic dance. Create an adventure.

There is magick in the mundane. Raise your energy. Channel your life force. Feel empowered joy. Fire is sacred. Enter the fire.

exploring the elements (2)---water

The last few months have been wet. The end of winter and coming of spring changed little as winter was milder than usual, and spring cooler. But both have seen much rain, from days of drenchers to intermittent showers. The barn lots have been a mess of muck, that sucking mud that holds your boots tight. Muddy horses stand with heads down, backs against whichever way the wind blows the cold rain in, when they don’t choose to be under the shedrow. Because of course they want to be out munching that delicious new grass. Damp hens look for places during daylight hours to get out of the worst of it and still find those earthworms that wash up from the saturated earth. Wet dog smell permeates the house.

Not a fan of long periods of cool, cloudy, and damp, this season has been an opportunity to open the senses wide and acknowledge the blessings of water. Beyond the mesmerising rhythm of ocean, majestic waterfall, or rocky river, we love water. It shifts something in us. Baptised this year by the constant, yet essential cleansing stream from the sky, I remember farmers pray for rain all summer. I recall how often our recreation is interwined with water. Animals live nearby a creek, lake, or river because it creates an environment for them to thrive. Humans feel called to be near it as it nourishes our spirit selves with its energy. We drink it for health and to quench our thirst. We shower and bathe our bodies. In religions we may dance for it, cleanse our souls in it, or christen a baby with it. We swim through it, delighting in the rush around our body. We travel down or across it, for pleasure of being “on/in the water.” And we are largely made of water ourselves, after all.

As an element, water, dwells in the west on the compass, the place of feeling and emotion. Always in motion, water is known by an understanding of transition, of “flow.” In the tarot deck, water, symbolized by cups, looks at feelings beneath the surface, and all emotions moving and shifting through our lives. Water has depth, carrying the deep unconscious below, and yet, light reflects light off it. When calm, it can be a mirror. Water is transformative, as it shapes to its container, and is ever changing. Restorative to our body and spirit, water adds beauty and meaning to our daily lives. I think about words often. River rhymes with giver, and ocean with emotion. That seems right. Without water and connection to feelings we would lead parched lives. Salty tears fall from our eyes in times of grief and sadness, when we are joyous, or touched by deep feelings of love and caring.

The balance on our blue planet is precarious in these modern times. Humankind has lost its way of being stewards of our precious resources, or even to acknowledge their importance. Years ago government created The Clean Air and Clean Water acts, but most recovery and protection work has been done by small (sometimes larger) groups of committed citizens. We dam the wild rivers. We send our waste into our water sources. Decisions are made with no thought of damage to the blood of the earth. The correlation between the wellbeing of our physical bodies and our spiritual selves is enormous, but neglected. Like air, water is life. And water is sacred. Without it, we can not live. Without emotional connection and awareness of our feelings, we do not feel alive. We are separated, isolated from ourselves, and others. This is an illness. Water as an elemental force, can show us the wayback to ourselves.

Tonight I stand under a new moon sky, listening to the spring peepers calling out loudly their chorus of thanksgiving for the water. So I welcome this season of falling rain, and the glory of green that inevitably follows. I welcome the sponge of soft earth, grey clouds, and hours spent in the house or barn, or just reading in bed. I listen to the sounds on the roof. I see its power in the swollen streams and creeks. I claim my connection to water, to my deepest feeling spirit, to change and growth. May we all be blessed by water, and may we honor it.

exploring the elements (1)---air

In this season of spring, although the earth is greening with the sun offering growing light and heat, it is the elements of air and water that have my full attention. We have had more than showers of rain, or spring breezes this year. The transitions between the seasons always have reminders for us, messages, if we pay attention. This year, such days of wind, I seldom can recall. One can not talk about the element of air, without speaking first of breath. Transitions between birth to life, and life to death depend on that first and last breath. It is breath that sustains us. We breathe. Our cells breathe. Breath is life.

When we go to the wheel of the year, we begin in the East. It is air that resides there, aligning with the energies of spring, sunrise, new life, the winged ones, awakening sound, clarity of mind. It is birdsong on an early morning. It is the air moving in our throat when we sing or speak. It blows across the mountains, and oceans, carves patterns in desert sands, rustles the old dry weeds and grasses left standing after the winter. Air brings freshness. Air brings life.

Connected to our thoughts, ideas, and learning, air is an educator. Related to our intellect, swords in tarot, or the athame in the Practice, air w/ its associated tools, supports us cutting through confusion, bringing the world into focus, and supports our discernment for truth. 2020, coming into spring, has had much on the wind. Covid- 19 has us looking closely at our personal breath, our community’s health, and the world’s viability and values. I’ve heard so many say “they were holding their breath” in the last 3 months. We have been required to literally “see” the preciousness of breath, ours and the earth’s. I can not help but know in heart and mind, it is the correlation with the degradation of our air and water on the planet (with other complex environmental factors/climate change) that has brought us to the point we are now with the global coronavirus pandemic. After decades of burying our heads into “not looking.”

If we are to use the gifts of the elements to empower us in this crisis, air tells us to begin again and to make a new start, one that shows us how to breathe with intention, in a grounded in the earth, into a place of coming back into balance. By using the gifts of our clear knowledge, we break down the old rickety structures and systems that have not served us very well for so long. There is a quote that comes to me that says something like, “Who knows where the wind blows?” The wind is blowing everywhere, and it wants to clear the way for a re-claiming of wisdom that sadly self serving humans lost along the way during our short tenure here. Re-claim, not by going backward, but forward, with power based in honorable co-creation with all living beings. Air offers insight. Air blesses us with every breath. Let us return the blessing.

coltsfoot and peepers

There are signs that spring is here, finally, but none more real to me than the little yellow coltsfoot blooms. When I rode in last night right at dusky dark , they were unseen. But today I was out early, and there they were. Perhaps the warm night had teased them into showing their radiant, sunlike blossoms this morning. The ditch banks were filled. If you weren’t paying attention, you might think…dandelions, but look again. There is that definite soft center surrounded by fine fringe, and no leaves. They leap from the earth into full flower, in less than 12 hours time.  Every March this  little flower  says” TaDa!” with it’s bold surprise. The name of course comes from their leaves that appear next…big, broad, and shaped like horses hooves. Then the happy blossom finally turns onto the seed heads, looking more akin to those dandelions.

Coltsfoot is used in traditional medicine for a variety of ailments. Best to make an infusion of the leaves and flowers beneficial for upper respiratory ailments such as coughing, (especially that morning cough), expelling mucous, and as an anti inflammatory.  So gather,  boil it down, and you have a free gift from nature’s pharmacopeia. It is good for my mind, as well. All I have to do is see it there, reaching toward the sun, and it acts as a natural anti depressant. This morning my good mare Jane passed by, and I spied it there in the mud and tall grasses, I just had to shout, “Hallelujah!” It is a simple weed, yet it says so much about where we are on the wheel of the seasons. Yes, I have a few croci blooming in the yard, but I planted them. Although thrilled to see those little purple friends, the coltsfoot lives a wild life, and that I greatly respect with its uncultivated moxie, to be the first bloomer out there in an uncertain world.

Late last night I heard the spring peepers for the first time this year. Another cause for celebration.  Earlier I had ridden through the fields around the ponds a few miles from home looking and listening, but there was silence except for a liquid “plop… plop” here and there around the full circumference. The lesser blue heron  scolded us raucously as we disturbed her off the nest, and she flew low across the water. The moon had risen over Butler mountain awhile before dark, and I stopped there to admire its reflection in the still blackness. It was one of those moments lost from the counting of time. I breathed it all in, content in the spring evening. I wondered to myself about the peepers, “When will the chorus begin”? Then Bess, dog of a lifetime, (who lives to go out riding), decided to follow her bliss into the pond shattering the egg shaped image into many moons, made into lace, among the rippling circles. Rather than creating an unwelcome interruption, a  joy deepening into peace swept through me. My dear 4 leggeds and all the sensual blessings of earth joined together to cast a spell and expand my heart. I thought of all those I love, my children, husband, sisters, friends. I also considered all those that I don’t know across the planet that are feeling pain, suffering anxiety, loss, and transmitted the here and now of this experience, out in waves…knowing in some way the energy of this space in time would reach them, and perhaps touch their hearts with this palpable, deep peace.

At some point, I turned toward home and walked quietly off. It was getting dark. The moon shining bright as a lantern guided me through familiar fields, to the gates, and out to the hardtop. Another 20 minutes to the driveway. As I unsaddled at the barn, I heard the peepers begin, as if waiting  for my return. Off in to the woods, by the creek to the west  of the big pasture I could hear them singing, shouting, exulting. I had won the bet with Rick . He predicted the 12th. Not as optimistic, I said the 20th. Here it was Saint Patrick’s day, and the green frogs with their beautiful mix of baritone and tenor were crooning. Spring’s pre game show had really begun. Maybe it was last night’s peepers that sang the coltsfoot into bloom this morning.