On The Enchantment of Rocks
For those of you who collect rocks (yes, you with the stash), you might be surprised to know what you are actually collecting is a hand-held two way radio to the Cosmos...
Seasonal Knowledge
In the North, our world is beginning to expand and unfold; buds are unfolding into blossoms, bears have given birth to their young, and bees are expanding their family within the hive. The songs and calls of birds are more audible and linger into the evening until, when, there is a transition of duties and the chorus of frogs leads the twilight into night.
This expansion is the intangible quality of Spring, a quality that keeps us in rhythm with the seasons. We may not remember small details from last Spring, but we certainly remember the feeling, the resonance, the quality of what is Springness. This knowing, this connection, runs in our bones in the same way that a songbird holds the knowledge to return to her nesting grounds.
The Last of February
"Spring is all things at once. Creation and destruction. Spring has no time for stillness. That was for the depth of winter. Now is the energy of emergence, the energy of creation creating itself."
Northern Evergreens
With drooping, graceful sleeves, evergreen branches are designed with downward swoops to easily shed snow build up, and with waxy needles, moisture stays within instead of being lost to biting winter air.
Winter Wings
The winter woods seem empty but there is feathered movement between the branches. Greys and greens are suddenly broken by a rusty smudge as a chickadee swings close with crackling curiosity.
He is like a lit match in the gloom. So much intensity in one small creature. Winter does not faze the chickadee. Impervious to cold snaps and icy winds, he forages in the same exuberant manner as though on a summer day.
A bright eye watches me watching and I witness the eternal spark of spirit in an adornment of feathers.
Winter Twilight Blues
Ultramarine, sapphire, indigo, cyan, amethyst, violet. Velvety and rich, these colours arrive in that magical moment when the rotation of the planet holds light between the day and the night. It is that moment of the day when we get a chance to be steeped like raw material in this vat of twilight dye.
Mapping Your Winter Star
Light pollution. It's everywhere. We can no longer see the stars overhead, from where we came, of what we are made. The stars stretch out across the bowl of the night sky, turning, charting, keeping time and rhythm but we can no longer see them. Fainter and fainter grow the stars and so too our eyes grow dim as we can no longer see our map and we can not remember in what direction to sail our ship.
When we are outside at night and look to the stars, it allows our own dreams and thoughts to expand, to ignite and to finally coalesce and fall back to Earth. These shooting stars we see are truly our own dreams falling back to us.
So. It is important to look up. Look up when the cold winter air makes the stars shimmer. Look up at the end of day when you get out of your car. Look up when you let the dog out before bed, or look up even if it is just through your window. Pick a star and track it through the month of January. Where in the sky is it? At what time? To reconnect to the movement of the heavens is to reconnect to the eternity of nature and ultimately to reconnect to the eternal nature of self.
Snow Moon Teachings
Snowfall. A time of peace and stillness. Snowfall changes time and space. There is more room, more space for silence to expand. It cloaks and hides the details. Your eye is allowed to range further and there are less distractions as they are hidden under a blanket of white. Your horizon is swept away, flake upon flake until the edges of where you are and where you came from are lost in white.
My best advice is to seek out where woods meet a field, in the country or a city park, it doesn't matter because when you walk out you will be changed by the snowfall.
The trees of the forests will be your guardians.
So.
Walk to the center of that field and listen.
Really
listen.
You won't be the same after.
Welcome to January- The Month of Firelight
Keyword - Introspection
For everyone in the northern hemisphere, we are in the month of dark stillness. Night is partnered with Winter in that eternal marriage of the North. Air is icy and starlight flickers. Our sun, that white star, is pale on the horizon, and makes a low sweep before settling into another night. It is the time of fires, woodsmoke, dreaming and conceiving. We all turn inward with deepening reflection.
How we use this valuable time is up to us. Even in our busy days we need to work with the energy of winter. In the upcoming week, take one moment to light a candle in the evening and check in where you are. Call yourself back, turn inward and reflect. All things have their place in nature and so do you.