My “planted seeds” were our new Story Goddesses out in the wild violets and sunshine.
Yesterday, we went for a walk before dinner and admired my favorite dogwood tree that is getting ready to bloom. It is perfectly shaped like an ornamental tree, but it is wild. That’s my favorite kind of everyday magic.
Next free ecourse begins April 10th: Earthprayer.
Listen.
I tell of prayers strung through oak leaves
Deep wells
Emerald fields
Hot coals
I know the courage it takes
To tend the flame
Of ancient mystery.
The lilac by the garage is huge this year and blanketed with buds. I am looking forward to seeing it!
—
Free Earthprayer class begins April 10th.
I couldn’t resist taking this picture with my husband in the background working on the tractor while I flit about propping goddesses in apple trees.
And, a collage of more growing things I took photos of today: magnolia, apple blossoms, radishes, and babies smelling flowers.
Just a reminder that my next free ecourse is coming right up on April 10th: Earthprayer.
Listen.
I tell of violets.
And raindrops
And forest song.
These lines above were the last lines I wrote when I created my full, magical name as part of our study group using Shekhinah Mountainwater’s Ariadne’s Thread book.
Wild violets are one of the basic miracles of spring to me every year. I love them. They make me ecstatic. They carpet the ground by the woodpile.
My upcoming free Earthprayer class begins on April 10. Feel free to join!
I roam
sacred ground
my body is my altar
my temple.
I cast a circle
with my breath
I touch the earth
with my fingers
I answer
to the fire of my spirit…
I wrote this poem several years ago and it was then published in The Girl God’s Mother Earth book as well as my own Earthprayer book. I thought of it when I read the prompts for today and I offer in my photo my own woodsprayer of wild plum blossoms.
I am also pleased to offer a free Earthprayer mini class for you beginning in April. Register via this link.
Two related past posts:
“I am whole unto myself
I am the bright maiden
Strong, invincible, and free
I am the dark maiden
Cloaked in veils and mystery
I am the pulse of the sun
And the pull of the moon
Flowing from one to the other
In perfect harmony
Where I walk
None can hinder me
I am maiden
Forever young and free.”
The prompt for today was actually to write a silly poem, but instead this poem from our study group yesterday kept floating back to me. I saw “daffodil” was the photo prompt and when I went out to my tiny temple to work, there was a daffodil right inside the front door–it had fallen out of the flower crown worn by one of my circle sisters the day before. So, even though it was a little wilted, I thought it was very fitting for today, shown here with both the bright maiden and the dark maiden at this balanced time of the season…
I felt headachy and out of sorts this morning, so I took my drum and rattle and headed for the woods. On the way, I visited my favorite rosebush and discovered there are flowers on my baby’s memorial magnolia tree.
I rattled with the natural gourd rattle we discovered just a few weeks ago in the garden, covered with old weeds, somehow having cured to perfection out there after more than two years of being unnoticed by us. I’ve made other rattles with gourds that we fill with additional materials and also decorate, but this one is perfect just as it is, on its own. A wonderful garden blessing. I drew two Womanrunes cards and got The Hearth and The Tool. These are the runes of home and of labor, which feels like a “ha ha, universe” moment since I’d just been inside fretting a bit about the complexities and realities of the home-based life we lead, working, and schooling, and creating all in the same space all the time.
In my quest for other wild plum trees on our land, I’ve come to realize that the big tree by the rocks that I’ve always called a plum, is actually a serviceberry. The flowers are always too high up for me to see very clearly, but it is obvious this year that they’re serviceberry flowers, not plum (same tree family).
The theme for today was “bow and arrow.” I was playing on the trampoline with my kids and just past sunset, I grabbed Artemis off my Maiden altar and went hunting wild plum trees. One of the most wonderful treasures of spring to me each year, I never get tired of taking pictures of their sweet, white blossoms. I actually discovered one, plus several spicebush trees, right behind my tiny temple too!
I like this picture because it feels like a, “do you see a face in the leaves?” moment and you can almost imagine it is just random magic…
And, I may take nearly this exact photo every single year, but I don’t care. It forever enchants me.
We spent the day at an Ostara festival yesterday. I went to an enCHANTment workshop in which I learned some new chants and “workshopped” an old one into something fresh.I have many skills as a priestess-ritualist, but leading people in songs/chants is not one of them! I introduced a song to this group (originally by Shawna Carol and beautiful, but slow paced) that I keep wanting to use to open rituals with in my own circle. I can’t “get it right,” so I asked them for help in creating something new with it that I could bring back to my own community to use. Anyway, this is what we did. Enjoy!
…People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.
— Rumi
I’ve always loved the line from Rumi about not going back to sleep. I think of it many mornings when I awake extra early and, yet, I then go back to sleep…
Here is the open door at the tiny temple on this bright spring morning.
I was delighted to find a plum tree behind it last week and today I found two spicebush trees with yellow flowers behind it too! (The flowers on the spicebush were too high for me to reach though.) There is also a beautiful dogwood budding out behind it.
Arise!
Let us greet this morning with smiling faces
Hair unbound
Hearts full of glee
Birdsong in one hand
Roses in the other
Let us dance to River’s music
And Earth’s heartbeat
Under quickening leaves
We are full with the promise of spring.
Happy Spring Equinox! May you be blessed with abundant happiness, joyful song, bright flowers, and steadfast hope.
In case you missed it:
While I have continued to make a daily post in the Facebook group for 30 Days of Persephone’s Return, I haven’t continued to make a daily companion post here. I’m going to “catch up” with several short posts in one right now and then for the days in which I had more to say or for which the post stands on its own, I will be making separate posts, but they will not be in “real time” or sequential order.
Day 19:
Since it is Easter, I drew inspiration from the Womanrunes card The Egg, rune of naming. Left card = what do you need to name and claim? Right card = what happens when you do.
Day 17:
These are my “laughing flowers” on my spring altar at home before we left this afternoon. This simple bouquet from Aldi, purchased to make a flower crown for myself for our ritual on the equinox, have brought me so much simple joy. I need to buy bouquets for myself more often!
I mentioned before that I was reading a novel about Persephone (total coincidence. It was a random digital book check out from my library!). It is called Harvest Moon and is actually a collection of three stories in one book. The first one is the one about Persephone and is by Mercedes Lackey. It was an interesting story and definitely took the angle that Persephone was not abducted, but rather fell in love and helped “stage” an abduction to break free of Demeter.
Day 14:
Long, busy, somewhat frustrating day today.
Taught tonight until 9:00 and then the drive home to my little one who missed me a lot. Feeling somewhat worn and tired and thus granting myself permission to go to sleep now instead of trying to do any more catch up!
I didn’t write a sun blessing, but I did take this photo of the sun setting on my newly planted rosebush outside my tiny temple. Perhaps that is blessing enough, both the planting and the sun.
Day 11:
An altar for spring + a candle for spring! I was making recording for a Priestessing class this afternoon as well as preparing for a Maiden ritual/spring ceremony tomorrow. It doesn’t show very well in the photo but my candle is there in a piece of rose quartz. Rose Quartz feels very “maiden” to me. Love it!
I feel so happy that this is my life and how I spend my days. I picked a rune for Ostara and was so pleased to see The Wand show up: rune of blessing. Calling in. Making sacred. Honoring. Blessing.
Yes.
My plans for a spring altar are taking place over the weekend as we celebrate the Spring Equinox, so I don’t have a photo of it yet. I do have many altars around my home though!
This goddess in my photo for the day is one we just made yesterday and is a portable altar of sorts. I carry my little goddesses all over the place with me and set them wherever I am = tiny altars everywhere, all the time.
As you will notice in my pictures and on instagram, I like to use the #havegoddesswilltravel. 😉 I love to see other people’s pictures of where their little goddesses have gone with them. Our goddesses are very durable and portable. They can accompany you almost anywhere without fear of them being broken (also, since they’re small, they are easy to tuck into pocket, shirt, or purse).
I have a St. Patrick’s Day anecdote to share as well. St. Pat’s is a significant event in my hometown and the college is my alma mater. I don’t feel like I can not do St. Pat’s. It is part of my local “heritage.” Yesterday, I was explaining to my kids though about how St. Patrick perhaps drove the pagans/Goddess out of Ireland and how snakes are a metaphor for that. We went into the skating rink for playgroup and my kids played different arcade games. My daughter won two little prizes totally randomly from two different machine full of all kinds of things and both of them were green snakes! (Different kinds.) Felt somehow symbolic–not driven out after all! 😉
The Snowdrops
~ Theodora Goss
“I’m bringing you a message:
That the snowdrops are worth listening to,
and if you listen carefully, you can hear them,
but you must get down on your knees, head low
to the ground, as though praying.They say that spring is more important
than whatever else you were doing, which you thought
was so important…”
I saw this quote in a blog post and it spoke to me. While there are no actual snowdrops at my house, there is plenty of moss, which requires the same time of listening. I hopped up first thing in the morning on Wednesday and went for another ramble in the deepwoods with my husband and our youngest child. This feels vital and restorative. And, I did it first, rather than wait to “reward” myself.
It isn’t only Persephone who is Returning. It is ME.
The theme for Day 7 was Garden. I have lots of pictures for it, but not a lot of words. We have been working outside every day and enjoying it so much. Planting fruit trees. Mulching. Pulling up old things in the garden. Putting down new rows in the greenhouse. Planting lettuce and peas in the greenhouse. We’re planning to finally get catfish in the aquaponics system this year. The goldfish we started with are massive. They were originally tiny little 50cent “feeder” goldfish. Now look at them!
Mark pruned the vines in the vineyard also:
Sage and elderberry are both coming up, though they’re planted in difficult locations and have to struggle quite a bit!
Elderberry tries again
Sage with too much competition and not enough light, but making an effort anyway!
WoodsPriestess 