Flower Child

We are officially in Taurus season, the time of the wild Spring energy of the Bull.

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

One of the myths connected to Taurus gives the the bull the name Cerus. Cerus roamed the countryside, doing whatever he liked, trampling villages with abandon. He did not seem to care what he did and the local villagers were powerless to stop him. He was not a God but had become Godlike in his rampaging.

It was only Persephone, daughter of Demeter, the princess of Springtime and Queen of the Underworld who was able to tame him. She helped him find how to use his strength and vigor as a force of life rather than destruction.

Photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplash

Persephone, the girl who was kidnapped by Hades and taken to the Underworld, sometimes known as the Queen of Shadows, was able to meet this Bull, this great force, where he was, and help him find a new place in himself, away from just venting his power and making displays of force.

Taurus season is all about pleasure, passion, fertility and fecundity and tremendous creative energy. Inside there may be stomping, running and wildness. What we can bring to ourselves is attention to our own inner Persephone, wisdom, grace, a pacifying, loving, and guiding presence. What a beautiful dance to embrace in Spring.

The overculture of the West teaches us to distrust our passion, and with that distrust we do not learn how to work with it creatively and expressively in the world. Passion without love, support, presence, and expression becomes destructive, to others or to our own psyche. In this way the overculture proves itself right as those who trust their passion do not have support and often flail, suffer, and fall into addiction and illness.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

When we listen to the ancients and the beautiful teachings that come to us through myth and story, we find clues about how to trust the great gift of our passion and embrace it; how to enjoy our fire, dancing our lives into being by deeply choosing ourselves and our own particular expression of the great mystery of which we are all an integral part.

A Question of Hope

The Queen of Pentacles is mysterious and glorious and always gives me insight into hope.

She walks the Earth with her bare foot, her right breast bared. She holds a thorny rose in hand, and the symbol of the fruits of her labor, the Pentacle, in the other. She is wearing a goat’s head as a crown. I’ll say that again: She is wearing a goat’s head as a crown! She casually inhabits vulnerability, hope, strength and beauty. She is the embodiment of “this is hard, but you’ve got it if you think you do.”

I took the above photo in the Fall, but it was ready to speak today, 12.26.21, as we move through the portal that is the time between Christmas and the New Year. (And if you follow or study Astrology, this year the time of Venus Retrograde conjunct Pluto in Capricorn). This moment is a time usually filled with hope and celebration and connection, as defined by parties, resolutions, and looking forward. But what do we do when the time where we ritualize hope and change is filled with fear, dread, and the specter of an unknown future?

I can only tell you what I konw to do: look deeply and find allies like this Queen, and perhaps the little rock below, to give aid.

So there you are, that little shining rock trapped between many hard places, just catching a bit of sunlight. What is there to do in the face of seemingly impenetrable stillness? I offer this practice.

Breathe and feel the stillness call you deeply into yourself.

What have you learned over the past 2, 5, 13 years?
Where in your life have I been worked so deeply that you have been left with only yourself and your lonely heart?
What is now presenting itself in that space as a Light or Balm?
What will guide me in receiving that help and support?
What is one word I can take into 2022 to help me remember this?

Take a moment to tune deeply into this place. Could 2022 hold the possibility of connection, relationship, or beauty in what has been a place of ferocious ordeal?

Photo by Daniel Burka on Unsplash

What Is What Isn't

Took some Tarot cards out into the woods this weekend. Libra season is here, and with it all the Falling of leaves and other things. I feel the season asking us what we will put down over the next few months. What do we do now that it is time to release?

We are being invited into a new space. Space made of boundaries that are inclusive and known; firm and elevated; open and boundless. We are being invited into all that is possible when we stop questioning our own limits and limitations and instead embrace self-care and self-knowing as the path to expansion.

Cards from the Pagan Otherworlds deck by Uusi Designs

What can be built on a foundation made of the Stone of a deep trust in our own knowing? What mysteries unlock when projections fall away and we surrender to the depths of feeling — grief, joy, regret, longing, hope — that we hear but do not know how to heed?

The calls that come from these depths can be overwhelming and complicated, like trying to figure out what to do about a tidal wave. It reminds me of when I dream of being in the ocean and know that what I need to do is trust that I can swim underwater.

In the depths we meet new and different creatures, and worlds upon worlds that we could not imagine if we tried. We are given the choice in this life of how to work with the truths we find there, or perhaps better said, how to work with the fact that we find truth there, truths that can sometimes seems completely at odds with life as we know it.

As modern Westerners we have been living a life consumed by what is outside of us, and the amplification of those realities, all while what lives inside of us is ignored and pushed down. The time for that is not only over but now more and more impossible. And that also means, I believe, that the work of integrating those truths is harder, because they have been held down for so long.

So be gentle with yourself as the night comes earlier, the leaves drift and the rain falls. Feel into your body and self for how it might feel to allow some submersion this season. You might even find parts of yourself relieved to be allowed this return to source and primality.

To connect more with these energies, get a journal just for your night dreams, and write down the ones that startle you or seem especially strange. Notice the Moon and what phase it is and what sign, and how you feel when you gaze at the sky. Read a fairy tale or myth, or pick up that book that has been staring at you but has felt a bit scary. Make some space for getting with what wants to get with you, and what you feel your SoulSelf longing to make time for. Make some Art. Eat an Apple. Look around your house and notice what themes are already there, what images you are drawn towards and how they call to you. Explore the deeper stories and mythologies behind movies that you love. Patch up the Shelter of your mind by taking time to release what is past its time, and realize what you are gaining in that release. Clean your house and make it cozy. Then go for a walk in the rain so you can come home and experience gratitude for what you have. Let yourself simplify and deepen. Let yourself get more complex and more whole. Recognize yourself as a living being in need of nourishment of all kinds. A Being with a path all your own.