Dandelion. Lamb’s quarter. Mallow. Yarrow. Wild lettuce. Spruce tips. Shepherd’s purse. Wild mustard. Lilac. Hawthorn.
Speaking the names of the wild green herbs, flowers and trees I saw yesterday on a rainy walk in my neighborhood in urban Denver. Abundant medicine and nourishment all: gifts found in the “hell strip” between sidewalk and street, growing through concrete cracks and in neglected patches of Earth. Healing is everywhere! Not only do we receive the healing of these plants (the plants that grow right outside our front door is the medicine we need right now) and, too, so does the Earth. When we let the wildness enter into the oft-controlled urban and suburban landscapes, depleted soil is invigorated and the essence of the Earth invigorated.
What are you noticing where you are? What names will you speak of the wild plants showing up around you? Say these names out loud, share them with a family member or when walking with a friend. Point them out to each other, stop and breathe with them. When we connect to wild nature we connect to a really old part of ourselves: the part of use that remembers who we were before patriarchy, white supremacy and capitalism. When we remember who we were, we remember what is possible outside these oppressive systems.
When we connect to the Earth we join in a reciprocal relationship with her and her rhythms, and our soul is enlivened . The Earth yearns for us to know her, to be committed to her, not just by eliminating single-use plastic in our lives and driving less, and too by returning to her. Find a place in your garden or local park where you can visit often and get to know the nonhuman there. Breathe with that place, create relationship with her and she will soften to you, open to you. As you will to her, naturally.
In this season of unfurling trees and blossoming flowers, of enchanting warm breezes and sensual scents, remember what your spirit needs and discover a way to find it.
For reflection:
What does my spirit yearn for?
How will co-create a sacred place in Nature to enliven myself and the Earth?
How will I return to the Earth?
What spot, near my home, will I return to again and again, to form relationship with?
Garden Ritual Blessing
It is a perfect time to bless your garden as you begin to plant living beings, as you watch and mirror the cycles of growth and blooming in your own life.
You can do this ritual in your garden, on your patio or anywhere in nature to offer reverence to the Earth and all of her growing children.
Intention: And so may we bloom
Begin in the East with the element of Air and move around the wheel in a sunwise direction, offering a blessing of each of the elements in your own way or with the suggestions below.
Air/ East: Bless the beginning of this season of blossoming. Create an incense and offer the sacred smoke to each of the corners or to the circle. Suggestions include: rose (for the blossoming of the Earth, the sacred feminine, of beauty and strength), mugwort (for the wisdom of the moon and the crone who shines her light and shadow on our lives, for the sacred essence of our ancestors), frankincense (for the growing light within and without, for presence and connection), myrrh (for the feminine nourishment found in the dark, to cleanse away the remnants of the winter in order to wildly embrace the new season).
Chant Awen: a Gaelic word meaning spirit, creative inspiration, soul truth. Chant to the circle and to each of the directions.
Fire/ South: Bless the courage of the Earth (and yourself) to transform in the light, to fully blossom. Light an outdoor flame: a candle or mullein torch and give this blessing of courageous transformation of the fire to each of the directions.
Water/ West: Bless the fertility and possibility, the healing of the Earth and your own self to blossom fully. Sprinkle holy water (one you create yourself, lunar water, rose water, water collected from a sacred spring) to each of the directions with a blessing of fertility.
Earth/ North: Bless the abundance that the blossoms will bring as they root into being. Give a physical offering to each of the directions and to the Earth Herself: mugwort, honey, chocolate, copper pennies, your hair, crystals or stones. A gift to Her for all the gifts She gives so unconditionally to you.
