High Spring is upon us, folks. I hope you can take a moment to honor Beltane however makes sense to you and reflect on your place on the ever-turning wheel of the year. I missed my vernal equinox reading, because, well, everything. I still don’t have the energy to really ruminate on the current state of the world, I have nothing new to add to the COVID-19 conversation. But believe me, I am feeling all the things and thinking all the things. Hours fall off the clock, days slog on, helpless animals pacing the cage.
The equinox hit right as we were cancelling everything, setting up home offices, facing defeat after defeat and terror and uncertainty, and now it’s a bit more normalized, but still. I’m not thriving. But I’m getting by.
In good news:
In the past two months I’ve held two donation-based bone reading weekends to benefit the Ninth House during shop closure, giving about 30 readings all together and raising nearly $700.
I taught a rune reading class on Zoom this past week.
And am scheduled to host an online Home & Hearth Craft class May 16th.
I don’t know if I dare ask what’s becoming. I crack an egg for my Yaga self, I cast the bones to see.
I am not one for optimism, generally. It takes conscious effort to “look on the bright side” of things. So, believe me, what I’m about to say comes with some doubt. But hey, I’m just reading what the bones are writing down.
I pull three runes for overarching themes: Dagaz, Berkana, Ehwaz.
Daylight, hope, and breakthrough. Dagaz signals the awakening. The birch grove, the sanctuary, the earth regenerating. Berkana signals renewal. Harmony, teamwork, and cooperation. Ehwaz signals us moving forward together.
The dice on 5 falls off the board, in the far past. The time of strife, instability, and conflict will be moving out of our view. Better things lie ahead. The dice on 3 sits center of the board. A time of harmony and flow, a time of expression, clutched in the bear claw. Indomitable strength and protection. A time of rest and safety awaits.
You wear your tusks, move forward together. A threat to one of us is a threat to all of us, the javelina tells us. There is no separation between the individual and the herd and that is our source of power. Even in times of darkness, we feel our way ahead, sensing the unseeable. You don’t need sight to know the many pathways through the forest.
Small vulnerable creature each of us is right now, desert cottontail, you’re capable of holding such burdens, of functioning, of enduring each impact. You put yourself to work, driven by anxieties, driven by survival. That’s the external world for you. We move swiftly through it, we get by. Even the most paper-thin parts of us are built to survive.
Root down into what brings you joy, in all the little daily pleasures, hedgehog tells us. The small walk, the beam of light, the hedgerow looking just so. Ground yourself by turning inward, it’s okay to curl up, to take time for yourself and recalibrate.
Start asking yourself what is it that I desire? What am I wishing for? Dive deep into yourself, swim through the muck and rise invigorated, with resources from the depth. Be persistent in your pursuits. Be calculated and watchful, waiting for opportunities to emerge. Huntress, carefully pursuing a desire, both intense and effortless. You’ll need endurance and patience, but it’s all in time. Eyes on the prize, your goals will manifest through careful work. This is what muskrat, raccoon, elk, and cougar together tell us.
So, what can lift us through this scarcity, this coral time, this current time of uncertainty? What guides us forth? The tenacity and never-say-die attitude of badger, the groundedness of bison and his message to appreciate and respect what abundance you have, the protection of alligator gar and his message that we have survived and will continue, always, and the swift, cleverness of fox, clearing a path, moving us ahead with dexterity and ease. Fox is like liquid, problems roll off with laughter, and maybe we too need to move as liquid through the rough terrain, flowing towards some vast, unlimited unknown.