Monday, March 29, 2021

Okie Wheel of the Year: March 29 2021

Adder's-Tongue Fern
Life is returning to my yard, along with one of my favorite plants to see this time of year: Ophioglossom or Adder's-tongue fern. This crazy little plant doesn't look like a fern at all. It looks like a single leaf sticking straight up out of the ground, or in patches, a whole lot of single leaves poking up. The first time I saw it, I watched and watched for the rest of the plant to come up but most of the time a single leaf is all there is to see. Eventually some of them will produce a spike with spores, which is where the plant gets it's name; supposedly these spikes look like an adder's tongue. I've never seen an adder, so I'll take their word for it. The rat snakes I see are too busy pretending to be a piece of wood or slowly running away to hide to let me get a good look at their tongues.

Tongue-Town at Key's Place
There is also a lily-type plant commonly called Adder's Tongue, so that's important to keep in mind when consulting your favorite plant guide. I know, this is where most people would tell you all about what medicine it has, or how to eat it, or it's magical correspondences. My calling isn't to herbal medicine or kitchen witchery so I'm sure you can google as well as I can. "What do you do with plants, then, Druid?" you ask. Well I just think they're neat! Specifically, I think adder's-tongue fern is neat because they're hoarding all the chromosomes. I've found one scholarly reference to a single-celled organism with more chromosome, but otherwise Ophioglossum has the mostest of all. Theoretically this has something to do with how evolutionarily ancient they are and represents the "evolutionary dead end" of a species. They tried it all and if this fails they go extinct. Theoretically. I enjoy sharing space with this ancient and unique dinosaur of a plant through the spring and summer.

In other news, the Full Redbud Moon has just passed, or as the rest of the world calls it, the Full Worm Moon.  Redbud blooms are scant this year thanks to that late cold snap, but they are blooming.   In honor of the Full Worm Moon I want to highlight the Oklahoma Conservation Comission's Soil Health program.  They have resources for farmers and educators and an interesting PDF on How Can I Tell if My Soil is Healthy that talks about all the parts of healthy soil.  Dirt is kinda a big deal, around here.

Full Redbud Moon setting through raggedy trees


Monday, March 22, 2021

Okie Wheel of the Year: March 22 2021

 

Clover in the spring rain
Happy Equinox!  It was a great weekend to celebrate.  Saturday, the official day of equinox and first day of spring according to the calendar, was a beautiful sunny day.  Today, Monday, we have a proper spring rainstorm to water all the things I planted over the past week.  I managed to get my vegetable garden ready.  Some years I might already have asparagus and snap peas, but not this year.  The daffodils are still going strong.  It looks like the late season snow brought just the right moisture at the right time for them.  The hazelnut, elderberry, and prairie roses I planted last fall seem to have survived and are sprouting leaves.

Alban Eilir Altar - C6FP Druid Grove
I also planted plenty of intention into my life this equinox.  I attended two lovely rituals, both of which involved planting seeds of intention and physical seeds as reminders.  The first ritual, on Saturday, was with the Druid Grove in a park.  We stood in a field of henbit under a cauldron-shaped daytime moon and planted intentions of health and wellbeing and a safe return to in-person gathering.  We sang and crossed the gateway of equal night and day into the part of the year where day exceeds night.  Right before we closed, a Red Tail Hawk circled overhead around the moon as if responding to our calling the powers of the east "With the blessings of the Hawk of Dawn."

Labyrinth Temple Ostara Altar
The other was at the Labyrinth Temple in Oklahoma City on Sunday.  They had a swap meet before the ritual where many treasures were recycled from gardens and closets. The ritual  There were flower petals everywhere and the Green Man drummed the heartbeat of the springtime into the earth.  I learned during this ritual that daydreaming during intention setting meditation in ritual can have unintended consequences.  I came away from the day with a plan and a project I didn't have when I arrived!

It was a great weekend.  I made some new friends, only got minimal mask-shaped sunburn, and have work to do for the future. The Wheel Turns!

Monday, March 15, 2021

Okie Wheel of the Year: March 15 2021

Daffodil-splosion
The monarch butterflies are returning! Oklahoma is dead center of their annual spring and fall migrations. The first returning monarch was reported March 10th in Antlers.  Now is the time to get busy planting and watering the early flowers for pollinators. Here at Unty Key's Crow Bar, the plums and forsythia are blooming, peonies emerging, and lilacs budding. The daffodils finally exploded into bloom right as we moved from what we call the Daffodil Moon in February to the New Redbud Moon in March. The daffodils took their time this year but the redbuds are already budding and may be right on time for the Full Redbud Moon in a couple weeks.

plum blossoms for the bees
As I sat on the porch and watched the sliver of Cerridwyn's cauldron moon sink into the west, I remembered this time of year is not only for planting the garden but deciding what we want to plant in our lives. This week leads up to the equinox on Saturday, when Imbolc energy turns to what my druid tradition calls Alban Eilir - The Light of the Earth. We had dreaming time at Yule and planning time from Imbolc, now is our moment to begin action. Even magical manifestation doesn't come from nothing. 

The druid tradition refers to itself as "embodied", meaning there is no hard defined line separating spirit life and physical life.  During this time when we think about what physical goals or abstract qualities we want to plant in our lives, it is important to remember to link actual physical activity to those goals. We say things like "I plan to work on my bardic grade lessons" or "I want to plant healthier living in my life" or "I want to be more kind to myself and others this year." Setting a teeny symbolic physical task can make a huge difference in us psychologically, physically, and magically moving toward our goals. Tasks could be as small as once per day standing during a 30 second YouTube ad, or before bed making sure the lesson materials are where I will see them when I wake up, or writing "Be Kind" on a piece of paper and touching it once per day.

What will you plant in your life this year, and what small physical task can you do to get your body involved?
forsythia blooming


Monday, March 8, 2021

Okie Wheel of the Year: March 8 2021

first bloom! A sign of hope
Lilac buds, bulb blooms, and lofty buzzards, hurray! Finally we have more signs of spring. Facebook reminds me daily that in past years we had peach and redbud bloom by now. This spring is taking its time, but there is hope. Hope is not a word often used when describing Oklahoma. More often you hear words about poverty, deadly weather, and backwards, judgmental attitudes. There is one surprising place where Oklahoma is actually known for hope: The University of Oklahoma School of Social Work Hope Research Center. Yeah, that sounds kinda hokey, but his theories may actually have some usefulness in the toolkit of your metaphysical, magical personal practice. Really. Hear me out here…

Lilac buds
In his book Hope rising: How the science of hope can change your life, Prof Hellman illustrates his ideas through the lives of several people, many of whom are from Oklahoma.  One is Emeka Nnaka, paralyzed football player turned motivational speaker. Their research measures hope and demonstrates that higher hope scores lead to higher survival and more success in what magical people might call "manifestation."  They define hope as “the belief that the future will be better and you have the power to make it so.” Hope is made up of three things: goals, “pathways”- road maps to achieving goals, and the willpower to follow them. Lacking any part of those those three items, the book explains, results in being “low hope”. One of the keys to raising hope will probably sound familiar to anyone who has been a part of any healthy modern type of spiritual path: being honest about and understanding your own trauma and the effects it has on your goals, pathway finding, and willpower. One of their stated aims is to “Call for the end to shame and blame when addressing struggles of those who had experienced trauma, illness, or adversity.” 

This science guy from Oklahoma is out here telling social workers and politicians they need to do shadow work, basically.  But seriously, this sounds an awful lot like the advice I see experienced witches handing out on the internet: Set your intention (have a goal), get your materials/ritual/etc (find a pathway), and believe in yourself (willpower). These also come with advice like “Do the work; there are no shortcuts.” and “work on yourself first” (self-care, self-esteem, deal with your trauma). While a “science of hope” might sound implausible at first, it seems pretty reasonable in light of what the magical community does.   If a science-y way to improve your ability to manifest work into the world appeals to you, this might be worth checking out.

Who would have thought that science and magic might agree down here in ol’ Oklahoma. Maybe there’s hope for us yet!
Wheeling turkey buzzard


Monday, March 1, 2021

Okie Wheel of the Year: March 1, 2021

Spring Sunset is Treefrog Song Time

A few days ago, I heard a tree frog. Just one. He sounded like a squeaky grocery cart wheel, out there all alone, peeping into the void. I thought the thick snowmelt mud and warm sun must have woken him up a little early and wondered at his future. Then, last night, two more joined in. There’s no rust on the Year Wheel. It is still turning even if it is March 1st and not a single daffodil bloom in sight here. The earlier blooms all froze and wilted. Half of me feels the eager pull of the warming sun to get busy and do all the things. The other half feels more like the storm-broken trees and ice-flattened stems and just wants to rest for a minute longer. Whew, what a winter! I see the new daffodils shooting up out of the ground and think, “Mowing season will be here soon enough. No need to rush. Have a cup of tea and think for a minute.”

hairy bittercress
I find myself walking around the yard looking for signs of life on the fruit trees, the spring bulbs, and under the old withered grass, and thinking about the lessons learned from this winter. Maybe we’ll never see another winter like this in our lifetime. Maybe this is just a hint of climate change consequences to come. Over at the Southern Plains Perspective, a blog about climate change and farming in Oklahoma, they refer to the need for farmers and ranchers to have a “climate change, extreme weather adaptation plan.” This, they explain, need not be a high-tech sales pitch kinda plan, just taking a good, hard look at the weather extremes we see today and think about preparations we are currently capable of making now in case those conditions come again. Sound advice for us all. 

Late shoots survive this time
My own weather-preparedness wish list has definitely had a generator at the top since October 2020. Now is the time to remember the little things that would have made life that much easier during long-term winter weather. Most winters I don’t really need what the northerners would call a true winter coat, but I do need something serious to wear just in case. I also need to replace my rain boots. Cracks above my ankles don’t really matter for walking through mud, but 10 inches of snow makes for a cold surprise.

Thinking about rain boots reminds me that March is time to start prepping for spring storm season. The cold extremes in February overshadowed the lack of actual rain, which means draught is still on the menu. Weather oracles are talking about a drier, warmer spring, but that doesn’t mean no storms. That dry south wind can create some crazy energy. Whew. That’s a lot of planning.. I think I’ll make my cup of tea and listen to the frogs singing the sun down.