Okie Wheel of the Year: April 12 2021

The Iris-ening Begins!

Happy New Iris Storm Moon! That is my name for this moon because I could not decide between “iris moon” and “storm moon”. Irises explode into bloom around the state this time of year and in many places are finished by Beltane. Most of the state’s average last freeze dates are before April 12, except for the panhandle, and severe weather season ramps into full gear over the next few weeks. Some places have already seen storms, but according to the most recent USDA crop report much of the state is running a little behind on rain. Wheat, oats, and rye are growing, canola is beginning to bloom, and corn and soy planting is beginning. Just about everything is getting a slightly later start than last year. That’s no surprise. All the blooming things appearing in my FB memories show that my plants are lagging a little, too, but knowing it’s not just me gives me hope for the stragglers.

baby blackjack oak

The oak trees are leafing out.  I love how the tiny leaves start out fuzzy with a pink tinge.  Oak trees are often one of the last trees to lose their leaves in fall and sometimes they can be one of the last trees to sprout new leaves in the spring.  This year some of the elms in more exposed locations are still working up energy they used staying alive through winter though and the oaks are budding out first.   Although I live in the Cross Timbers ecoregion, the land was cleared of any trees decades ago.  Faster growing trees have returned over the years, but now I scout baby oaks this time of  year as the leaves return but before the grass covers them over.  With enough protection from lawnmowers and other trees, eventually the blackjacks, post oak, and maybe chinquapin oak will return.  Blackjack oaks specifically help give the Cross Timbers the reputation for hard living - if you see a squat gnarled tree with missing limbs and few leaves on a desolate prairie hill, it is probably a blackjack.  They'll be the last thing standing after an ice storm-wildfire-tornado!

Passionflower

For the first time, I've finally been able to grow passion flower and I'm watering the heck out of it until the spring storms finally come.  Whether I'll get any fruit remains to be seen.  That's the gamble of the harvest.  It it such a unique looking flower with an important history as a food and medicine plant for humans and pollinators.  The internet says the plant is special to the Cherokee.  That may be true.  I'm in no position to know one way or the other.   I do know that if you live on top of a hill made of red clay and sandstone, it's hard to grow plants that like growing in ditches.... but not impossible! 

baby Chinquapin oak?

Okie Wheel of the Year: April 5 2021

Blooming Redbuds and the moon

Last quarter of the Redbud Moon and the redbuds are out in all their glory. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve says that Easter weekend is a typical time for new baby bison to be born. They had one born a little earlier than usual on March 23 and I expect their FB page will feature more adorable baby bison pics soon. The Wildlife dept says spring turkey hunting season opens April 6 for parts of the state, but turkey numbers are down so they have information for hunters on what areas are least impacted by low numbers and ongoing research into the reasons for decreasing populations.  The Oklahoma Biological Survey started their citizen science Spring BioBlitz, where citizens around the state can participate by recording the birds, trees, fungus and things they see online to win prizes. 

fringed puccoon

Meanwhile, thanks to the lack of recent rain and incredibly low humidity levels for this time of year, I’ve been out watering my gardens every single day. That’s not usually necessary this time of year. The Forestry dept reported thousands of acres burned due to wildfires around the state last week. The end of March tends to be windy, but usually those winds come with sleet or hail. I still have a few trees and plants that I’m not ready to give up as winter storm casualties because they may be waiting for spring rains to wake up.  But other plants are right on schedule and filling the land with life.  The drier weather wildflowers are starting to wake up.  The scent of lilacs fills the air.  My haphazard garden is sprouting.  

I spilled the radish seeds

I find myself outside every day busy with some task or other while the crows swirl their social dances in the gusty wind and graceful turkey buzzards float high on the strong currents.  Every day it seems there's a new sound: a bird returning from winter homes, waking insects, new frogs.   And every day I find myself with some new project or gathering or idea sprouting up for the future.  And every night I'm tired, but a good tired.  Too tired to think of anything else to write. 

a froth of lilacs in the air

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

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!

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

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

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.

Okie Wheel of the Year: Feb 22 2021

How can we use the Wind?

An Oklahoma Sky

Finally the Sunrise!

Spring is back in town! After that 12 days of historic cold, it was nice to get back to my morning walk routine and see the sunrise. Some systems refer to the spring equinox as the sunrise of the year, and Imbolc as the growing glow on the pre-dawn horizon. That makes logical sense to me, but I love watching the sun rise during the Imbolc season. The golden sun melts down bare tree limbs and across the last of the autumn’s grasses just as spring slowly spreads across the land. This week we’ll reach the midpoint between Imbolc and the Equinox. The sunrise seems to pick up speed with each day closer to its eastern center on the horizon. The winds also seem to pick up speed at this time of year, so let’s talk about the magic of the Okie Wind.

Wind lore around the world seems to me heavily influenced by whether a culture is coastal or more desert, and of course sailors and, more recently, pilots may have their own relationship to wind. Hippocrates had much to say on how wind affects health, some winds bringing disease and others relief.  Some animist traditions have names for different wind spirits. My OBOD druid tradition treats air as the element of the east, intellect, and clarity, represented by the hawk. Other traditions place the air element differently and may have a different relationship with air. In Oklahoma, our winds predominantly blow north and south assisted by the northerly or southerly wobble of the jet stream. An excessively exciting jet stream plunge to the south was responsible for bringing those 12 days of subfreezing temps all the way from the artic into Texas last week. The jet stream is more typically the cause of our rollercoaster weather, making Imbolc a time of rotating warm and cold, north and south winds, which become more southerly as we ease past the equinox into April.

How can we use this magically? Modern witchcraft makes use of moon phases. The wind has its own energy and its own, less predictable cycles. The north wind might blow in cold winter weather or lovely, cooling summer rain. The south wind may drive back the winter or fill the sky with orange dust from New Mexico and spread wildfire. Sometimes the south wind blows in spring thunderstorms and refreshing north wind marks their passing. The winds’ moods and energies are as varied as the weather itself and they are as strong and influential here as the sea is to the coasts. The sky is our sea. But unlike the stories and songs of the sea, there is no source to consult about the magic of Oklahoma wind. We have to rely on intuition. Different traditions use moon phases differently, some using the full moon for manifestation and others for clearing. The wind also has differing effects on people. The same wind may blow hope and vitality for one person, and cleansing or endings for another. While we can know moon phases by consulting a calendar without ever looking at the sky, wind energies are felt. We feel the wind on our skin and its moods in our spirit. How can you use the powerful Oklahoma wind in your own practice?

February sunrise on winter-ravaged cottonwoods

Okie Wheel of the Year: Feb 15, 2021

Experiencing Imbolc in Oklahoma

Blooming Daffodils Feb 12 2017

"All the land is wrapped in winter.
The air is chilled and frost envelopes the Earth.
But Lord of the Sun,
Horned one of animals and wild places,
Unseen you have been reborn
of the gracious Mother Goddess,
Lady of fertility.
Hail Great God!
Hail and welcome!"
Wicca A Guide For The Solitary Practitioner(pages 130 - 131) by Scott Cunningham

bare feet in hammock Feb 11 2017

Oklahoma's average high temp in February is 55 degrees (F), with days reaching nearly 70 as frequent as days dipping closer to 32. On Feb 11, 2017, Oklahoma City hit 88 degrees and a record high was set in the west when Magnum recorded 99 degrees. In February! Add that to the fact that February is our second-driest month on average, right behind January, and it is easy to see how most years in Oklahoma it can be difficult to connect with the picture of Imbolc described in the words of Scott Cunningham above.  In 2021, we're already a week into sub-freezing temps and a historic winter storm that still has more snow to drop, and I can understand a little better how our northern European friends experience Imbolc.

This year's druid grove Imbolc ritual on Jan 30 had much the same weather as always: the sun shone, the wind blew, we were able to have the ritual outdoors even though we always prepare to hold it indoors in case of inclement weather. Plague precautions aside, everything went as usual. We called to Brigid "Come back, Lady, and bring the Spring!", and it felt as if she already had. In past years Imbolc has been the beginning of Outdoor Adventures Season for me. We've gone hiking near Quartz Mountain, Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge, amd even Turner Falls. When the sun returns I'm eager to go out and play before the insects return. Some of my favorite camping trips have been in February. In warm, wet years, the forsythia blooms and asparagus emerges in February, and plum and peach blossoms aren't far behind. The redbuds might bloom before the equinox.

This has been Imbolc for me: instead of a blanket of snow, a blanket of last season's pale grass, instead of delicate green and white snowdrop flowers, sunny yellow daffodils and forsythia, instead of the last furious gasp of Cailleach Bheur, Queen of Winter, a rollercoaster of wind and wild temp swings as the Spring gets wound up for storm season. Not so much this year. I've found myself staring blankly at snow through the window, barely comprehending the numbers on the outdoor thermometer. With all my usual plans derailed, I have time to sit with the idea that this is how a large percentage of the northern hemisphere experiences Imbolc. All those poems that I skimmed because they didn't fit with what I see out my window begin to resonate. I've done all I can to prepare for yet another kind of natural disaster. Now I can slow my excited energy and sit with spring in a way not normally accessible to me. May we all survive the cold. Come back, Lady, and bring the Spring!

Snowy Cedars Feb 15 2021

Okie Wheel of the Year: Feb 8, 2021

OK Mesonet's Braum's Def-Con Ice Meter

Imbolc is a season of fire and ice in Oklahoma. Today, the fire of Brigid makes way for ice. Freezing fog and drizzle led to horrendous multi-car pileups during morning rush hour traffic in Oklahoma City, while the northern and western parts of the state are at “Go Ahead, Make My Day” on the OK Mesonet “Braums Emergency Def-Con Meter”. OK Mesonet is one of my favorite nerdy weather resources. The mesonet is a series of weather information collection towers around the state at much finer detail in space and time than other resources. The Oklahoma Climatological Survey processes the data. Together they offer many kinds of services to meteorological, agricultural, and other industries, and most importantly for me, much of this information is available online! There are graphs of averages over time that I look at when thinking about the Okie Wheel of the Year. There is current data about soil moisture and weather conditions useful for gardening. My favorite is The Ticker. The Ticker "where hot air means more than temperature" mixes detailed weather analysis with good ol’ Okie humor. This is my preferred way to get weather forecast information!

Another type of information available from the Mesonet is about fire danger. This is useful to those planning prescribed burns or managing wildfires, but it’s also useful to me when I’m deciding whether to center my ritual around a burning fire pit, jarred candles, or maybe just stick to smoke and water. Y’all know that wind can change fast and conditions outside your window might not be the same as those out at the lake. During Imbolc the golden grass of autumn gets whiter and more brittle right before the new greenery takes over, and the wind begins the process of whipping itself up to spring speeds. The moment sun hits mud, fire danger can go within hours from Low to Extremely High. This is where we are right now: fire danger is low, but freezing drizzle and a snowflake doesn’t bring much moisture. If the warmer air comes back at high speed we could have fire.

Here I sit, belly full of fresh Irish soda bread, watching ice form on the tips of the redbuds, staring down the barrel of a potentially record-breaking cold snap. Oklahoma’s winter wheat fields sit, full of more soil moisture that usual this time of year, in that mystical (to me) stage where cattle can graze the fields after planting but before jointing. The crop is reportedly doing well, and so am I. This sounds like a good time to remember the lessons I learned from the dark stillness of Yule. Nothing left to do but wait out this season of fire and ice.

Okie Wheel of the Year: Feb 1, 2021

Frosty Tallgrass at Imbolc Sunrise

Happy Imbolc/St. Brigid’s Day!

Imbolc and Lughnasadh are the seasons that inspired me to really explore how the Wheel of the Year works in Oklahoma. Today, pictures of snowdrop flowers with their bright green leaves and drooping white heads, will fill the internet with messages of welcoming spring. But when I step onto my front porch I see nothing of the sort. I don’t think I’ve ever seen real-live snowdrops. This morning, the yellowed tops of resilient tallgrass were covered in thick frost sparkling in the morning sun. Every year, one of my daffodils blooms well before the others poke buds out of the ground, and it always freezes. It is the sign that we have at least one more hard freeze left, but then spring will be on it’s way.

Frozen Early Daffodil

These are the things I see outside this time of year. There is so much more to know about our seasons.  The wheel of the year is solar, but also partly based on agricultural seasons and seasonal weather cycles. I am not a farmer. I might plant a garden, and I do get to see lambs and kids as I drive by neighboring fields sometimes, but otherwise I am disconnected from our agricultural cycles. Luckily, even farmers are on the internet! The Oklahoma Farm Report has data and news relevant to the entire state’s agricultural industry. Market reports and legislative news can be tedious reading, but glancing through summaries gives a picture of how the seasons, weather, climate, and land interact and affect our crops and the lives of those who work them. There are also articles about work our state’s farmers and ranchers do in conservation, research, advocacy, and education. Farmers are sometimes seen as the enemy of those working for environmental protection and climate crisis, but Oklahoma’s farmers have intimate knowledge of these issues.

This is the first installment of a weekly series on the Okie Wheel of the Year. I’ll be introducing sources of information and noting seasonal changes to get a more broad picture than we can see outside our own front doors. The Oklahoma Farm Report top news headlines over the past week say everyone has their eyes on hay stores, the status of wheat fields, cotton and soybean sales, and looking forward to spring calving.

The beginning of a month means data gatherers release monthly summaries.  Mesonet summaries tell us that January averaged a tiny bit wetter than unusual, and drought conditions eased up in the west. They predict a slightly cool but average wet February.  But there are predictions of a drier March and April with increased wildfire danger. This means that right now conditions are good for slowly watching as greenery peeks out from beneath the yellow grasses, but don’t pack up the sweaters yet. As we plan our gardens, be aware that a dry spring means extra watering.

This cold season is also a good time to think about mental health. Issues like low sunlight, isolation and loneliness of winter, anxieties for the future affect us all this time of year. Farming communities also recognize the need for resources such as the Plains Cotton Cooperative Association's Farm Stress-Help and Hope program.  

I can't wait to see what next week brings!