![]() Plants are seen by some as inanimate greenery with no actual feelings and life force. Small signs at first – the daffodils and crocuses – then more green as the bluebells and wood anemones spread through the woodland. I've shared them with you as they appear in my journal: the prompting question is in italics and my response follows immediately after each question.As the Sun grows warmer, so life begins to show through the soil. In the boxes below are the questions I used a few days ago at the time of the Spring Equinox, to bring to light how I'm doing in creating balance in my life and in choosing consciously what to give my energy to. So, what follows is a glimpse into how I'm using what I'm learning from these teachers. The ways and wisdom of the Sacred Feminine support our work to heal what separates us from each other and from our Mother Earth.) (Jane Hardwicke Collings, Alexandra Pope, and Jon Young 2 are among many teachers sharing about how to re-align ourselves with the Cycle of Life and through that, with the Sacred Feminine that has been suppressed on Earth for thousands of years. ![]() I use a series of prompting questions borrowed and adapted from many sources, but significantly from the work of Jane Hardwicke Collings and Alexandra Pope. I use my daily journaling practice to align myself with the seasons of all the big and little cycles within and around me. The historical origins of the festivals that mark each of these 8 points around the Wheel of the Year go way back -at least two and a half thousand years back -to ancient Celtic, Germanic, and other peoples who were intimate with the Earth through their seasonal food-growing practices. Four of the spokes mark a significant solar event the other four mark the midway points between them. The Wheel most commonly used today in traditions derived from Northern Europe is a circle divided by eight spokes spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the solar year. But the archetypal energies of birth, growth and expansion, full bloom, contraction, death, decay, and re-growth are universal. Not all cultures mark "four seasons." The lunisolar Hindu Calendar marks six seasons in the yearly round, and various Indigenous Australian Calendars mark from two to six different seasons. Obviously this is more marked the further you get from the equator, and more subtle in tropical parts of the world. Seasonal change is a response to sunlight, and the cycle of seasons is dictated by the sun. Most of us are at least vaguely familiar with the Wheel of the Year, which in simple terms is a celebration of Nature's seasonal cycle of changes. ![]() Nature's seasons remind us of the impermanence of all things, the futility of trying to avoid change, and the wisdom of going with the flow. ![]() Spring is the time of new beginnings summer is the time of growth and action autumn is the time of harvest and reckoning winter is the time of rest and renewal, and it also holds the potential for the next new beginning of spring again. I wrote about the Cycle of Life 1 a little while ago, and in that post I mentioned it's most familiar, archetypal structure - the seasons of the year. Paying attention to the Cycle of Life and aligning myself with it is a discipline I've grown increasingly committed to. ![]()
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