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I have been wanted to do a 2018-year reflection post. There was a lot to reflect on. I'm going to keep this to the personal rather than the political. Otherwise, we'd be here all day.

I've had some ups and downs this year. More ups really, so that's good. Since I am a professional Joy Seeker, I will focus on the ups. 

The biggest thing is moving into my role as the owner of

Hasn't 2018 been the oddest year energetically? It has felt both overfull and stop and start. Old routines and ventures appear to be coming to the end. Or at least need to go fallow for a year. Meanwhile, what is beginning is also a bit lame and halt. Nothing is quite what it seems to be. Or at least that is what this crone divines.

We have just passed the night of the dark moon at the darkest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. In our rural fastness,without street lighting, night is very tarry at this time of year. And so, too, at this dark moon did my knees and bones complain and beg to rest. 2018 has been exhausting,personally and collectively.

Springtime has come to North Texas, which means both swathes of bluebonnets along the highways and sometimes monsoon-like rainstorms. It's a far cry from the winter storms that are gripping my home Dakota prairies, but there are times when the torrents of rain make it hard to remember that long warm Spring days are coming. But any good Texan will also tell you that we welcome these days of rain, because they both stave off that first 100-degree day and help to alleviate the period severe droughts our beautiful state experiences. The memories of the droughts of 2008-2010 are still fresh with many of us, and the rains give us hope that we won't watch our state burn and suffer under the sun this summer.

Spring rains and floods have been seen as blessings in many cultures over history, with the Nile floods being the most well known. So I was happy to see Anuket, the personification of the Nile River herself, show up in my oracle reading this week.

It’s a soft, rainy spring day. I’m grateful for the rain—we need it—and for the lush green it has brought to the hills and meadows, the vineyards carpeted with bright mustard flowers.

These are such challenging times. The circumstances of my personal life are stressful and frightening; the broader culture is caught in the nightmare of Donald Trump’s willful smashing of all that is decent and righteous. Friends are struggling to make ends meet; my area is still grappling with the incomprehensible shock of last October’s wildfires.

Did you know that I am working on a blog-to-book project for Moon Books? I'm so excited about this venture. You can read the first installment of my book, What is Feminist Witchcraft? here.

Early March is in in-between time. Back on my native South Dakota prairies, March either marked the very subtle beginnings of spring, or heralded one last round of storms where we'd be in Winter's icy grip for a few more weeks. Here in Texas, it's always a toss up as to whether early March will bring chilling rain and wind or high bright days in the 60s. More often than not, it does both in the same week. It's this magickal time in between, where it's not really Winter anymore but it's not yet Spring, and we start to think about planting but hesitate in case one last freeze or flood comes our way. It's a time to wait, suspended in the liminal space, when things are already heavy with potential. Soon we'll hurtle headlong into Spring, with all its busyness and activity, but for now, we're in that twilight period, where one season is not yet gone and another has yet to begin. 

So who better to guide us through this time than the Germanic Goddess Berchta? Berchta has visited us via the Oracle before, a few summers ago. But her message -- that the seeds of our future lie within us, ready to be planted and nurtured -- seems so appropriate to the time we find ourselves in now. As we think forward to the Spring, we are reminded that the things we will nurture over this next cycle are already deep within us. They are things we nurtured and kept alive through the dark and introspective days of Winter. Our destiny is already within our power, if only we recognize it, fertilize it, honor it, tend to it.

This post is mirrored from my Wordpress blog, Priestessing the Dream

March brings us not one by two Full Moons -- the second month in 2018 to offer us this phenomenon, known as a Blue Moon. The first of March's full moons occurs on March 1. Known as the Worm Moon, this moon asks us to focus on what we need to fertilize or prepare in order to get ready to plant our dreams, goals, and projects for the Spring. Occurring midway between the Imbolc Sabbat and the Spring Equinox (March 21), this moon is ideal for reflection on what it is we want to bring forth and what we need to do to prepare the soil to nourish those things we plant. This year's Worm Moon is in Virgo, which amplifies the focus on work, on practical and direction action, and on attention to detail.