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Foxy Sunyata, Rainbow in the Void © Lindy Kehoe 2017 

"Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country. Why do we look up for blessing-instead of around and down? What hope we have lives there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls."....Ursula K. Le Guin

Down into the belly of the earth I seek myself. My blood warm and pulsing, flowing like sap in the veins of a tree that has seen time through the eyes of the season. I breathe and leaves billow out from limbs long and lanky. I breathe and ripples run through the sweet smelling earth. I breathe and the ground vibrates, knowing who I am. 

Eclipses are said to be a closing of one door and an opening of a window. At this past full moon on 6th September I did some Tarot queries using Joanna Colbert Powell's Gaian Tarot. The results were a bit counter-intuitive. A full moon is a culmination, but all the cards were pointing to beginnings and letting go so the new could happen. So eclipse season ain't over yet. Nope! The weather happening globally is the narrative set by the eclipse.

Fire and water are duking it out all over the USA. Here in Ireland, after a relatively dry (for us) winter, spring and summer, Lunasadh has brought the monsoon season upon us. In our boggy, heavy clay laden west of Ireland the water tends to pool. There is only so much land can hold and then it just lies on top. In winter we have these naturally occurring lakes called turloughs that evaporate in summer. Well, the turloughs are arriving early! And our car engine was killed when some local flooding on our lane turned out to be deeper than estimated.

"Human beings are ritual-making creatures. We might not build them consciously, but form them we will. We honor the goddess most effectively when we create rituals that express the best of ourselves and our intentions toward the earth, our mother."

--Patricia Monaghan, The Goddess Companion

Spring beckons us to awaken from the sleep of Winter and bring the newness of our being into the cycle of season and growth. The Great Mother pushes us up from Her life giving sanctuary and we stretch and yawn, expand and reach towards a light that sustains the potential of what we may become. And as we reach above, the roots that nourish and anchor reach deeper into Gaia's form...

Settle deep into
The rich fertile
Soil of my womb.

Settle deeper into the
Strands of quickened seed and
Light that promise growth.

Settle deeper still into
The heated core of intention
And draw from that source
Of life all that I give
Freely to you..

.....My most beloved child..... 

The Solstice is upon us and the chill of Winter is reaching deeply into bone. This year, in particular, is one that has tested the boundaries of cold and feeling isolated in a vast tundra of unknowing”ness”. Things change from season to season and in the never ending cycle that is life itself, Gaia remains steadfast and strong in offering up her body as our home and our refuge as Her fires burn brightly. 

Even though I know this to be true, the memory of her fires fades as the Light of the Solstice returns and Summer takes hold. But now, this is the time of remembering as the nights have grown longer and the cold seeps in, and I feel a chill that cannot be heated by physical warmth. This is a cold that holds the space of awaiting the stoking of the inner fires that resonate with that of Gaia and fuel the yearning, to once again, be held in her embrace.