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Florence is pounding at the coastline of the Carolinas as I write. If you’ve been watching meteorologists’ predictions this past week, you’ll have noticed how frequently and wildly projections of her path have changed. She is a massive, powerful, and unpredictable force. Storms like Florence remind us of Mother Nature’s terrible power and that, in spite of all our cunning and advanced technology, we cannot control her; we remain subject to her, a small part of the greater tapestry of teeming, whirling life.

My neighbors’ parents live in Charleston and have come to stay with them to escape the worst of the storm. But even here, some 300 miles from the Virginia coast and buffeted by the ancient Appalachian peaks, we’re still anticipating winds up to 35 miles per hour and three to five inches of rain – nothing compared to our easterly neighbors, but a shock nonetheless for a region that doesn’t often see hurricanes. And, considering how our valley is predisposed to flooding and has already received quite a bit of rain in the past week, we’re all more than a little nervous, wondering how Florence will treat us when she arrives at our doorstep. It’s the subject of every half-overheard conversation I pass by. I can feel it coming – the sky is a mass of mottled gray; the winds are cooler and more persistent; there’s a tension in the air itself, as if every tree and bird and beast is bracing itself for the impact.

Lightning illuminates a graphite sky, as the wind whips through my hair and my aura. Thunder rattles the earth and my bones, and the rain comes down however it will—straight, hard and insistent, or a little sideways and chaotic. Look at the weather forecast for lower Alabama this time of year, and you will see a thundercloud icon on every day of the week. Storms are always a late afternoon possibility. They can be utterly terrifying in a place that has experienced deadly tornados, but they can also be cleansing and renewing. 

March is the month of the spring equinox.  Day and night will be equal and spring is in the air, except in Wisconsin where we just got six plus inches of snow.  In Wisconsin, March is a turbulent month filled with any kind of weather from mild to blizzards. 

Spring is supposed to be about new beginnings, renewal of life.  It’s all about change which can come about easily or be tumultuous.  Winter has weeded out what we no longer need and hopefully prepared us for the changes we need to make.  The chaff is gone, has been discarded and recycled in order to make way for what will come.

The breeze blew down from the top of the mountain pushing its way through the heat and humidity.  It rushed through her kitchen window filling the small room with the smell of crisp cool air.  Blowing her hair back off the tackiness of her face and neck as she stood there washing dishes.  The room had a slight relief from the heaviness of the air.

She looked out the window and up thought the trees.  There she saw the storm taking shape.

Having escaped any significant damage from Hurricane Arthur rolling through the area, I think it's a great time to talk a little about "storm magick" for lack of a better term. There's two different ways to incorporate the storm concept, using an actual storm, or mimicking/calling/drawing up similar energy of one. Either way, remember that this is mother Earth and father Sky coming together.

Storm magick is excellent for bringing about strong changes in your life, but as with storms, there are plenty of chances for things to get out of hand if not prepared, and even that's not a guarantee from harm or chaotic tangents!

A few months back, I wrote a column on books about the sea (or mermaids, to be exact). While digging through my library, it occurred to me that different columns for each of the traditional Elements might be a good idea. Just one problem: when I went looking for books on Air (and, by extension, wind and storms and so forth), I could find virtually nothing.

Sure, science books aimed at all ages are plentiful -- and I recommend some of the better written ones out there. The atmosphere is kind of important, after all. But books which deal with Air (and air and wind and atmosphere and so on) from a non-scientific point of view are few and far between. I could not find a single text written from an explicitly Pagan or polytheist perspective. So, I was left with lots and lots of science texts, some poetry, and a few mythological texts. And that's it.

It’s storm season. Storms have hit the UK this last week or so, and we’ve seen nightmarish weather conditions, high winds and flooding. People have died. Last year the lanes around Slimbridge, where I then lived, flooded such that some of them were impassable. We’ve been seeing a lot more of this, lately, especially in the winter months.