The Mediterranean climate has its own unique seasonal cycle. In Ariadne’s Tribe, we’ve created a sacred calendar that acknowledges this climate and gives names to three sacred seasons: Summer, Winter, and the Blooming Time. You can find more details about this seasonal structure in this blog post.
Today I want to talk about the Blooming Time. It begins the day after Spring Equinox and ends with the Blessing of the Ships in mid-May, so it’s a fairly short season. We call it the Blooming Time because, although various trees and flowers bloom throughout most of the year on Crete, the wildflowers bloom in profusion during the Blooming Time and flowers are an important symbol of this unique season.
October is here with her cooling breezes and breaths of pause, her yellowing leaves and orange moon, her whispers and her wandering, her migrating dreams and her changing stories. She invites us to stop and listen. She invites us to open our hands and our hearts and to release our burdens, our sorrows and our shames. She invites us to step into a season of enchantment, a time when magic is close to the skin, when ancestors speak and hearts listen. She invites us to steep in our own wondering. She invites us to deepen and renew, to remember and to soften. She invites us to settle into mystery, into not knowing, undone, unfinished, and home.
Happy October! Welcome to this month of Mystery and Enchantment. How are you walking with mystery this month? What is enchanting you?
I have a free #30DaysofGoddess practice update for October available for you here: #30DaysofGoddess.
The things I need to flourish are simple: sunshine and the moon, raindrops and wind, long walks through woods and along shorelines, time alone every day with a prayer book, my pen and the sacred, laughter in the company of others, time to do my work without apology, time outside every day with my eyes open and my phone inside, heart-listening and soul-tending in the center of my own life.
Take a walk. Find a pretty rock. Don’t take it. Go home. Keep your promise.
This is an excerpt from my essay forthcoming this week at Feminism and Religion, reflections on colonization, war, and who invented jelly.
I will be taking a break from posting here for a couple of weeks to focus on finishing things up in the shop as we prepare for our winter holiday break. December's free practice update for #30DaysofGoddess will be ready for you this weekend--a new video + printable sampler pack of prayercards and resources.
May you know the warmth of connection and the hearth of community. May you breathe in great breaths of gratitude and breathe out great breaths of peace.
This morning I sat with the black cat on my lap and breathed the first breaths of October. The sky is gray-white and sunless, filled with crowcall and the sharp cries of hawk. If I squint, I can almost see steam lifting from a cauldron in the forest and smell change drifting through the air. I am looking at the shards of the year, some new-broken, some re-collected, some shining with possibility, and I feel the call, the urge, the promise, to tip them all into that bubbling vat and see what She will steep me into next. We are invited each day into newness, into breathing the very breath of the World Spirit herself. We are invited into presence, into the commonplace magic that keeps the world turning and our hearts beating. Here we are in the temple of the ordinary, watching the sky. May we settle into our bones and feel our pulse in our wrists. May we accept the invitation to sit with joy and create our lives.
May we breathe deep and allow a blush of gratitude to suffuse us, soft and persimmon orange as it permeates our bodies. May we breathe deep and allow compassion to illuminate us, lighting our hearts with a golden glow, softening our shoulders and gentling our minds. May we breathe deep and allow a fire of creativity to kindle in our bellies, flaring bright and powerful filling our bones with purpose and lighting our way May we pause, allowing the warmth of the moment to nourish and inspire us, and then set forth hands open and hearts ablaze.
Thesseli
You should post on Substack too, where you won't have to worry about being deplatformed or kicked off the site for your views. (Also, I've archived th...
David Dashifen Kees
I feel it necessary to state, unequivocally, that anti-trans points of view are not an essential part of Paganism. As a trans Pagan myself who helps ...