Breathing With Friends

I've had a number of conversations with folks about the gratefulness of technologies like video chat to enable essential services (like mental health and medical appointments) to continue and the complete soul-suck that many experience with the same medium. As one friend put it "I am tired of trying to create meaningful connections through video chat but I also know that I need video to be able to connect at all with folks right now." 

Video chat as an essential form of connection isn't going away any time soon, so let's come up with an alternative approach for connectivity with less suckage and more nourishment. At the best of times, for me video chat has been an uncomfortable medium and this has been true long before living in quarantine. It has always had a valley of the uncanny feeling to it and only amplifies the feeling of being observed as opposed to being listened to. As I've been navigating this new world of only video chat based meetings, I noticed that I would get off some calls feeling exhausted and other times I felt a sense of connection and wellness.

What was the difference? Breathwork. 

But more on that in just a minute.

(If you’re looking for herbs to support your breathwork practice, come this way.)

There are a few reasons so many of us are feeling burned out about video chat. Even if we're connecting with folks we love, video chat is often a reminder that things are not normal right now. That's stressful in and of itself, but then there is the empathy wall that occurs through video chat. In-person conversations and connections are full of all sorts of shared experiences, including the experience of being in the same environment at the same time as well as energetic markers that don't translate well through video (now there is an upside for folks who tend to get emphatically overloaded in conversations - the empathy wall can actually provide a bit of reprieve). Then there's all the specific to video chat frustrations like technological blips (disconnects, laggy wifi), crappy lighting, interruptions that happen more frequently if we live with others, and having to stare at a screen as opposed to sitting with a person you want to connect with.

Yet, through all these frustrations, I've had consistent moments of connection with folks over video chat and it was because we were using a tool that translates really well to this format: breathwork. Breathwork can take many forms but it's essentially the practice of paying attention to your breath with intention. Breathwork is present in a number of modalities from sitting meditation, trancework and pathworking, spellwork, martial arts, yoga, and more. If you're wanting to connect with folks through video chat but finding it draining or difficult why not try breathwork with your friends and family instead?

Breathwork gets us back into our bodies and even when we're practicing mindful breathing at in-person events it is still an inherently private and deeply personal experience. In this way, breathwork is something that can easily be shared together online but still feel like you're having a meaningful individual experience in the presence of community. What's also nice about breathwork within a video chat conference during times like these is that we can experience a reprieve from talking about the crisis while still connecting to our own feelings and holding space for others to do the same all while together. I know that some folks, especially those with an established meditation or breathwork practice, may be full of disbelief at the suggestion that you can have a nurturing, community-based breathwork practice via video chat, but believe me it truly translates well. 

There are a lot of beautiful resources out there for breathwork whether by yourself or with friends. Two accessible books are The Power of Breathwork by Jennifer Patterson and How To Breathe by Ashley Neese. Both of these books teach a variety of simple breathwork exercises for everything from helping to go to sleep, finding inspiration, exploring grief, nourishing the body, and more. There are also a number of tutorials on youtube including one on square breathing (a technique that I teach and recommend to a lot of folks) and this video covers a variety of stress-relieving breathwork techniques. Breathwork can also be combined with visualization such as a grounding and centering tree of life meditation. You can access my version of the tree of life meditation for free on my Begin With the Breath course description page - just scroll down to the course curriculum section and click on "Tree of Life" for both a recording and transcript. There are also a number of wonderful folks hosting breathwork based online gatherings like Yarrow Magdalena and her Unravel course on tending to grief through breathwork, writing, and ritual (I was just on her podcast and she's a gem).

To help you try out breathwork with friends I've created a simple breathwork gathering format for your video chats. For both of them, it helps to have someone in charge of facilitation and time management (one of the ways to make video chats less stressful is knowing that they have an planned ending) and this is a role that can be rotated each time you gather if you like. There is nothing revolutionary about the following outline - it's a format that many of you will probably have come across before. I'm writing it out both for those of you who haven't facilitated a space like this before - either in-person or online - it can really help to have it all laid out and for folks who have facilitation experience but haven't done this work through video chat yet.

A Simple 30 Minute Breathwork Outline

Gathering and settling in - 5 minutes
Time for everyone to arrive and get comfortable. Depending on how many folks are gathered you can choose to leave everyone muted or unmuted for this part. Before you move on to the next part, invite folks to take a moment to pull up gallery view for a moment so that they are able to see everyone that they'll be sharing space together at once before returning to their preferred screen setup. I learned this at a recent class with Yarrow Magdalena and it was a magickal moment similar to what I experience at the start of a community ritual where we all take a moment to gaze upon everyone we've gathered together with at that moment.

Three word check-in - 5 minutes
Invite everyone to speak or write in chat (especially recommended for groups) three words describing how they are feeling at this moment. Check-ins are a good way for folks to begin to connect with their inner world while beginning to hold space and witness the inner worlds of others. If posted in chat, the facilitator can choose to read through all or some of these words depending on group size.

Breathing with friends - 10 minutes
Introduce the breathwork practice with simple instructions (reading them from a book is just fine!) and then settle into breathwork together. You have a few options when it comes to sound at this point. At in-person gatherings you're going to be hearing other people breathing and while you can unmute everyone on the call, that can sometimes prove more distracting than helpful. One solution is to breathe together while muted - the downside is that disconnects happen and that can be stressful for folks who are trying to close their eyes while breathing but also don't want to find that they're no longer in the call. You can choose to have just the facilitator unmuted for reassuring "I'm still on the call" sound cues. Another option is for the facilitator to play a song or two through their computer or play a simple drumbeat if they have a drum.

Reconnect and reflect - 5 minutes
The facilitator gently invites folks out of the focused breathwork and into a space of reflection. This can be a time for folks to journal briefly or they can speak or write three words on what they are currently feeling. Especially for smaller groups there is always an opportunity to expand this part - just make that decision ahead of time to create an easeful time container for everyone.

Closing and departing - 5 minutes
End by reading an inspiring quote, pulling an oracle card, or some such similar departing blessing. Remind folks to allow space for the experience of breathwork to continue to unfold throughout the day and night. Invite folks to jump into gallery view again to be able to see everyone that has gathered and held space together at once. And then you're done!

I would love to hear how you've made video chat easier to manage and connect with folks on a heart level in the comments below. If you do end up doing breathwork with friends or family, let me know, too! For my fellow herbalists and folks serving as healers in your communities, here are my thoughts on serving as practitioners during times of pandemic.

If you’re looking for herbs to support your breathwork practice, I’ve written about that, too.

Maybe these new skills or connections will becomes we carry with us beyond the time of social distancing, but whether that happens or not, my hope is that you and your loved ones can experience peace and connection with one another no matter what medium it is through.

❤︎ This post was made possible through patron support. Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Conversations with Your Ancient Self Tarot Spread

The other morning I woke up and noticed that the fog of pandemic allostatic load had parted just enough for me to find my way back to candles burning in the kitchen, blessings whispered between doorways, and slowing down enough to connect with old stories lying beneath the newness of These Times. I spent the morning reading about ancient priestesses of Sumeria and Egypt, considering the complexities of their lives and the magick of their names still being spoken thousands of years on. And I thought about our ancestors and how close they've felt lately.

In this flow of magick I was able to pick up one of my oracle decks and do a reading - a practice that I haven't felt the inspiration for in a while. The deck that called for me was Erin Alise's Hollow Valley Deck of Symbols. I was given this deck as a gift and probably wouldn't have heard about it otherwise. It's a beautiful, well-considered, and intentional deck that has only become more intriguing the more I use it. Admittedly, I have a soft spot for black-and-white line art decks but this one is not too minimal nor too busy and has the added bonus of being accompanied by a well-written guidebook.

I sat down for my reading thinking about the Ancient Ones. Pulling three cards from my deck, I didn’t know what each position would mean - I simply cast them with the intention of connecting with those ancestors who had been drawing nearer and nearer in recent weeks.

View fullsize

Hollow Valley Deck of Symbols by Erin Alise

The three cards I pulled ended up creating a spread as I cast them. Reading them, it felt like they were illustrating three paths of ancestral knowledge transmuting into living wisdom. And so what follows is a new spread gifted by spirits of the Oracle and Beloved Dead. In some ways, this spread feels like a companion to the one I created a few years back on talking with your future self. While I feel that you certainly can connect with ancestors through the spread, it might be more accurate to say that you're connecting with the ancient parts of your self that dwells closer to the ancestral realms. The part of you that remembers you are not just branch and fruit, but you are also root.

Before I get to the actual spread, I'm going to share with you the descriptions for each card from Alise's tender and insightful guidebook below. Then I'll share with you the spread and the ways that you might open up your own path for speaking with our ancestors and ancestral selves.

Hollow Valley Deck of Symbols by Erin Alise

From Alise’s Hollow Valley Deck of Symbols Guidebook:

Mountain
constancy, stillness, aspiration, enlightenment, ascent, strength
When you are at the peak of the mountain, you are both close to the stars and completely rooted to the earth. You are standing strong, but you have quite the view - allowing you to see the things around you clearly. Mountain is about enlightenment but it is also about seeing the bigger picture. On your precipice, allow yourself to stay grounded - your knowledge is vast but you must not become lofty. Find stillness here: you have all the information, now you need to take a moment to stabilize and decide how to use it.

Net
entanglement, interconnectedness, communication, surrender, devotion
Net asks us to fall heavily against the people that keep us safe. Net reminds us that in times of great movement or risk or sorrow, the people around us will be there to catch us when (or if) we fall. Net reminds us that cultivate relationships that we can lean on, and give back to them - to be interdependent and not codependent. To offer ourselves up as a safety net to those who will always be there as ours.

Valley
sustenance, plenty, stillness, rest, experience, humbleness
A valley is a place of rest - you've trudged to the top of the mountain and down again, and here at the bottom you can find stillness. Valley is about the humbling magic of being on the other side of a long journey. You have experience, you've reaped the rewards, and you must now allow yourself to pause here in this hollow. There is understanding here, and a wisdom that comes with experience. You are safe here. Stay as long as you need.

View fullsize

Conversations With Your Ancient Self Tarot Spread

The spread consists of three cards though multiple cards can be pulled for each position if you feel called. You might choose to begin this reading by first calling to and remembering your ancestors and spending some time connecting with your deep self. Every tarot reading is an opportunity for ritual which can be as simple as a few centering breaths or elaborate as casting circle, calling on guides, lighting candles, and making offerings. Follow the call of your magick to help shape your experience.

Now on to the spread!

Card 1: The Mountain. Knowing the shoulders that we stand on. 
The Mountain card helps us to connect with the foundational presence of the ancestors in our lives. Often this card indicates how your ancestors and deep self have helped to bring you into the world (whether literal birth or the transformation and emergence of self we experience throughout our lives) and why they are invested in having you in it. Inverted cards can indicate what ancestral patterns of harm that you have changed or broken or are in the process of examining. 

Card 2: The Net. To accept connection while avoiding harmful entanglements.
The Net, which could easily be called The Web as well, illuminates our ancestral inheritance. We are not carbon copies of those who have gone before and therefore aren't meant to carry all that we were given and burdened with through our ancestral lines. So much of ancestral work is joyful, but there is unexpressed grief, unreasonable expectations, deep wounds and more which can all lead to unnecessary entanglements. The Net card helps us to discern what we're meant to carry forward and what should be set aside to be picked up by another who would find use of it or to return again to the earth. If you know you're dealing with a complicated ancestral story, you might choose to pull three cards here to create more space to understand what is a gift and what is a burden.

Card 3: The Valley. To be held and to hold.
The Valley card speaks to how our ancestors and deep selves hold us throughout every experience and how we hold (and pass on) ancestral wisdom in turn. Sometimes this card can appear like a mirror that our ancestors and ancestral self has made for us, polished with their love for our beauty, that we may see how needed and necessary and totally wanted that we are. Inverted cards may indicate burdens which have been newly set aside and a space that has opened up that yearns to be filled with something purposeful. Other times, inversions can show how we've transformed a previously burdensome inheritance into jeweled wisdom.

Have you ever been inspired to create a new tarot spread based on cards you’ve cast? What are the ways that you find inspiration for creating spreads for divination? And if you’ve done readings with the Hollow Valley Deck of Symbols be sure to let me know in the comments below.

If you’re feeling curious about the ways you can use tarot to connect with the deep parts of yourself you might want to read more on tarot shadow work (including incorporating some lunar magick into your oracular explorations). Earlier this years I created a spread to help find clarity but at the end of the day, you only need to know one.

A Might-do List for Beltane

Beltane, known also as May Day, Lá Bealtaine, Calan Mai, marks the first day of summer. Cattle are moved to the summer pastures, the Good Folk venture forth from their wild places to join in the festivities of mortals, and the fertility of the fields is celebrated. Beltane acts as the summer gateway to winter's beginning at Samhain - both festivals are seen as times when the veil between the worlds is particularly thin. While Samhain emphasizes connection with our ancestors, especially those recently departed, Beltane is sometimes seen as a festival of connecting with the Good Folk (who some see as our most ancient ancestors having long ago traveled to the worlds beyond and between). At Beltane we celebrate pleasure and joy, especially as we experience it through the holiness of our physical form, relishing in our mortality and the ephemeral moments of connection, as well as remembering our ancient connections with the spirits of the land. Continuing a project started last Lughnasadh, here’s a list of nine things that you might-do (or not) for the merrymaking festival of Beltane.

Celebrate love in all its forms. Beltane is a festival tied to love in all of its forms. Romantic love! Platonic love! Love between family and friends! All the love! Make space in your ritual celebrations to honor and celebrate the many forms that love takes knowing that we need all of it in order to make the world into a more kind and more just place. It can be a very sweet practice whether as a family or in your coven to offer up what love you're celebrating and are grateful for as well as the ways you're going to keep nurturing and growing that love.

Give tokens of love. Creating and giving tokens of affection to those we love is a sweet and simple way to celebrate the energy of the season. These little objects of love - whether making a parent's favorite cookie recipe or presenting a child with a special stone to friendship bracelets or a bouquet of flowers - can also double as charms of peace and harmony to whoever you're giving them to. You can also send out letters of gratitude to those folks you know and may not know but who you appreciate and admire - Beltane is about seeing and being seen in all the ways we love.

If you're called to it, get handfasted. Beltane is the traditional time of year to take vows with romantic partners. The vows of a handfasting last for a year and a day upon which they are then renewed. These days many Pagans use the term handfasting interchangeably with marriage but the year-and-a-day practice still exists and is a very sweet one. A handfasting typically involves fastening the hands of those making the vow with ribbons, vines or cloth, demonstrating the weaving together of hearts and commitment to one another. Add additional traditional features to the rite by jumping over a bonfire and/or broom upon making your vows.

Wash your face with the dew of the early morning. The early dew of Beltane morning is supposed to be especially blessed and washing your face with it promises beauty and longevity for the year to come. I love this tradition and have been practicing it for years - it can be a very sweet and quiet way to start the day's festivities which are often much more raucous in nature. I also spend this time connecting with the Good Folk and the spirits of the land. 

Make a flower crown. Flower crowns are the sort of activity that can be adapted to all sorts of situations - you can spend the time in focused and quiet meditation, weaving together spells as you weave together flowers or it can be a time of singing and laughing, sharing food and drink. Flower crowns as Beltane can be kept and dried to be used as offerings to the fires of Midsummer. 

Dance, jump, and make merry!  Jump over bonfires and brooms for blessings of luck and protection all summer long. If you have a maypole, name every ribbon for a different form of love in the world and weave it together in unity as you dance. You can still bring in the energy of a maypole without one by making ribbon wind catchers or tie biodegradable cloth, yarn or thread to trees. It's traditional to bless cattle by steering them between two bonfires, but we can bless ourselves by doing the same, speaking prayers of thanksgiving for the animals of the world that we care for and rely upon. A local Druid group has an absolutely adorable tradition of handing out cow masks to the children and then having them run through two bonfires, mooing and cheering as they go.

Cast spells and rituals for creativity. In addition to a festival of celebrating love, Beltane is also a time of celebrating our creative potential and power. Rituals and spells to help support and nurture our creativity are auspicious and can be woven throughout the festivities of the day. You can focus on the fire aspect of the festival by performing a ritual full of candle and flame for sparking creative desire or call upon the five elements of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit to help you find your creative flow in all aspects of your life. It can be a good day as well to bless all of the tools you use for your creative pursuits from sketchbooks to pens, paints and clay, cloth and thread, and whatever else you use.

Bless the holiness of your physical form. In the Charge of the Goddess, She tells Her followers that "all acts of love and pleasure" are Her rituals. Of course, there are many ways to feel and be and do love and pleasure, but there's a special place at Beltane to honor the physical form and how we experience pleasure through it. Modern Pagans, in general, are not focused on a promised life given to us after we leave our bodies, but rather in awakening to the holiness of the world within and around us as we live and breathe. Body blessings, workshops with your coven about physical pleasure, learning about, celebrating, and sharing sensory differences, are all ways of celebrating the physical form.

Honor the green spirits of the land and bring their energies to the protests. The season of Beltane is full of myths about the Green Ones who live in the woods and hills, coming down from the mountains or coming from lands of warmth bring summer to our celebrations. These are the Old Wild Ones who are more plant than person, often playing a trickster role in celebration. Robin Hood and Maid Marian are said to be early modern interpretations of the Green Man myth and their socialist, earth-centered visions are excellent energies to bring to May Day protests and celebrations for justice for working people.

I have a card spread for the season of Beltane and find more inspiration for summer magick over here. And here’s a tarot spread all about the heart featuring some traditional Beltane herbs.

You can also check out the rest of my might-do lists for the sabbats and beyond.

• Samhain

• Winter Solstice (Yule)

• Imbolc

• Spring Equinox (Ostara)

• Beltane

• Summer Solstice (Midsummer)

• Lughnasadh

• Autumn Equinox (Mabon)

May the fires of Beltane light up the season of abundance and harmony for you and your loved ones. May we stand with the Green and Wild Ones as we work for a more kind and more just world. And may you laugh like embers scattered across sky, lighting up the night with the joy of our being.

Serving as Herbalists During a Pandemic

Edit: I’ve created a page for herbal calls to action and other community resources geared towards supporting our clients and communities during pandemic and beyond.

There is a lot of need in the world right now.

As an herbalist, serving our communities during times of pandemic can look a lot like what we already do - supporting folks in cultivating longevity and peace of spirit in a sustainable way. For many herbalists I know and certainly in the philosophy I was taught by my teachers, herbalism is slow and steady medicine. Of course, there are always moments of quick relief and insight, but plant medicine is strongest when it is integrated into our lives as an ongoing practice. While relationships with plants is one of the defining features of any herbalist, many of us bring a myriad of other techniques and tools and ways of seeing the world that inform and compliment our relationship with plants (who else is having regular dream visitations from their ancestors who lived through previous periods of pandemic?). All of these skills are needed now as we live through times of great sorrow and uncertainty, strangeness and joy, and begin to dream of how we might emerge in a way that continues to bring us together. 

While this post will not be about herbal treatments or recommended protocols during times of pandemic, what I hope to do here is to highlight practices many herbalists and holistic healers will be familiar with, but can be especially useful during periods of heightened and widespread trauma. For some herbalists serving communities that are under constant threat these suggestions may be more familiar than to others - may they serve as an affirmation of the needful and powerful work you're already doing. The work of emergence continues and what follows are some of the ways you might find useful in serving your community.

Encourage your clients to feel their feelings as they arise (or as soon as they can after the fact).

There are numerous powerful and effective therapies to help folks manage trauma after the fact, but one of the tools we can use during or shortly after a traumatic incident (including the prolonged trauma and disruption of pandemic) is to encourage those we serve to feel their feelings as they arise. One of the things that makes traumatic incidents so traumatic is that all too often we don't feel like we have the space or are afraid to or are unable to connect with the depth of our feelings. It's ok to grieve right now - the world has turned upside down and will not be the same again for better or for worse. It's ok to get angry, to get sad, to get happy - just get to where your feelings are. 

Now, it's also important to acknowledge that sometimes our feelings do feel too big - that's when it's especially important to reach out to friends and family for support or to a therapist. There are so many great therapeutic models out there and while it can be hard for folks of color and queer and trans folks to find adequate care you're still worth being cared for. Services like Crisis Text Line can be very helpful for in-the-moment situations of difficulty and it is easy to use. And if you're someone who is looking to support others during a pandemic and beyond in a very real and needed way, consider becoming a volunteer.

Anxiety is growing - share simple tools for managing it.

Here's a great guide talking about anxiety during times of pandemic (for those of you who serve earth-based spirituality and Pagan populations there's a great connection to made between the decision tree and holy trees in so many of our spiritual cosmology). I teach my clients and students breathwork techniques that I've found very useful over the years for all types of feelings and experiences as well as learning how to connect with plants. I have a sliding scale course on breathwork aimed at folks with a magickal practice but here's a free video resource on square breathing which I think is one of the most useful techniques out there for helping us to pause and expand our emotional possibilities beyond anxiety.

One of my favorite tools for managing anxiety is writing and journaling, so here's some of my tips for writing in your journal especially when you feel too anxious to do so.

• You don't have to start by writing about yourself or your feelings. When I'm feeling especially overwhelmed I start by writing super mundane things - I describe something on my bedside table or what the weather is like outside. It can be helpful to ease into what you think you want to write about by not writing about it at all.

• Establish a set length of time or paper that you're going to write. Depending on my journal size I usually write the front and back of a single page. If I want to write more I do, but my goal is to fill up the space of that single page. What this does is limit any feelings of how much one should write and sets a parameter for how long you should be writing. Sometimes I sit there for quite a while not knowing what to put on paper and that's alright. It makes me think and reflect, even get a bit bored. I've found this practice to be really helpful not only during times of heightened anxiety, but in maintaining a regular journal practice.

• Prompts can be really useful. There are all sorts of journal prompts out there - I have one for each New Moon - and you can choose to use different prompts every time you journal or stick with the same one(s) for every journaling session. When things are feeling hard for me I tend to stick with similar prompts again and again such as What am I feeling right now? What am I needing right now? Additionally, I’ll set a five minute timer and let myself right down, free flow style, everything I am feeling anxious, confused, or just big about. At the end of those five minutes I move on to my next suggestion.

• Practice gratitude. I feel fortunate that early on I was introduced to the importance of gratitude in one’s magickal practice. Whether it was gratitude to the Ancestors, Gods, Spirits of the Land and Waters, and my fellow magickal folk to gratitude for candles to light, for shelter, and food. Taking time to be in our gratitude helps to give us context, pause anxious cycles, and shift perspective. Gratitude doesn’t dismiss the seriousness or severity of a feeling or situation, but when we are faced with what can feel like oversimplified and intense emotions (i.e. everything is awful), gratitude can help us acknowledges complexity and expand what is possible (i.e. some things are awful right now, but there is still beauty and hope).

Connect your clients with resources on emotional and mental health. 

It's important to remember, especially when the needs in our communities can feel so big and overwhelming, that you are not the sole source of care for those that you are serving. You should be referring folks to additional care practitioners, especially mental health providers, as necessary throughout your interactions with your clients. Crisis Text Line is an inclusive and immediate point of support that you can send folks to. Sometimes the need in our community is so big that we can be mistaken in our compassion to think that we are the one to answer it all. I think it is a beautiful and healing practice to share with our clients all of the options and opportunities they have for community support by making sure we have appropriate references available for them. Additional mental health resources can be found here.

Know when to step back and take a break.
The world is changing and even when the immediate crisis of pandemic is over there will be work to do. But that's always been true - we're just experiencing everything on more directly global terms than ever before. Be sure to pace yourself, take breaks, and engage in the relaxing activities that allow your mind and body to rest. Teach your clients how to do the same by modeling this behavior to your community. Reassure your community that it's ok to have fun, celebrate joyful moments, and zone out when they need to. Ask for help, participate in the multitude of mutual aid and kindness groups that are growing and have been here for generations, and when you're able, offer aid in return.

Humble yourselves in the arms of the wild.
Those are the first words of a beautiful Pagan chant by Beverly Frederick that I've found myself singing again and again these days. The wild can mean many things from our plant allies to humbling ourselves to the spectacular wild uncertainty of our times. Remember to connect with the plants who have taught you, the ancestors who dreamed you, the living beloveds surrounding you in your life right now. We do not know where we are going or how we're going to get there but we can choose to know ourselves and each other through the process.

I hope that these suggestions have offered inspiration, affirmation, and reassurance. All of you deserve support and care during and I hope that you're receiving both.

A Might-do List for the Spring Equinox

Ostara, known also as the Spring Equinox, the Vernal Equinox, and Alban Eilir, is the first official day of Spring. Just as there are three harvest festivals later in the year (Lughnasadh, Mabon, and Samhain), Ostara marks the second of three spring festivals landing in-between Imbolc and Beltane. The holiday is tied to the movement of the Sun, when the Sun enters 0° Aries and marks a point of equal night and equal day with the nights becoming shorter than days until the Autumn Equinox. It’s a time for celebrating the return of youth to the land and the retreat of winter back up into the mountains or deep below the earth. At Ostara we prepare ourselves, along with our homes and gardens, for the coming of warmer weather and the quickening of life across the land. Continuing a project started last Lughnasadh, here’s a list of nine things that you might-do (or not) for the greening festival of Ostara.

Spring cleaning in your home and community. Was this the most obvious suggestion? Yes, and it’s a good one. Following the cycles of nature and celebrating the wheel of the year is not just about filling up your calendar with celebrations (though this is a great thing), but connecting what is happening around us to what is happening within us. As we clean our homes, prepare our gardens, pick up trash in our neighborhoods or the parks and trails that we frequent, we are also participating in an inner cleansing and renewal where we’re preparing our spirits for spring. Make washing your floors and windows a ritual and include stewardship of the land into your ritual celebrations. In her book Earth Wisdom: A Heartwarming Mixture of the Spiritual, the Practical, and the Proactive, Glennie Kindred suggests going on a community walk to your ritual site or spring picnic, making sure to pick up trash along the way. She also suggests a lovely chant to tie your ritual work and community together:

Building bridges between our divisions,
I reach out to you as you reach out to me.
With all our voices and all of our visions,
Together we can make such a sweet harmony.
Together we can make such a sweet harmony.

Get to a local market. Farmer’s markets are opening again but there are all sorts of warmer weather festivals and fares happening. Get out and support your local community, re-connect with what is happening in your local world, and eat some spring berries while you’re at it.

Invoke the winds of change. In the part of the world that I live in as well as the one that many of the ancient beliefs of the modern wheel of the year comes from, March is a windy time of year. The winds of spring hold a certain sort of wildness that make them distinct from winter’s gales, summer’s sweet breezes or autumn’s gathering in storms. Connecting with these winds of change through spellwork like tying loose biodegradable threads to trees that carry your wishes to the Ancient Ones help us to bring our inner and outer worlds into balance. Invoke the winds of the season to blow through the land, bringing justice and kindness to all. 

Bring energy to new endeavors (and re-energize old ones). As Ostara marks the beginning of Aries season and the restart of the zodiac’s own turning, connect with the energetic and ambitious energies of the Ram by blessing new projects and endeavors. You can also re-invigorate old projects that still want doing, dancing with the newness of spring in order to guide you back to your inspiration. It can be a great time of year to build an altar to any endeavors you might have, feeding your vision with song, candles, incense, and other offerings relevant to your own tradition.

Bless young ones. As seeds bud up, baby animals emerge from winter burrows and new ones are being born, and trees begin to flower, Ostara is a celebration of youth and the young ones in our lives. Now is a lovely time to hold baby blessings as well as welcoming in littles ones into your spiritual community (i.e. a Wiccaning or similar such ritual). 

Create an altar of flowers. Speaking of young ones and the young at heart, creating altars and sacred designs made of flowers is a beautiful and tactile way to celebrate the start of spring. Flower crowns are also a beautiful way to celebrate and they can be kept, dried, and offered to the fires of Beltane. Don’t want to pick flowers? Then enjoy the altar of flowers that the earth has already made by being in bloom. For some, this is the first time of the year to comfortably hold rituals outside after many a month spent mostly indoors - so get outside!

Hold rituals of re-emergence + identity. There are a number of myths associated with the re-emergence of spring in the land from the Greek story of Persephone and Demeter to the tale of Brighid and the Callieach or the trial of Innana and Ereshkigal. One of the underlying meanings of these stories is that of stepping into new identities and the process of loss, coming out, and joyful empowerment these times of transition can represent. Now is an auspicious time to hold rituals of re-emergence (such as stepping back into power in your life) as well as celebrating new identities, coming out, and transitioning. 

Choose movement. Part of the holiness of our bodies is the amazing state of movement we are always in. Whether the movement of our blood through our bodies, the flow of oxygen to our cells or the constant electrical impulses helping to power movements both big and small, the movement of our bodies is a sign of life worthy of care and recognition. You don’t have to do anything fancy, join any gyms or online programs promising to change your life with their in-depth regimen or force yourself to push your body to your limits. Rather, the spring is a time to move with the flow of nature - stretching our bodies, breathing deep, and just choosing to move as we are called to do. 

Plant a garden (or at least cast a seedbomb). Whether you have a yard to plant in or a selection of pots with kitchen herbs growing on a windowsill, reconnecting with our very ancient impulse to purposefully seed the land and grow along with it is a very effective way to connect with the season of Ostara. If you are feeling inspired, buy or make some seedbombs to spread wildflowers in your yard or vacant dirt lots that might be hanging out around your city. Planting is an opportune time for spellwork, as well, and you can plant and grow your dreams along with your greens.

If you’re the card-casting type, here’s a tarot spread for the season of Ostara and for those of you who enjoy creating your own herbal remedies check out my recipe for spring dreaming. If you’re looking for an overview of spring magick, come this way.

You can also check out the rest of my might-do lists for the sabbats and beyond.

• Samhain

• Winter Solstice (Yule)

• Imbolc

• Spring Equinox (Ostara)

• Beltane

• Summer Solstice (Midsummer)

• Lughnasadh

• Autumn Equinox (Mabon)

May the winds of change bring all the inspiration you need to grow a life big enough for all your dreams. May we nurture our common roots and grow strong in our dreaming. May your spring be a full and blessed one.