Sunday, April 28, 2019

Spring burst forth- Part 2: Honoring the Gods and the Not Gods

Everywhere trees are flowering
though up here 
on this fine mountain 
everything just begins.
 
This Spring has been especially expansive.
A truly transformative time.
We have reshaped our physical land and our internal landscape.
Moving forward, repairing and tending to, evolving.
It is no longer as it was and there will be new again.
Then it was all possibilities. 
 Now the green is so intense, it is almost brighter than the sun.
Now it is almost Beltaine, overnight our Hawthorne bloomed. 
Then we could not have remembered the colors we now see. 
We forget the expansive beauty of leaves and petals.
Our ritual fires are always expressive. 
Sometimes more so than others.
This one seemed to have many dragons and waves and arms and mouths
hungry for our sacrifice. 
My notes 
are sparse and my pictures are many
and the magick is so much greater when you are in the moment.


I don't share pictures of others faces without permission, 
so am omitting the strong interconnections seen in all of our expressions.
 Those of us who gathered were our core group who have worshiped together for long enough
that our kids have grown up and some of us have retired or are planning the next phase
and all of our families have experienced deep changes
especially those that come with illness and recovery.
These cycles of life and reverence are the most joyous blessing.
Let this all begin again and again.

random notes and thoughts from when everyone left, not sure what it all means now:
kid leaving and returning and leaving again
sun shining/earth springing
 family and family and family
interconnected circles
say her name
say their name
chimes and smoke
surrounded by smoke until tears flow
what are we in control of and what is going along for the ride
life is tough in a human suit
the isle that appears and disappears 
  eggs eggs eggs

photos in chronological order from prep to close 
setting up

setting intent
tuning the well

 
  lighting the fire









 fire reaching


 





curved hollow stick shooting flames
give us a sign
  our omens
from our Beloved Dead: URUZ -the Primal Ox, it's the basic strength and growth within, building foundations
from the Spirits of Nature & Place:OTHALA or Odul- the Sacred Enclosure, that which is kept protected and safe and treasured
from the Gods & Goddesses: ISA- Ice, its definitely not flexible and it is not about the shape
that you may want to make it, sometimes you can see through it and sometimes not, but it is hard and cold.
for the Season: JERA- Year, a Whole Cycle, the cycle of the harvest, suggestive of either
what is happening now coming into fruition in a year or maybe what is coming up this spring is from before
or both
simultaneously.
 
 catching bubbles with tuning forks
BUBBLES
feast of the season
 
putting out the fire after everyone has left
 We tend to forget that this time of breaking out of the shell and busting out leaves is also within us.
Opening our hearts to these evolutions is hard work.
Just like flowers.
Maybe flowers are the balance.

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Spring bursts forth- Part 1: Brewing

Suddenly everything is green.
A week of rain and a week of sun and then more rain or a bit of snow.
Springtime in the Catskill Mountains.

At Equinox the earth was still partially frozen but mostly brown,
though the sun was already strong and bright.
 That weekend we honored the season first with our first Grove Beer Brew workshop
followed the next day by Grove Ritual.
Weekend of Reverence.
Bubbling & bubbling.
 A few people signed up but in the end it was just us three, the original grovemates.
With the kid home from school and sleeping, it was like old times. 
And good in the end to go thru it once ourselves and see what it really is.
I didn't take notes, but I took lots of pictures.
I remember "mash" and "sparge" and the "break in the boil".
I love the science and also the sanitizer.

sanitize!
  

 vortex 

sparging the mash

 
 

 
 worlds and omens in the boil
 
 

outside to cool
waiting
ready
pouring
yeast added
ferment
We let our batch get too cold at first and everything slowed,
but we moved them to a warmer room and it began again.

To be bottled at Beltaine.
Welcome the season of Springing up!