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While walking the dogs last week I looked up to see a pair of Bald Eagles circle high overhead and then, flying toward one another, they join, clasping talons! From that amazement, they begin a free fall including a triple somersault! It happens fast yet it feels like slow motion … they release and fly on. The thrill was undeniable and brings to mind the quality of setting out with a clear intent to accomplish … something meaningful. How’s it goin’ for you?
April takes us into the natural new year and the keyword; Clarity represents intention! This is the time to set your intention for the coming six months. While you’re engaging in that adventure, consider the Fool archetype as a companion on your path. Carol Bridges Medicine Woman Tarot interprets the traditional Fool card as a Mother Earth Seed Bearer … this lends a connection to the way that we might explore the natural year and her offerings … what seeds shall we plant?
“The Medicine Woman Tarot honors Mother Earth and respects all beings,
embodied and in spirit. It guides through the seasons and the powers,
which they provide to all who live in earth’s embrace.”
Ask: What dreams am I now setting into the ground? What is my seed vision?
The Seed Being Carried By The Wind,
Carol Bridges, Medicine Woman Tarot ©
The Seed Affirmation:
All the power that ever was or will be exists in the here and now.
I am therefore ready and willing to risk the loss of what
I have been and move on to what I can become.
I am the power to begin.
In 2023 the creative energy is that of the Vision Quest. (to receive your personal creative energy report email your birth month and day, (i.e. 2/15) to me: drozda33@gmail.com) Wouldn’t it be incredible if more people favored the idea and set off to find the best path forward? Setting out on this new adventure I picture myself as the Fool. I sense the expansive and expressive joy of stepping out while planting seeds!
2023 Pink Lady Slipper blossom … see last year’s bloom here
Last year (read more here) the 650-acre loblolly pine plantation along our east border at the tree farm was clear-cut. Among the rubble, we discovered several Pink Lady Slipper orchids emerging. We did research, phoned native plant societies, and learned all that we could before carefully removing two plants and setting them into the earth on our property, just a few dozen feet from where we found them.
I then discovered, further away, attempting to make their way up through the debris, about 15 more sprouts. I marked them with sticks to form boxes around each so I would be able to find them, should they survive the harsh heat and exposure. Last week we went to see how everyone fared. The bloom on one of the two transplants made our hearts sing! We walked the devastated land and located the stick enclosures that marked the small sprouts a year ago. We were able to find 10 of the 15. Everyone received a long drink of rainwater along with making pine needle shade canopies to protect them from the glaring sun.
April’s Clarity leads me to a quiet place deep inside. At the farm, I sit still. I listen for the whispers that suggest the next action. I quest to learn, not to know. I’ve had some pop quizzes recently. They have actually caused me to push the pause button for an extended period. For example, most years I begin the Emerge n See spring course during early spring. This year I notice that with all of my dedication to following through and accomplishing what I intend, this time there is a difference. No matter how many times I schedule the start date and it falls away. I’m now in no hurry to set another as I imagine that it too will dissolve. There was a time I would have grasped and pushed and made demands on myself to make myself make the event happen. Not now.
This extended pause brings to mind a project I embarked on many years ago when I lost something that held a deep and loving place in my heart. I went to my archives to pull the series forward … over on Instagram, I’m posting, in honor of the Fool, my Once Upon a Time series of 365 Days of IMMT.
IMMT is an acronym for ‘I am empty‘. Beginners Mind. The idea of not knowing can make us feel kinda like a Fool in its own way.
In the original 365-Day series, I made it a practice to back to my Center every morning. The postcards done each day made a pathway that assured me that I remembered my way back hOMe.
365 Days of IMMT, Drozda, postcard #1, 1993
365 Days of IMMT, Drozda, postcard #5, 1993
Ask: Where in my life experience have I felt as though a Vision Quest is in order?
To gain Clarity around your intention/direction,
do something you love and that you have always wanted to do.
There are three areas of life for Vision Questing: health, career/wealth, and relationships. Clarify one to focus your attention. Whichever segment of your life you choose, recognize that it creates a reverb and moves the others. Like the parts of a mobile, everything is joined. It’s fun to gain insight and it’s exciting to experience the quest for clarity. So much of the outer world is unclear at all times. Come back to the center and invest in stillness. Vision Questing calls your Spirit back.
Turn your attention toward your inner world.
Bracket at least 15 minutes for silence each day. Make a space sacred and Clarity begins bubbling up. Never fails.
What I have learned from experience, more than once, is that I am a real Fool if I am entertaining the feelings of the shadowy residue of shame, blame, or burden. Those are my demons. They have danced at my door on a regular basis in an attempt to distract me. These demons make mischief that feels terrorizing and brutally true. However, they are not true. They are shadowy constructs that want to stop the flow of loving life and the beauty that surrounds us.
I have to first forgive myself for that level of misalignment. What happened to throw me out of alignment? What popped out of the bushes? I take time to forgive anyone who has ever harmed me, today or yesterday, or as I peer into the way-back machine. No hanger’s on. Once the first step is complete the path becomes a bit more clear. Clarity is our keyword for April and obviously, it circles around meeting us every year. This is helpful. Here’s the post from last April with a bear, a bobcat, and Gary Snyder to enjoy.
We can focus now on where we would like to be in our Vision Quest for health, wealth, and relationship one year from now. It’s amazing what can happen in line with our passion as the six months unfold. April to October. What’s in your heart to create?
Clarity doesn’t mean that what we focus on is going to magically appear just because we want it to. My schedule has had some unexpected shifts that have set me on a different timeline. So be it. I patiently observe the part of me that is uncomfortable with that. I notice that I am uninterested in the computer and pulled to be in the garden. I revel at being off the grid at the farm losing all track of time.
Perhaps you can relate. How are you doing with time and what it is calling you to do? Share any thoughts you may be having about your post-Covid engagement. Do you feel different? Do you know what you want to prioritize? Have you named what’s important to you now?
I will keep you posted as to when we will begin to Emerge n See for 2023. I am yearning to gather together as there is so much good to share.
In the meantime, I will be The Fool. I applaud and support your seeds of dreams and visions! May you close your eyes, and visualize the growth unfolding, spiraling UP^, reaching UP^, Looking UP^, and, thank you, Maya Angelou: Rising UP^.
And now onto May and the Wisdom cycle ~
