Musings About Life and the Land
I am a farm girl; I “get” the lambing season at Imbolg as I have spent many sleepless nights in the barn, praying to Brighid as I midwife livestock. I don’t need to be reminded of where my food comes from, I have grown it!
I don’t need a lesson to tell me how to experience the elements, I have lived in them, and I have worked in them. I have been up to my knees in frozen mud and in snow, with the winter sun beating down on me as I fix the horse fencing. I have had a wind burned face, a sun burned nose and frost bitten toes.
I have lived at the edge of endless wilderness all my life. I have performed rituals in a real grove. I have done meditations under an elder tree that is older than my country. I backpack into the wild on a regular basis, I have had bears on my property in spring and summer, fishes spawning in my creeks in fall, and moose that walked by my house each morning.
I have touched a shrine to Epona on my way into the stable each day. I have poured offerings to Taranis when ever the storms loom close and threaten the seedlings newly planted. I have sung to Danu when I walk the fields. I have praised Cernnunos as my hound and I track wild rabbit.
I adore wildcrafting and learning the native plants of an area. I have dozens of field guides. I love learning about animal tracks and all of that. I love being bale to walk through a landscape and know what grows/lives where and why.
My connection with Nature is largely through animals, a result for farming and working in animal rescue, as well as the wild. Thanks to living in places where I have accesses to it as well as being raised by the kind of Dad who teaches his daughter orienteering for fun on the weekends.
Formal gardening is an area I am not a strong at. My mother and grandmother have terrific green thumbs and are amazing gardeners. Things just come naturally to them. Anywhere my Mom is, things grow bigger and greener than they “ought” to be. This didn’t happen for me, so I was put off a little when I was younger, feeling frustrated and inadequate.
I am a much better container gardener for some odd reason. Also I do very well with xeriscaping and growing native plants, that are happier to be allowed to do their own thing for the most part, rather than working with finicky rose bushes like my Mom.
As for the home I talk to house spirits and they are normal to me in a rather odd way. I have a kitchen shrine and a house altar and a sunroom shrine. Honestly I feel quite unhappy, even a little anxious not having my shrines up, they are such a part of my life now.
The gods and spirits get fed regularly, usually home made biscuits or something along those lines. The ancestors have a permanent place on the house altar, where they get acknowledged everyday.
I love to cook, though I am no expert. I love to bake more and have a little notebook I cram with hand written recipes. I love to experiment with food and make a terrible mess in the kitchen.
I always have a Birth of Venus hanging in my bathroom, a witch ladder somewhere, broom by or above the door, witch balls hung in the window etc
I love having a magickal home, living in an enchanted world. My poor man, Dr. Philosopher has to adjust to it. Just the other day he dared to put a half full tea cup on the shelf with my herbalism gear, which is below the house altar! He got a “tsk tsk” for that!
Having recently moved into the city, I have to adjust to pulling the blind down if I want to wander around naked, setting off smoke detectors with smudge sticks and having not moonlight but streetlight coming in through the window.
It’s easier to not notice the big maple tree on the corner when in the city. I find myself talking down to house plants in a way I’d never do to potted juniper on the front stoop, let alone a 100 year old elder tree!
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Lovely post! And you raised SHEEP?!!? That’s fantastic! I grew up on a farm as well, and we raised a small herd of cattle, some chickens & goats, and sheep–my favorite livestock animal. We also tried our hand at pigs one year, but I try to block out that memory *shudder*.
I also have my ancestral altar up at all times (though only do a devotional to them once a week instead of daily), and a couple of spirit houses in my kitchen (one is a Hob and the other, funnily enough, is a saint–St. Paschal).
The city is also an adjustment for me. To be fair I live in a suburb with a lot of forest land around it, so I can get away pretty easily, but the point you make about streetlight instead of moonlight hits home. I still remember walking into the back yard of my farm and looking up to see the finest details of the Milky Way spilled across the sky, and more stars than I can even imagine now all around me. I miss it, too.
I find it so interesting that many of us witchy folk feel called to do such similar things (like the altars and kitchen spirits). I know we’ve probably all read similar books and maybe our ideas are all traceable to a few tomes common to our collective bookshelves, but I somehow think there’s something more to it. Maybe we’re just all picking up what other witches in ages past have put down?
At any rate, I love the blog! I look forward to your next one!
Be well,
Cory of New World Witchery
The Grandparent generation were “real” farmers and ranchers, mostly cattle. Most of the folks in my parents generation who farmed were hobby farmer and/or subsistence farmers, as well as working in rescue and in the doggy world.
So I have hand a hand at raising, training, rehabilitating and caring for everything from horses, to cows, sheep, goats, cats, pigs, rabbits, chickens and dogs. Especially dogs. I have even cared for a few wild creatures such as magpies and a lynx (we have a friend of the family who does wild life rescue). And I haven’t even mentioned when I lived with an entomologist! I’ve had black windows, all manner of scorpions and tarantulas, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, Peruvian centipedes, African millipedes … even the odd frog, turtle tank and boa constrictor.
Wow when I add it all up, it’s quite a list!
Of course, sheep aren’t the only animals that birth during the “lambing season” around Imbolg and Ostara!
I love my shrines, altars and spirit houses. The newest addition is a miniature suit of armour by the front door. I put a fake necklace of flowers (like in Hawaii) around its neck the other day, as a joke, and it likes it so much I dare not remove it! hehehehe
I love living in (as Bren puts it) an Enchanted World. Just this evening we were sitting in the living room discussing philosophical subjects such as what is sacred and what is worship, and what can save us from this modern society that fails us all so badly? When the door to the sunroom (kept firmly closed at all time because it’s not heated and the draft comes in) opens up. Without missing a beat we both turn to face the door and I say “Hullo there, you are welcome to enter so long as you are friendly.” And Bren (who has more background with the First Nations welcomes the Grandfather and asks if he has anything to add to the conversation!
It’s a good, strange, and sometimes hard life … but a good one.
I love that you are so immersed in the land. I see so many guides “for dummies” coming in to the book store about how to do this that and the other thing but people remain a “dummies” until they get their hands dirty and experience the earth and the land and the life therein the way that you have. I hope you have a sense of how blessed you are to have this innate connection to the natural world and I’m so pleased that you’ve chosen to share your experience in a public way so that people who would dabble and think they have expertise can truly see what it is to be knowledgeable about these things. Thank you for sharing!
oh, I miss it too sometimes. What I like about here is that I am in town, but I do the same things you mention. Look to how nature around you in the city lives. Birds are adaptable, so are the trees, and nature still pushes through the concrete. The odd park here and there is where other animals can be found, though small.
Enjoy, and thanks for this one.
Thank you for sharing this look into your personal practice and experiences. I found this post very vivid visually and authentic.
Have a happy Imbolc!