queen of swords

With spring in full force, I've either been researching or experiencing spring tonics nearly every day. By definition, a tonic is simply something that restores or refreshes one's being...a tonic could affect someone on mental, physical or spiritual levels and by various means. Activities, exercises, nourishment, art forms and even ritual practices could all be subtle magical tonics.

I think I have the nose of a dog. Inhaling spring blossom fragrance daily is a favorite restorative of mine and there are many items on that menu -- apple trees, plum trees; golden currants, lilacs, sand cherries, grape hyacinth and Oregon grape holly bushes for starters. The beautiful iris was accidentally snapped off a few days ago and is developing her fragrance even without sunlight and birdsong.

I've begun a sort of art journal practice in a new handmade journal -- the first section of the book is dedicated to the Queen of Swords with a focus on the element of air and its corresponding attributes. It begins with the language of name and place...thinking about where I come from brought both people and sweet memories back to life. I loved doing this.

Every spring I look forward to collecting and cooking wild weeds from right outside the back door...tonic foods. My weedy stalwarts are always steamed nettles with onion and garlic, nettle pesto and dandelion Italiano on toasted sour dough bread.

I yearn to connect to the ways of my grandmothers, I tell myself that surely they cooked these same greens in the spring. The bowl of nettles is placed on my grandmother's table, now my dining table. She lived and died many years before I was born. When I feel sad that I have nothing to know or remember her by other than a few old photos, I remind myself that she rested her hands on this very table, maybe even in the exact same places that I rest mine.

A tiny prayer flag became a book mark on the full moon -- the chain-stitched spiral symbolizes air and wind.

 

We removed two dead trees this past week -- a pear tree and a juniper tree, both from which I kept mementos. The little bundle is a tiny pear twig tied together with some nearby plants. From the juniper trunk, Jan sawed me a small section revealing rings and colors and fragrance that surprised and delighted us. I'm finding that saving and holding natural objects like these as sacred is one way for me to express gratitude, no matter what the season.

The Queen of Swords has clear, piercing vision which the likeness of Frida Kahlo epitomizes for me on the bit of collage (the back of a greeting card). The handmade journal to the right, which I adore, was made by Kate Jackson.

In case you're wondering, the Queen of Spades is the equivalent of the Queen of Swords.

I'm ending this post with yet another photo of our many-years-old bee house holding a brand new colony of Italian honeybees. This house was vacant all last summer due to colony failure and I am so happy to have a full house again. At present, we have one wild bee colony in a tree trunk to the west and the new bees live on the east side of our back yard. At last it feels like things are back to normal around here.

My spring tonic practices have felt short-lived, almost elusive -- there is still so much I want to read and make and think about. But as we approach the threshold of summer, it will soon be time to begin focusing on the element of fire and the Queen of Wands. I am excited to see how they will show up in my life.

Late spring/early summer blessings of nettles and iris to you. xx

stitching a good heart of green

Stitching and mending the earth flag continues with a good heart of green. And every now and then I get the urge to work in my art journal. 

Elderberry syrup was made using homegrown elderberries from the freezer. Here is how...simmer one cup fresh or frozen berries (or 1/2 cup dried) in two cups water until reduced by half; strain and cool; stir in three quarters cup of raw honey, store in refrigerator. You can add a cinnamon stick and a few whole cloves to the simmering process, if desired. I use a big spoonful of the syrup in my hot water and lemon in the morning. It seems to help with my coffee withdrawal symptoms as well as my cold and cough symptoms. Since I was already miserable, I just went all in and quit the coffee too. 

The nettle patch is beginning to fill in. For this year's spring clean-up, I'm incorporating the permaculture method of chop & drop as much as possible to recycle nutrients and build better soil. A form of as-you-go sheet composting, you just chop up dried stems and stalks into small pieces, leave the dried leaves right where they are, and then cover it all with a generous layer of soil, compost or other mulch. 

Many times throughout the day, I go outside and stand as close to the beehive as I can to watch the bees just to make sure they're going to make it. Then I visit each little tree and shrub I planted last year just to make sure it'll make it. Saying grow, baby, grow. I will take care of you. 

Thanks for visiting and happy weekending to you. xx

knew it all along

The heart cloth is long and skinny with a 10" section of blank space left on the bottom (the photo is sideways so you can't see it). I wonder what will happen there. As I work on this piece, I keep thinking hearts of space like the NPR music program that used to be on Sunday nights that I loved so much. I always tried to get the kids in bed before 9 so I could listen to it.

Our family had a little birthday party here yesterday for Jan. We gathered at our house for drinks/visiting/playing in the late afternoon -- then all 14 of us piled into three cars to drive to a favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. Afterwards we came back here again for Mexican coffee, hot cocoa and his favorite pistachio dessert that I make every single year for his birthday. We almost made caffeinated coffee instead of decaf, I pulled out the wrong package. One daughter's boyfriend caught it, otherwise it would have been disastrous. I guess you could say the boyfriend saved the night. Mine, anyway.

Wings. Another page in my art journal. 

Moon water infused by the full moon.

The heart cloth photo with a black/white filter.

I'm exercising my intuition lately. Recalling things I knew all along...events intuited from and by my heart before they became reality. How often was I right about something. And what might lie ahead, what do I know deep down right now that I should trust.

Here is the Mexican coffee recipe link, it was good. xx

ablaze with holiness

Illuminating the darkness -- tables, hallways, entire rooms ablaze with holiness. 

Some dark moon work: I paged through my 2016 calendar planner and wrote down one thing I learned during each month. A lot has gone on so it wasn't easy to limit it to just one per month. 

My next list might be 100 wishes for the year 2017, I'm still thinking about it. It would have to be an offering of love to the world kind-of-thing and not just for me. Although I could probably use maybe ten of those wishes.

The festivities have been everything I'd imagined and more. Happiest of New Years to all. xo

invisible

Now that the three holy days of the thirteen month in the ancient Coligny calendar system  -- Samhain (Hallow's Eve), Dia de los Muertos and All Soul's Day -- have passed, I am beginning to resume normal life, albeit slower and more intentional. It has been a deep and sacred pause.

And Samhain has really only just begun when you remember that Samhain is the Gaelic word for November -- that means an entire month to continue in the deep. The boundaries between the visible and the invisible worlds are still thin, the loved ones we remembered still near, our connections not yet lost. It is now when we can more easily form questions and seek answers by accessing our psychic abilities and delving into our dreams...a simple everyday coincidence can feel either miraculous or magical. I love the visible work of this time and live for the invisible work of this time.

The little pink 16-square quilt was most likely hand sewn by my grandmother and/or her sister, they made everything together. It feels unfinished. I am sewing moons onto the outlined squares with my grandmother's scissors and pin cushion nearby. I wonder what their intentions were for this cloth and if they would like the moons.

The ancestral tarot layout on our dining room table is from the Gaian tarot guidebook. I am really enjoying the loving energy of the beautiful Gaian images -- also the structure is a little different from a traditional deck and I like that as well. This spread may be on the table for a while because it gives me such a good feeling every time it comes into view.

I am very excited about all the pods on the honey locust tree in our front yard and hope they don't come down anytime soon. The sound of those pods rattling in the wind is spectacular.

Also, one art journal page was made, more flowers were collected for our family altar, pomegranate seeds out for snacking, the eucalyptus dye bundle unrolled, and an invisible blue stone was rediscovered.

Blessings of seeds and stones to you. xx

healing and magic

Chamomile flowers are drying for plant magic and plant healing -- Linda Rago says that magic and healing are interchangeable concepts because they are both the result of a conscious shift in energy. I like thinking about creating some fragrant chamomile magic.

My friend Dulcy over at dulcysdoorstep and I just did a trade -- one of her gorgeous hand-dyed & hooked wool Midnight Garden bags for a June calendar moon cloth. I'm pretty sure I came out on top of this one. To me that vintage button closure is a golden honeycomb moon...I love everything about this bag.

Roses are the heart of healing and magic...Gertrude Jekyl is my favorite variety for our climate and location, they always do well, if not in quantity they make up for it in size and fragrance. This first batch will be dried for either healthy heart infusion or a milder self-love tea.

Oh, if I had known that a person can take notes like this, I would've been a much better note-taker my whole life long. By the time I've worked through this little book, the page will be completely full of brick notes. I refer to old notes from herbal seminars, lectures and classes fairly often -- and have always wanted to type them out to make them neater and easier to read, but brick notes will be even better. Think of all the facts, ideas and interesting phrases that could be brick-noted. I have never been a highlighter, if I don't write it down, it is lost so I really love this. They can be as simple or as elaborate as needed, some chapters will need their own page and one page could also hold many books or one lecture per page. Like that. I learned about brick notes here. 

My garden hat hangs on a cabinet by the back door. It does the job too but the brim is over-sized so I'm looking for a smaller western style hat now. The lady wants a straw cowboy hat.

Today is a waxing moonday in the sign of Libra. The Libra moon helps create balance, justice, comfort and peace for all. Healing magic. xx

high hopes

When our Nanking cherry burst into blossom, I thought it wouldn't be too much longer now. And when the noisy cauldron of crows (I like cauldron as their collective noun better than murder) stopped coming for morning peanuts and in their place came a most well-behaved pair of chatty lovers, I thought hmmmm, we're getting closer. And most recently and not so happily, when wasps resumed their efforts to break and enter the beehive, I knew for sure that spring is over there just beyond that cloud of cherry blossoms.

It's time to finish up some projects to make room for spring -- two knitted ballband cotton dish cloths, another round on the January moon so I can move on to February and March -- and a few art journal pages. The moon page started out with a crescent moon but it seemed to me there needed to be a woman in the moon -- my first face and a wonky shape on top of it all. The other page has a head gessoed, sanded and ready to become a face -- intimidating for sure, but I'm learning from Taking Flight just how it is a winged creature comes to life.

The cover of my collage booklet -- I like that a beginning can be anything I want. I'm still working on the rest of this early spring booklet, it just doesn't feel completely personal yet, sort of hard to do with collage, I think. The pages need paint or something that comes from me and not just from a magazine but I don't know exactly what.

See that darling girl in the cherry blossoms? Her pollen baskets are filling up, there were dozens and dozens of honeybees in this bush today. No wasps that I could see probably because they were over at the beehive trying to get in. 

Of course, it can and will still snow anytime between now and May, but my hopes are building for the coming growing season. I want to give this little piece of Earth we live on my full attention and best care. To create a harmonious space for all creatures including the humans. And I want to listen and learn from the plant spirits, I always want that. Always, always.

xx

moon stitch rituals

My 2015 moon stitch ritual ended with the 13th moon embroidered in the same yellow as the first moon from January of last year. There are now 13 meandering color pathways on this oldish thrifted natural linen runner, about 60" long. 

I truly love this piece and think there will always be a place for it somewhere in the house. 

Its name is pathways, see how it evolved here.

The endings-are-beginnings idea -- one of the quotes added to my early spring collage project...still in progress.

And with one stitch ritual ended, a new one began -- it's a good thing I wanted to sew more this year because I certainly am doing just that. Golden circles on a gray background seemed right for the moon phase currently in play -- February's moon cloth, the second of 13 moon cloths to be appliqued onto an old white quilt for this year's sewing ritual. The quilt, even though it is in disrepair, is still in use on the bed so safety pins seemed a better option than straight pins until the basting is finished. 

Today is a waxing moonday in Cancer and we are having balmy weather in the 60's. Very odd. And I found ants on my little altar table this morning after opening my eyes from meditating. I traced them to the soil of a potted orange tree so the tree was rolled (on wheels) straight outside for a little sun. Under its mossy mulch, the soil was teeming with gnats and little flies and ants. Since it's so nice out today, I'm hoping they all just crawl out of there but if they do stay or come back, there's a thick layer of cinnamon powder sprinkled over the exposed soil. We'll see. I actually can live with the gnats, they really haven't been any bother, I didn't even know they were there. It's the ants. No bueno.

Wishing you a lovely week. xx