In my private Facebook group, the Wise Woman Bean Gealach Circle, I recently started a series of Prompts to support one’s Soul Work. Some use them as a prompt for free-writing, whilst others use them as tarot or oracle card layout. Some also use them as prompts for meditation or journeying.
Each prompt has an introduction or quote, followed by the soul questions. However you use the prompts, they can be used as is or you could develop your own prompts from the initial introduction.
Each month we have a theme to inspire the prompts for that month. In February, our theme is Right Relationship. And this week’s prompt probes Right Relationship with Land (the physical world we inhabit).
Those who have a spiritual connection with Land are aware of the gifts that Land gives us.
When we are in Right Relationship with Land, we are actively gifting and supporting the Land. That could manifest in many ways, such as lobbying for a healthy environment (clean air, clean water, preserving old growth forests and tundra, etc). It could manifest as caring and tending or the land physically, growing or foraging for food, and as a guardian or steward for that Land.
I invite you to find a nearby patch of land — it could even be a large tree or shrub — something that calls to you or resonates with you as something that needs your attention, your energy, your friendship.
Then, begin the process of building Right Relationship with that patch of land. Observe it. Get to know it. Identify or map who or what lives and grows there. Note what your patch needs to thrive, such as sunshine, moisture, pollinators or other species. Research it. Leave an offering, one that is not harmful for anything living there.
Ask the Land what it needs. Nurture it. Thank it.
Offering Tip
Dedicate a small bag for land offerings, filling it with whatever calls to you. Mine is a small muslin pouch, about the size of my hand, and I also have small bags inside it for loose items such as herbs or corn meal. I carry my offering bag with me when I visit my patch, or when I am performing an outdoor ritual. The bag typically includes dried botanicals that I have foraged or purchased for making teas and infused oils, small pine cones, some wildflower seeds, a pouch of cornmeal, local nuts and berries, etc. When I leave a gift, it is just a small pinch from that bag.
Journal your findings. Kick it up a notch by building a phenology wheel for your piece of land to captures the changes over its phases of growth-maturity-rest. You could also express your findings through art, song, poetry or dance.
The process of building right relationship is not just for a day . . . work with your piece of land over a month, a season, a year, whatever feels right for you.
Soul Work Prompts
- Why did this patch of land call to me?
- What does it need? What can I offer it?
- What does this Land need that I also need ?
And know that this is not simply a “one-off” exercise. Follow that piece of land and continue to build the relationship through all the seasons… up to a year.