Connecting​ with Mama Earth in liminal times

Sunset at Spanish Banks, Vancouver

This weekend in Canada — and many other countries — we celebrate the Labour Day long weekend. For me, especially in my school years, that weekend marked the end of summer and the return to school the day after Labour Day. In many ways, it also marked a new year… new school clothes, new books, a new class, a new adventure in learning.

In the Celtic Wheel of the Year, we are slowly moving towards the end of the light half of the year and the beginning of the dark half of the year, marked by Samhain at the end of October. And soon we will celebrate the Quarter Day of the September Equinox on September 22nd at 1:02 PM Pacific Time / 20:02 UTC, marking the astronomical start of Autumn (Northern Hemisphere) and Spring (Southern Hemisphere).

This is a transitional time, a liminal time. The energies of Mama Earth and Father Sun are shifting in the Wheel of the Year. Summer is slowly losing transforming into Autumn here in the North. In my part of Canada, the grain and corn harvest began In early August, the blackberries and summer fruits have peaked, and the autumn fruits and vegetables are starting to show up at our local farmers’ markets…. and soon we’ll be harvesting pumpkins and other winter squashes. I’ve already seen some leaves changing their colours. And no doubt, pumpkin spice lattes are on the horizon!

For those south of the Equator, Winter is turning to Spring. The winter rains and snows are decreasing, the days lengthening… flowers are starting to blossom… the farmers’ fields are being planted.

Over this coming weekend, or when convenient for you, take some time to walk with Mama Earth, immersing yourself in her energy. What are the signs of Summer’s end and of Autumn’s beginning… the gentle downward pull of her waning watery Yin energy… a time of slowing down, taking stock, introspection (NH)? What are the signs of Winter’s end, of the emerging Spring and the waxing rising Yang energy… the gentle breezes of Air, and change, new beginnings (SH)? How does Her energy feel to you? Are you in alignment with it?

I have a few favourite places for my Nature walks, and I visit them regularly. Being with Nature attunes me to my own energy. The two merge as I walk in the forest, along the riverbanks or visit the seashore. This is my daily meditation, my spiritual practice.

I’m now starting to recognize the local plants and trees in all their stages of growth, from dormancy to full bloom and everything in between. I’m starting to become more aware of the timing of their cycles… noticing what’s early or late, depending on the magical combination of sun and rain, when to dig for dandelion roots or forage for horsetail and St John’s Wort, when to gather acorns and chestnuts, or berries from the Rowan and Hawthorn trees for my altar. I’m starting to recognize the cycles of the insects and the birds… when the bush tits will be swarming my balcony in Winter, when the herons are building their nests in late Spring… and even when the ants start their annual assault on our balcony door.

I share with you one of my favourite passages in Embers by Richard Wagamese:

“I am a dreamer made real by virtue of the world touching me. This is what I know. I am Spirit borne by a body that moves through the dream that is this living, and what it gathers to keep becomes me, shapes me, defines me. The dreamer I am is vivid when I fully inhabit myself — when I allow that. Meditation is not an isolated act of consciousness. It’s connecting to the dream. It’s being still so that the wonder of Spirit and flow outward, so that the world touches me and I touch the world. It’s leaving my body and my mind and becoming Spirit again, whole and perfect and shining.”

I’m now starting to recognize the local plants and trees in all their stages of growth, from dormancy to full bloom and everything in between. I’m starting to become more aware of the timing of their cycles… noticing what’s early or late, depending on the magical combination of sun and rain, when to dig for dandelion roots or forage for horsetail and St John’s Wort, when to gather acorns and chestnuts, or berries from the Rowan and Hawthorn trees for my altar. I’m starting to recognize the cycles of the insects and the birds… when the bush tits will be swarming my balcony in Winter, when the herons are building their nests in late Spring… and even when the ants start their annual assault on our balcony door. 

These walks bring to mind one of my favourite quotes by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda:

“…my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests.”