In what ways does spring bring about awakening in you? Do you clean your house? Can you see into some dark corners you have been avoiding? Do you sift through dead leaves to find new shoots of plant beings in your yard? In this blog, I’ll explore my recent musings on how spring is awakening in me.
For me, the season around Spring Equinox is about renewal of my connection to Earth Mother through plants and animals. I start thinking about gardening as soon as Imbolc passes, and in my zone there are still almost four months before outdoor planting time for most species! My blessed indoor plants bloom for me during the winter – geraniums, an azalea and a Christmas cactus have kept me going this year.
As we are awakening to spring, it’s a good time to meditate, dream and sing with nature. In our rituals that work with animals, we have used the simple chant Fur and Feather.
Fur and feather and scale and skin
Fur and Feather (c) 1997 by Sable and Kenny Klein, originally from the album Muses, 1998; new version on Meet Me in the Shade of the Maple Tree: Pagan Bluegrass, 2008
Different without but the same within
Many of body but one of soul
Through all creatures are the Gods made whole
The full song has a strong environmental message.
Over the past week, leading up to the full moon, I have dreamt of animals. They have been letting me know that spring is here and it is time to wake up! I have seen mountain lion and horny toad in recent dreams. I believe they want me to write about them and their animal compatriots for this spring blog.
I started looking online to find out about what animals awaken in the spring. I learned that there are two states of winter slowdown/sleep for mammals: hibernation and torpor. I, myself, have been experiencing some of both this winter! Raccoons and skunks, both of whom live in my neighborhood, use torpor as a way to survive the winter. I am pretty sure mountain lions do not hibernate, but I’ll bet they do sleep a lot.
Horned lizards hibernate in burrows and come out right around this time to mate, and to soak up the sun. The one in my dream was hanging out in the sun and very much enjoying itself. I have had a few recent chances to soak up some sun and I relish those moments in the early spring.
I started wondering what these animals might have to teach me about awakening. I remembered using Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams and David Carson to look up what wisdom is associated with certain animals. I found this information on Yumpu saying that if mountain lion comes to you in a dream it means that you will have to stand up for your beliefs!
My connection with horny toads, which are actually horned lizards, includes a time when I was hiking with some kids on the Navajo reservation, and we found one. The kids told me to always hold a horny toad over your heart when you find one. Luckily that horny toad didn’t feel threatened, because according to National Geographic, they shoot blood out of the corners of their eyes! Nativelanguages.org mentions that native tribes in the US southwest see horned lizards as medicine animals. I understood that when I was holding one over my heart, and now that I have seen one in a dream I feel the power inside my heart.
Internet searches can only give you so much. To find meaning for myself, I will need to seek wisdom from the Goddess and listen closely to messages in nature. I am working with Ishtar/Astarte this year. I look forward to seeing how these animals help me connect to her.
These dream gifts will be my guides and allies as I awaken to spring. I look forward to all I may learn through this season, and send blessings to all of you readers: may your awakening be a blessing on the earth.
Oestara, we hail the coming dawn
From We Turn the Wheel, music and lyrics © Deborah Ann Taylor Nielsen, ASCAP, 2018, from the album Seasons: A Pagan Journey Around the Wheel, by the Crow Women
And celebrate the spring of life returning
We awaken the earth we dance upon
And frolic with the animals and trees
And the wheel turns as the wind blows and the river flows to the sea