By Fire Well and Tree

  Photo by Dylan Leagh: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-highland-cattle-on-grass-8954113/ At the new moon, we will actually still be in Aries, and the sun and moon will be conjunct. It is not until April 21 that both move into Taurus, and barely conjunct at that point, I think?  We also had a solar eclipse.  I know there are some who are iffy about eclipse magic, and others think it gives your magic and extra boost. Either way, you can choose to honor the Aries or Taurus.  As I (hopefully) remembered to mention last month, New Moons in Aries represent energy, enthusiasm, and new beginnings. Check your house for where.   New Moons in Taurus focus on the "seeds" planted last month to take root.  Stability, sensuality, and values are part of this sign, and Venus as its ruler brings to mind love, comfort and security. Look to your house placement and see where these seeds are to be nurtured. You could also split that difference. Raise the energy for the new...

  A little late, but not by much. I am busy getting ready for my niece's coming-of-age ritual this weekend.  More on that later. This month, and the names assigned to it, are ripe with the happenings of the season.  In the Anglo-Saxon calendar, we have  Þrimilcemōnaþ, "Month of Three Milkings."  My hunch is that this refers to the fertility of herds, where the females would be lactating a lot to support their new kids, lambs, and calves. The Gaulish calendar calls this Cutios, "Rain Month."  So far around here we are down a bit in rainfall, but I imagine that will pick up (hopefully).  And the old saying I put in the title makes the connection between this and the Almanac's name, Flower Moon. All of this points to the bursting fertility of flora and fauna, as the land basically explodes with emergent life.  I saw the first bees a week or so ago, and now they are busy pollinating. Speaking of.... yes, the spring allergies are here, which are very a...

Photo by lil artsy: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-ram-on-grass-field-2397441/ Okay, finally getting the months ideas in order.  The new moon conjoined with the sun in Aries on March 21, so I'm not that late yet.  Aries is ruled by Mars and has that energy to bust through any impediments. It's a good time to be self motivated.  The new moon in Aries brings energy, enthusiasm and new beginnings, especially in the house where Aries sits on your chart.  Mine is in my first house of "self," so self improvement is my task for this month. (If you want to know where Aries is for you, maybe contact my friend Forest: her website is  https://nuicobaltdesigns.com/ or use an online astrology software site.) The first quarter moon moves from Gemini into Cancer, so square the Aries sun.  Moving from intellect to feeling and emotions, pay attention to emotions but the fiery energy of Mars can make those more intense, and we can get easily overcome. The Full mo...

  Æ Photo by Johann Piber: https://www.pexels.com/photo/full-moon-over-snow-covered-mountain-6531876/ The new "moonth" was a few days ago, and as I mentioned...Covid.  But, the moon doesn't care about my issues. so here we go. As far as month or moon names go, this month is called Ogronios in the Coligny calendar.  In our grove, we translate this to "End of of Cold Month. "  We honor the Earth Mother and bless the earth by collecting soil from the four corners of our properties and mingling it at the sacred center.  In the group ritual, this often translates to bringing in dirt from all our properties and mingling it, so that wherever we are, we are all standing on the "same ground," as another way to share the sacred center.  We like to call it "making sacred dirt."  It puts me in mind of an Anglo-Saxon ritual, Æ cerbot , which is a heavily Christianized blessing rite for a farmer's fields.  (I am trying to repaganize it for my own garde...

A wide purple clover path through lightly wooded area Whether you call it Ostara or not, the vernal equinox has come (a few days ago. And I'm sorry this is late, but thank Covid.) Again, I am blessed to be living where all four seasons tend to correspond to the calendar, more or less, so the 8 Sabbats match up pretty well.  Being a part of the local pagan community means that I have two rites planned, one of which I'm leading (pending  negative Covid test, of course).   Equinoxes have the theme of balance for me, always. Light and dark are mostly even, or as close as one can get.  Per timeanddate.com, we got 12 hours and 8 minutes of daylight on the equinox itself (March 20).  We had EXACTLY 12 hours on March 17.   Why is three days early? I originally thought it was the imperfections of our modern calendar.  But I also had to look it up too. Stepping back a little bit, many of you probably already know the word “equinox” comes from “aequus” ...

 Well, maybe? I don't know, I would have to see... according to one site ,  Mar 15 — Sun in Pisces conjunct Neptune in Pisces         This artistic aspect allows us to explore our creative side and get deep with our feelings. A good time to express ourselves with big artistic projects or confess our feelings to our crushes. Beware the crushes! Happy March everyone.  The weather person this morning tells me this is the beginning of "meteorological spring." Really I prefer to keep to the astronomical dates, but here at Sacred Hart Suburban Wildlife Preserve, we're likely to get winter-esque weather until late April.  So they can call it whenever they want I guess. From my 12 Days of Yule rune pulls, March brings us to Gebo, or "Gift."  At the time, I was interpreting in terms of New Year resolutions, and time to reach out if your resolve is waning.  Ask for help or assistance, or even a little inspiration and feedback.  I find myself ...

Time to get ready for the next moonth!  (Oops, this was supposed to out early... I need to figure out auto-posts more!) As always, these should be seen as only ideas for focusing in meditation, ritual, or just random deep thoughts throughout the month. Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/rain-drops-459451/ The Farmer's Almanac has named this Worm Moon.  The Full Moon is usually in the calendar month of March and around here that means late winter/early spring rains, bringing the worms to the surface.  The Coligny Calendar calls this "Anagantios," which in our grove we call 'stay at home month.'  Our priests come around on the sixth night of the moon to do house blessings.  From the Anglo-Saxons, we have Hreþmonaþ, the month of the Goddess Hreþe or Rheda.  This is the only reference to this goddess we know of, from Bede's Reckoning of Time.  This is when there were sacrifices to her, although who "her" is, is a mystery.   Accor...