Spring is Here: Time to Reconnect with the Earth
Tuesday May 8, 2007
Spring has sprung, and most of us witchy-types are out there diggin' in the dirt. Yes, it's gardening time, and (depending on where you live) it's time to start readying the herb beds, weeding out the vegetable gardens, and convincing your spouse that it really is better on your budget if you just plant your own food.
I love this time of year. I love walking outside and feeling that residual chill in the air, and knowing that by the time noon rolls around the grass will be dry. I love looking at the ground and seeing little shoots of green popping up in the circle of dirt that is my backyard herb garden.
There's something magical about sitting on the ground and plunging your hands into a pile of cool, moist earth. I can park myself on the grass with a trowel and a fork and turn over clump after clump of rich brown soil, filtering out the occasional stone (and gently replacing random earthworms that I've disturbed). The smell of the earth gets into my hands and skin, and I can carry it with me the rest of the day, even after I've washed up to make dinner.
This is the time of year when I really appreciate the value of being Pagan, because digging my garden is an experience that brings me ever closer to the Divine. By tilling, turning, planting, and eventually harvesting, I am repeating a cycle that is as endless as time itself. I am performing the same actions as some woman on the far side of the world right now -- somewhere in a town I've never heard of in a country whose language I do not speak, another woman is sitting on the cool ground, sticking her hands into the soil, and being thankful that she is able to do so.
Gardening is my yearly ritual, my rite of Spring, my moment in time where I'm suspended someplace away from my cell phone and my iPod and even -- gods forbid -- the Internet. It's my Zen moment and it grounds me, literally, by reconnecting me with the Earth as my ancestors did hundreds of years ago.
For more information on planting a Wiccan herb garden, you may find this article useful: Create a Pentacle Garden
I love this time of year. I love walking outside and feeling that residual chill in the air, and knowing that by the time noon rolls around the grass will be dry. I love looking at the ground and seeing little shoots of green popping up in the circle of dirt that is my backyard herb garden.
There's something magical about sitting on the ground and plunging your hands into a pile of cool, moist earth. I can park myself on the grass with a trowel and a fork and turn over clump after clump of rich brown soil, filtering out the occasional stone (and gently replacing random earthworms that I've disturbed). The smell of the earth gets into my hands and skin, and I can carry it with me the rest of the day, even after I've washed up to make dinner.
This is the time of year when I really appreciate the value of being Pagan, because digging my garden is an experience that brings me ever closer to the Divine. By tilling, turning, planting, and eventually harvesting, I am repeating a cycle that is as endless as time itself. I am performing the same actions as some woman on the far side of the world right now -- somewhere in a town I've never heard of in a country whose language I do not speak, another woman is sitting on the cool ground, sticking her hands into the soil, and being thankful that she is able to do so.
Gardening is my yearly ritual, my rite of Spring, my moment in time where I'm suspended someplace away from my cell phone and my iPod and even -- gods forbid -- the Internet. It's my Zen moment and it grounds me, literally, by reconnecting me with the Earth as my ancestors did hundreds of years ago.
For more information on planting a Wiccan herb garden, you may find this article useful: Create a Pentacle Garden
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