The wildflowers are gone and I am surprised by how their ending moved me to grief. Today is my Venus Return and I am thinking about the climate emergency and interconnectedness. Our tables and altars are adorned with roses and pink carnations in tight buds. I’m thinking about relationships. I’m thinking about deposits of cobalt, copper and manganese on the ocean floor and how these are all key for building batteries for electric cars. I am acutely aware of our Mother Earth’s suffering.
My Vesta is in Virgo, conjunct Venus. I wanted to write about the importance of ritual but instead found myself answering the question: What does it mean to be a witch?
But first, hold my hand and join me in remembering and honoring the First People, the People of the Inlet…
Listen.
Whispers blow through the branches of Grandfather Cedar.
What is the Wind telling us?
Is there news from Whale Clan?
We are building a wall for a new garden.
Soon it will be a nursery for Clam but also home to Octopus and Whelk.
Tonight we will build fires on the shore and feast from another clam garden.
In the morning clam shells are added to the midden at the foot of Grandfather Cedar as an offering of thanks.
Look at the sunbeams dancing on the water! 1
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A quick note on how I define a witch. A witch is anyone of any gender who is aware they co-create the world and live in possibility. They do not necessarily follow any tradition or worship any particular god.
Books are not going to make you a witch just like no one else can decide for you if you are a witch or something other and fabulous. Books are great. I love books. I love learning and I love learning from other witches and magicians and if you’re new to magic then you absolutely need guidance. I have been studying magic and witchcraft for three decades now and I still have teachers because they have more experience in areas that interest me. However you don’t “become” a witch because you read a book or completed a course. In my opinion, I’m not the first to point this out…
A witch is someone who is handfasted to the Land.
A witch knows the contour of the land, the names of the plants and trees, the state and taste of the water, the wheel of the year, the phases of the Moon and how the land responds to the celestial gods. This relationship goes deeper than acts of reciprocity because the witch is an embodiment of the land. The witch is entangled. The witch is lichen and moss and oak breath.
In time, the land reveals to the witch what is not visible to eyes washed by science. There is much on the land that is beautiful and wondrous but also dark and fierce.
Relationship
The ancients believed that the King was wedded to the land and in many cultures the King would sit on a stone throne which symbolized the land. The implication was that the King was the Earth’s lover and that his life force impregnated her and brought forth crops, babies etc. If the King fell ill or committed some heinous deed then the Earth would not bring forth her bounty. To ensure the continuation of our species, an “old” king was replaced with a young and virile king so that Mother Earth would continue to bless us.
Nowadays we don’t perform such ceremonies and where there should be good kings there are dictators and pretenders…but I digress, we are called at this time, to own our sovereignty. We are all kings and queens. This was always the plan - to get us back to our “original” state as divinely appointed stewards of our Mother Earth.
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The land that holds you is intimately connected to you.
The land does not care if you are indigenous to the place in which you find yourself in. The trees and healing plants that shoot up for your attention and nourishment do not care if your blood lineage does not reach back to the Paleolithic period like an artifact in situ.
In a sense you are more your geography than you are your history.
We are the only species concerned with perpetuating the illusion of separateness by defining others by skin colour, sexual orientation or religious beliefs. No other species is as invested as we are in generating conflict.
I don’t share much about my mystical and magical experiences mostly because they are difficult to describe in words but also because my Lady asks for secrecy in certain matters. Nevertheless I want to share my first encounter with the Genius loci - spirit of this forest.
Our small family emigrated to Vancouver from South Africa in 2009. We rented a ground floor suite near Cleveland Dam (and the Capilano River) on the slopes of Grouse Mountain. That first night after our boys went to bed and Don fell asleep, I lay in bed and looked out at the magnificent Douglas Firs and giant cedars from our open window. I took deep breaths of the scented air (cranberry, cedar, sea salt) and with a hand on my heart I offered thanks to the land for holding me and my family. A few minutes later a greenish light entered the room through the window, enveloped me and then left. It felt like a hug from an ancient being.
The next morning, a hummingbird greeted me - there is no other way to describe this than to say I am “greeted” when hummingbirds hover at eye level for at least a minute. And then Bear started visiting.
People sometimes tell others they can’t foster a deep bond with the land here in the Pacific Northwest because they’re not an indigenous person, and don’t “belong”. The argument is if you’re white-skinned you should focus on your European roots. When people say this I want to ask them if they think skin color equates to soul color.
My skin may be white but not all my ancestors were white. My great great grandmother was Brazilian indigenous for example. Perhaps I should go live in the Amazon and connect with panther amd palm tree?
All this bickering about where people belong in a time of mass diaspora is just another way we continue to shift the conversation away from what matters: loving and protecting our Mother Earth’s resources so all beings can thrive.
Now let me be very clear that I honor the people who came before me.
Europeans who settled here - and really everywhere else, did not respect indigenous cultures or the pacts made by these people with the land. In many of my “conversations” with nature spirits it has been made very clear to me that they are hurt not only by the assault on the land but also by our forgetting.
The first people made pacts with the land. These unwritten pacts, as I try to describe in my intro story, developed over time as infrastructure. Gardens, groves, temples and even sacred cities like Persepolis which was unlike any modern city in that it served as a ceremonial and diplomatic center and not as housing. These provided the land and other-than-human beings with nourishment (at several levels, not only the physical).
There was a time when there was a flow of generosity between people and trees, plants and animals. Relationships were established through gift-giving.
In many places where promises and contracts were not kept because of genocide, the land is hurt and those who live on it feel oppressed even “cursed”. I personally know of people driven out of properties by nature spirits.
To heal ourselves and the land we must build on the knowledge of those who came before us. This is not about cultural appropriation, this is about becoming aware that you can make a positive impact where you are, as a responsible member of the community . Give credit where it is due and continue to honor the people who were stewards before you but do not let your whiteness or shame stop you from doing what you can from living in relationship with the land.
There is no such thing as a plant that “belongs” only to one people although it is true that some plants have a history with a particular culture and have revealed their unique song to those people. But you too can learn the plant’s medicine and song if you put in the time and build a relationship.
The plants and trees that share the land with you want your attention!
Begin by paying attention to what grows near you. We are blessed to live in a time when you can take a pic of a plant and google will tell you who they are.
Then sit with the land. Literally.
If you live in an apartment you are still on land. Take note of the trees, shrubs etc that border your apartment building. Plants grow in alleyways. Pay attention.
Once you have identified them and you know you can touch them (check that the plant is not poisonous) touch the plant in greeting and sit nearby. In time the plant identifies you by your aura and if you speak to them by your voice.
If you do not keep a manicured and tame garden and allow for “weeds”, the land will deliver what you or the people in your home require. For example, nettle grows in rich abundance on our small patch and that does not surprise me because I have to keep my sugar levels in check.
Thoughts? I would love to hear about your current relationship with the land.
I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow on the traditional, ancestral and unceded lands of the Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation.
I am grateful for you dear reader. If you can afford to become a paid subscriber your generosity will help me create more written and spoken offerings. Thank you for being here.
https://ocean.org/blog/indigenous-clam-gardens/
https://hakaimagazine.com/news/how-british-columbias-coastal-people-fertilized-forest/
always beautiful, enchanting and inspiring words! Thank you Yolanda!