Snapeshifter: The Woman who was Snape: Seasons of the Mage ~ Garden Joys

While I currently live in the city, and must pay heed to work schedules and such, I try to connect with natural cycles as much as possible, pausing to notice and celebrate the phases of the moon, the growth rhythms of the trees. Whatever artificial patterns we put on our lives, however far we get into our heads, the Universe is supporting our every step just beneath that thin surface.

What choice do you make for your day when you opted out of camping for several days with friends due to tiredness after a long workweek, still want to celebrate Midsummer's lingering blessing, and aren't ready to dive into July 4th yet?

Today, I opted to spend the day with my friend in the Oregon hills countryside, at a farm and house he's tending. It turned out to be the ideal respite. Relaxing and doing little while golden light filtered through the summer foliage, making and eating delicious food like cookies, scones and salad. . . .

First we hiked Mt. Talbert, and he showed me the beautiful places he'd grown up as a child and built boys' forts on the then-wild little forested mountain. We sat for awhile in a natural meadow in the sun, breathing in the peace and looking at flowers.

On the way out to the farm, we stopped at a berry stand and settled on a gift box of marionberries, raspberries, blueberries and cherries. We made squashed berry shortcake with them. Alpacas grazed on the hillside, bees droned over a full garden of flowers, and the two house dogs sniffed under the porch. Quite simply, a perfect summer resting day.

While my friend dozed, I went as invited into the garden. I found it to be full of herbs. More Perovskia than I'd seen in one garden bed. Mints, bee balm, lavender. Some delicious-smelling, woody shrub with powdery white stems and little golden button flowers, which I discovered to be Curry Plant. Hummingbirds and bees hummed everywhere. Behind the shed, foxgloves offered their last magenta blooms to the bees, and tansy ragwort ran unchecked
. . . as did Saint John's Wort.

My Midsummer herb gathering day --- not to happen in my own garden, which still lay fallow and weedy in my neglect and distraction due to a possible forced move --- had arrived at last.

A cat is never a bad addition to a garden, especially if you're a witch.

♡

Nodding foxgloves in the late afternoon country sunlight

By eating the poisonous tansy ragwort, these black and orange striped caterpillars cleverly rend themselves unpalatable to anyone else. Or rather, it's nature that is clever! By eating certain foods and herbs, we humans can do the same against bugs like mosquitoes.

Curry Plant, a wonderful-smelling new acquaintance that can be used in flavoring dishes

I gathered two full bags of herbs, carefully clipped in even spacing from the plants. Now I have to find space to dry them all! We celebrated the day with wheat-roll sandwiches and a salad for dinner outside, feasting as the sun set behind the hills, and I drank my first hot-pink Shirley Temple soda pop ever. There are things you just have to do, and things you have to try, because doing so makes you happy. (A hot-pink, sugary soda! Oh, Severus! I can see your sneering face! *laughing out loud*)

Perovskia, or Russian Sage, covered with bees

At some point while hanging out in the house, I approached my friend's Tarot deck and did a reading. He is one of the main inspirations that got me to doing Tarot on a regular basis, but I'm not yet in the habit of packing my deck everywhere yet. Figuring this getaway as an ideal time to take stock of things, I pulled just three cards this time
. . . and what a dilly! It was perfect. How do those cards, when combined with your energy, simply know?

Here is the spread:

1. (left) Where am I now? What am I now?
Ace of Cups: --- serious creative upwelling, new relationships, fresh love, new beginnings, starting projects

2. (middle) What's holding me back?
Hierophant --- The System, what you were taught, "you should do/be... etc.", rules, government, customs, old way of doing things

3. (right) What do I need to know to move forward?
Magician --- competence, readiness, knowledge and skills earned and gained, tools; "I keep saying you have all the tools you need, you dunderhead!"

This spread screams my need to shed all the crappy old inhibitions and past wounds for good, embrace full and shameless Magistery once and for all, and release my powers and gifts to the world. The High Priestess, which I got earlier this year, speaks more of a psychic or inuitive level, whereas the Magician, which I've now gotten twice, points to action on the worldly manifesting level. As for what holds me back, it could be old shame, outdated junk from Mom-Dad-Grandma, or my current lackluster mode of securing income; but it could also be the greater system on top of that, since our government is basically doing no one any favors. Hence . . .

. . . Happy July 3rd, still-loyal-to-British-tyranny day! My friend and I had coffee and homemade scones topped with fresh smashed-berry compote outside on the porch in the dusk.

I lamented having to leave the beautiful farmstead and garden. But after spending a refreshing night there under a heritage quilt, I returned to town not only with a bushel of herbs and a bottle of Geranium essential oil, but peace in my heart.