Goddess and God - Earth and Sky

Once again, I am turning to Mom's a Witch for a blog prompt.  The truth is, I am a bit exhausted and out of touch these days.  In our new location I am spending more time out doors, but with two very small people both are mobile now it is not a time for spiritual tuning.  Yes, I passingly notice the sun on my face...the wind in my hair...the cool earth beneath me, but it all flutters by before I can fully soak it in.  I suppose it's no different for any mama of little ones, I just don't remember being so worn out when the big kids were young.

Ok, back to this blog topic.  Since I missed April lets forget for a moment that May is almost gone as well I am mashing up a pair of topics from April and May: Who is your patron Goddess and God?

When I first started exploring Paganism, I thought that I had to choose patron deities.  Everything I read talked about finding your patrons, learning to work with them, growing your spiritual strength through them.  There really wasn't much room for negotiation.  I needed to find a Goddess and a God. Yet, no matter how deeply I delved I could not come to grips with the concept of embracing a deity.  So I focused on Earth Magick and just kept learning and studying while skirting the whole higher being issue.

Somewhere along the way, my attention turned toward Shamanism maybe because I play a Shammy on WOW and I started finding answers that suited my natural bents.  Going back, way back to the first family groups living in mud huts, people did not seek answers from sacred personalities, but from nature.  Shamans spent a life time learning to communicate with the Elementals and the spirits of nature and the ancestors: they spoke to trees and read the clouds and received messages on the wind.  This made sense to me.  This is what I had been tinkering with my entire life, but had never been able to put a name on.  My deeper primitive self connects to the energy of The Universe through raw nature. 

I am a Animistic Witch. As recently as last fall, I would have labeled myself an pantheistic witch, but that was simply because it was the only label I knew that somewhat fit.  My magick comes from fostering a close relationship with the Universal Power and the Elementals.  I am "A child of the Earth and the Sky: kindred of the Elementals."  My allegiance is to the natural world around me.

Wonderful Wyoming

Our "new" CJ7

Superman has been looking for a Jeep for the past six months.  Very intently looking for the past couple weeks.  With the sparse population in our area, it wasn't an easy task.  Last Sunday we were in Billing shopping and checking out yet another jeep when he announced that we would be taking a road trip down into southwestern Wyoming.  He had been in contact with a gentleman in that area who was attempting to sell what appeared to be exactly what we had been looking for yes, I was all in on the Jeep scavenger hunt.  As the mama I cringed at the thought of extending our road trip, but his logic was sound.  We were already three hours into the eight hour trip, so we might as well make a run for it.  If the vehicle didn't pan out, at least we could say we'd seen some country.  Thankfully, after driving that distance with Miss Busy and Little Bitty Baby, the Jeep was all we expected and more.  We brought her home and named her "Calamity" this girl will be a big part of some exciting changes to our world, I'll keep you posted,  but that was just the icing on the cake.  It ends up, Wyoming is more beautiful than Montana even in my native Montanan opinion and the scenery as so spiritually moving that I just have to share. 

Now, this was Superman's first adventure in Wyoming and I had only seen it from the interstate.  I have to say it was completely breath taking.  We didn't get as many photos as I'd like, but we've already made plans to load up Calamity and go back to explore further next summer.  All the photos of this recent trip were taken on Miss Busy's tablet through the vehicle window. 

South Central Wyoming, between Rock Springs and Lander

Red Rock Canyon Wyoming, just outside of Lander

My beloved Yellowstone River:
 photographed just north of theWyoming boarder near Belfry, MT 

Growing Friendship

My beautiful friend the Crab Apple Tree. 

Making friends takes me a long time. I am friendly and I like people.  I also believe that people like me, but making friends is not something that comes easily for me.  In fact, we have been in this town for a little over a year now and I have made a grand total of two friends: the lady who owns the liquor store down the street Miss Busy charmed her our first day in town and the lovely girl I am going to tell you about today.  There is also a potential new friend I met today, but that is still to be decided.

So, just at the end of our block lives a very lovely lady.  I walked right past her many times through out the late fall and winter with out taking a second glace.  I said a customary "hello," but took no special notice.  Then spring came and this little lady started to take on some beautiful color that I just couldn't help but comment on.  She accepted my compliments quietly at first perhaps more accustom to being overlooked, but eventually begin to respond with a gentle nod or a smile. 

As her buds started turning to leaves and her pink blossoms turned into hard green fruits, I grew to love her more and more.  I looked forward to our warm greetings as I undertook my daily walk and watched with great interest as she continued to grow more beautiful.  I often thought that her progression into summer and fall, laden with zesty little apples, mirrored my own amply pregnant body. 

When her fruits were at the peak of ripeness, I could resist no longer.  For months I had wanted to deepen our relationship, but had often felt a reserved shyness about her.  One beautiful afternoon, just before Mabon, I had to take the next step. 

I gently laid my hands on her bark and begin telling her how glad I was to have met her and how much I appreciated all that she had quietly added to my live.  She received me which was a relief, I was honestly very nervous that I would frighten her and it almost seemed as if the air around us grew warmer as we spoke. 

After a few moments I was moved to ask her if she would allow me to pick a few of her fruits for my altar.  She responded with a rush of gratitude, telling me how sorrowful she had been that nobody had appreciated her efforts for many years.  Once, long ago she had been appreciated, but now the only ones who took any heed of her dainty little apples were the squirrels and birds and even they seemed to prefer the offerings in the nearby bird feeder. By this point Miss Busy was getting antsy in her stroller.  I wrapped my arms around her scarred trunk and held her for a few moments before taking all of the fruit I could carry.

Back at the house, I arranged the offering of fruit on the altar.  Having an abundance of the tart little fruits, I also set a few in the fruit basket for munching.  Crab apples are tart and drying, but I ate each of these little treasure with relish.  I found such joy in knowing that I had not only been given a gift, but at the same time had been able to give one in return.  Since that time I stop to chat nearly everyday and returned to take some photographs.  She absolutely adored the photo session. 

***When I started writing this yesterday, it was before our afternoon walk.  During our walk, an exciting event unfolded.  As we approached this dear friend, Miss Busy begin yelling excitedly and waving.  When we stopped under her now golden boughs, my little girl reached up lovingly as if to embrace her.  I pushed the stroller up close to her trunk and Miss Busy stroked her bark, jabbering excitedly for several minutes.  It is beginning to get colder and the breaks in our walk are kept shorter, but this was an experience I would not have missed for the world.