May Day - May 1st
With spring in full swing, so are the flower displays. Pure extravagance and excess, their beauty and aromas fill our homes and lives with richness. Mama Gaia is teaching us the importance of beauty for beauty’s sake and how to have fun without reason or expected result.
This quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Naval Treaty always comes to me this time of year:
Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.
Archetypes
Astrological Sign: Taurus
Taurus, although represented by the bull, is a strong and steady feminine energy. Venus rules this sign, so romance, beauty, and abundance are all part of this sign’s energy.
In balance, this sign evokes an enduring, charming, earthy, and voluptuous energy. Fertility, love, luxury, and ease are the way of this bull. But when out of balance, enduring can become stubborn and stagnant, earthy becomes heavy and dense, and luxury gives way to excess.
Chakra: Sacral
The sacral chakra rules creativity, fertility, sexuality, and the emotions. A balanced sacral chakra is much like a balanced Taurus with the addition of a free-flowing flexibility of this chakra’s water element. Too much sacral chakra energy leads to excess and extremes: overwhelming emotions or moodiness and overt sexuality to name a few. Weak sacral energy can lead to an uninspired, dull life. You could stand in a field of flowers and only see the fly buzzing around you or not notice anything at all!
Tarot: The heirophant
The Heirophant evokes tradition, ancient knowledge, and the ancestors. Which traditions, though, does it actually reflect? Those of the masculine hierarchy of the last few millenia? Or the ancient practices of the divine feminine, preserved by shamanic cultures around the world?
Its modern interpretation within the tarot is the former – masculine, religious order. But, associated as it is with Taurus, it is more accurately the latter, the ancient tradition of honoring our cosmic mother, Mama Gaia – her esoteric and occult knowledge, the wisdom of the cycles of life and death, the magic that can be found when we consciously tap into her rhythms and knowledge and power.
Exercises
Body: Yoni steam or spiritual bath
Time to stretch your intuitive powers! The most powerful herbal baths and steams are made with the medicine growing naturally where you live. Go outside and gather flowers and herbs to mix into your bath or steam. Choose only plants you recognize and can verify their safety for topical and internal use. The tissue surrounding the yoni (vagina) is extremely sensitive and absorptive, so while the medicine of a yoni steam is potent, the herbs used must also be safe. Do not do a yoni steam if you are menstruating or pregnant.
After either your steam or bath, find an area in your garden to pour out the water and where the herbs can be mulched back into the soil. Respect the cycle of replenishment and don’t just dump it down the sink or into the trash.
Emotions: Self-Care and Shame
Embellish your life. Let go of the shame of self-care. Easier said than done, right? If you find that self-care or “pointless” fun triggers feelings of selfishness, shame, or wasted time, examine the source of these feelings.
Journal Exercise: Write about the first memory you have of feeling ashamed of self-care. Consider the importance and self-worth you place on productivity. Getting stuff done isn’t always the most productive course of action if nothing needs doing! Or if the doer is running on empty. You must refuel and provide maintenance for your car to keep running reliably, why then do feelings of shame appear when you do the same for yourself? Write, draw, type, just get your thoughts and feelings out.
Mind: Message from the heirophant
If you have a tarot deck, pick out the Heirophant card. Otherwise, just find an image of the Heirophant card you resonate with online. Close your eyes and imagine entering the scene on the card. Who are you? What is happening? What message does the Heirophant have for you? If you are in the place of the Heirophant, what is your purpose, what are you doing? Feel free to record this in your journal as well.
Spirit: Lifting the vibration of your environment
Bring plants or flowers into your home. A vase of flowers can lift the vibration of a room immensely. Use the beauty of nature to enrich your life and your home. Try keeping fresh flowers or houseplants around you from the 1st of May until the Summer Solstice.