In The Empress's Earthy Embrace

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that during my vacation I became very aware of something that has always been true: that I feel calm, at ease, nourished and filled by nature and my connection to the earth.

When I was a child I spent countless hours alone in the forest picking wild raspberries, listening to the wind rustle the maple and oaks leaves, building living huts (where saplings are used for a shelter, but are not cut down). I saw deer, squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits, and I'll never forget once when a red fox sprinted past me - they are elusive and beautiful creatures. I still have a red hawk feather that I found while picking through the underbrush in a wild wood. I would spend time along the river where I would see raccoon prints in the sandy shore. I would dream of having the opportunity to live there full-time.

Wildwood Tarot - W. Worthington

It's funny how growing up and becoming more deeply enmeshed in society can make those voyages into the wild somewhat more challenging. Not that they cease, just that our modern society as a whole has been structured in such a way that cities have become "cement jungles" where access to raw nature is limited, at best. You must be very intentional about being out in the natural environment...or else live in the countryside!

For years I worked in the center of a city doing neighborhood organizing in underserved communities. Even now, as a teacher, I live in an urban, high-technology environment and am constantly exasperated by the quantity of cars I must navigate through each day, the hurried drivers, and the almost-daily accidents that dot the city. My back yard provides a measure of relief. I have sage, rosemary, lavender, lemon balm, and sweet mint growing in my little garden. We have a maple tree and a towering palm, and an abundance of flowering bushes such as gardenia and hibiscus. Butterflies and lizards abound, as well as the occasional snake and mole. Each morning during the summer I watch the dawn sunlight filter through the vines at the border of our property, which always reminds me of a magical door opening. In early winter I sit outside in front of the fire pit with a hot cup of coffee and welcome in the new year.

Vision Quest Tarot

However there were so many moments during our recent cross-country drive, particularly in Tennessee and Kentucky, where we passed stretches of deep forest - the kind of nature that I'm used to (as opposed to the central Florida climate which is fairly different!), that I grew up with, that always calls to me on a visceral level. My soul always wants to rush out of the car window and roam through those woods and rolling hills. In the far north of Michigan where we have a family-owned cabin house I realized just how much I value that land as a place of retreat. There are wild grasses and wildflowers, red pines and white oaks, ice cold rivers and lakes, deer and elk. And it's all at my fingertips when I'm there. Raw, wild, untouched nature is waiting for me when I simply step over the threshold of the back door.

Navigators Tarot of the Mystic SEA

Over the past month or more I've been drawing the Empress quite a lot, and I sense her energy nourishing and nurturing me, enveloping me in a comforting, earthy embrace. Being aware of how important nature is to my well-being (all humans' well-being, to be sincere) has allowed me to be more intentional about the way in which I manage my feelings, including stress. Sitting outside and inhaling the breeze, observing the movements of animals and insects, or noticing the growth of our two backyard pineapples becomes a way to channel out dis-ease, and invite in healing and sensuality. I may not always have ready access to the raw wild, but the Empress is all around us, even here in the city. She is present under our feet, and her energy is accessible through the tiles and cement and floorboards that support the structures in which we live. When I feel most oppressed, I simply close my eyes and feel roots sprouting from my feet and reaching down deep into the ground. The Empress, the Goddess, Mother Earth, provides nature-energy like food that sustains me.