Unit Four
FLOWER SHOWER MOON
(March – April)
Moon: Flower Shower
Flower Shower is the name I use for this moon, celebrating both the sudden abundance of flowers in our gardens and hedgerows and the powers of the rain. The daffodils are out, the cowslips and primulas, forsythia and blackthorn, yet the rains come down in bursts of cleansing freshness. What is the most relevant name for this moon in your environment?
Festival: Alban Eilir
The festival of the Spring Equinox may well fall during this moon cycle. In much of modern Druidry it is called Alban Eilir; research the name and see how it sits within your soul during this time, allowing the words to teach you.
Note where the sun rises and sets on the day of the Spring Equinox in the environment around you : over which tree, hill or building does it break into the sky on this morning and slip away at the end of the day?
Using all you have prepared through the past moon cycle, allow yourself here a moment of stillness within the flow of change. Consider where and how far you have come since the beginning of last winter, what you have released that you had held as a burden, what you have achieved in terms of understanding and growth; consolidate, finding acceptance, with your feet on the ground.
Then consider the next six months, and what you’d like to achieve, thinking particularly in terms of relationship, honesty, integrity, peace and creativity.
Season: Spring Waning
The power of regeneration is, through this moon, in full flush. Those who have already emerged are calling to others to join them, hedgerows and gardens opening out into colour. What is the most prominent colour?
Dedicating time to being outside, whether that is in the wild, in your garden or in city park, is immensely important at this time. Let yourself be washed in the rain! Allow yourself the time and stillness to experience this potent surge of waking growth.
Be aware of how it changes throughout the course of the moon’s four weeks. Can you sense the difference during the waxing and the waning of the moon? How does that change influence you?
Perception: Taste and Smell
Taste and smell are the senses to immerse yourself in through this moon tide, for there is suddenly so much around us, calling out for our attention. Spending time in this profusion of new growth, be aware of that call.
Like a young child, create opportunities to explore the world around you. Smell the earth, leaves, bark, flowers, rain, sunshine and darkness. Can you smell the changing season, the rising energies of life and growth?
This is a time when often we are inspired to ‘spring clean’. As you do so, be aware of smell. Clear your home of all that doesn’t smell good to you. Is that possible? If not, why not, and what can you do about it?
Don’t eat anything until you have breathed in its smell and that aroma truly inspires your hunger. What smells good to you, and how does that relate and add to its taste? If little immediately inspires you, find what does!
Remember that in every scent there is a story: breathe in, ‘listening’ to those stories. Taste the journey. Does it nourish you?
Element: Sky
During this tide we hold the focus on air, but now, with the environment so full with change, growth and potential, we open our soul to air as the infinite skies.
Air doesn’t hold us. It is unstructured and offers no support, no framework on which to hang our life. It can feel unsafe, even dangerous. Yet it also provides no limitation. How much do you need to be held and how much do you seek freedom? What is the balance between the two? Can you craft that balance across the year, instead of in each day, allowing yourself freedom to explore now that spring is here (committing to the holding of dependency and nurturing later in the year)?
Through this moon’s cycle, be conscious of space, endless space. When you look up into the skies, during the day and at night, what do you see? What is truly there? Find out!
Humanity: Friendship
In any relationship it is possible to encourage, to nurture or to constrain. During this moon, consider friendship. What do you wish for in a friend? How do you define friendship? What strengths and failings are there in your own capacity to be a friend?
You may wish to take one friendship through this cycle and work on it, allowing it to teach you as your deepen its potential, giving and receiving more, ever aware of the balance between freedom and limitation.
Environment: First Leaves
It is the alder that some associate with this moon: who and why?
Which trees and plants are most strongly expressing their song at this time? In what order are the trees coming into leaf? Watch for the leaf buds and flowers on the larger trees. What is in the hedgerows?
What of the wildlife in the environment of your home? Which birds are you seeing and which are nesting? Make a note so that next year you can review and see how your neighbourhood is changing. Is it positive or are species declining? What can you do to help? Do it.
Self: Freedom
When we are working with air, we are given the greatest opportunities to explore freedom, yet the risk is always that we choose escapism. The line between the two is sometimes hard to discern.
Through this moon, be aware of what you tend to escape from, or long to escape from: relationship, intimacy, solitude, responsibility, expectations, demands, accountability, creativity. Be aware of what you use in your life to facilitate moments or periods of escape. Our culture readily supports the usual escapist tactics, such as the distraction of television, gossip newspapers and magazines, alcohol and other drugs: anything that stops us thinking. When is it positive to take a break, to relax, carefree, and when are we escaping issues we’ve not yet addressed?
What is the alternative that you are confident is the journey to freedom? How important is freedom, what does it mean, and in which areas of your life do you wish for more? What would freedom allow you to do, or be, or achieve? How can you make strides now towards that goal?
Creativity: Life
Having let your story go in the last moon cycle, during this tide allow yourself time once again simply to be awake to the creativity of all that exists around you.
The physical world can be seen as the woven creativity of every spirit, every current of energy and consciousness. Allow yourself to feel wonder at the world! Explore all that goes into the things you take for granted, such as food, music, furniture, literature, and the natural world. Be awake to all those who are pouring their soul songs into each work of creativity. A cotton shirt holds the story of not just many human beings, but of the cotton plant, the soil, the sun, the rain and the communities who depend upon it.
Open your mind to the exquisite reality of every complex web of connection. How does this affect your attitude to life – your life and life around you?
Ethics: Freedom
Thinking again about respect, whom do we limit? Whose lives are affected and limited by our living? Are we being protective or needy, holding someone too close and compromising their freedom? Are we being greedy and thoughtless, taking more than we really need?
Through this moontide we are thinking about this in terms of close relationships, notably with friends, but think too on a broader level: within your neighbourhood, and even globally, consider the environment, what you consume, the issues of poverty and distribution of wealth. Who has the right to be free? What does that mean? How and where does one person’s freedom bring limitation to another?
How can you change your behaviour to ensure you are living more honourably in this respect?
Review:
In the last few days of the moontide, when the moon is dark, consider what you have achieved through the cycle. What have you learned, changed, understood, and given in exchange?