Cultivating Relationship with Nature Spirits
Ostara is a good time to begin
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Greetings! Ostara Blessings, today is the vernal equinox, the official first day of spring.
Spirits of water, spirits of air,
Weave in the world full of nurture and care.
Sons of bright fire and gnomes of quick gait -
All of them speak to me whilst they create:
“O, we work within the world for purest joyfulness alone,
But remember please the deeds we do - they must not pass unknown,
For you free us from enchantment
When you make our life your own.”
~ Michael Hedley Burton
I’ve been outdoors all this week with my hands touching the earth. I’ve been pruning shrubs and trees, pulling back the blanket of last autumn's leaves, allowing the early spring ground covers to breathe the chill morning air and bask in the ever-growing warmth of the sun. I’ve been watching as the sun climbs a little higher in the sky each day. My heart rejoiced at the return of the great blue herons flying over the pond and building their sloppy nest of sticks high in the trees. At night, the trilling song of the spring peepers becomes deafening, and the daffodils are pushing their stubby green shoots out of the ground.
The season is finally turning. Seasonal time is comforting and predictable, reminding me that for everything, there is a season, a purpose, and a time under heaven.
It is still chilly enough in the morning to light a fire as I begin my day. In the quiet of the early hours, as the sun climbs over the tree tops, I ponder the lessons learned over the winter in the dark hours. What died? What was cast away, and what hidden wisdom was gained?
Later in the day, in the garden, as the pleasant temperatures wrap around my shoulders like an old, comfortable sweater, I think about what is changing in the earth and within me and how those two things are inextricably linked.
I’m beginning to understand that I don’t just celebrate the Wheel of the Year; I am the Wheel of the Year. That thought locates me in a world of movement and change, a living matrix that connects everything, weaving together all forms of life and all manner of beings.
The poem above by Michael Hedley Burton is a piece for children based on Rudolph Steiner's Calendar of the Soul, verse 50. It begins by naming the elemental spirits of water and air. Lately, I’ve been pondering the nature of the elemental spirits of earth, water, air, and fire. In the context of their creation, they are “good,” yet they are neutral in the sense of being moral agents. They are what they are and have been assigned a function within the world. They are potent energies capable of destruction on a massive scale and are also critical components of life on Earth. Burton reminds us that in a world ultimately governed by a Benevolent Spirit, these powerful forces weave in a world full of nurture and care. A profound and challenging lesson here is that sometimes destruction is necessary for life to continue and that when devastation arrives, a Divine presence is ready to nurture and care for what elemental forces may have disrupted.
Burton invokes two earth spirits we will likely encounter: sons of bright fire, sometimes called Salamanders, and the Gnomes, spirits of the literal earth, the rocks and soil beneath our feet, and in our gardens.
Just as an infinite number of living creatures populates visible Nature, so, according to Paracelsus, the invisible, spiritual counterpart of visible Nature is inhabited by a host of peculiar beings, to whom he has given the name elementals, and which have later been termed the Nature spirits. Paracelsus divided these people of the elements into four distinct groups, which he called gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders. He taught that they were really living entities, many resembling human beings in shape, and inhabiting worlds of their own, unknown to man because his undeveloped senses were incapable of functioning beyond the limitations of the grosser elements...
I am convinced that these other beings speak to us in many ways. As you work in your garden or walk outdoors this spring, prepare your heart and make your inner eyes and ears ready to see and hear what they say to you. Their concerns, perspectives, and wisdom will open you up to an entirely new and expanded understanding of the world we share.
Also, notice nature spirits like Salamanders (fire), gnomes (earth), and presumably Sylphs (air) and Undines (water) create. They have a function and work to do. If you desire a closer connection to the earth and the spirit world, finding your creative work is one important way to achieve that. I could write volumes on the importance and benefits of creativity and having a creative practice. For now, I will simply say that the creative process and the process of creating are a doorway into realms both near and far, and the act and the product possess power that could be described as miraculous or magical.
The next line of Burton’s poem explains why the spirits of nature do their creative work. They create for pure joyfulness alone. This should also be our reason for creating. It’s an excellent reminder that the capacity to create is a diminutive form of the Divine power to create. When we are engaged in creative work, we are lifted into our higher spirit-being and align our inner self with nobler, higher, more beautiful powers and beings. Thus elevated, we can offer a more robust soul-ground for the higher realms to cooperate with and work within for our good and the good of the world.
In the following line, we learn that the nature spirits desire us to see their deeds and creative work. I will continue, as I always do, to encourage you to live the Wheel of the Year by being mindfully present and noticing each and every change that transpires in nature. Make it your habit to observe with awe and wonder the most minute movement in the seasonal cycles. Marvel at the reddening buds on the maple trees, look for the return of the tree swallows and osprey. Pay homage to the astounding colors of the sunset and drink in the music of the brook that becomes a running river in spring. Behold the delicacy of the dragonfly’s wing and the miraculous transformation of the caterpillar into a butterfly. Rejoice in the gleam of wet pebbles at the seashore, and let your imagination play in the clouds, seeing castles, angles, and faces of all sorts. Become an ardent admirer of the deeds of the nature spirits and see how your spirit is lifted and life becomes infinitely more glorious.
The poem ends with an interesting revelation of the power that we have when we make the life of the nature spirits our own. When we share in their mission and their deeds of creating and fulfill our calling of presence and wonder in nature, we have the power to break the enchantment that has blinded our modern minds. We can liberate nature and the spirit beings of her realm from the dark enchantment that has relegated them to cold, soulless, dead matter whose movements are but those of a machine devoid of spirit, life, and meaning. Our participation can indeed re-animate and re-ensoul nature in our collective minds and comprehension. When that happens, a remarkable healing will occur, and wholeness will fill the heart of the Earth and our hearts as well.
Ostara is a gentle time when the dawn comes softly and the sun shines warmly. The greening begins, and a delicate newness lies over the land. Each year at this time, we have an opportunity to cultivate a deeper relationship with the land and, by extension, the plants and animals and, beyond that, the nature spirits that govern and tend the living energies within all of creation.
On the Hedge Mystic School of the Seasons page, you will find a downloadable Guide to Ostara and a link to the Ostara Exploration & Experience, a self-led at-home retreat. I encourage you to use these resources as you enter into this season of growth and renewal.
Another eclipse is coming our way. A partial solar eclipse will occur on March 29, 2025, and the new Eclipse Season Guide covers that eclipse, guiding you through the tumultuous eclipse energy that will infuse the early weeks of spring.
If you didn't download your Eclipse Season Guide for the recent lunar eclipse, you can grab it now and prepare for the upcoming eclipse by clicking the link below.
»» Eclipse Season Guide ««
The Eclipse Season Guide is also on the School of the Seasons Page, HERE; scroll down to Seasonal Supplements.
Mindfully living the Wheel of the Year means being intentionally aware of what is happening in the skies above and all around you on the earth below. It means noticing the small and incremental shifts in nature, the significant seasonal changes, how they correspond to various systems and structures, and your soul’s experience as you move along your life’s journey.
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Very inspiring perspective to bring to this new season and to the changes throughout the year. Thank you!
Jan, I love everything about this! Your new collages are glorious. Thank you.