Embracing Enchanted Nature
an evolving experience
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It’s Beltane and I’m reflecting on what spring has brought thus far.
We’ve had an early spring in Southern New England, which means freezing temperatures, snow, ice, and hard frosts disappeared early, just as the groundhog predicted. However, it’s not been a year with unseasonable warm weather early in the season. It’s been rainy and cool with a few warm, sunny days sprinkled in. Though I might long for days that are seventy degrees and sunny, the truth is that the slow warming trend and lots of rain are better for the garden.
There’s some wisdom in there about recognizing that what is actually best for us is not always what we think we want. Also, the necessity of patience which is something every gardener learns one way or another.
Gardening has taught me some of the most important and difficult life lessons.
Not only has gardening taught me about wildness versus control, the importance of management, the reality of death, the inevitability of loss, the interconnectedness of everything, the miracle of small things, the resilience of life and the immense beauty of nature I’ve learned about the spirit-world as well.
More than anywhere else, be it a, a church, chapel, sanctuary, holy place it is in the garden and in the woods where the veil thins and the realms meet for me.
The beings that tend the trees and plants, those that are the guardians of the various animal species, the elementals that inhabit earth, water, air, and fire and even those that govern the four directions, the four seasons and the four winds are as real as you and I, and awe inspiring to boot.
I knew this with certainty as a child, and while that belief was challenged in my adult years it never disappeared. As I get older it has returned with greater potency, meaning and implications
I’m not sure if we can really understand nature without truly embracing the existence of nature spirits. I like to make a distinction between the aliveness of the individual tree, plant, animal etc. itself (its wick, or quick as it were) and the spirit in the tree, the dryad, for example, if it is an oak or the fox spirit for example.
Wick also has a (quite rare) regional use in Yorkshire as a variation of the word “quick,” as in this passage from The Secret Garden:
‘It’s as wick as you or me,’ he said; … Martha had told her that ‘wick’ meant ‘alive’ or ‘lively’. ~ medium.com
“Alive" is the original meaning of quick. The quick and the dead did not refer to gunslingers in the Old American West, but instead refers to "the living and the dead" as in the Bible, Acts 10:42. The current meaning of quick, "rapid", did not emerge until the 13th century.
Some other words still in use today which carry the original meaning of quick include quicklime, literally "living lime", quicksand "living sand", and the noun quick ("the tender flesh under the fingernail"), referring to the living flesh beneath the dead nail. ~stackexchange English Language and Usage
It feels like its taken forever for me to be able to talk about these things openly as an adult, even as a child it was difficult knowing that the adults in the room, while not unkind about it, would not be taking me seriously. My intuitive understanding of nature had to go underground, so to speak.
Yet here I am talking about it quite seriously. It’s part of my ever evolving embrace of an enchanted world and ongoing experiences with those things that are part of the invisible world all around us, just outside of our visual perception yet able to be glimpsed with our other faculties.
Speaking of invisible forces, this year I’m investigating electroculture, the use of coiled copper wire to draw static electricity into the soil and pass electrons on to the beneficial microorganisms in the soil which in turn promote healthier plants and better plant growth. If you’re thinking Nicola Tesla’s Wardencliff Tower you’re on the right track.
French agricultural engineer Georges Lakhovsky first introduced this technique in the 1920s. Though the techniques of electroculture go back to at least the mid 18th century.
Lakhovsky believed plants could absorb energy from their surroundings, including electromagnetic fields. He proposed using electromagnetic fields using electrical currents conducted by copper wire could enhance this natural process and increase plant growth and health. The pure copper wire acts as an antenna to absorb and move electromagnetic fields and transmit the electromagnetic field energy to the plants, which then use it for photosynthesis and other cellular processes. ~ Ranchr.com
More recently some scientific studies have indicated that plants can sense the increase in static electricity when there is going to be a thunderstorm. This causes a physiological response from the plants which causes their roots to prepare to absorb a sudden increase in water which the rainstrom will inevitably bring. The copper coils placed near plants helps to draw the static charges in the surrounding air to the plant causing the physilogical change thus allowing the plants roots to better take up water and nutrients all the time not just when a thunder and lightening storm is on its way. This is thought to lead to better growth and healthier plants.
Does it work? I don’t know but I love the idea of working with the energy that is invisibly present all around us in the sky, earth and plants. Also, the copper coils are fun to make and look fun in the garden.
Besides the cool looking copper spirals and coils this practice caught my notice because when I was a child I was extremely sensitive to the build up of electricity in the air as a thunderstorm approached. I have a very vivid memory of one instance standing in my bedroom on the second floor of our house and feeling the sensation of a light, fizzy, tingling sensation rising from my fingertips up my arms and spreading across my whole body. I looked west out the window to see enormous black thunderclouds and lightening flashes in the distance. This was a common experience for me as a young child.
I find it interesting that an evolving embrace of enchanted nature requires me to return to things I knew and experienced in childhood. Perhaps that is as it should be, as it must be. Whatever this process is I am thoroughly enjoying allowing my Child-Self and the nature spirits to lead and teach me. I find that embracing the enchantment of nature, which might be called a romantic notion, fosters deep meaning in daily life and relationships.
Beltane Blessings to All!
Tell me about your thoughts about enchanted nature.
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How weird that you should write this piece as I am writing an introduction to The World of Faye (and Divas), a presentation I am doing in June for an annual Earth Energies weekend for a Dowsing community. This year, concentrating on Healing and working with Energies. Reading for clients I soon found many needed healing rather than divination! Which lead me to Crystal Healing and Reiki. Then couldn't understand why the healing wasn't working effectively and found that the environment they were living in needed healing too. Hence the interest in Dowsing. When giving my Dwarf Peach Tree some Reiki to help with a distressing move a young woman came and watched me, the second time I did it she laid her hands on mine. Sadly the tree didn't make it due to a storm! But it was the start of investigating the world of Faye, Elementals and Guardians. Part of my presentation will be a practical introduction to meeting Guardians and working with them, or at best acknowledging their importance and presence and how to ask for their help with the environment. Next year will be how to work with Divas in the Home and Office! Assuming I survive the weekend!
What a timely essay, as I've been thinking a lot about the connections I've had to plants over the years - mostly trees. Many years ago, I was walking a trail with friends & we came across a tree that had been mostly hollowed out by lightning but was still alive. Of course I had to step inside it, and then I burst into tears, crying out "the tree loves me!" I'm glad to say most of the people I was with were quick to understand & agree.
We''ve gotten close to 18 inches of rain in the past week. I'm relatively new to gardening & was worried that all my poor plants would drown, but there's such an intense, thrumming vibe coming out of my back yard, as if they all plan to double in size this week as the sun comes out. It's pretty great.
Thank you for the reminder to look, to pay attention, and to speak our experience.