In the dying evening light, I walk around the land. This time, I’m not traveling, night ryding or moving between the worlds. No, I’m just watching the peace of the cherry tree as it weeps red gum from open sores in its bark. I move my toes in the low yellowing grass and run my hands over the leaves of pear and plum trees. I pass by the altar in Pomona’s Grove, saying little prayers here and there, whispering good things to the pears and plums, urging them to grow full and fat and drop to the ground. I feel this wonderful peace and presence of life that is hard to do in these modern times.
That oneness we feel when we’re in our element is a magical thing all by itself. My element is the wild forest and the garden and the river. My sense of oneness with not just nature or the world, but with my own soul happens when I watch the garden bloom, the bees move between the roses and the stripping of fur from flesh and the laying of bones.
We all have our own sense of peace that centers us and makes us powerful- and mine doesn’t come from sitting in circles in a dusty room or reading tarot in a stuffy back room somewhere Downtown.
My sense of self, my place of power comes from my feet on green grass, my hands in branches, vines tangling in my wild black hair and gentle sunlight on my skin. Some of us find our place of power inside the home with their tools and cushions and candles. Some of us find our joy in an open field surrounded by friends and fellow pagans. I think this ties back to my post about personal styles of witchcraft and how you work your own path. Where we feel the most powerful is as important or maybe more important as the tools and colors and objects that lend to our sense of stability, focus and empowerment.
I am a woman of the wood that meets the sea and the rivers that bridge these two worlds. I’ve never been comfortably living away from the sea, I’m lucky to live a few minutes from the sandy shore of the Sound, and this county is pretty much a giant forest with patches of true forest stretching on as far as the eye can see in some places. I feel most powerful in the forests that are by the edge of the water; where you can hear the waves crash and the wild winds howl through the trees. That sacred space, that perfect place where you feel you were meant to be can be that refuge your spirit needs.
