Gossamer Naturalist

Blog

  • Imbloc, Candlemas, Approaches

    A dear friend recently told me “I never understood why you loved candles so much, until I took one with me for a late night shower. Then I knew. Its the softness of the light, and the way it interacts with the softness of the world.” Or something like that.

    To be honest, the art of letting a candle burn, and giving into that softness, has at times been lost to me in my craft, especially in these COVID days. The art of making a candle became a routine, a piece of something I do rather than a sacred piece of myself. Momentum sometimes pushes our actions rather than true dedication and mindfulness.

    I live my life by momentum. The seeking of Love, the making of a candle, selling my craft and my work. All momentums, which swirl together without mindfulness to create a life. I suspect many people I share life with feel this same momentum. This is especially true in the depths of the winter nights, when we’re just keeping ourselves going until the spring thaw, and the appreciation of living that comes with it.

    Holidays and reminders break up this momentum, force us to pause and find our mind again. So why not add more holidays?! I dont know if you know Imbloc, a Celtic holiday, the mid-point between the solstice and the equinox which occurs on Feburary 1st. It is candlemas, it is the return of that soft light. St. Valentine’s day celebrations of Love often replace it in America, but why not celebrate both! As Gaby Herstik describes-

    Imbloc is the day when we are allowed to thaw our pains with medicine from the Sun, and grow what we want as we approach the spring equinox and the start of a new cycle. – Inner Witch, pg. 62

    There are some rituals she describes in Inner Witch and in her Imbloc ritual guide which help us find our way from momentum to mindfulness. Go check those out if your interested. https://www.gabrielaherstik.com/shop I myself can offer tools for some of these rituals, beeswax candles which hold in them different elements and facets of life, which can be used in Herstik’s rituals or your own. Contact me if you would like some.

    My intention this Imbloc is not let momentum rule me, and step into mindful action whenever I am able. Sometimes I wont be, and that’s fine. Candles are tool to help me realize this. To be mindful of a flame is to be mindful of the danger of life, but also its softness. Go find that softness as the thaw approaches.

  • Lichen Potions

          The Lake and the Lichens tell the same story again and again, yet those of us who listen hear it differently every time. Yesterday I heard the story on the Beaver River, finding my way down slightly treacherous waterfalls and following otter tracks until the ice felt too thin to follow. 
                                                                

Wavy mother tree of the sands
Timeless song of grains like winding whisperous winds
The Lake is my potion, my elixir 
Of intense life and shadowed awakening.
Lichens grow at a micron a year.
And the sands whisper stories so rapidly,
About the wine drops and porcelain branches-
How many stories have the lichens heard?

  • Entropy & Blue Jays

            I wrote this piece on New Year's day, after the party that would have been, wasn't. Instead, I sing to myself, tell myself stories of futures and pasts that could have been. Singing only to the space of my Home, like Blue Jay outside sang to the smoke of my woodstove. Burning away years of photosynthesis for warmth. Such is the way life is...

Every point in the universe is increasing in
emotional chaos at a constant and non-linear rate.
The Blue Jay on the bough,
covered in fresh fallen snow,
tells stories of their childhood 
in their songs
to the smoke flowing from my woodstove.
Smoke cannot hear.
It is only what once was,
and never again what is.