Beltane = Sunflower Planting Day!

Next Thursday is International Sunflower Guerilla Day! So all your wanna-be guerrilla gardeners, get out there and do some planting. Sunflowers grow very easily, just choose a spot that gets at least six hours of sun a day (that bare patch by the bus stop? The neglected flower bed in front of the elementary school? Those big empty planter pots in the drugstore parking lot?)

Go forth and make the world beautiful! In London, where the Guerrilla Gardening website founder is based, he is giving away free seeds next week.

Sunflowers are beautiful, long-blooming and a great food source for birds!

Happy Earth Day! I feel a rant coming on...

I both love and hate Earth Day. I am happy there is at least one day out of the year which attempts to remind all of us dumb, gluttonous, narcissistic Westerners that we really ought to pull our heads out of our asses and wake up to what is going on in the world around us. But at the same time, amid the raising of consciousness and awareness, I sense a smarmy helping of self-congratulatory glad-handing. I mean, how many people really are buying that the President is "green"? I believe it was Ronald Reagan (a stellar specimen embodying the greedy, thoughtless American stereotype) who had the solar panels installed by Jimmy Carter removed. Dubya has as much as said he thinks global warming is a fantasy.

And do we really believe all these goofy-ass green marketing ploys? I am sorry but I do not for a minute think that new cleaner from Clorox is devoid of harmful chemicals. It bugs the crap out of me that the company once known as ChemLawn is now known as TruGreen. Painting your factory a charming shade of avocado or olive does not mean you suddenly stopped making asbestos-flavored widgets and suddenly started making organic hemp-fiber thingamajigs. Although it'd be nice if that were true.

I sometimes get cynical about the idea that one person can make a difference. Those of us who reduce, reuse, recycle, try to reduce our carbon footprint, all that happy horseshit, we see how this whole global warming thing is going and we feel despair that no amount of composting, bottle returning, xeriscaping, thrift-shopping or other -ing meant to help Mother Earth is really going to make a damned bit of difference once Long Island, Los Angeles and Miami start sinking into the ocean. The polar bears have spoken. The bees are departing Dodge, and are no longer interested in pollinating plants to feed our fat, wasteful, sloppy, stupid asses any more. Las Vegas is running out of water, and there are still too many damn SUVs on the road. Trash lines the sidewalks and streets and mars the beauty of my walks in parks and woodlands. I want to strangle people but I usually just shrug, or cry (sometimes both).

But then I see a gorgeous spring day like today, full of promise and colorful blooms and sun-dappled shade, and, well, the cynicism melts away a tiny bit. And I have to believe there is a future, and I am willing to work for it. I am willing to admit I am one of many, many humans who fucked up along the way. And I am willing to be part of the solution.

Every Day is Earth Day, people. I think I wrote that a few years ago, in an article somewhere...ah, yes, here it is. Read it and weep. I did. For we are no closer today than we were then to solving the problem of how to protect the planet (and by extension ourselves) and undo the damage we have done. I honestly believe this is not about cycles and patterns of human evolution over the millennia. It is about too much, too many people, too fast. Speeding up our karma with alarming velocity. If anyone has any bright ideas, I am all ears.

Smog Makes Flowers Smell Less Sweet, Study Says

Well, duh.

But seriously, this article also discusses the possibility that smog may be one reason behind the decline in honeybees and other pollinators in some areas, since the flower scents are losing potency.

If the bees die, we die. It's pretty much that simple. No pollination means no plant growth. No plants means no food, among other things...oh yeah, and a lot less oxygen.

Now get on out there and use those SUVs for errands less than ten blocks away, everyody!

White Stag Sighting!

The wonderful BBC News website reports on the sighting of a rare white stag in the Scottish Highlands...

Births of white animals are associated in some cultures with the End Times...in particular the White Buffalo Calf prophecies of Native Americans (Hopi I think, must check on that).

But in Celtic mythology, white or albino animals are not seen as portents of future trials, but expressions of magic and mystery, strange and rare occurrences to be seen as powerful and unique phenomenon. I believe there are stories of several heroes who see white deer and are given power towards their quests...

I have a friend named "Whitedeer" who got his name after an odd experience in the forest. As an angst-ridden teenager, he decided to commit suicide by "dying of exposure." Little did he know, this would take some time. So after several days of hunger, cold and impatience (not to mention boredom), he had made up his mind to go home when, awakening in the dawn mist, he saw a herd of female deer around him, some of them lying close by his side. After a few moments marveling at them, he realized that a herd this large must have a buck somewhere near. That is when he saw a huge stag...a solid white one. And it was apparently angry that my friend was cavorting with his females!

It is heartening to learn there are still white stags being sighted in Great Britain. Especially since last fall there was a horrifying story of a white stag killed and beheaded by poachers and left hanging from a tree in the Forest of Dean...the story link is here.

The Awakening

In my coven/magical order, we celebrate spring on several levels.

We have a Magical Equinox ritual, which takes advantage of the breaking and shifting of the tides, acknowledging the potent magic of the time. We do this on the day of the Equinox or as close as possible. This is also a rededication of our temple and our commitment to our order.

We also have a Wicca-based Festival celebration of Ostara, held on the Saturday closest to the equinox. This is a more traditional celebration akin to our other Wicca festivals. It includes the poem "The Immortal" by Cale Young Rice (found in his book of poetry Earth and New Earth, 1916):

Spring has come up from the South again,
With soft mists in her hair,
And a warm wind in her mouth again,
And budding everywhere.

Spring has come up from the South again,
And her skies are azure fire,
And around her is the awakening
Of all the world's desire.

Spring has come up from the South again,
And dreams are in her eyes,
And music is in her mouth again
Of love, the never-wise.

Spring has come up from the South again,
And bird and flower and bee
Know that she is their life and joy
And immortality!

We also celebrate the Day of the Awakening as part of the Provider Cycle rituals, a group of rituals that are mystery plays which follow an agrarian calendar, with text from many poems and a structure based somewhat on the days leading up to Harvest Home, in Tom Tryon's novel of the same name..

I have written two academic essays on this ritual cycle and am preparing one for The Pomegranate.

Here, it is very cold and windy, but sunny. There are daffodils, hyacinths and peonies poking their green shoots up through the semi-frozen ground. I raked the leaves off my flower beds last week, to give them some light and air, and they do seem to be growing slowly, despite some cold weather this past week, but some areas are still not getting enough sun to melt the frozen ground. I hope the bulbs did not freeze and will grow at some point. I bought some blue hyacinths at the grocery store yesterday and when the are done blooming will plant the bulbs in the ground.

I am so eager to see the colors of spring flowers and blossoms. It's been a tough winter. Hail, Spring!

Easter Humor. I haz it.

Passion of the Peeps.

RIP Anthony Minghella

I was shocked to learn he died. Only 54 years old, from complications after a simple surgery.

This is very sad. He was such an amazing filmmaker. I love Truly, Madly, Deeply, and The English Patient, and The Talented Mr. Ripley, and even Breaking and Entering. I have only seen part of Cold Mountain but I did like it a lot.

He accomplished so much in his 54 years. The world of cinema is a richer place with him in it. Rest well, sir.

Arthur C. Clarke also died. But, as he was 90, and this is a very ripe old age, I do not feel so badly. But he, too, was an accomplished artist. The world of possible words and dreams has grown smaller.