Basil

Basil, or Ocimum basilicum, is part of the mint family.

I laid down a celtic cross for basil, and the card that popped up to represent the plant was Ace of Cups, Love. It is very willing to work hard and endure tension, but it doesn't like cruelty or fighting.

Ash and I made a few discoveries over bowls of basil and tomato pasta: 1) We both felt a cleansing of our third eye chakras and head while eating the basil dish. 2) Basil and tomato get along very well; some call them companion plants. The only basil dish we could think of that doesn't involve tomatos is pesto. They taste great together, and apparently they like to be planted together too.

I didn't "hear" anything during my conversations with my basil plants, but I did feel an energy transfer. The energy was very pleasant and soothing. So soothing that I fell asleep in my patio chair while sitting there with the plants. I did not feel the energy strongly in my third eye chakra, so I suspect that you have to eat the basil to get the head cleansing effect.

The tarot cards also said that basil is one of my plant totems (Four of Wands).

Peppermint

Mentha x piperita is a hybrid between spearmint and aquatic mint. I remembered a few things while studying peppermint this week.

My paternal grandmother had a huge garden when we went to visit her as kids. She would take me out there and try to tell me about the plants. The only plant I had eyes for back then was mint. I thought Grandma was crazy the first time she ever picked off a leaf and told me to chew on it. That first bite was full of surprise and tastiness.

The only plant I ever puchased before I moved to Austin was a mint plant. Again, a mint plant was one of the first ones I bought when I started my patio garden in Austin.

Of course, mint is often used to treat stomach issues, and this elm tends to abuse her stomach by shoving stress and nervousness there. I am blessed to have mint hanging around.

Meeting a Hibiscus

I spent the night at Sephrena's apartment on Wednesday and got a chance to meet her hibiscus tree. Most of the hibiscus I've seen previously were plant-sized, but this one is about five feet tall. It's a very happy tree plant!

Since I'm starting my plant studies, I was supposed to try to have a talk with the hibiscus. I pulled up a chair next to it, and put my hands on both sides of its trunk. Then I willed myself to listen. All of my attention was focused on the hibiscus. I started to feel energy flowing between the plant and me.

Sephrena's cat, Bouncer, was outside with me too. He pulled me out of my plant trance with strategically placed claws in my leg. I told his mommy on him, and he was called back inside. I returned to my chair.

I decided to try to open my chakras before going any farther with the plant. I started with the root chakra and worked my way up to the crown, visualizing colors, and pleading with the chakras to open. (If I ask nicely, sometimes they behave.) I felt a lot of energy moving through me with my chakra opening exercise. After working on the crown, I put my hands back on either side of the hibiscus.

The energy transfer between the plant and me returned much stronger. I stayed like that, feeling the energy flowing through my body and the plant until I couldn't focus anymore. I stood up and thanked the plant, and promised to visit again, and I realized that my whole body was humming! Later, Sephrena told me that I looked a little drunk when I came back inside.

It was a nice start to my plant work! This morning I told my mint plant that I would start studying it tomorrow, and I heard my mint plant say that its die-back and new growth were a way of cleansing itself. Not a bad start to a week with mint.

Grasshopper

I was initiated as a Priestess in Training, or PIT, on September 24th. Shortly thereafter, I was informed that plants would be one of my primary studies during this year and a day. Then the Priestesses found out how many dreams I have involving talking animals, and animals were added to plants. So I have two stacks of animal and plant books sitting at the end of my bed.

I am supposed to pick a plant to study every week, but I haven't made it that far yet. I'm reading the more general books about human and plant communication first. Meanwhile, I've been planning my costume as the "Green Woman". I went to the Renaissance Festival as the Green Woman yesterday, and I made a new friend:

A Differential Grasshopper hung out on top of my staff for about a half hour. I did my research tonight, and found out that this species can fly for short distances. "My" grasshopper never flew. He walked slowly up me and my staff. Is it telling that this amazing mover slowly and unerringly made his way to the top of my staff? I tried to convince him to go in different directions a couple of times, and he slowly turned himself around until he faced me again.

I liked him (or her) very much. Thankfully, Ted Andrews has a few things to say about why grasshoppers would show up for a person: there is about to be a new leap forward, or we are not listening or are afraid to make the leap off of our mound.

A Two of Cups says that yes, the Grasshopper did appear to tell me that there would soon be a new leap forward.

Inked, Part IV

This elm now has green leaves. They finished healing several weeks ago, then they started itching again this week. This new itching must be spiritual in nature, but the spiritual itch has been much harder to ignore than the healing itch!

The gods were doing rechannel and tattoo work at the same time, which has made for some sleepless nights.

Now this elm must hit the astrology books again. The Gathering is set for Friday, and there isn't a handout book written yet!

Inked, Part III

This is what the tree looks like now. Eric strengthened the outline and added the shadows on July 2nd.

I'm going to diverge for a moment, because I couldn't decide if I wanted to make a whole post on this. Judge Vaughn Walker in California has overturned Proposition 8, which made gay marriage illegal in California. He said that the law didn't provide any real reason that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, which made the law unjust.

The news was on NPR (again) as I drove into work this morning, and they immediately followed it with discussion about how Judge Walker's overturn of the law would do nothing good for democrats in the upcoming elections. It took about ten seconds for me to go from warm and fuzzy to pissed. My predominate thought: Who gives a shit? Overturning this law isn't about helping the democrats come elections. It's about restoring justice to the legal system of a state.

Father's Day

There's a funny story behind my spiritual father. When I first began my walk down this path, I asked about my spiritual mother and found Rhiannon. After a few months, I decided I wanted to know about my spiritual father. I went researching/shopping for my spiritual father, and I found Coyote.

I asked Sephrena to confirm that Coyote was my spiritual father, and she said that he wasn't. She said that Ellegua (who's similar to Coyote) was my spiritual uncle, and that she'd found out who my spiritual father was, but she couldn't tell me. I was going to have to figure it out on my own. She said that he'd made a terrible mistake, and he was paying for it. He had a bad reputation, and he was not a cuddly daddy figure.

I was furious. I ranted to Ash at some length about the unfairness of Sephrena not telling me who my spiritual father was, then I noticed how quiet Ash was during the ranting. Almost guiltily quiet. I realized that Ash knew too. Turned out that most of the people in our pagan circle knew who my spiritual father was before me. Riteous Anger were my middle names. The universe was conspiring to make me miserable by letting everyone except me find out the identity of my spiritual father.

I flipped about two hundred tarot cards in one month, and I didn't get anything that made any sense to me. I spent hours googling the phrases "terrible mistake" and "dark god". Of course I got nothing. I became increasingly frustrated. When I hit my breaking point, I told the universe: Screw you. If my spiritual father doesn't want me to know who he is, then I don't want him.

Since I'd been liberated from my quest to find the identify of one specific god, I decided to research all of them. I needed to study the pantheons and get a broader knowledge of all the gods. (If I happened to find my spiritual father in the meantime, then that was just fine.) I started with the Greeks. I pulled up the Greek creation myth, and I found Cronus.

When I read Cronus' name, I knew that I'd just found my spiritual father. I confirmed it with a message to Ash. It took me a while to get over the anger and frustration of the months long search, but I came to peace with Cronus. Once I'd come to peace with him, I started to forgive some human fathers also.

Over the last year and a half I've learned some things about Cronus. He's a throat chakra man, and his colors are light blue, white, and black. I heard that he was present at the creation of the world, and it was sung into being, hence his connection to the throat chakra. The Greeks were not nice to him in their stories, but the Romans loved him as Saturn. Cronus likes amazonite, foxes (smart & tricky like him), honey mesquite trees (an early colonizer) vodka, a good stout ale, blueberry pies, and the musical group Kronos Quartet. His number is 2.

Cronus is the bad guy in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, for which I haven't entirely forgiven the author.

Cronus is my spiritual father, and I love him.