Never mind that it was sleeting from a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. There would be a picture if any of them came out. It was too bright to see the sleet! And never mind that I walked outside to frost. Spring is here!
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| my herb seeds getting started! |
The scent of potting soil has permeated my apartment (and from what my sister says, hers too). It got me thinking - how do we represent the elements in our homes?
We're all familiar with the elements. We call on them constantly in ritual to aid our workings. We turn in the mornings to greet the light and smile as a breeze gently catches us up for a moment. But how do we honor them in our homes?
Earth. Simple, right? I mean, the whole house is made of wood and stone. Our homes are blessed and consecrated. But is that really enough to pay honor to the element Earth? For me it's keeping plants indoors. It's that scent of soil and the presences of pots of earth in every room. Similarly I place a live plant on my altars this time of year, to honor Spring and the symbolic rebirth that comes from a bulb reopening to the light after a long winter's sleep. Perhaps you don't have a green thumb and would prefer not to have dead plants hanging around your apartment. Well, in this instance I'll suggest what I always suggest to my less green thumbed friends - ivy. All the greenhouses sell them and they're nearly impossible to kill. They're small also, and thrive indoors. Another good (and hardy) plant for the less garden inclined is an African Violet. They're beautiful and you can water them once a week with great results. (and they won't need to be repotted immediately - you can wait a year or so) I have blessed woods in my house, as well as stones and crystals that I use in ritual to represent the earth - I have green candles too. But for me, there's nothing like some good old dirt in the house to represent Earth.
Air. We breathe this all the time, we see the curtains sway in the summer when the windows are open and for me, that's the best way. I prefer an open window to anything else and have been known to open my windows on a sunny day in winter to get some fresh air inside. (and yes, my neighbors give me very odd looks) But really, can you think of a better way to bring the wind that gives air to our lungs a better honor but to let it inside, let it carry out with it all the staleness of winter and replace it with the crisp cleanliness of winter air? In the summer it brings in with it the warmth of the season. In spring it brings with it a blend of winter and summer air - warm life giving breeze with edges of winter cold. In the fall it is the cooling that speaks of a winter yet to come. I leave yellow candles out, especially near the windows, to honor the Air and light them when I can't have the windows open. But I leave them there also to soak up the wind when I can open the windows, so they can be charged with all the types of wind the Air chooses to send us.
Water. Most of us don't have buckets of water sitting around the house. (although, over the winter I did - it was so dry in my apartment! gas furnace.... so drying) But how do we bring the element of Water into our homes without the difficulty of spill hazards. I live alone, so the only one to blame would be myself, but for those of you with a spouse and perhaps even children, standing vases of water are less of an option. Likewise, it will evaporate over time and leave you with a lovely empty vase with some water stains in it. When we think about water, we think about large bodies of water, or moving bodies of water - oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, creeks. Think about the scent that water carries. In my home I have a reed diffuser of a salty ocean scent in a blue that's very akin to water. This is one way I honor the element of Water, by keeping the scent in my home. But also I keep succulents in my home - plants that by definition are water retaining plants. My aloe plant, as well as my desert rose, is a succulent. But for just a little of that life giving element (aren't they all, really?) I love my bamboo. It lives in a rectangular glass vase filled with small pea gravel and then some polished river pebbles and just enough water. Seeing the water there, giving life to that beautiful green shoot... it reminds me daily of the presence of Water in my life.
Fire. Oh fire - don't we all love it! Warmth for life and the power of destruction all wrapped in one yellow orange ball. The Sun is a fire, and we feel its burning kiss when we're out to long with out protection - but alternately we feel drained if we withdraw from it for too long. We bring fire into our homes to warm them, but without proper care and respect it could bring our homes down around our ears and leave us in the cold. For those with a fireplace, this element is always present - the apparatus reminds us of the flame that graces the stones and the magic there. For the rest of us, candles take the place of a hearth. I have two candelabras in my home - one in the shape of a tree and the other a simple design that hangs. Both of these are filled with white tea lights and together the glow is lovely. But the presence of those clustered candles is the flame for me. More modernly minded, my gas stove is my hearth. Yes, it's white enamel and extremely utilitarian but for now it serves well for my potions and brews, and all the kitchen druidry that I cook up.
The last element is Spirit. For this the best advice I can give you is to live in your space. Let your surroundings be a reflection of you. For this I have a story....
Not so long ago there lived a woman of little means. She was a bright girl but lacked something, though she didn't know what. Her mother was kind, and her siblings were, well, siblings. But she never really knew what she lacked. No amount of asking could tell her - she was simply told "you'll know when you find it." She didn't find this very useful, but continued her search. In the course of her journey she met a man. He was charismatic and vibrant and she fell very much in love with him. He fell in love with her and asked her to come to his home. She agreed and off she went. They lived in a small but comfortable room. But everything in the room was his. There was no presence of her save her clothes in one of the two small closets. All her things, few though they were, were packed away in boxes. She was deeply troubled by this, but he was not. She was there, that was the important part. After a few years they moved again, into another small place though this was theirs alone. Yet again, his things went onto the walls, and hers remained in boxes. She protested, and was told to know her place. She had no altar, nothing of life on the walls - it was all cold metal and oil consuming engines. She began to wither in this place, as she had in the last place, and the place before that. Then, after nearly a decade with this man, she was given advice from a sage woman. "Leave, dear child. Leave and go south." And she did. She went south and found a small house run by a woman who was kind to those in her situation. The woman took her in an gave her a home of her own. She put images of flowers on the walls and set her altar up in the kitchen. She grew things in pots on the porch and in the ground outside the door. Everyone remarked on how nice a house she kept. Then the woman found what she was looking for all those years. Her spirit. It was wrapped up in the earth, in the elements. It was only when she brought all these together in one place, when she really wrapped herself in them that her Spirit blossomed and became whole. In creating a home for herself she created fertile ground for her to take root in and grow.
That story is about a woman very close to me and is very true. It is in the combination of the elements that we find the fertile ground for our Spirits to grow and become all that we are meant to be.
Blessings!
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