Ostara is celebrated in the Northern Hemisphere somewhere between March 19 and 22, depending on the vernal equinox. It is named for the German goddess of spring, Ostara. The secular Easter symbols of eggs, rabbits, pastel colors, fresh grass, and baby chicks all originate with Ostara traditions centered around the rebirth of spring. This is a time to seek balance, as day and night are equal, and to prepare for the bursting forth of spring.
For the next six weeks we will plant seeds, clean out the cobwebs, and let in the light. We seek pollination for our projects. This is a time to feel young again and to delight in the flowering of the land.
March 19
To celebrate Ostara, plant seeds. Depending on your climate, you can plant in the garden or start seeds indoors. Try planting parsley or lettuce in pots to set in a sunny windowsill or put out on the deck. If you haven’t already, start tomato or pepper seeds indoors to put out in the garden after the danger of frost has passed. Easy seeds for beginners or children include radishes and marigolds. For those whose frost dates have already passed, you can put anything you like out in the garden.
Whatever seeds you choose, hold them in your hands before planting. Project your awareness into them, tuning in to their inner wisdom carried down from plant to plant over thousands of years. Send love and intention to them. Press them into moist potting soil, and water them with water into which you’ve radiated love and gratitude. Ask the devas to ground the energy of whatever you plant into your garden. Give thanks.
March 20
Ostara is also known as the spring (or vernal) equinox, when day and night are (roughly) equal. This time of year is about balance. Today, practice a few yoga poses that focus on balance. If the weather permits, do them outside. Begin by standing on both feet. Breathe all the way down into your feet, and then into the earth. Try tree pose: stand on one foot, with the other pressed against your thigh and your hands over your head. Another balancing pose is crow pose: lean forward onto your hands, resting your knees on your bent elbows.
For any balancing pose, pick a spot a few feet in front of you to focus your eyes upon. Let your gaze go soft. Let your mind quiet. Let the feeling of being balanced inform your daily life as you seek balance in all you do.
March 21
The sun enters the astrological sign of Aries on or around March 21, beginning the astrological year. Aries is about force, fire, and outgoing energy. 41 There is a “me first” attitude, as well as fiery enthusiasm, to Aries. Notice in what areas of your life you are feeling fiery and forceful. Does this energy serve others or is it a selfish burst of fire? To live in harmony with others—and the earth—we must ignite and follow our passions while helping others to do the same. We must balance self-care with care for others. Journal about how these energies play out in your life at this time. Ask the stars for guidance in finding both balance and passion.
March 22
If you are blessed to live in a climate that brings spring rain, leave out a little cup to collect the falling water. This water has existed since the beginning of water on earth, traveling along its cycle from ocean to sky to mountain to river and back to sky. This rain may have helped cool electrical equipment at a power production facility or flushed waste down a toilet or plumped a carrot or fought a fire. It returned again to the swish and flight of water droplets, evaporated, froze, and was pulled back toward the center of the earth.
Hold your cup of rainwater or just stand in the rain and meditate on how the planet’s water and its gravitational field are constantly playing with each other, making life on earth possible.
March 23
In Chinese medicine, spring is ruled by the wood element. It is a time of rising energies, like blades of grass rising upward, and of emotional and physical cleansing. This is a time to attend to the liver and the gallbladder, and to eat lighter meals than in winter. Young plants, fresh greens, raw food, and sprouts all aid in cleansing and lightening. Raw onions and garlic can cleanse the body of parasites. Cooking food for short times and at high temperatures retains spring’s vitality. Tonight, stir-fry baby root vegetables and serve with sprouted or soaked rice and spring greens.
March 24
Some of the seeds you planted on the 19th will have germinated, but many may not have done so. Each plant has its own needs concerning light, temperature, and moisture. Some germinate quickly—like amenable, easy radishes—while others, like carrots, are picky about moisture and light. Some just take time to wake up.
Germinate more seeds today, but this time in damp paper towels. Beans, tomatoes, and pumpkin seeds are good candidates for this treatment, as they are fairly large and prefer darkness to germinate. Put a few seeds in a damp paper towel and tuck into a plastic bag. Label the bag with a permanent marker and set it in a slightly warm place—on top of your water heater is a good spot. We’ll check back in a few days.
March 25
Animals don’t plant seeds to reproduce; they make eggs. Both seeds and eggs must be fertilized to create the next generation. Eggs and seeds all contain nutrients designed to feed the baby until it can gain nutrients from the greater world. All eggs and seeds carry a packet of genetic information informing their precious cargo of who they are and how to carry out their unique assignment of being.
This time of year you see many egg images. In the materialism of Easter we may become detached from the powerful meaning of the egg. As you encounter eggs today, hold in mind the metaphor and message of the egg: the promise of new life and the hope that comes with that promise. This is a message that transcends and unites religions.
March 26
Meditation for today:
Imagine yourself encased in a thick shell. It surrounds you, round, smooth, and safe. You are tightly curled into yourself inside a little egg. All nutrition has always been provided by the primal substance in which you float. Now you begin to feel a humming sensation, a pulling. You try to unfold your tightly curled body. You cannot. For the first time, your shell feels tight, constricting. You wiggle and push, tapping at the shell with your single egg tooth. You hear and feel a tiny crack forming. The sensation frightens you but also fills you with excitement and a sense of purpose. You poke at the crack. It widens. Your heart pounds inside your tiny body. The crack turns into a hole, through which you see light. You pause. What could this light be? It calls to you. You wiggle and poke and make the hole larger, until suddenly your shell cracks! You unfold your body, triumphant and a little stunned. Your shell lies next to you in pieces, no longer needed. You look around at the world you have entered.
What do you see?
March 27
Open the windows and wash them, dust, clean out the fridge, and vacuum beneath the bed. To get dust mites out of your mattress, let your kids (or yourself) jump on the bed (with no bedding on), then vacuum.
The fabulous Little House in the Suburbs offers the following recipe for a tough multipurpose cleaner:
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon borax
2 cups hot water
2 tablespoons to ¼ cup castile soap (depending on desired strength)
10–15 drops essential oil such as lemon or lavender
Combine vinegar, borax, and hot water in a spray bottle and shake well till borax is dissolved. Add soap and essential oil and swirl. Use when you need a strong multipurpose cleaner, like once a week on the kitchen counters or scrubbing around the toilet bowl.42
When your house is physically clean, smudge with a white sage bundle or a favorite incense. Waft the smoke into corners and over doorways, holding the intention that this smudge will cleanse the energy of your home.
March 28
Check the seeds we started in paper towels. Pull them out of the bag and gently open the paper towel. Many of the seeds will have germinated, sending out long, white roots. Some might even have sent out baby leaves, too. Notice how the roots seek out nutrients and the leaves, the light. The way they grow reminds me of an infant rooting for the breast, searching back and forth for that sweet spot of nourishment.
Your germinated seeds can now be gently moved to potting soil and given light. This is a great way to germinate older seeds like tomatoes from two years ago; only the ones that germinate will be planted. Keep these and your other seedlings evenly moist, and provide sixteen hours or more of bright light. Grow lights or even just a couple of CFL bulbs in gooseneck lamps will do the trick. A sunny window doesn’t provide enough light and can cause them to get leggy and weak.
March 29
To shift to being an earth- and life-affirming species, we must create “a worldview in which our deep kinship with others, both human and nonhuman, is acknowledged and honored,” writes Thom van Dooren in Pagan Visions for a Sustainable Future.43 Spring is a great time to notice and affirm our kinship with others. Most of us don’t raise, hunt, or catch our own meat on a regular basis; gardening is more accessible and manageable for most people. When you pluck a pea from the garden grown by the power of sunlight, water, and Spirit, you experience the interconnection of everything. You are also taking a life so that you may live.
Today—whether you pick a radish, eat meat, or consume the seed of a pea plant—consider that life is gifted to you “by the death of others.”44 This is not a “sin,” it is simply the way of the world. Accept that gift with humble and aware gratitude. Give something back by adding strands of your hair or nail clippings to the compost pile.
March 30
Things are sprouting and unfolding, spring-green and full of life.
Journal topic for today: What is pushing through the soil for you right now? What has been in darkness and is now seeking the light? How can you nourish this unfolding energy? As you write, tap into the hum of the earth and let it guide you.
March 31
A study of American life in the twenty-first century by a team of anthropologists and archaeologists found that many Americans simply have too much stuff.45 This attachment to stuff—and the space to store our stuff—fuels long hours of work and preparation for work, such as school, homework, and sports, all of which make us too busy to go outside. It weighs us down.
Go through your closets, drawers, garage, toy box, and book shelves. Get rid of anything you don’t use that doesn’t have significant sentimental value. Clothes that don’t fit or you haven’t worn, old toys no longer played with, books you’ve already read, kitchen gadgets you’ve used twice—load it all up and donate it to a secondhand store. Be ruthless. You are making room for new energy, new life. You are making room for a real relationship with the land.
April 1
Many people cannot get rid of their clutter because they identify with stuff. It makes us feel secure, known. When you get rid of a bunch of stuff, it can feel freeing, but it can also feel vulnerable. If you’re feeling hesitant to clear out the clutter or feeling emotional now that you have done so, send compassion to that part of you that is afraid or grieving. These emotions contain kernels of truth about who you believe yourself to be. Send them love and compassion, and the darkness will dissolve while the truth is brought to light.
In order to push through the soil and toward the light, you must release the past. You can move forward unencumbered if you let go of what you no longer need.
April 2
A last bit on spring cleaning: you can recycle almost anything. Batteries and light bulbs can be recycled at hardware stores. Bring empty print cartridges and old electronics to electronic and office supply stores. In Denver and some other cities, one can actually get paid a few cents a pound for old carpet, carpet pad, and metal at their respective recycling centers. Clothes and shoes, when too worn for the secondhand store, can be recycled into insulation; look in parking lots for bins that say “recycle clothes and shoes here.”
Recycling honors the fact that we are all interconnected. Our waste can get piled up in polluting landfills or it can be repurposed. Take today to set up curbside recycling if you haven’t already, and look for places to recycle the junk you have sitting around. Search online using the terms “[whatever you need to recycle] [your city] recycling.”
April 3
In November we examined the Via Negativa, the path to Goddess through stillness, suffering, and darkness. Today we look at the Via Positiva, theologian Matthew Fox’s first path in Creation Spirituality. “In the awe, wonder, nature, and mystery of all beings, each of whom is a ‘word of God,’ ‘a mirror of God that glistens and glitters,’ as Hildegard of Bingen put it,” we awaken to the power of Spirit.46 This is also known as “Thou Shalt Fall in Love at Least Three Times a Day.”47
Go outside and walk, opening your heart, until something catches your eye or calls to you: a leaf, a flower, a stone, a tree. Sit with that thing, that “word of God,” and let yourself fall in love. You do this by being with this thing, this leaf or river or feather or stone. You sit and witness and let it speak to you, and you will fall in love. In doing so, you will better understand Goddess and your own deep nature.
April 4
“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet 48
Our culture is loath to attribute personality or consciousness to nature, for we’ve been taught that the scientific method and a scientific way of viewing the world is the only “true” path to knowledge. We fear backsliding toward a primitive way of seeing the world, as if that perspective lacked all value. But there is a difference between a prerational view of the world, before “science,” and a transrational view, a way of relating that includes and transcends a purely scientific, rational perspective.
Let yourself play with the wind. Let your attention rise and dip with the wind, letting it teach you about itself. Notice the sense of joy that comes not just from you, but from the wind and the trees and the land.
April 5
Let the spring cleanup of your yard be a devotion. Approach the raking, fertilizing, watering, and trimming in the way you would the washing of another person’s feet. Set an intention before you begin to offer your work in service of the land. Greet the spring blossoms. Lovingly stroke green buds sprouting on the trees. Turn the compost as you would change a church altar cloth. End with a moment of silence and thanks.
April 6
Something happens within us when we act with compassion for others no matter their size, shape, or life path. When you give your neighbor a few eggs from your hens or some spring greens just to share the gift of the garden, you feel a sense of grace. We act compassionately not to be righteous but simply because the grace of courtesy and compassion has moved us. What small act of kindness can you offer today?
April 7
“The garden isn’t, at its best, designed for admiration or praise; it leads to an appreciation of the natural universe and to a meditation on the connection between the self and the rest of the natural universe.”
Stanley Kunitz 49
Our culture has a tendency to want to control—to create straight lines and definable boundaries. But it’s in the messy parts—the weeds, the overgrown pear tree, the jumble of blackberries—that magic happens. It is here, smeared with mud and a little bit sunburned, that we know our place in the natural universe.
Find a garden not designed for admiration or praise, but one for knowing the universe. Play, explore, and let yourself feel that deep connection.
April 8
“We could fall in love
with a galaxy every day.”
Matthew Fox 50
Write a list today of all the things you love—truly love—that are not people or pets. The oak tree outside your window, the smell of rain, the sight of the first star at dusk. What things move you so deeply you feel centered in yourself and pulled toward God in the same instant?
April 9
“The universe thrives on the edge of a knife. If it increased its strength of expansion it would blow up; if it decreased its strength of expansion it would collapse.”
Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story 51
We exist because space exists. Because of the perfect pull of the moon, which reduces the wobble of the earth, keeping our climates relatively stable. Because of Jupiter’s great mass, which deflects many large bodies from colliding with the earth. Because our planet is poised at just the right distance from a perfectly sized star. We exist because the universe created a planet in a solar system in a galaxy in a universe just right.
Write a song or paint or pray or just sit with the energy this realization brings to you.
April 10
Trees do more than provide shade, wood, and fruit. They transform many forms of energy. They turn sunlight into stored fuel. They act as wind barriers and “convert wind action into ‘soil stirring’ through their roots, aerating the earth for other plants.”52 They collect soil runoff, trap precipitation, and help increase rain and fog. Trees transpire stored precipitation, returning it to the atmosphere. Planting trees stabilizes soil, rain, and energy. It reduces carbon dioxide and pollution. Plant a tree today, or help someone else do so. Notice the roots, branches, bark, and other aspects of the tree; also be aware of the soil into which you plant, and consider how all these aspects will dynamically interact with each other over the next many years.
April 11
In a culture that fears the messiness of nature, it can feel alienating to become a person who sees the Goddess in the natural world. When you find that gardening, raising chickens, putting solar panels on your house, and seeking the company of wild things have become your center, you may feel that others don’t quite understand. And when you begin to weave different spiritual strands into a great garment under which you feel closest to the Divine, you may similarly find yourself feeling alone and misunderstood.
Seek out allies and community through Unitarian churches, healing centers, yoga studios, community gardens, and spiritual book stores. You may also be surprised to find that most people, despite their upbringing and fears, will relate to you on certain key points. Be open to others being open, and magic can happen.
April 12
Some strains of conservationism have preached the idea that our goal in environmental restoration is to return the earth to the pristine Eden it must have been before humans. Since the entire planet has been unalterably changed by our species—and by other species as well—this edict presents an impossible challenge. Instead we can look at the planet as a network of interrelated relationships that can be mindfully enriched. For more on this idea, see The Rambunctious Garden by Emma Marris.
Consider ways in which the land you care for is in relationship with you, and ways you can relate to the plants, animals, stones, and waterways as beings deserving of respect. What do they tell you? What do you tell them?
April 13
If you don’t already get your eggs from a local, free-range source (like the backyard!), pledge to buy those labeled as certified humane, pasture-fed, or at least free-range for at least one week. What do you notice about their consistency, flavor, and color? Organic, free-range eggs have three times the nutrients as conventional eggs. They are less likely to contain salmonella, which grows in the presence of the stress hormone cortisol.53 Most people who have made the switch agree that they also just taste better.
April 14
Save your eggshells for reuse in the garden. Crunch them up and sprinkle onto paths and beds; this deters cats from doing their business in the garden and snails and slugs from eating your plants. Grind them even finer and sprinkle onto tomato plants, who like a lot of calcium. Use half an eggshell as a little seed starter. Rinse out the shell and put it back in the egg carton. Fill with organic potting soil and plant with seeds. When you transplant your seedlings to the garden, gently crack up the shell and plant the whole thing.
April 15
The Celtic month of Saille, or willow, begins today. Willow lives partly in water and partly on land, like frogs and water fowl. It is of the dreamworld (water) and the land of matter (earth); it forms a bridge between this world and the next. Willow branches poked in wet earth can sprout and grow new roots, and willow bark has a natural compound that will help other plants grow roots as well. Soak willow bark, collected with respect for the tree, in water, then water plant cuttings with this solution to encourage them to grow roots.
Those of us who live an earth- and spirit-centered life are bridges between the mainstream culture and a more ecocentric way of living. If you struggle with this task of bridging worlds, call on willow to help guide and strengthen you. Visit her in meditation and ask for her guidance.
April 16
Dandelion greens are high in vitamin A, C, potassium, calcium, iron, and B-complex vitamins. They cleanse the blood, tonify the liver, and aid digestion.
Susun Weed offers a tasty recipe in Healing Wise for dandelion greens, which are best when they first come up in spring before the flowers appear (though you can eat them anytime). Oriental dandelion soup calls for 5 ounces soba noodles, 8 cups dandelion leaves, 1 cup chopped onion, 2 tablespoons dried kelp, 1 tablespoon grated ginger, ½ cup scallion tops, and 3 tablespoons miso diluted in ½ cup water.
Cook soba noodles and chopped dandelion greens in boiling water 10 minutes. Sauté onions in olive oil; add onions and everything else but the miso to the boiling water. Cook 5–10 minutes. Remove from heat, add diluted miso, and enjoy. 54 Your liver will thank you.
April 17
Gardeners and ecologists both are learning that the key to a healthy environment is biodiversity. The web of life is more than the sum of its parts, creating an alchemy beyond simple connections. When planting your garden or helping to plan a community garden or other shared space, include as many species as possible. Include many fruit trees, flowers, grasses, and several native species. Include animals like chickens and bees, and places for wild animals to come enjoy the garden, like a bird bath or sunflowers grown just for the birds. Also consider different heights when planting: tall trees, medium trees, shrubs, flowers, and groundcover, the layering of which creates multiple niches and purposes in the garden.
April 18
The zone theory of permaculture draws concentric circles around the center of the garden—the house or school—and designates each ring a zone. Zone 1, closest to the house (and along well-traveled paths, and not along any side of the house you rarely visit), is where you put things you access daily, like lettuces, tender herbs, the compost pile, the clothes line, etc. Zone 2, farther from the house, contains things you don’t attend daily: dwarf fruit trees, a little pond, a hedge, perennial herbs, and slow-to-mature plants like corn and potatoes. Zone 3 is pasture and large fruit trees, and zone 4 is for growing timber and gathering wild foods; many urban homesteads will not have a zone 3 or 4. Zone 5 is wilderness. Even a small garden should have at least some area dedicated to native plants and space for wildlife.
How can you implement the zone approach to your garden, playground, or home? A simple way is to plant lettuces and herbs just outside the back door, so you can pick them daily and easily reseed when you have room to do so.
April 19
Add color and springiness to salads with violet flowers. Pick several handfuls and sprinkle atop a salad of spring greens. Freeze into ice cubes and add to iced tea, or candy them to decorate cakes or cupcakes.
To candy flowers, wash gently in cool water and spread to dry on paper towels. Make a sugar syrup by dissolving 1 cup sugar in 1½ cups water heated gently on the stove. Dip violets into the syrup using tweezers, then place on waxed paper. Dust dipped flowers with superfine sugar. Snip off any stems with scissors. Let the sugared flowers dry on waxed paper. When dry, add to cakes or store in an airtight glass container in single layers separated by waxed paper.
April 20
What has been calling to you in dreams lately? When you begin to work more closely with the land and see the intrinsic value of nature for its own self, the land will begin to talk to you. Your own nature begins to speak more loudly through dreams, omens, and physical symptoms. Take some time today with a cup of herbal tea and your journal to draw images from your dreams. What are they telling you? If messages are not immediately forthcoming, just let them play at the edge of your consciousness and see what arises spontaneously.
April 21
Today the sun enters the sign of Taurus, which expresses the energies of stability, security, and patience. Venus rules this sign, giving Taureans a love of beauty and luxury. Today would be a good day for a mud bath or a mud mask, reveling in the luxuriant blessings of the earth. Or take some time today to attend to security. In what ways do you feel insecure? Today is a day to organize finances, fix that broken porch step, or refresh any protective wards you have placed on your house. The earth provides us with all our needs. How can you better trust the support of the earth?
April 22
To get a larger yield from your garden (whether you have an acre or a window box), practice succession planting. Each week plant a row of radishes, spinach, lettuces, carrots, or beets. They will mature over a longer period of time, extending your harvest.
For plants that mature all at once, like corn or tomatoes, rather than succession planting, plant different varieties that mature at different times. The back of each seed packet will tell you how many days to maturation; mix different growing lengths to get a longer harvest period.
April 23
Succession planting is a good metaphor for life projects, too. When we plant seeds, sometimes it takes a long time for them to germinate, and we may begin to wonder if they will ever come up at all. When the first seeds germinate, we can wait more patiently for the next week’s planting.
Are there projects you began last fall or winter that are just now germinating? How about seeds planted years ago? I wrote my first book, Sacred Land, when my daughter was a newborn. She took five or six forty-five-minute naps each day, during which I would write. All these little seeds planted over time added up to a book. Several books over many years slowly mature into a career. Take some time today to write about your own seeds waiting beneath the soil or seedlings at different points of sprouting. Seed germination has a lot to teach us about faith.
April 24
Our seedlings all need fertilizer, food made from the death and byproducts of other living things. Dead animals make great fertilizer, available in the forms of fish emulsion and blood meal. I buried the placentas from both of my children under fruit trees, organs which came not from death but life. Menstrual blood and urine watered down also make great fertilizers (see May 14). Compost and worm casings from a worm bin also capitalize on the byproducts of decay and consumption.
Consider what died in your life that fertilized your current projects. Create a ritual today that gives thanks to those deaths—relationships, old parts of yourself, jobs—that fueled who you are today.
April 25
Worm bins are fairly easy to make, and the liquid and solid fertilizers from them are invaluable. A simple worm bin can be made out of two reclaimed dark plastic containers that stack together, like old storage bins. Drill holes in the bottom of one for drainage. Stack them, one inside the other, and drill air holes near the top that go through both containers. Fill the bottom with newspaper and a handful of kitchen waste—peelings, tea bags, too-ripe fruit. Don’t use bread, meat, or citrus. Get some worms from a friend with a bin or purchase red worms at a garden center (earth worms from the garden won’t be happy in garbage—they need soil). Keep feeding them food scraps, adding paper if it gets too wet, and harvest handfuls of castings to put on your plants. Every now and then lift the inside bin up and pour the liquid fertilizer (worm tea) onto plants or into a spray bottle to spray on the leaves of plants, called a foliar feed. For more, see Wiggly Workers by Diane Cheek or Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof, or check out http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/easywormbin.htm.
April 26
Write a letter today to your city council and the local paper supporting greening projects, such as allowing urban chickens, permitting front-yard gardens (which are strangely illegal in many cities), or installing solar panels on the city’s libraries. Focus on educating and polite requests. Speaking out makes a difference. For more on how to encourage change, see “Engaging Local Government in Transition Work” at http://transitionus.org/event/engaging-local-government-transition-work.
April 27
Prayer for the day:
Creator, I give thanks for the areas of my life unfolding. I pray for the grace of understanding as I foray into new phases of life. Rebirth comes with pain as well as joy. Help me to witness the pain without suffering. Help me to allow the joy to fill me up to overflowing. Guide me to the teachers I need. Let my gifts and discoveries flow into the world. Help me to help others as they awaken.
April 28
Another way to fertilize the garden is by growing plants that suck minerals deep from the earth and into their leaves, called nutrient accumulators. When the plant drops leaves or dies in the winter, it provides nutrient-rich mulch that aids its neighbors. Include in your garden comfrey, lamb’s quarters, dandelion, and clover. Many weeds are nutrient accumulators. An easy way to use them as fertilizers is to pull them up (preferably before they produce seed heads) and put them through a chipper or go over them with the lawn mower, then use the resulting mulch on your garden beds.
April 29
Take time today to do nothing. Just sit in the garden or at a favorite park. Spring can be such a busy time as we fertilize, plant, cultivate, write letters, and clean. Take time today to sit outside and ground yourself. Let the earth recharge you. Let your presence simply be in relationship with the land.
April 30
“Thou makest springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills,
they give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild asses quench their thirst.
By them the birds of the air have their habitation;
They sing among the branches.
From thy lofty abode thou waterest the mountains;
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy work.”
Psalm 104
While this psalm was written in Hebrew and directed at the Hebrew God, it reminds me of a couple of goddesses, Danu and Yemoja. Danu, the mother goddess of Ireland, is the patroness of rivers, water, wells, prosperity, plenty, and wisdom. About Yemoja, worshiped in Nigeria, Haiti, Central America, and Cuba, Burleigh Mutén writes, “As a goddess of fresh springs, she rolls over in her sleep and water gushes out of her round body.”55
Today, call on God, Yemoja, Danu, and any other water deity you feel connected to. Call to mind the fallout of climate change and overuse of resources: frequent droughts, melting glaciers and ice caps, drained rivers. Ask that Spirit flow through humanity to restore and rebalance the waters.