Coming Back to Life

"I was staring straight into the shining sun."

The above quote is from the Pink Floyd song "Coming Back to Life."  While the majority of the lyrics may not necessarily tie in, there are moments in that song that keep coming to mind at this time of year.  This is a time of year when even those like myself, who admittedly lean more toward the darker side of life, cannot help but feel the energy in the air and give into the giddy thrill of it all. Spring has officially sprung, and seemingly overnight the earth has been covered in a carpet of lush greenery.  To me, it is the absolute essence of magic to watch as things that once appeared dead spring back to life.  Watching as the first flowers bloom, listening as the first birds sing, smiling as the first frogs croak...it all fills me with such a deep sense of the power of this earth, and reminds me why my spiritual path could be nothing other than a nature religion.

To me, it is such a magical time to be a Witch.  In my tradition, the time between Ostara and Beltane is when we observe the Greening of the Earth, and it's the time of the beginning of spring, of national Arbor Day, of Earth Day, and of the earth physically transforming itself and donning its annual splendor.  During this time, covens and solitaries in my tradition all do their part to put a little energy toward the health, healing, strength, and transformation of the earth.  This annual observance is a tradition that really helps to connect me to this time of life, growth, and newness.  I need that balance.  I need to be forced out of my normally solemn and hard-nosed nature...forced to wear pastel floral prints, hunt colored eggs, and dance around with flowers in my hands at Ostara...forced to play the part of the coy maiden and weave colored ribbons around the maypole at Beltane...forced to cater to the delicate nature of baby seedling plants.  I tend to resonate so deeply with the height of intensity, whether it's the crazy wild intensity of the summer heat that leaves me feeling just shy of spontaneous combustion, or the deep woeful intensity of the barren winter that threatens nearly every year to carry me right down into the Underworld. Without the balance of the light-hearted energy of this season, I would simply take life way too seriously!

So here's to the stirrings of your inner child at Ostara, the wild frenzy of hormones at Beltane, and all the magic of the Greening of the Earth!