Seed Moon is New

I am late in posting this month and the Seed Moon grows older every day. Again, we've had lovely clear weather here in Portland and I have been able to watch her as she grows each night from a little sliver to a happy plump crescent.

Annette Hinshaw calls this moon, the moon of the spring equinox, the Seed Moon and relates it to energies of starting projects. Seeds must grow, they must start, but a seeds "decision" to grow is a very chancy one, when you think about it. It was safe, warm, secure there in the seed coat. Once the seed starts growing it can't go back, but the wild world is very unsafe for a little seedling. What if a late frost or an early hailstorm happens? What if a young bunny thinks it looks delicious and takes a nibble? Or perhaps an unseasonable dry spell robs the young plant of the water it needs to grow? Oh, it was so much safer back inside the seed.

We humans face that problem too. Some mornings even getting out of bed seems like a herculean task. Lets not even talk about cleaning the bathroom or finishing that crochet project you started last fall. But beginning is something we must do, just as the seed must start to grow. In order to fulfill the potential we have within us we must find the courage to take that first step. Annette Hinshaw talks about how sometimes failure to begin is due to fear of failing and how sometimes it is due to fear of unintended consequences. I like to think that if we can find the courage to start then God will help guide what comes next.

Somethings, however, are a pleasure to start. Last weekend I did a lot of prep work in my garden to get it ready for planting next week. I also started out a new chapter of my life with a new housemate. It's been fun getting to know a new person and rearranging the house to fit his things and his life into a place so full of my things and my life.

Spring is a great time for new beginnings and I am enjoying watching everything burst into greens and yellows. The other day I took an early spring herb walk and was so happy to find little baby plants popping up all over the place. I was specifically looking for nettles but found lots more. Susun Weed, a master herbalist and wise woman healer, speaks at length of the nutritional qualities of nettle. She advocates making a nettle infusion to get your daily dose of minerals and vitamins from the plant world. I will soon go back up the trail and harvest the nettles I found after they've had a chance to grow up a bit.

I'll leave you with a poem I found recently that seems to speak perfectly to the themes of the Seed Moon. Trepidation at starting, anticipation of new beginnings and sheer joy at the physicality of spring!

Horses In the Spring

by Connie Wanek
photo by patmueller

Beware too much happiness!

The horses paused suspiciously before the open door,

snorting and stamping, while sunlight poured

onto the cold cement. They smelled snow

in the barn's shadow, mud along the south wall,

matted grass in the thawing pasture.

Their nostrils flared and their ears

lay back, then pricked forward, far forward,

and they stretched their elegant necks
as if the world were offering thema slice of sweet apple,

or something even more pure, on an open palm.....