The Season of Growth and Change

It's that time of year again. Beltane is but one week away, that halfway point between the Spring Equinox (Ostara) and the Summer Solstice (Litha). We are in the middle of spring here in the Northern Hemisphere and all around me the earth is coming back to life with flowers growing and trees budding. The air has grown substantially warmer overall but because I live in the highly bipolar state of Ohio, it could just as easily snow tomorrow as it could be seventy degrees. But overall, I can feel, smell, and see Spring all around me. Fall is my favorite season but Spring is a close second. And Beltane is one of my favorite Sabbats. It is so light, airy, carefree and fun. It is much like the season it honors. Though I have only recently paused to think about it, I have realized that I look forward to Beltane more and more each year. Like Ostara, it is a celebration that also reminds me to look at my life and apply the lessons of Spring. Spring is about change through growth. It's about budding possibilities and sowing to reap later. It's about beginnings. And who doesn't love a new beginning?

So what do I want to plant in my life? That's something I've focused a lot of thought on since Ostara. My life has already undergone quite a bit of change since this year began. I have been lucky in love but unlucky with writing. I am doing well in my work for my Master's degree in Psychology but I am bored to death with all of it. And now that I am twenty-seven years old, I am feeling pressure from myself to decide the long-term path I want to walk on but that's not a major shift as I am someone who always lives for tomorrow instead of today. As I looked at all of this, what I have and what I want, I decided that the first thing I want to do is go back to self-publishing. Part of my writer's block stems from pure frustration. My books that I've given life to have no place to go and the longer I waste time on an ideal, the longer I waste time that could be spent on a realistic not-so-terrible solution. I'm in a better place than I was when I tried this three years ago. I also have different expectations. And this time it feels less like resignation. I feel good about the idea. 
      I have considered the possibility of joining a group of some kind related to my Craft for the past couple of years. I've been solitary the entire time I've been a witch. And to be honest, even as I was pondering a group I never considered a coven. But I was longing for a group that I could join to just discuss what we do and how we do it, to support one another, to have the benefits of a coven without the bullshit. I don't mean to offend anyone who happens to be in a coven. I am sure for many witches it is the ideal way to practice. But I am not just solitary in my practice, I am solitary by nature so you can imagine how well I might do in a coven setting. For two years I have followed the channel of a woman on youtube who has been a witch for over forty years. I love her videos, I love listening to her experiences, and I love hearing the way witches worshiped before learning from books was really an option. A couple of weeks ago I saw a video she posted talking about groups she has set up for a Year and Day program and it seemed like an answer to my strange new desire to join something...lol I will be starting the class online the first week of May (I believe). I hope that this will balance out my current learning situation. I am having trouble finding interest in the psychology classes I am in but I must take them and hopefully I will find joy in learning what Anni has to teach in her Grey Stone Path.  In case you are interested, here is a video where she explains the program and the time limit to join.

In addition to any changes and growth I am trying to bring into my life, we are experiencing all sorts of interesting things via the universe right now. There was the lunar eclipse last week (I couldn't see it because of the snow clouds here but some of the pictures I saw were gorgeous), there is the Cardinal Cross that began this past Monday (for more about that: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/horoscopes/grand-cardinal-cross-2014-transformation-challenge-article-1.1702883 ), a partial solar eclipse on April 29, and retros beginning for Neptune and Mercury in June. Our skies are busy, busy this season. It is a good time for change. It is an exciting time. And I, for one, intend to embrace it all with open arms. 

No matter what you are doing this Spring, whether you are actively creating change or just going with the flow, I wish you luck with all of it. And I hope that each day, good and bad, you are all remembering to smile. :)