Roses
This was posted on COLOWICCAN in May of 2006, with an invitation to share. I was reminded of it's existance the other day and re-read it, realizing just how relevant it is in my life at the moment.
May you be able to pull from it what you need.
Blessings
Today I pulled on the leather gloves, grabbed the pruning
shears and set out to see to my poor neglected rose bushes. The day
was warm and the sun caressed my skin and the smell of daffodils and
cherry and Crab apple blossoms filled the air.
I began to snip away the dead branches, then the unpleasant
task of disentangling that which needed to come away from the grasp
of the still living pieces. This was when the thorns inadvertently
would pierce my gloves as I twisted, pulled and tugged the dead
stuff free.
Here and there I had to prune green shoots. The roses were
growing in the wrong direction, either hedging out other plants or
creating obstacles in the paths or rubbing against the walls.
One of my darling children asked me "Does that hurt them?"
I tried to be all scientific and explain that plants did not have
nerves per se, and that I was doing them a favor, and all the books
say when you trim back certain plants they grow back stronger and
healthier than before. I was doing them a favor by getting rid of
the useless material and keeping them from going places they did not
belong.
The response was "It LOOKS like it would hurt."
She ran off to play and I sat and thought a bit while trying
to riddle out a Gordian knot of a green thorny rose branch
intertwined with a brittle brown dead one, I thought how much like
our lives this was.
We grow rather wild, seeking our needs, the human
equivalent of sun, water and nutrients, while rarely thinking about
our growth and where it is taking us.
When we put ourselves on a magickal path, we in a way
accept a certain amount of domestication. We allow that the Deity,
Deities, or even our Higher Self or the Universe will assist in our
growth. For me I allowed myself to be planted in the nurturing soil
of the Green Lady's garden, and to be warmed by the rich life giving
sun of the Horned God. I put myself in their care and asked for
their guidance and training.
There have been times that they have come to trim away the
dead bits. It shouldn't hurt, I mean it's all for my own good, but I
did not always see it that way. I wound my tendrils tight around the
old parts, clinging to them with a blind tenacity that I needed them
simply because they were MINE! Dead relationships, friends who were
using me and abusing me, jobs, organizations, habits I no longer
needed, all of these things they tried to take away and I resisted.
Here I have visualized the Lord coming with gusto armed with axe and
saw, while the lady follows with prim silver shears and an eye
towards aesthetics.
They snip away the parts that we no longer need, and as they
pull them away, in our anger and ignorance we inadvertently wound
them. We lash out in anger at the Powers that Be who would be so
cruel and would steal from us these things we have had for so long,
things we THINK we need, or love, or cannot do without.
Just as I did not ravage my roses when the thorns pricked
me, neither do our Lord and lady punish us when we sting them with
our human pettiness. As a rose grows older, I notice the thorns get
larger and further apart, and the older roses are easier to work
with. I hope that I no longer perforate the gardeners as they aid me.
Sometimes the gardeners have to stop us from growing in the
wrong directions; places where we might impair others, or get too
close to things that are not good for us. Then too might we feel
thwarted. A relationship that ends abruptly, a sudden change in a
career path, all of these things can be the Great Gardeners ways of
telling us we are growing the wrong direction. When things like this
happen, do not rail against the heavens and the imagined cruel whims
of the Gods. Instead meditate and ask why such a thing has come to
pass. Know the answer might not be apparent this growing season. So
many times when this has happened to me it has taken years to truly
understand why a door was closed or something seemed to prevent me
from going a certain way. Sometimes we are ignorant of the world
around us, and do not realize that heading for a sunny spot may not
be in our long term best interest!
Sometimes They decide we must be "trimmed back" so as to
better thrive. It may seem like a setback, a catastrophe, the Tower
Card; and a weaker plant could decide to just shrivel up and perish,
but the strong ones bounce back, more lush and more powerful than
before.
It might hurt a bit to get trimmed, but later you look back
and realize it was for the best. At times even sickness, or periods
of intense stress, grief, or loss can cause us to take stock and go
back to the fray renewed and ready for more.
Being the good Gardeners they are, the Gods do not dispose
of what they have taken, instead they compost it, and return it to
you in a new nurturing form. The abusive boyfriend is cut away to
make room for the new lover who honors and respects you. The job
that made you crazy ends so that you'll take initiative to go out
and find a better paying, more rewarding one, a step you'd have
never taken without having the "safe but miserable" one end.
Look back on your life now and each of you can think of at least one
thing that you were so very sad to see go, and perhaps railed
against the loss, only months or years later to say "Wow losing that
was the best thing that ever happened to me! With that in my life I
could have never had the time, energy, determination, will, or
knowledge to have the wonderful thing I have now."
As the Beltaine season is upon us, I hope each of you grows strong
and tall. Accept that the Gardeners you have given yourself over to,
even if it is just your Higher Self can see the WHOLE garden and not
just the little patch you are on. Their care shapes the whole plot
to live and grow in harmony. Trust that sometimes THEY know what you
need better than you might!
Blessed be
Les Beltaine 2006
Feel free to share if you wish
May you be able to pull from it what you need.
Blessings
Today I pulled on the leather gloves, grabbed the pruning
shears and set out to see to my poor neglected rose bushes. The day
was warm and the sun caressed my skin and the smell of daffodils and
cherry and Crab apple blossoms filled the air.
I began to snip away the dead branches, then the unpleasant
task of disentangling that which needed to come away from the grasp
of the still living pieces. This was when the thorns inadvertently
would pierce my gloves as I twisted, pulled and tugged the dead
stuff free.
Here and there I had to prune green shoots. The roses were
growing in the wrong direction, either hedging out other plants or
creating obstacles in the paths or rubbing against the walls.
One of my darling children asked me "Does that hurt them?"
I tried to be all scientific and explain that plants did not have
nerves per se, and that I was doing them a favor, and all the books
say when you trim back certain plants they grow back stronger and
healthier than before. I was doing them a favor by getting rid of
the useless material and keeping them from going places they did not
belong.
The response was "It LOOKS like it would hurt."
She ran off to play and I sat and thought a bit while trying
to riddle out a Gordian knot of a green thorny rose branch
intertwined with a brittle brown dead one, I thought how much like
our lives this was.
We grow rather wild, seeking our needs, the human
equivalent of sun, water and nutrients, while rarely thinking about
our growth and where it is taking us.
When we put ourselves on a magickal path, we in a way
accept a certain amount of domestication. We allow that the Deity,
Deities, or even our Higher Self or the Universe will assist in our
growth. For me I allowed myself to be planted in the nurturing soil
of the Green Lady's garden, and to be warmed by the rich life giving
sun of the Horned God. I put myself in their care and asked for
their guidance and training.
There have been times that they have come to trim away the
dead bits. It shouldn't hurt, I mean it's all for my own good, but I
did not always see it that way. I wound my tendrils tight around the
old parts, clinging to them with a blind tenacity that I needed them
simply because they were MINE! Dead relationships, friends who were
using me and abusing me, jobs, organizations, habits I no longer
needed, all of these things they tried to take away and I resisted.
Here I have visualized the Lord coming with gusto armed with axe and
saw, while the lady follows with prim silver shears and an eye
towards aesthetics.
They snip away the parts that we no longer need, and as they
pull them away, in our anger and ignorance we inadvertently wound
them. We lash out in anger at the Powers that Be who would be so
cruel and would steal from us these things we have had for so long,
things we THINK we need, or love, or cannot do without.
Just as I did not ravage my roses when the thorns pricked
me, neither do our Lord and lady punish us when we sting them with
our human pettiness. As a rose grows older, I notice the thorns get
larger and further apart, and the older roses are easier to work
with. I hope that I no longer perforate the gardeners as they aid me.
Sometimes the gardeners have to stop us from growing in the
wrong directions; places where we might impair others, or get too
close to things that are not good for us. Then too might we feel
thwarted. A relationship that ends abruptly, a sudden change in a
career path, all of these things can be the Great Gardeners ways of
telling us we are growing the wrong direction. When things like this
happen, do not rail against the heavens and the imagined cruel whims
of the Gods. Instead meditate and ask why such a thing has come to
pass. Know the answer might not be apparent this growing season. So
many times when this has happened to me it has taken years to truly
understand why a door was closed or something seemed to prevent me
from going a certain way. Sometimes we are ignorant of the world
around us, and do not realize that heading for a sunny spot may not
be in our long term best interest!
Sometimes They decide we must be "trimmed back" so as to
better thrive. It may seem like a setback, a catastrophe, the Tower
Card; and a weaker plant could decide to just shrivel up and perish,
but the strong ones bounce back, more lush and more powerful than
before.
It might hurt a bit to get trimmed, but later you look back
and realize it was for the best. At times even sickness, or periods
of intense stress, grief, or loss can cause us to take stock and go
back to the fray renewed and ready for more.
Being the good Gardeners they are, the Gods do not dispose
of what they have taken, instead they compost it, and return it to
you in a new nurturing form. The abusive boyfriend is cut away to
make room for the new lover who honors and respects you. The job
that made you crazy ends so that you'll take initiative to go out
and find a better paying, more rewarding one, a step you'd have
never taken without having the "safe but miserable" one end.
Look back on your life now and each of you can think of at least one
thing that you were so very sad to see go, and perhaps railed
against the loss, only months or years later to say "Wow losing that
was the best thing that ever happened to me! With that in my life I
could have never had the time, energy, determination, will, or
knowledge to have the wonderful thing I have now."
As the Beltaine season is upon us, I hope each of you grows strong
and tall. Accept that the Gardeners you have given yourself over to,
even if it is just your Higher Self can see the WHOLE garden and not
just the little patch you are on. Their care shapes the whole plot
to live and grow in harmony. Trust that sometimes THEY know what you
need better than you might!
Blessed be
Les Beltaine 2006
Feel free to share if you wish