Vernal Equinox Celebration

Spring Equinox Celebration, March 20, 2015

Karen is headed up today to visit a sacred location at a campground by the McCloud River, in the Shasta Lake area.  She is going with four members of her Reiki Group - a Metaphysical Club with New Age and Neo-pagan roots.  

"Oh, what a catastrophe for man when he cut himself off from the rhythm of the year, from his unison with the sun and the earth.  Oh, what a catastrophic ...  This is what is the matter with us.  We are bleeding at the roots, because we are cut off from the earth and sun and starts ...  We plucked it from its stem on the Tree of Life, and expected it to keep on blooming in our civilized vase on the table."
-  D. H. Lawrence 

Spring Equinox Celebrations of NeoPaganism

Spring: Poetry, Quotes, Sayings

March: Poetry, Quotes, Sayings

The Green Man: Myths, Legends, Lore

Seasons and Months

One Old Druid's Final Journey

Taoism

The Green Man: Myths, Legends, Lore

 

Quinquatria, Roman Festival in honor of Minerva, March 19 - March 23.  Minerva is the Roman Goddess, and the Greek Goddess with similar attributes is Athena, Patron of Athens.  This ancient Goddess is associated with civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, poetry, weaving, magic, music, crafts, justice, and skills.  Her totem is the owl.  She is a virgin goddess, Pallas Athena, where she is one of three virgin goddesses along with Artemis and Hestia, known by the Romans as Diana and Vesta.  Minerva/Athna is featured on the great seal of the State of California.

March Gardening Chores

A repost from March 9, 2015:  

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA

USDA Zone 9

 

Typical Weather for Our Area   Normally, in March, we have daytime high temperatures of 64ºF, nighttime low temperatures of 42ºF, and we get 2.7 inches of rain.

Red Bluff Gardening Notebooks of Karen and Mike Garofalo

March:  Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore

Spring Equinox Celebrations

Spring:  Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore

Gardening:  A Somaesthetic Practice


March Photographs by Karen Garofalo

March Gardening Chores in Red Bluff

Browsing and ordering from seed and garden catalogs.
Planting potted trees and shrubs.  
Placing cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas or indoors.
Pruning and mulching dormant trees and vines. 
Repairing and sharpening tools.
Fertilizing with 16-16-16 or manure. 
Planting seeds in containers in the greenhouse.
Planting some vegetable starts in the ground.
Watering as needed.
Removing deadwood from trees and shrubs. 
Moving bulbs. 
Raking up fallen twigs and branches.
Weeding around the base of small trees and shrubs.
Mowing and weeding as needed.
Cleaning and repairing drip irrigation lines. 
Making up To Do lists. 
Spring Cleaning inside the house. 
Spraying dormant trees and shrubs. 
Painting fences and art objects as needed. 
Bringing spring flowers indoors to enjoy. 
Developing Spring Resolutions for personal improvements. 
Fixing up lawn mowers and other power tools for outdoor work.   
Sharpening and oiling hand tools. 
Home improvement projects. 
Roto-tilling and double digging as needed. 
Updating March and Spring webpages. 
Reading, reading, reading.


Karen Garofalo took all the photographs shown below at our home in Red Bluff, California.

Vernal Equinox

A Repost from 2017

This will be our last Spring Season living in beautiful Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California. We will be moving to the City of Vancouver, Washington State, on April 14, 2017.

"Here the white-ray'd anemone is born,
Wood-sorrel, and the varnish'd buttercup;
And primrose in its purfled green swathed up,
Pallid and sweet round every budding thorn,
Gray ash, and beech with rusty leaves outworn.
Here, too the darting linnet hath her nest
In the blue-lustred holly, never shorn,
Whose partner cheers her little brooding breast,
Piping from some near bough. O simple song!
O cistern deep of that harmonious rillet,
And these fair juicy stems that climb and throng
The vernal world, and unexhausted seas
Of flowing life, and soul that asks to fill it,
Each and all of these,--and more, and more than these!"
- William Allingham, In a Spring Grove

"The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month."
- Henry Van Dyke, Fisherman's Luck

"The air and the earth interpenetrated in the warm gusts of spring; the soil was full of sunlight, and the sunlight full of red dust. The air one breathed was saturated with earthy smells, and the grass under foot had a reflection of the blue sky in it."
- Willa Cather

"I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils."
- William Wordsworth

Spring: Quotations, Sayings, Lore, Poetry

The Spirit of Gardening: 3,800 Quotations

Months and Seasons

Rising Up with Oestre

Who can resist the rising energy of Springtime?  Plants resurrecting themselves from the barren, seemingly dead, chilly winter silence.  Amazing!  Profound! Thankfully, Endless!  

Spring Quotations

March Quotations

Spring Equinox Celebrations

We enjoy a secular and pagan version of the Easter holiday: colored eggs, bunnies, chocolate, sumptuous meals, family and friends gathering, games, Springtime themes, fun.  


Since I am not a Christian, Judeo-Christian mythology holds little interest for me; I favor Greek, NeoPagan, and Chinese mythologies.  All have tales of creatures and beings rising from the dead, defeating death, resurrecting, fertilizing, born and reborn, Emergent, living on, Transmigration, in the springtime of your life, Springtime in California.  

"Easter is named for a Saxon goddess who was known by the names of Oestre or Eastre, and in Germany by the name of Ostara. She is a goddess of the dawn and the spring, and her name derives from words for dawn, the shining light arising from the east. Our words for the "female hormone" estrogen derives from her name. Ostara was, of course, a fertility goddess. Bringing in the end of winter, with the days brighter and growing longer after the vernal equinox, Ostara had a passion for new life. Her presence was felt in the flowering of plants and the birth of babies, both animal and human. The rabbit (well known for its propensity for rapid reproduction) was her sacred animal. Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny both featured in the spring festivals of Ostara, which were initially held during the feasts of the goddess Ishtar | Inanna. Eggs are an obvious symbol of fertility, and the newborn chicks an adorable representation of new growth. Brightly colored eggs, chicks, and bunnies were all used at festival time to express appreciation for Ostara's gift of abundance."
- Easter History  

"Fertility rights are ceremonies of a magic-religious nature performed to ensure the perpetuation of mankind and to control the environment. Expressed as invocations, incantations, prayers, hymns, processions, dances, and sacred dramas, these liturgical endeavors were, and still are, believed to be closely connected with the mechanisms of nature. The basis for such rites is usually a belief in sympathetic magic - that is magic worked on one level to have an effect on a different level, and based on the assumption that life and fertility, whether animal or vegetable, are one and indivisible. If such fertility rites could induce fertility in the animal and human worlds, then the vegetable world would also be stimulated to reproduction, resulting in an abundant harvest."
-  Robert Ellison, The Solitary Druid, p. 130

Spring Around the Corner

"The Green Fire
Aengus is a deathless comrade of the Spring, and we may well pray to him to let his green fire move in our veins."-  Fiona MacLeod, "The Birds of Aengus Og"

Aengus Ma Og is the Irish deity whose spirit inhabits the megalithic monument of Newgrange in the Boyne Valley of Ireland.  His hostel on the banks of the Boyne is a traditional entrance to the otherworld, a place where souls congregate and rest.  In their soul's circuit, several Irish heroes and heroines have become lost or disorientated.  It is within Aengus's care that they are given time to recover.  

Birds and other animals begin to choose their mates as the growing year burgeons strongly in the strengthening sunlight.  The green fire that runs all over the earth is sparked by this very sunlight and the deep germinating power of the earth.  When plants reach toward the sunlight, the red, violet, and blue bands of the light spectrum activate the chlorophyll pigment within each leaf so that it reflects green.  This pigment alters as the year progresses, causing the leaves to change color, but from this time forward  the medley of greens is apparent.  

This green fire is also within us - not in our physical bodies, as it is in plants, but in our emotional and creative lives.  Spring fever has many manifestations, some almost hormonal.  The creative urge of spring brings into being much verse, for example, as our emotional upheavals reach out for fresh life and vigor.  To experience the green fire and answer to its call is to commune with the green vigor of Aengus.  

Where is the green fire in your own life at this time?  Take your emotional and creative temperature; then give yourself over to something pleasurable and enlivening this week."  

-  Caitlin Matthews, The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year, 1999, p. 159; Meditation for March 29th.  

March Holidays and Religious Celebrations

March Poetry and Lore  

March - The Master of Winds

"I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."
-  William Wordsworth, Daffodils


"Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell,
       and the splendor of winter had passed out of sight,
The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger
       than dreams that fulfill us in sleep with delight;
The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops
       and branches that glittered and swayed
Such wonders and glories of blossom like snow
       or of frost that outlightens all flowers till it fade
That the sea was not lovelier than here was the land,
       nor the night than the day, nor the day than the night,
Nor the winter sublimer with storm than the spring:
       such mirth had the madness and might in thee made,
March, master of winds, bright minstrel and marshal of storms
        that enkindle the season they smite."
-  Algernon C. Swinburne, March: An Ode


March: Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore

The Spirit of Gardening

Springtime Celebration

Spring Equinox Celebration, March 20, 2016

"Oh, what a catastrophe for man when he cut himself off from the rhythm of the year, from his unison with the sun and the earth.  Oh, what a catastrophic ...  This is what is the matter with us.  We are bleeding at the roots, because we are cut off from the earth and sun and starts ...  We plucked it from its stem on the Tree of Life, and expected it to keep on blooming in our civilized vase on the table."

-  D. H. Lawrence 

Spring Equinox Celebrations of NeoPaganism

Spring: Poetry, Quotes, Sayings

March: Poetry, Quotes, Sayings

The Green Man: Myths, Legends, Lore

Seasons and Months

One Old Druid's Final Journey

Taoism

The Green Man: Myths, Legends, Lore

Quinquatria, Roman Festival in honor of Minerva, March 19 - March 23.  Minerva is the Roman Goddess, and the Greek Goddess with similar attributes is Athena, Patron of Athens.  This ancient Goddess is associated with civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, poetry, weaving, magic, music, crafts, justice, and skills.  Her  totem is the owl.  She is a virgin goddess, Pallas Athena, where she is one of three virgin goddesses along with Artemis and Hestia, known by the Romans as Diana and Vesta.  Minerva/Athna is featured on the great seal of the State of California.

March Gardening Chores

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USAUSDA Zone 9

Lately, we have had lots of rain in the valley and snow in the mountains.  This week, thus far, 4 inches of rain has fallen.  Snow levels are down to 4,000 feet in the Yolla Bolly's to the west, the southern Cascades to the east, the Trinity Alps in the northwest, and Mt. Shasta to the north.  More rain and snow are expected for the next six days.   Consequently, little gardening activity outside for a week or two because of our soaked clay soils.  The next photograph, taken in 1/2012, shows how the snow covered Yolla Bolly's look from our backyard. This mountain range is about 30 miles to the west of our home.

Typical Weather for Our Area   Normally, in March, we have daytime high temperatures of 64ºF, nighttime low temperatures of 42ºF, and we get 2.7 inches of rain.

Red Bluff Gardening Notebooks of Karen and Mike Garofalo

March:  Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore

Spring Equinox Celebrations

Spring:  Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore

Gardening:  A Somaesthetic Practice


March Photographs by Karen Garofalo

March Gardening Chores in Red Bluff

Browsing and ordering from seed and garden catalogs.
Planting potted trees and shrubs.  
Placing cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas or indoors.
Pruning and mulching dormant trees and vines. 
Repairing and sharpening tools.
Fertilizing with 16-16-16 or manure. 
Planting seeds in containers in the greenhouse.
Planting some vegetable starts in the ground.
Watering as needed.
Removing deadwood from trees and shrubs. 
Moving bulbs. 
Raking up fallen twigs and branches.
Weeding around the base of small trees and shrubs.
Mowing and weeding as needed.
Cleaning and repairing drip irrigation lines. 
Making up To Do lists. 
Spring Cleaning inside the house. 
Spraying dormant trees and shrubs. 
Painting fences and art objects as needed. 
Bringing spring flowers indoors to enjoy. 
Developing Spring Resolutions for personal improvements. 
Fixing up lawn mowers and other power tools for outdoor work.   
Sharpening and oiling hand tools. 
Home improvement projects. 
Roto-tilling and double digging as needed. 
Updating March and Spring webpages. 
Reading, reading, reading.


Karen Garofalo took all the photographs shown below at our home in Red Bluff, California.

Sunsets and Spring Blossoms

Karen's photos from our back yard looking to the west at sunset; and, a crab apple tree in bloom.

Spirit of Gardening

Spring Equinox Celebration

Photographs by Karen Garofalo

One Old Druid's Final Journey

Happy New Year!

In China, they celebrate the New Year, in 2015, from February 18th to February 24th.

Kick up your heels, celebrate, be positive, be hopeful, smile, laugh, share, hug ...

Clean your house thoroughly for this celebration.  Have the kitchen well stocked.

Remember all the valuable contributions and good deeds of your family and your Ancestors.  

Avoid conversations about the saddening and negative aspects of life during this time. 

This year, the honored animal is the sheep or goat.

Happy New Year Greeting in Mandarin Chinese:  xin nian kuai le! (sing nee-ann koo-why ler) 

 

Both Easter and the Chinese New Year, set according to lunar and solar calendar calculations, arrive as the Spring season is beginning.  Where I live in Northern California, Spring sights and sounds are arriving a bit early this year because it has been a warm dry winter season. Many trees near our home are in full bloom: almonds, apricots, and plums. 

Bejing, China, is located about the same latitude (40N) as where I live in Red Bluff, California. 

The plum tree originated in China.  Many cultivars and varieties of plums have been developed over many centuries.  What a wonderful gift to the world of agriculture!

 

In my back yard, in full bloom right now, is a Santa Rosa Plum tree.  It has white blossoms.  In 1906, Luther Burbank developed this plum tree variety.  

March: Poems, Quotes, Sayings, Lore.  Compiled by Mike Garofalo.

 

 

 

March, Master of Winds

"I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."
-  William Wordsworth, Daffodils


"Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell,
       and the splendor of winter had passed out of sight,
The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger
       than dreams that fulfill us in sleep with delight;
The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops
       and branches that glittered and swayed
Such wonders and glories of blossom like snow
       or of frost that outlightens all flowers till it fade
That the sea was not lovelier than here was the land,
       nor the night than the day, nor the day than the night,
Nor the winter sublimer with storm than the spring:
       such mirth had the madness and might in thee made,
March, master of winds, bright minstrel and marshal of storms
        that enkindle the season they smite."
-  Algernon C. Swinburne, March: An Ode

March: Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore

The Spirit of Gardening

The Green Fire

"The Green Fire
Aengus is a deathless comrade of the Spring, and we may well pray to him to let his green fire move in our veins."
-  Fiona MacLeod, "The Birds of Aengus Og"

Aengus Ma Og is the Irish deity whose spirit inhabits the megalithic monument of Newgrange in the Boyne Valley of Ireland.  His hostel on the banks of the Boyne is a traditional entrance to the otherworld, a place where souls congregate and rest.  In their soul's circuit, several Irish heroes and heroines have become lost or disorientated.  It is within Aengus's care that they are given time to recover.  

Birds and other animals begin to choose their mates as the growing year burgeons strongly in the strengthening sunlight.  The green fire that runs all over the earth is sparked by this very sunlight and the deep germinating power of the earth.  When plants reach toward the sunlight, the red, violet, and blue bands of the light spectrum activate the chlorophyll pigment within each leaf so that it reflects green.  This pigment alters as the year progresses, causing the leaves to change color, but from this time forward  the medley of greens is apparent.  

This green fire is also within us - not in our physical bodies, as it is in plants, but in our emotional and creative lives.  Spring fever has many manifestations, some almost hormonal.  The creative urge of spring brings into being much verse, for example, as our emotional upheavals reach out for fresh life and vigor.  To experience the green fire and answer to its call is to commune with the green vigor of Aengus.  

Where is the green fire in your own life at this time?  Take your emotional and creative temperature; then give yourself over to something pleasurable and enlivening this week."  

-  Caitlin Matthews, The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year, 1999, p. 159; Meditation for March 29th.  

March Holidays and Religious Celebrations

March Poetry and Lore