IT IS TIME TO BE SURE WHAT NORMAL IS, as far as daily rain storm patterns. And, seems to me, we have about 10 days left this year, for you to actively study this. We are in Rainy Season right now in Southwest Florida, and very soon, we will find ourselves in the throes of Hurricane Season. (The esteemed scientists at NOAA indicate the Atlantic Hurricane Season runs from June 1 to November 1. But for the purposes of the spiritual work we do in the Earthways Shamanic Path, we identify the start of Rainy Season as June 15th, and the Hurricane Season as August 15th. These are all just dates in calendars, since to be clear, Hurricanes can pop up in the Atlantic, all year.)
At any rate, you need to be paying attention to the timing of the daily thunderstorms, and paying attention to their scale. Each area of Florida has a daily pattern of rain storms. Some areas have morning thunderstorms. Some areas have afternoon thunderstorms. If you’ve lived in Florida for awhile, you may have a sense of the rhythm of the storms.
This is important because, when a Hurricane is approaching, and I mean, when it is up to about 10 days away, it starts pulling weather patterns. The clouds 5 days ahead of a Hurricane, look like they’ve had the life sucked out of them. As an example.
So, learn what normal is, so you can detect shifts which will foretell Hurricanes.
“Share your Peace with Mother Earth and Father Sky and the Big Waters all around us.”
(C) 2018 to present, Whale Maiden for the Earthways Shamanic Path. All rights reserved.
WE ARE WANDERING QUICKLY THROUGH RAINY SEASON, on our way to Hurricane Season.
Rainy Season is an introspective time, a time of respite from the build up of dust from Dry Season, and a relief from the annual increase in population of people to Southwest Florida during Fire Season. It is a time when the animals are migrating, mating, nesting. And we rest: We rest in the shade of lush leaves and fronds which have leapt out in this growing time. It is hot, and it is growing more humid each day and this makes humans feel tired. (Make sure you drink enough water, this helps you deal with humidity.)
Spirituality, this is a time for making connections, and learning from those events, and for personal renewal.
We celebrate family milestones of graduations, marriages, new jobs, and moves across town or aross country, at this time of year. These events present considerable opportunities for personal reflection; be sure to give your self time for that inner work.
Consider what personal goals you have for yourself, and the progress you are making in those goals. Make notes on steps you need to take, to adjust your course.
It’s also a good time to clean your Altar, tidy it up, and check in with your Higher Power and your Guides. It’s always a good idea to check in with Them while things are going well to say thank you for your blessings and bounty. Get grounded through these communications and establish small rituals with them –simple ways to connect with them. Do those little rituals, daily, make them a part of your life. As Rainy Season winds down, it is important to get grooved in to this self care habit, over the next 2 to 3 weeks…
… as the heat and humidity of Rainy Season build up daily, and soon, the Hurricanes will come….
You will be glad you have tended to these self care tasks, and built up your reserves, once Rainy Season rolls into Hurricane Season.
*** We will be having the Hurricane Season ceremony and ritual, on Sunday, August 5th (2018) a little after noon, at the screened porch of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fort Myers.
**** In the Earthways Shamanic Path, we celebrate the Seasons as they unfold in our front yards, so to speak. The area of the world where we make our homes. Our town. In Southwest Florida, we observe the following Seasons: Rainy Season (from June 15th to August 15th), Hurricane Season (from August 15th to October 15th), Dry Season (October 15th to February 15th), and, Fire Season (February 15th to June 15th).
Honorable Shamans and Fellow Pagans, when does one year end and the next begin?
I’ve been looking at the Wheel of the Year here in Southwest Florida for a number of years, and writing about it for about five. I’m trying to “fix” the date when Fire Season “ends,” and Rainy Season “starts.” For a few years, I felt the Seasons changed in mid-April. The rain starts to start in mid-April, in most years. By that I mean, we start to have rain storms in mid-April but they don’t hit their daily stride until mid-June.
This is really important to me because I feel that Rainy Season is the Start of the Year, here in Southwest Florida (as opposed to October 31-Samhain or January 1-New Years). That’s because so many things end in mid-June: people graduate or move.
We recently celebrated Beltane (Beltaine) here on May 1st. That’s a fire celebration. Makes sense that we are in Fire Season from THAT stand point.
I need to step up my phenology studies and really monitor things like what are the average temps, what is in bloom, which animals are present, and, what’s going on in the night sky.
It is mid-August and we are leaving the Rainy Season as celebrated in the Florida Branch of the Earthways Shamanic Path. What have you learned about yourself and your world, in this Rainy Season? Here in Florida, Rainy Season is about cleansing, and restoring your inner spirit. It is a time of planning and contemplation. Yes, it was rainy. Yes, sometimes you have to sit in your car and wait for it to stop raining, yes.It was hot. Yes. It was HUMID. Yes. But the kids went off to camp, the other kids got married, and there were many celebrations to attend to.
And, since it is so hot and rainy, it is a little too hot to get out into the woods, so this is a good time of year to think about what you may want to do, when it gets cooler and dryer. You have time, since that won’t happen for a few months. So, what ideas did you have, while you were sitting on your porch in the morning? Rainy Season is an opportunity to make plans. I hope you put this time to good use.
Because Hurricane Season is just around the corner.
And Honorable Shamans, remember to Share Peace with Our Earth.
Rainy Season: Afternoon thunder shower forming over the Mid-point Bridge from Cape Coral to Fort Myers, FL. June 9, 2015
I think it is FINALLY Rainy Season here in Southwest Florida. I have traditionally marked it as starting June 15th, plus or minus a day or two, since the Earth does wobble a bit on her axis.
It seems to me that this time of year, is the start of the new year, in Southwest Florida. Many Pagans I know, start their year at Samhain (October 31st) when it is said that the the veil between the worlds is thin.
But the way I look at it, this is the start of the new year. This is the time of year when school is out for the summer, and people are graduating, getting married, and moving away. Some people do all of that in a whirlwind week of change. The rest of us, go see them off: we go to graduation ceremonies, to weddings and we help people pack up and move.
In Southwest Florida, all of that is happening as we slog into Rainy Season. When I place an emphasis on “Rainy Season,” I am talking about the Wheel of the Year, in accordance with the weather here in Southwest Florida. (This concordance is in contrast to the Pagan Wheel of the Year celebrated by a lot of pagans: Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Spring Equinox, Beltaine, Summer Solstice, Lunnasagh, and Mabon/Autumnal Equinox.)
Here in Southwest Florida, we have Rainy Season, Hurricane Season, Autumnal Equinox, Dry Season, and, Fire Season. The Solstices and Equinoxes are interspersed in this annual cycle, but I’ll talk about that more, in another post.
After we do all those family rituals and ceremonies, then it is a smart time to do a ceremony to honor the shift of what “was,” and recognize that everything that follows, is new now. In Southwest Florida, the Rain is very cleansing., It usually hasn’t rained a whole lot since about mid-October. The Earth is dry and everything is kind of dusty. The Rains literally wash the dirt away.
Once the daily afternoon thunder showers start happening, here in Southwest Florida, then the accompanying element of Humidity, rears its head. (Humidity is another face of Water.)
In Southwest Florida, our whole way of approaching daily life, changes in Rainy Season. It must, because Rainy Season is characterized by Rain — usually daily afternoon thundershowers, high Humidity, and Heat. We also have a high UV index, because we are so far South, we are in the Tropics.
This time of year, I tend to get up earlier, because I want to get a lot of things done before it gets too humid. I want to sit on the lanai in the morning and bird watch and read Facebook, until it gets too hot to sit out there. I need to do yard work, before it gets too hot. I should run to the grocery store, before it gets too hot. Hmmm, maybe I’ll go to the Beach, before it gets too hot. So, I have to prioritize and decide, before it gets too hot.
This time of year, by about 10:00 AM, it is usually over 80 degrees and Humid. If you can manage it, you don’t run errands from noon until after it has rained. For one thing, it is too hot to be out, if you don’t have to. For another thing, once it starts raining, seems like everybody forgets how to drive on wet/slippery roads. This is a particular problem, because the daily afternoon thunder storms occur during rush hour.
On the other hand, there’s less traffic on the road this time of year because the Snowbirds left just before Easter, and, the Tourists haven’t all arrived yet. {That’s a distinction I’ll save for another post.} So, for a few weeks, the restaurants are less crowded, and so is everything else. It is just hot, and everyone is exclaiming that to each other.
When Rainy Season starts, in Southwest Florida, we do a Water Ceremony. After setting up sacred space, and after acknowledging the Great Spirit and Father Sky, the Big Water, and Mother Earth, and the Four Directions, then we thank the Rains for coming, for without it, we’d all go hungry. We honor the aspect of High Humidity, because that’s about all you CAN do about Humidity. We drink water, to honor the Rains and because this time of year, that’s just smart to stay hydrated.
After the daily afternoon thunder shower, the plants and the Mother Earth usually drink up all the water very quickly, and what wasn’t absorbed gets steamed off…
After it Rains, June 2015.
The point of the Earthways Shamanic Path, is to learn what the natural rhythms are where you live, and then, honor those rhythms. In doing so, you will Share Peace With Our Earth.
We were watching TV last night and there was a big thunderstorm happening in Glades-Hendry and Collier County, with winds gusting to 45 mph. That was interesting enough since it is “Dry Season,” right now and a little early for rain. Not that I’m going to say, “no thank you.”
Then the weather station announced that there is a Tropical Storm developing along the coast of South Carolina. This is the first named storm of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season. This means the ocean temperature has gotten high enough to host storms. (I think it really means that the ocean didn’t cool down much this winter-spring.)
We all need to stay vigilant since it looks like we may have a very strong Hurricane Season.
Ok folks, we know it is HOT here in Southwest Florida and HOT there (I’m pointing to the middle of a little Map of the USA) and we know that this big blob of hot air is moving east (that a way –>) across the USA.
What’s it gonna take to cool it all off? You won’t like this: It will take a Hurricane.
Hurricanes assist the planet in moving hot and cold around. Hot air, hot water. Cold air/ cold water.
We are in Rainy Season which started on Solstice, and we are heading into an early Hurricane Season. So, make sure your Hurricane Plans are up to date.
After the Earth has become so parched as a result of Fire Season, when the Rains come, everything comes alive again and flourishes. Animals attract mates and procreate. Humans are glad to see more light each day and make plans. They make plans to look good for the Summer and they make plans to do things in the Summer.
Remember that symbolically, Dry Season represents the East, Fire Season represents the South, Rainy Season represents the West, Hurricane Season represents the North. The Center is Spirit. Fire Season follows Dry Season. In Dry Season, (Air=Intellect) it is time for new ideas to spring forth as more and more of what was grounded, previously, now symbolically dries up into the Air. So, the Idea is developed in the Dry Season.
In the Rainy Season, the Idea which was formed in the Dry Season, (from the Intellect) and which is developed in the Fire Season (due to Passion and Courage), begins to take hold because we invest our Emotions in the Idea. When you are setting about to make meaningful change in your life, if you do not care about the thing you are changing, you won’t take action.
Water is symbolic of our emotions. WHat do you care about? What replenishes you? What nourishes you? When you think about your idea, how does it make you feel? That is the work of Rainy Season.
In my opinion, the point of following a Path is to bring about positive, meaningful change in your life. This is similar to goal setting, creative visualization, and manifesting desired changes. Keeping in mind that the Seasons follow one after the other, then work we do now, was developed in a previous season. And, whatever we do “now,” lays the groundwork for something we will do “later.”
Well, I haven’t posted much in this Rainy Season because :
1. how many pictures of rain drops do you want to see, really?
2. it has been an unusual Rainy Season (in my terminology) because it isn’t quite following the normal pattern.
I am speaking of the pattern where the day gets hotter and hotter and more and more humid until at about 4:00PM it rains for about 5 minutes, and then the rain stops, the temperature has fallen a bit and, the rain goes somewhere else and rains there for 5 minutes, all along the coast for the rest of the afternoon.
I’m also working in an office with no windows so if it is raining each afternoon, I can’t tell.
Meanwhile, the whole country seems to be experiencing an unusually hot “Summer” season. Is this due to Global Warming or to a natural fluctuation in climate cycles? Or, is Global Warming making our normal cycles, exaggerated? Who really knows?
At any rate, here we are almost at the end of Rainy Season.
Yellow Tree, blossoms full of bees by WhaleMaiden, July 2010
Today is the new Moon, and there is also a Solar Eclipse taking place. Folks in South America are expected to be able to see the Eclipse. I’m going to say ‘see’ with a certain emphasis, since it is important to wear protective eye-wear when viewing an eclipse. (I read this weekend that one does not need to do so during totality…)
At any rate, since Southwest Florida is no where near the Easter Islands, my friends gathered at our favorite spot to have a New Moon meditation for the Solar Eclipse. As it turns out, we didn’t have a large gathering. And, as it turns out we didn’t have a Meditation. Since it is the New Moon, we did work which is called introspective. We saw lots of animals:
We saw a Hawk landing on a power line as we were approaching our place.
Bees of all kinds in the Yellow Tree;
Frogs
Butterflies (Yellow and Monarch)
A large bug with purple body and black legs kept landing on one person.
Dragonfly
a Cricket hopped onto the Blanket; and we could hear cicadas
Spiders
more Hawks
Grasshopper
Brace of medium sized , black birds (there were “5 or 6 or maybe 7.”)
Jay Birds
We worked with a wonderful book called Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams and David Carson, with beautiful illustrations by Angela Werneke. I’ve been working with this book and the totem cards since at least 1990.
We used the Pathway Spread. it consists of 7 cards which signify:
Your Past.
Your Present.
Your Future.
The Pattern or set of life lessons that is moving through your life.
The Challenge you have Conquered or the lesson just Completed.
What is working For you.
What is working Against you.
It was about 90-95 degrees out and we had a nice spot in the shade, which was only a little damp! Initially there was a nice breeze. On our way to where the shady spot is, we walked past this tree with Yellow Flowers. It was full of bees in every imaginable size.
Whale Maiden-Suburban Shaman 