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.
Hello Honorable Shamans and Fellow Pagans, welcome, finally, to Dry Season.
To catch you all up a bit, here in the Earthways Shamanic Path, I’m writing about the Seasons from a place-based point of view. I encourage you to really get to know Mother Earth where you live, to learn what the Seasons are where you live, beyond the four known as “Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer.”
Dry Season starts in Southwest Florida in mid-October, and runs till about mid-February. The first obvious marker of Dry Season, is that it stops raining every day. And, it gets markedly less humid in Dry Season. So all the people say, “Ahhhhhh, it is such a nice day out!!!” The light is shifting. Different trees are blooming now, and different fruits and vegetables are growing now. Birds are beginning to migrate here from other places.
Turner Road in Dry Season
And people are migrating here from all over the country. Down here, we call them, Snowbirds. (A Snowbird is different from a Tourist; Snowbirds tend to own property here, and stay for several months, whereas most Tourists rent and don’t stay as long. A lot of people say there are only two seasons in Florida, Tourist Season and Rainy Season. They are missing the nuances.) There is a gradual influx of people until the crescendo in mid-February. By then, our regional population about doubles.
Dry Season in Southwest Florida is marked by a surge in THINGS TO DO. Suddenly, there are festivals all over Florida, every weekend. There are art gallery openings and exhibits and contests. There are plays and concerts. There are fund raising events and college alumni get-togethers. And, because it has stopped raining so much and the weather is more comfortable and less buggy, there are now all kinds of nature-oriented things to do too. People go camping now, and there are swamp-walks and people go star-gazing and kayaking.
While most people were almost in hibernation-mode in their air-conditioned homes and offices during Hurricane Season, now in Dry Season, they can get out and about.
The primary Spiritual aspect of Dry Season is to pace yourself! There is so much to enjoy, and most people can’t do everything. You have to prioritize: you have to decide what’s really important to you, and figure out how much time and other resources ($$$) you have, and do what you can. And, you have to find your way to stay centered. You need to carve out down-time for yourself, to restore your energetic reserves because if you try to do everything, you may tire yourself out.
Although the Earthways Shamanic Path is based in Florida, it can be celebrated anywhere. You just need to explore the magic of your land. What is it saying to you? What are the seasons, where you live? What do they mean to you? How are they celebrated?
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.
The rain storms of Rainy Season are finally coming. And you’ll excuse me if I totally skipped posting about Fire Season this year. We had a lot of household interruptions that were just a bit distracting. We’ve started many projects and in the middle of all that, my computer wasn’t working.
My computer is in a room that is not completely air conditioned. The room gets to about 80 degrees; that’s as cool as I can get it this time of year with fans running. (In late-January/early February, it gets down to about 60 in here.) My computer copes nicely operating in the cold weather, but the heat is another story. The heat wasn’t a problem until about 10 days ago when the afternoon temperature hiked up to 100 degrees and stayed that way for a week. I put a thermometer on top of my computer tower insider the computer stand and was shocked to see the temperature climb up to 98 degrees. I shut it down and called my wonderful computer repair person.
After my wonderful computer repair person installed a new internal fan, and uninstalled the duplicitous antivirus software, I sawed out the back panel of my computer stand, to increase air flow. This was probably funny to watch since I was using a hack saw which has a bowed handle on it. There was a certain point where I had to stop sawing “down,” like the saw is designed to do, and put the saw upside down on the bottom of the kick plate and saw, “up.” This is against the nature of the saw and took twice as much effort.
One of the household projects has caused me to put area rugs outside over tables in the back yard. They were dirty. Now that it is raining almost daily, tomorrow, just before it rains again, will be the perfect time to run outside and grab them.
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.
Since we are up to about the 5th named storm of the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season, I guess it is about time to acknowledge that we may finally be heading into Hurricane Seasonin the Florida Earthways Path. The New Moon was August 9th. {I have been monitoring the coincidence of lunar phases with the changes of the Seasons in the Florida Earthways Path for a few years. That’s a topic for another post…}
I believe that the storms and hurricanes that occur in the earlier part of the Atlantic Hurricane Season, (June-July) are realitively small compared to the ones that develop later in the year. So, that is why I divide the Atlantic Hurricane Season into “Rainy Season,” and “Hurricane Season” in the Florida Earthways Path.
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.”
So, we’ve been in what I call Rainy Season for a few weeks now. Our Rainy Season is typically marked by daily afternoon thunder showers that sweep across the peninsula of Florida on a predictable schedule. This has to do with Florida being a peninsula, and due to the way the winds work. These thunder showers are brief and intense. They cool things down as the winds come ahead of them, and then after it rains it is steamy for a few hours. Ten to twenty years ago, you could set your clock by the time it rained in your neighborhood, it was that predictable. And every neighborhood had a different time for its afternoon rain.
We haven’t gotten into that rhythm yet this year, it is still a little early. And I believe that the entire rhythm has changed because of all the development that has happened. I think you need water to get more water.
Bridgekeeper: Stop. What… is your name? Galahad: Sir Galahad of Camelot. Bridgekeeper: What… is your quest? Galahad: I seek the Grail. Bridgekeeper: What… is your favourite colour? Galahad: Blue. No, yel…
[he is also thrown over the edge] Galahad: auuuuuuuugh.
From, Monty Python’s Holy Grail, as quoted on Internet Movie Database.
I’ll get some photos in here soon, but the Color of Rainy Season, is not Blue like you would expect, but YELLOW. The majority of trees that are flowering now, are doing so in Yellowflowers. All kinds of wildflowers and ground covers are popping up now and they are Yellow. New growth appeares as yellow against a branch of dark green leaves.
The second sound of Rainy Season in Southwest Florida, is a result of the rain, and it is the peeping trill of thousands of frogs. Once the rain comes (and the temperature warms up) the frogs start to sing. Not every area sounds the same. I am sure that different areas have different types of frogs which causes a variation in the sounds of the chorus. And, maybe things like the size of the body of water, and the time of day, are factors in the different sounds.
is in bloom, which animals are present, and, what’s going on in the night sky.
Whale Maiden-Suburban Shaman 