I don’t know much about astrology but for what affects me as a Gemini; this is probably oober childish, yet I really don’t care… the ‘house of Taurus’ ought to be passing through soon. Though I suppose it’s more accurate to say that we will be the ones passing through, riding time and all that.
Taurus is stubborn, relentless, pushy and often closed-minded in our experience—as far as people born within that house. Even Squeaks here is predicted to have been born 8th of April and he's a menace when he doesn't get what he wants. When that time of the year is here for everyone, it brings with it many of the energetic waves that theoretically impact people in different ways. Perhaps you decide not to compromise on something, this is likely Taurus-inspired.
In this part of the world, April can bring a lot of rain—I remember the rhyme “April showers bring May flowers” but the past years it’s less ‘showers’ and more ‘days of downpours’ which can bring more flooding than flowers.
Though perhaps I can use some of that relentless energy to finish a project we started; I’ll do what I can to include a foto. The project is simple enough to describe; we have this one hedge-apple tree we’ve been clearing around, for a few reasons. A top reason is I need to have some dialog with this tree because it doesn’t make fruit, which might not matter if these trees weren’t so prickly. Hedge-apple tree thorns have nothing on locust tree thorns but sometimes thorns are still thorns. Perhaps she just needs a good pruning, or some fertilizer, or new friends?
Anyhow, one of the other reasons we’re clearing around this tree is so we can start new plants—what’s always been there is this 3ft fluffy nonsense I call ‘creeper bush’ because you have no idea the weird souvenirs I’ve collected over the years tearing this stuff up. They spread like vines, creeping along and then establishing a hub for to grow up and spread further. I took most of the fluff yesterday, also some of the hubs, but the hardest work is still ahead of me.
Some time ago, when I had more access to commercials, I can recall a ‘hand-tiller’ that might be perfect for this project. Other than a few tree roots, everything but the dirt needs to be removed. I imagine it would be beautiful to have a bunch of fluffy, fragrant mint or perhaps a few fat lemon balms.
During these few years of Tik Tok being so popular, Native Americans and other Indigenous people have been able to share wisdom some of us didn’t expect. Such as the concept of a ‘closed practice’ which, in and of itself, doesn’t surprise me.
FYI a closed practice is any ritual or ceremony that people outside the culture of origin are ethically allowed to do unless invited to join the aforementioned culture of origin.
Apparently smudging is a closed practice and I’m still not overly sure why I’m surprised; my mother would burn dried plants in her big seashell, waving the smoke at people with her hawk wing she managed to preserve because that’s how well she could take care of things. I have no idea where she heard the term, to be brutally honest, and it wasn’t something she did until my… mid to late teens.
“To smudge” is the essence of the closed practice and we are invited to use a wide variety of other words, which I think is just fine because I don’t know what “smudging” has to do with cleansing. I wasn’t taught the history of ‘smudging’ and I often suspect people do things without knowing why and believing it’s the same—to which I say, you can dance around like a chicken all you like but that doesn’t mean you are one.
It’s likely that some of my ‘surprise’ is actually annoyance disguised to make me feel better; once again, the fact that I come from white people is affirmed. Perhaps my mom got special permission, she was that kind of person—and perhaps she told me all about the origin of smudging, I simply forgot because that was my religious phase and I seriously thought the very worst of her for a few years. Perhaps she can share some insight with me sometime.
White sage itself is a closed practice; like burning white sage, and I get this. Apparently it’s often not harvested ethically or sustainably and I’m not surprised by this, I knew things were bad the first time I saw it available in a sweet little bundle in some craft shop. This makes me feel very sad.
Therefore, what I’m getting at, is the fact that a while back I saw a Tik Tok video of some ethical white lady talking about burning and cleansing—she grew lemon grass, which I thought was amazing. Our particular nook in the Midwest was, according to documents, evicted of Natives back in the late 1800s. I wonder how they handled hedge-apple trees, or was this tree brought in from somewhere else?
The fruit from these trees is essential to wildlife throughout the winter and as things have been happening [climate change? Age? I’m no expert] the trees have created less fruit than they did many years ago. The mate of the one I’m working around {lolz, he lives on the other side of the our path and they make a sweet canopy together until their leaves fall off} last year he dropped like 5 fruits. Total. Years back there might be upwards of 10. I don’t know what’s happening and I don’t like it.
