Skip to main content

March 4th: Cleansing and Centering



No one wants to wake up, randomly wondering what the day is all about spiritually, though that is exactly what many of us do unless it is a holiday, sabbat, equinox or solstice. Luckily, I have many resources, all around me, in hard copy as books and through my numerous online groups. Today though, I consulted what is like a devotional to me, “365 Goddess” only to discover today could be quite an amazing day.

What Telesco says about today’s Goddess dove-tails so nicely with my current spiritual direction. March 4th is devoted to the Japanese mother goddess Kishi-Mujin. She offers safety and invites us to welcome spring. Her guidance is focused around grounding and centering as well as striking a balance between the polar forces.



So today can be dedicated to prayer, meditation, gentle earth invocations and cleansing. Offerings using water can be made and my beloved pine, is important today. Pine is used in Buddhist rituals today to ward off evil spirits. How this is done is a wand is made from a pine branch that is set on fire and left to smolder. People are invited to catch the ash and use it in banishment work. This observance is called Omizuturi in Japan.

I said Omizuturi is important to my work because in African American healing traditions pine is revered. It is used in floor washes, which I shared some recipes for in (Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones ) and which I explain the earth-based spirituality connection in (A Healing Grove )

Balance, grounding and centering is vital to pagans and shaman who walk between the worlds. Balance is also critical to creative people who must balance their visions, imagination and mundane or day-to-day concerns. At the heart of this balancing act is grounding and centering, for if you can activate those principles you will achieve balance.



I encourage you to consider ways you can employ Kishi-Mujin and the observance of Omizuturi in your day today. If you can’t think of anything, here is a suggestion:


Bring in a small pine branch for outside. 

Dip it in a sacred water source that you may have such as lightning water or water collected from a healing spring. 

Sprinkle this very delicately around you home working counterclockwise while you focus on balancing the opposing energies in your living space.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gran Bwa

Gran Bwa is a lwa that helps you connect to ancestral roots or the spiritual home of Vodou. A friend of mine, who is an expert on Haitian Vodou, who has spent a lot of time in Haiti with the artists there, told me I had painted Gran Bwa when I made this spontaneous work out of walnut ink and sumi-ink on handmade paper. I had considered this painting a self-portrait. She now holds this piece in her private collection: Quite a few people are afraid of Vodou but it is an awe-inspiring tradition of bringing together plant energy with divinity, spiritual and personal energy. My friend who is very involved with Vodou, especially the art that surrounds it, is from European ancestry. She is light in spirit and bubbly, with a close relationship to nature and her garden.  Vodou affirms the relationships between cycles of life, trees of knowledge and spirit.  The Vodou vision of lwa , understands them as the intelligence of energy present in humans, nature and thoughts.  Mysteries ca

Xochitl--Flower

                                     (Winter Poinsettia by Stephanie Rose Bird, oil on wood) One of my Facebook friends does daily posts and shares called "I love Flowers." I love flowers too, in real life, in my garden, in paintings and as they are related to the gods and goddesses, in healing, as well as their use in folklore like Hoodoo. Not long ago I posted about Xochipelli (Sho-CHEE-pee-lee) prince of flowers and Xochiquetzal (Sho-CHEE-ket-zul) goddess of flowers in anticipation of April's blooming season.  The Goddess and Prince of Flowers post  is here. Today, I want to focus in on the root word of their names and it's symbolism. This word is Xochitl (Show-CHEE-tul) in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs. This word means flower.                                            ( Frida Kahlo "Self Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser) In many different belief systems there are nature gods and goddesses connected with flowers. Flowers possess symbolism,

Follow Fest Interview and Sharing

When I first became a blogger it was difficult to know if I had readers and visitors coming to my blog. I’d post and be met by the sounds of crickets. Then, I branched out into the world of the blogosphere, a world I  didn't  know really existed. From my ventures, I met a lot of interesting bloggers.  I've  started following and commenting on numerous blogs, for you see, prior to my outings, I too was out among the crickets. Lurking about but seldom saying anything. A fellow blogger  I've  met through my journeys around the blogosphere is Melissa Maygrove . She had the brilliant idea to have a Follow Fest , where we share about who we are, what we do and most importantly, how you can connect with us further. It is my intention through joining Follow Fest, that I’ll connect with many more readers and people interested enough in what I do to want to learn more by following. So, here goes my entry for the fest. Name:   Stephanie Rose Bird Fiction or