In Nature’s Time

Just sit quietly and listen. Just sit quietly and look. Just sit quietly and feel.

Nature has its own rhythms and way of keeping time. Parts are local and parts universal. No matter where you are, the land is speaking to you. It is expressing rhythms of cycles that mark the changing of time. It is circular and repetitive, yet containing variations and altering outcomes because it is alive and filled with life that is transforming.

Human society has its own way of keeping time, designed for a specific purpose, yet it is relatively new in the grand scheme of things. No matter where people resided – in the wilds of nature or the heart of cities – Nature’s time is felt deep within us because we are a part of it.

Modern Calendars

Calendars in terms of the way we view and use modern calendars is fairly new. The primary reason behind calendars were for taxation purposes. Then it starting moving in a way to organize work, especially in the rise of industrialization. Finally it became a way to get everyone onto the same rhythm of time, no matter where they were in the world, as we moved into a more globally constructed financial system.

At its core, the calendar we know today is one constructed and used for industrial capitalism. It is static and un-moving. It does not follow the rhythm of nature, the changes that occur within it, or the variations between climates and ecosystems. Even though the southern and northern hemispheres are polar opposites in seasons, because of the human calendar, the southern holidays are observed on the same days as the north. For an example, they are celebrating the calendar Easter, a celebration of spring, in the fall.

Society has created a time keeper that does not align with Nature’s Time. It has taken us further from our connection to the natural cycles of living movement and replaced it with a static trap of conformity.

Calendars of the Stars

Older cultures and their time keeping, such as the Mayans and Celts, kept time according to the movement of Nature’s Time. It incorporated Nature’s clock in the sky above, and the land/ environment they occupied and experienced.

Sun, Moon, Planets, and the Stars They Travel Through

Each of these celestial bodies are a part of one giant clock, measuring different aspects and energies of time. Following the rhythms and cycles of Nature’s Time. All a variation and different expressions of the master pattern: birth/ life/ death/ rebirth. A pattern that is consistent in structure and changes within each expression of it. Whether looking through the lens of a life, a growing season, a project, a transformation, an age, the pattern itself is consistent.

It starts with a spark, a breath – within the mind as an idea or inspiration. We dream of possibilities, seek information, observe, and thinking about all that we are taking in and learning (Birth).

It moves to a place of action. Taking the thought outwards. Exploring it and experimenting with it. This is a place of experiencing that information for ourselves, finding what is true for us, what gives us real results. Then we reap that which we have created – we evaluate it and reconcile the outcomes which we have experienced that may not fit what we learned from others in the “birth” process, and those that did. (Life)

It is in the Death portion that we let go of the parts that did not align with our actual experience, and we incorporate/ blend that which did align. This is the space of transformation. In the removal and incorporation of the journey, reflection on the journey, and what has emerged from the whole process – moving to a place of lived wisdom. We emerge different because the journey itself changed us to some degree. Once the transformation is done, we celebrate and then recharge before the next beginning. (Death)

The Constellations along the ecliptic can be viewed as the static numbers on a clock. Each holding a different energy, marking a time within the master pattern. Sagittarius – The Seeker, Capricorn – The Observer, Aquarius – The Thinker, Pisces – The Illusionist (senses), Aries – The Ruler, Taurus – The Guardian, Gemini – The Enchanter (mind), Cancer – The Stabilizer, Leo – The Healer, Virgo – The Knower (mind – heart – action aligned), Libra – The Balancer, Scorpio – The Weaver.

The Sun and Moon move in different times, marking different aspects or perspectives. For many, and for Unity Astrology (from the Temple of the Crane) – The Sun is focused more externally and aligned with the physical Body/ physical world. Whereas the Moon is more internal and aligned with that of the Soul/ unseen world. They keep their own perspective of time and purpose, yet – just as body and soul are aligned through harmonizing – the sun and moon align in a harmonic rhythm. They mark time in the measure of days, months, seasons, years, ages, and the Great cycle.

The planets, like the sun and moon, hold their own energies. They hold their own individual expression of the master pattern. They can contribute to, or have opposition against, the current energies of the sun and moon. They could be seen like an undercurrent of energy in this way, adding to or diminishing, the more prominent energies of the sun and moon in their current placement in the cycle.

Each piece is like a gear in a clock. Each focused on one area, yet working together in unity, they hold the rhythm of time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockwork

Places We Dwell

There is a rhythm to the seasons and we do not share it neatly. The seasons, weather, changes based upon where we dwell. Spring comes sooner the closer to the equator you are, but that is not the only factor. Your landscape plays a large role in the seasons. Elevation changes such as higher into the mountains as opposed to the valleys below have differences in their seasons and weather – Same geographical location, yet different landscapes.

Much of our seasonal shifts are seen through the lens of the modern calendar, yet that does not apply to Nature’s Time. As the earth moves through her large cycles that span thousands of years, the seasons shift and change. Periods where the earth warms up, and periods where it cools. It happens slowly, little by little and we feel small effects over long periods of time like decades. Our earth is currently in a warming period and we have all been feeling and noticing the effects on our seasons.

This is a time to let go of what others have told you and move to a place of experiencing the land you dwell on. Taking time out of each day to just be in your nature – whatever that looks like, city, suburbs, rural, and deep back country. The land is not the same as it was 100 years ago. Its climate, the shifts between seasons is not what it once was and does not align to the static models. As we move from a space of listening to others, and into a space of personal observation, you start to becoming in-tuned with the true flow of seasons of your land.

I spent the majority of Monday just sitting on my porch and taking in all tiny details. Where each tree was at in its waking cycle. Watching our smaller birds building nests and prepare for a new batch of birds to enter the world. The pelicans hitting our bay – a small pit stop along their migration route signaling the warmth of spring. The squirrels moving from a place of hoarding to one of day to day forging. The deer herds starting to merge back together after separating into smaller groups over the winter. The first flowers and pollinators emerging from the soil.

Every shift in a season bring various shifts in the land. Nature’s clock is seen within all these changes, signaling to each other, and moving in rhythm with each other. The more we, as humans personally observe and move into their rhythm, the deeper we connect to, and move into, Nature’s Time. Aligning our energy to the heartbeat of the earth herself.

Many people feel out-of-step and disconnected because in a profound way, they are. They are following a static rhythm that does not follow the true rhythm that we experience with our own senses. Even if they are not taking the time to process it, their senses are still taking in that information and feeling it. It is not just a feeling though, it also affects our mental and physical health.

When we are energetically aligned we feel better, our body strengthens, we are less sick, and we heal more quickly. This principal applies to all energy. If you have two different radiating energies, they will fight to find a resonance between them – a place of harmony. The more one fights the other, the longer and more destructive the process can get. These two energies in this scenario is one of a natural flowing and movement (Nature) and one of stagnant water (Society time).

Finding a Balance

It would be nice to say we could throw out the society time in order to feel and live in tune with the natural flows of energy – I am realist too though, and every part of our community world is built upon that time system. So we have to find a way to balance between both. It is not easy, and we have been trained from small children to watch the clocks and tick of the days of a calendar.

I found by shifting the perspective of both, I could find a way to live in harmony with both. The Societal time, the calendar and clock, is only there for community purposes. Telling us when it is time to work in a society sense, meet up with people, and track community events. We live in a society driven by their calendar and clock, and in order to participate within it, we have to be aware of those tools – but we also do not have to live in them.

I choose to having my living aspect in sync with the sky clock, with what nature is showing me at any given moment, within the shifts of seasons I actually experience in the place that I dwell. It seem hard – It seems an impossible task – to create a separation like that because it is drilled so deep into people to watch the “clock.” It is not an easy task. It takes a lot of conscious effort and work on the front end because the analytical mind fights us every step of the way – It doesn’t like change – but it can change.

I also won’t say I do not struggle with it at times. Balance, once achieved, has to be maintained. My analytical mind wants to slip into the familiar pattern because it does not have to think about it, it just has to run the long standing program that was originally constructed in it. The struggle comes less and less though.

I am a better person because of it though. I feel better within myself in all ways. I am calmer and more fluid in my life, because my energy is more fluid with the real world around me, not a constructed one. My body heals faster and less issues that cause the need for healing. My mind is more open and my experiences with my Goddess, Spirits, and the otherworlds is easier, clearer, deeper, and flows as my physical world does. My physic senses are heightened and honed because I am in tune with the same energy as the natural worlds seen and unseen. Our nature is not just the physical one we see with our narrowed physical senses, but all the energies that surround us because they are part of Nature’s flow.