{"id":1565,"date":"2018-05-29T14:20:21","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T22:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/?p=1565"},"modified":"2018-05-29T14:20:21","modified_gmt":"2018-05-29T22:20:21","slug":"lessons-in-weeds-trash-witchcraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2018\/05\/lessons-in-weeds-trash-witchcraft.html","title":{"rendered":"Lessons in Weeds, Trash, & Witchcraft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"
Photo by Timothy Dykes on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Quite a few battles have taken place in our front and back yards.\u00a0 First there was Nathan vs. the Dandelions. I\u2019m not sure what it was, but for a while it was my husband\u2019s relentless mission to go after the pervasive plethora of posies popping up. He stopped after I pointed out that the bees love these so-called weeds and that they have other uses.\u00a0 Besides, they\u2019re cheery against the early Spring Seattle gloom.<\/p>\n

(Every natural thing has its place, even if we may not see it at first.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Then the landlord who owns the properties on either side of us got focused on \u201chelping\u201d us clear out some invasive weeds that border our fences. Which included him overstepping his boundaries and dumping a bunch of pine-filled mulch on both sides of our yards, well beyond where we talked about. It\u2019s the kind of mulch that kills more than anything else \u2013 so it wiped out all of the beautiful wildflowers on one side of the house.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the plants it meant to deter are having a field day growing over, under, and through it.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Will Cornfield on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Annoyed by the chokeweed vines creeping into our yard, Nathan last year went after it with weed killer. The vines withered a bit, and then just moved around it. Then completely took over while we were away on tour. We pretty much gave up on the yard that growing season.<\/p>\n

(Tactics that overstep boundaries, blanketly try to poison, or cover up problems rarely solve them effectively.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Back in the beginning of May, Misha<\/a> and their partner helped me tame the back yard in a fabulous combination of physical, emotional, and power tool-equipped support. With not enough power tools to go around, I used some old school tools and my hands to pull out the choke weed.\u00a0 I combed through the layers of dirt and mulch, pulling out yards and yards of roots and runners.\u00a0 This approach helped a great deal, but we still have to routinely go out and keep it in check.<\/p>\n

(There are rarely easy fixes to difficult and tangled problems.\u00a0 We have to make an investment of time and elbow grease to get down to the root.)<\/em><\/p>\n

All of this relates to things I\u2019ve been mulling over for almost 6 months in terms of dealing with difficult situations in our communities. Keep in mind, I\u2019m an artist, not a psychologist or psychiatrist \u2013 but I\u2019m really good at catching patterns \u2013 whether it\u2019s actions, words, or people in general. I\u2019m a spider watching many webs being woven, testing the vibrations.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Henri Pham on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Often when there\u2019s a sensitive or critical issue \u2013 particularly regarding someone\u2019s actions or behaviors, the immediate communal reaction tends to be severe and sadly short-sighted.\u00a0 Usually something like, \u201cThis person is a horrible person. They are THE WORST. They are TRASH. They should be tarred, feathered, blacklisted, and erased from all things so we don\u2019t have to deal with them again.\u00a0 That way they can\u2019t harm anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

I understand the reaction, but the core reality is: people aren\u2019t trash.\u00a0 That\u2019s a dangerous place to go thinking, especially for folks invested in magick and metaphysics.\u00a0 We can see the harmful effects of declaring a whole group of people trash or \u201canimals\u201d \u2013 both in history and the current political climate.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t end well for ANYONE.\u00a0 There is powerful magick in words<\/a>, and the root of it starts with thought<\/a>.\u00a0 Even decrying one human being as trash becomes a slippery slope. Because we\u2019re all interconnected yet at the same time are totally capable of having absolutely different perspectives on a given thing.<\/p>\n

Things get even more messy when you consider how vulnerable we are when we enter into a relationship \u2013 romantic, spiritual, business, familiar, etc.\u00a0 When we get hurt on any level, we can simultaneously feel shame for the choices we made that put us into that situation while being angry at the person who caused the harm.\u00a0 So we\u2019re hurt at least twice \u2013 once by them and once by ourselves. In this state, it\u2019s often much easier to cry foul and lash out then to examine ourselves and communicate to solve the issue in a grounded manner.\u00a0 Which is unfortunate because we (and they) are far likely to repeat the mistakes when the root issue is not addressed.\u00a0 There must have been redeeming qualities in the first place right? Doesn\u2019t that qualify for composting versus tossing them in the trash?<\/p>\n

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Photo by Gary Chan on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Especially as Witches we know that things that people often dismiss as weeds can be useful and helpful, even if they have some negative qualities.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, there are people whose words and practices I don\u2019t agree with, and I won\u2019t hesitate to defend myself<\/a> or anyone else in harm\u2019s way against them. But calling them trash doesn\u2019t solve any problems.\u00a0 Especially in a society where we often just bag up our trash, and someone else carts it away to deal with it \u2013 and even then, it doesn\u2019t really go away.\u00a0 It just becomes someone else\u2019s problem once it\u2019s done being ours.\u00a0 Out of sight, out of mind right? But who\u2019s keeping the weeds in check?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m reminded of several different examples of abusive behavior where there was a big blow-up, but in the end nothing got solved and the problem just showed up again somewhere else down the line. Those that were on the receiving end don\u2019t get proper healing.\u00a0 \u00a0Those propagating the behavior (abusers and supporters) don\u2019t make any changes.\u00a0 And unsuspecting folks in the next neighborhood or state get sucked into a similar cycle as it all moves on.\u00a0 Warning labels and blacklisting rarely work: nobody pays attention until it\u2019s in their own yard \u2013 and sometimes not even then.<\/p>\n

Nothing changes unless we get down the root of a problem, which takes a lot more effort than most people are willing to make.\u00a0 We have to be open to looking at the bigger picture, challenging our own perspectives and views so we\u2019re not inadvertently hurting ourselves or others.\u00a0 As individuals and a community, we must embrace compassion \u2013 for both ourselves and others, and seek the heart of humanity underlying a situation. We must be willing to communicate with<\/em> \u2013 not at, and to challenge the ideas and behaviors \u2013 not the being themselves.\u00a0 Lastly, we have to work to get at the roots together, and invest in changing how things grow in our proverbial yards.<\/p>\n

In the end, we only have so much choice about what exactly grows in our yards.\u00a0 Yes, there are the things we chose to grow, but the universe will keep depositing seeds and visitors of all kinds, no matter how secluded or selective we think we are.\u00a0 We can\u2019t really control that.\u00a0 But we are responsible for how<\/em> we deal with the world brings us \u2013 what do we make room for and let grow, what things do we learn to see in a new light, what we do work on cutting out and removing, and what goes in the compost pile.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the end, we only have so much choice about what exactly grows in our yards.\u00a0 Yes, there are the things we chose to grow, but the universe will keep depositing seeds and visitors of all kinds, no matter how secluded or selective we think we are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2676,"featured_media":1574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[452,15,12],"tags":[425,24,52,551,554,7,4,128],"class_list":["post-1565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-metaphysics","category-modernpractice","tag-abuse","tag-community","tag-magick","tag-trash","tag-weeds","tag-witch","tag-witchcraft","tag-witchpower"],"yoast_head":"\nLessons in Weeds, Trash, & Witchcraft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the end, we only have so much choice about what exactly grows in our yards.\u00a0 Yes, there are the 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