|
 For this lunar cycle Amergin sings, "I am a hawk upon a cliff." The Hawk is the second of the four sacred animals to be mentioned. Again we are faced with an edge, a boundary between the light and the dark halves of the year, and it is in this cycle that we cross that boundary again. But this time it is different. Instead of a gloomy sea and the shore on which it pounds, looking into the uncertainty of darkness, we now look out to a sun-bright Earth, and there sits our Hawk of Awakened Consciousness.
This hawk is the final catalyst in the change from dark to light: it is her decisive, willed action that liberates our growth-energy from confinement and allows this action filled and fertile season of summer to become manifest.
We are feeling this in our desire for action. We gradually gathered ourselves while germinating in the dark. We have taken in the energies of water, air and fire, ad now we are ready to become form, bursting out of our shells, expressing our own will, to manifest what it is we have been storing within ourselves.
As this moon waxes, we see the boundary in front of us. We see within our minds that which we are about to manifest. The Hawk wais like a beacon calling us to come forward and fulfill our desires. With the full moon we are standing at that edge and have come face to face with the Hawk of Awakening. Let us identify with her and take on her limitless, boundless energy. Then, as the moon wanes let us follow her on our quest, enjoying the warmth of summer, growing into our fullness. Grab hold of this wondrous sense of adventure she offers!
I am a hawk on a cliff
Poised before the fray
In the dance of death, dance of life,
The hunter and the prey.
Flashing feathered streak, wicked beak,
Swift as the eye can see,
Straining every nerve, downward swerve
In glorious artistry.
Bright the open sky in my eye,
But blood is on my breath,
Thunder shakes the sky, as I fly,
In all of life is death.
On the earth, in the air, Through the fire and water,
I am SKILL, the seventh month's daughter
The
fifth tree is sacred to Hecate, Circe, Hera, Persephone, all death
aspects of triple goddess. The words Wicca,
witch craft, witches besom all possibly derived from old word for
willow. Druidical
sacrifices were offered in wicker baskets.
Willow gave its name to Helicon, abode of nine muses, orgiastic
priestesses of the Moon Goddess.
A Willow tree grew outside Zeus' Cretan cave when he was born.
It is a tree that loves
water the most. It is sacred to the moon goddess giver of dew.
The bark is good for pain, arthritic and rheumatic.
It is the tree of
enchantment. It's number is five. Willow is sacred to Minerva, a
moon goddess. Season of Beltane.
Magical
properties
Moon, water, line burial places, symbolic association with death.
Use to attract love,
magical wands for moon magic, guard against evil, healing spells,
brooms traditionally bound in willow.
The
Willow is a sign of intuition, imagination, and sometimes even
deception. It is the
unfoldment of psychic powers. The
Willow is the gift of cunning, of the skillful and subtle use of
mental powers to have your aims met.
Saille may indicate that there may be unseen forces or danger
for you or those you love. You
have something to learn from an unseen or as yet unknown person.
(possibly a woman). This
lesson may be unpleasant, but it will be of great benefit.
You are urged to seek out the hidden forces in your life.
The challenge of the Willow is the tendency to ignore the
unconscious, hidden aspects of the personality.
You may be ignorant of an important aspect of yourself.
Botanical
Information
North America and Europe is home to a large number of willow
species. Two
common tree willows are the white willow and the crack
willow. The
white willow is named so because of the whitish undersides of its leaves, and
the crack willow because its branches tend to crack off! Both grow along with poplars and alders
beside lowland
rivers. They can grow up
to 80
feet in height, and they both sprout from stumps.
Other willows are shrubs that grow along streams and boggy soils.
|
