The morning after the April 19-20th New Moon and Solar Eclipse, David and I finally saw the “Butterflies Are Blooming” exhibit at Meijer Sculpture Gardens. We’ve intended to do this for years–maybe even before we moved here in 2017–but the timing never worked for us. This year, everything aligned with the New Moon Solar Eclipse in that final degree of Aries. Doing something new that we’ve wanted to do for so long felt like just the right energy. A time of new beginnings by way of completion.
We did other things in Grand Rapids, too, but I’ll just share photos from our time at Meijer. Butterflies are difficult to catch on camera, so these images only give a glimpse of the thousands of colorful beings zipping around the greenhouse.
(My apologies for wonky formatting. Apparently, WordPress has a new, experimental AI that just takes over your blog. Imagine my surprise reading six paragraphs of fluffy, cliché text I did not write! That’s deleted, but I can’t get spaces between my photos. Hopefully, the experiment will run its course and go bye bye. Not a fan, WP!)
A volunteer stopped us and said he could “feel the love.” He insisted on taking our photo, so you get a sneak peak of mystery hubby, David, compliments of Bruce. The blue butterflies below were electric! There were so many, as large as my hand, too.
The Japanese garden was in full cherry blossom regalia:
We have weeping cherry trees at home, but Meijer has gorgeous varieties and a pond!
I’ve had so many potent dreams — even more so than usual. A recent one, I called “Nurture Tenderness,” involved “six agreements” whose enactment would bring in the New Earth frequencies. The first of those agreements was “Nurture Tenderness.” I decided to share a little more here as we close out 2019 and enter 2020, because Tania mentioned how my dream reminded her of Lee Harris’ 2020 Energy Forecast, recorded 12/12/19, but which she just posted today. He, too, lists six themes, which coincide with so many of my recent dreams. From Lee’s YouTube channel:
Themes discussed in the 2020 Energy Forecast include:
RISE OF LOVE THROUGH DEATH AWARENESS (The death of people/relationships/animals/nature/systems)
COLLABORATION AND TEAMS (The Upswing of people coming together to collaborate and work with each other)
GROUNDING VIA NATURE (The technology take-off/distraction of attention being leveled through Nature but also Natural Disasters/Loss and local events)
CREATIVITY AT HIGH SPEED (Faster than ever creative endeavors – with less internal resistance and more need/embrace in the outside world)
HEART HEALING (Conflict Energy showing up as a trigger for heart healing/the rise of emotional awareness and the need for more people to lead in the realms of heart healing, mindfulness and emotional intelligence)
His video clocks in at 1 hour 11 minutes, and you can watch it here:
Lee’s list summarizes my past four months of extremely intense and often quickly validated, precognitive dreams. I’ve also experienced what I can only describe as “spontaneous rituals,” where life creates such elaborate synchronicities that they feel like planned rituals, dripping in lush symbolism, with a beginning, middle and end. I am not the same person I was before encountering these journeys, most of which feature over-the-top womb, birth, and death symbolism. Here’s a photo from an exhibit called “The Womb,” by artist Rebecca Louise Law, at Meijer Sculpture Gardens:
My experience inside this corridor and womb (made of nearly one million dried flowers) was so personal that I don’t feel led to share it here. Entering the floral womb in the center, with a loud heartbeat over just imperceptible music, and all that fragrance triggered an inner rebirth that then continued to spill forth throughout the day, in synchronicities with my exact birth time, first breath and finding a perfectly hidden, (yet intuitively revealed to me and then validated) dead coyote in half-frozen sand sculptures on the edge of Lake Michigan’s waves. Just before sunset. On the Eve of Winter Solstice. I’m still unpacking the entire day’s events. Too personal and interwoven with synchronicity overloads to share more here.
In my same dream that featured the party/class sharing the six agreements to facilitate living on the New Earth, there was another part of the dream that involved sniffing a “really stinky navel.” It was actually my own navel, but the stinky navel brought a big grin and was “OK, because it can give birth.” The really stinky navel had something to do with Cosmic Rebirth. It smelled of deep Earth and ozone — extremely pungent, green moss and fertile soil.
Another dream featured special boxes that could “rejuvenate very old people” if delivered to the correct address, which was “20 Virgo.” Besides a personal meaning to me, I find it fascinating that the Dane Rudhyar Sabian Symbol for 20 Virgo invokes a New World collective journey:
PHASE 170 (VIRGO 20°): A CARAVAN OF CARS HEADED TO THE WEST COAST.
KEYNOTE: The need of cooperative effort in reaching any “New World” of experience.
It is difficult to know, from the original formulation of the clairvoyant’s vision, the type of caravan of cars that was visualized; what seems to be clearly implied is a process in which a group of persons are journeying together — thus linking their consciousnesses and energies (the “car” symbol) — in order to safely reach the goal of destiny. Here there is no longer any sense of competition, but an ordered and structured endeavor.
At this last stage of the five-fold sequence the past is entirely left behind; men cooperate in the great “adventure in consciousness” in a TOTALIZATION OF PURPOSE AND EFFORT.
In order to deliver the rejuvenating boxes to 20 Virgo, “I had to crawl out of this dirt floor passageway with the boxes intact, then down another ladder and try to find the right location where the people were, who needed reviving.” (I’m quoting from today’s dream journal entry.)
“On the way, there was a display with all sorts of stories made out of tiny seeds. People kept asking me if this was the story they heard in their youth, but how would I know that? I just guessed sometimes yes, sometimes no. The colored seeds in transparent vertical boxes were like the book covers.” (Everything was arranged like a library, and each seed contained an entire story, each vertical glass holder appeared as a book with thousands of seeds making up the images of the book covers.) “Time was running a little short, and I needed to get to the 20 Virgo, which was now an address.”
I don’t have exact interpretations of these dreams, but the symbols seem over the top and not just relevant to me.
On a recent walk, I silently asked if I could and should trust what I’ve been shown as the new coming in. I immediately noticed a feather on the ground. I walked past the feather, then heard, “Turn around. Pick it up. That was for you.” Before turning around, I felt/knew “It’s an owl feather.” Sure enough, it appears to be so. Its edges have the special fringe that allows for silent flight. As I continued my walk, a solitary stag with medium sized antlers walked slowly across the road in front of me.
This morning’s sunrise came between very low and very high, dark thick clouds, initiating between these layers a long, horizontal rainbow. I wasn’t sure what, if anything, to share as we close out this decade, but this seems just right.
2019 remains my lowest maintenance garden year yet. While I have very few edible annuals growing, the herbs, flowers and fruiting shrubs continue to produce. Our bird and butterfly population keeps growing, too. With temperatures finally in the 80’s, the slowpoke basil took off, and frequent nighttime rains plus well rooted perennials mean I’ve only needed to water the garden three times so far!
I’ve been waiting forever for these Casablanca lilies to bloom. I love how they contrast with the butterfly friendly liatris.
I thought the Polar Vortex claimed all my hummingbird mint, Continue reading →
My mom’s out here for a 9-day visit, and Momma Jane is the original CPL (Crazy Plant Lady) in this family. She’s had a gorgeous cacti and succulent garden for as long as I can remember, and she’s got a way with everything from orchids to ferns. After giving my indoor plants a spa day on Wednesday morning, we thought we’d spend today’s “balmy” 18-degree snow showers inside the greenhouses at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids. This was David’s and my first time there, and we look forward to seeing the outdoor sculptures, plants and trees in other seasons.
Between Christmas trees decorated in styles from all around the world, Rodin exhibit, the Desert Room, Carnivorous Plant Room, a miniature city made from nuts, bark, leaves and mushrooms, the train, and the 5-story high Tropical Room, we plant lovers were in our element. I thought I’d share some of our favorite photos below. If they’re of me, or they look particularly artistic, David took the photos. He’s really a master at capturing just the right angles and interesting framing. 🙂
The above photos and the next one are in the entryway, filled with amaryllis, evergreens and natural light displays. Continue reading →
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