Parting the Mists

This card rings true for me at the moment – I’ve been living a very physical, task-oriented existence lately but I feel the need to reconnect with Spirit. Sometimes it’s a hard balance when we have so much that needs done, but we must take time to rest and recharge the mind, body, AND spirit.

Blessings,

Thistle

Chamomile – Rest, Guardianship, Regeneration

Chamomile brings rest and protection. If you have chosen this card, it may mean that you are entering or need to enter a calm phase in which you will be able to connect again to your inner resources – both physical and spiritual. Our lives can be so frenetic that even when we do take time to rest we find it hard to calm down. Chamomile can help us to do this. In addition, chamomile is one of the Saint Johns wort’s plants – a term that was used for a number of herbs traditionally gathered on Saint Johns day, and, originally, probably at the summer solstice. These plants convey the energy of the summer sun – regeneration and vitality. Without vitality, whatever we do is colored by a sense of fatigue or lack of enthusiasm, and choosing this card may suggest that you need to focus on how you regain your zest for life, and the energy you need to cope with the demands of the life you have chosen. This card may also be suggesting we need to go back to basics, the simple things in life, or even to return to the family and the nurturing it can offer.

Most people’s lives tend to be stressful, but is how they cope with it that determines whether or not it makes them ill or depressed. This card may also indicate that you’re experiencing a good deal of stress at the moment and it can be helpful to focus not on the source of that stress, which could be out of your control, but on how you are reacting to it.

The more you focus on something, the more your awareness is consumed by preoccupation with it. One of the values of a spiritual path lies in its ability to offer inspiring ideas, rather than worrying thoughts, to focus upon. It should also offer an oasis of calm – sanctuary in the midst of life’s troubles – to which you can turn when you feel overwhelmed or under great pressure. In Druidry, the sanctuary is often visualized as a sacred Grove – a Sun-Dappled Glade in the woods – where you can rest and meditate, reconnecting to the essential in life, and finding support and inspiration of an age-old tradition.

The Druid Plant Oracle by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, art by Will Worthington