If you were to see yourself as a garden, what do you want to grow there this year?

It is kind of an odd cycle that we are in right now with 2 full moons again this month, following February which had none and January which had 2.

Full moons are a simple, yet powerful way of keeping in touch with the cycles of nature. 

Different cultures have different names for them, and the ones I use have these three themes coming next. Tonight's full moon is the Chaste, the next will be the Seed and then the Hare. 

Thematically, the pattern we are following is that we clean our space, then plant the seeds that we want to have grow in our lives this year, and then fertilize our plantings. 

If you have a farm or garden, the pattern is literal, although out here in Colorado, we do not plant until after Mother's Day because of the frequency of late winter storms, compared to when I lived in Atlanta and we always planted by the time of the Spring Equinox, which is in March. 

Now I know that a lot of you do not have a farm or garden, however, we can use the analogy of our selves as our garden. 

We all have things that we want to grow in our lives this year, so if you take it metaphorically, think about this. Do you want to grow a new relationship this year? A new career direction? A new set of workout habits? New eating habits? A new place to live?  All of these, and more, are developments that we are already working on.

If you are in an existing relationship and you want to make it better, or you love the career you are in and want to branch out in a new direction or strengthen the position you are in, that would be akin to caring for a perennial. Those plants we mulch over and prune so that the branches that come back this year are stronger and more productive.

Then there are the annuals. Think about courses that you want to take in order to learn something new so that you can develop a new creative interest or hobby, or be able to get into different kinds of work. I have known people who took a half year off of work so that they could hike the Appalachian Trail. Another old friend saved up so that he could fly to London to study playing the dumbek with Hossam Ramzy, the great Egyptian drummer, who you may have heard playing in Loreena McKennitt's band, among others. I once took a year off just to write a book. Others have changed the course of their lives to start organic farms or food trucks. 

What do you want to plant in the garden of your life this year? 

Seasons change, our ideas change over time. What we want to plant in our gardens evolves as well. I did not always grow comfrey, but now I do every year because I love working with this healing herb and I finally found a place in my sister's garden where it winters over well.

What about those inner drives, those desires you have put on the back burner? Often people say to me "I have been thinking about learning tarot or reiki for a long time, but never seem to have time for it. So this year, I am going to make time for it."

The full moons are a perfect time to relect on the good things that have happened to us this month and express our gratitude for it. And at the same time, it is a perfect time to express our intentions for what we want to have happen next. 

In ritual terms, there is a three day window for celebrating the full moons. This consists of the day before, day of, and day after. This is because technically, in astrological and astronomical terms, the precise time of the rising could fall at times when it is not convenient for us to do ritual, but certainly you can see the moon moving into fullness in the sky.

So think about the cycles coming up. We clear the way, we plant, we fertilize and nurture.

Following this same train of thought, we often need to follow a greater trajectory on a longer path to bring our changes from thought into action, from dreams into reality. That is why some people choose a path of mentorship rather than a single visit or a short course. We often benefit from having a guide help us navigate our path from where we are to where we want to go.

So if you view yourself as a garden, what would you like to plant, nurture and harvest this year? Clearing the ground can be akin to clearing a time every week to tend to that garden. 

Are you ready to do the planting to grow this year's garden? When you blossom, what do you dream of becoming? 

There is a lot of love in gardening. Traditional herbalists believe that when you tend to medicinal plants as they are growing, they give you back more healing energy when you need them. 

In other words, the love you put into gardening yourself is returned many times as you harvest and use what you have planted. 

How is your garden growing? What would you like it to grow? Who could not use more love in their life? Are you ready to turn your thoughts into actions? Are you ready to clear the way and plant the seeds for growth?