This card from the Journey Oracle deck is the image for fearn, the Celtic tree month named for Alder. Where I live in British Columbia, the swelling red-tinged catkins of the Alder trees are a first sign in early April that spring has truly come.
A new fawn looks out from the safety of a thicket, colored with the blush of a sun whose growing strength is warming new life. Yet the phrase that came to this card is hardship averted. This could be understood from two different perspectives. Even though we humans rejoice that spring is a time of rejuvenation, spring is also the hardest season—even more challenging than winter’s hardship. New life must win strength away from hunger—its own and everything else’s, from the wild sob and roar of spring storms, from loss of home and the greatest fear of all: loss of mother.
And yet the other understanding of this phrase is that hardship is averted. The sun does gather warmth. New life does survive. Something older and wiser keeps what is soft and fragile nourished and protected.
If this card has connection for you in your life now, are you honoring the effort you give to bring something through birth to first steps, and also honoring what you give to be a good mother to your creations: protecting yet allowing, guiding yet encouraging. Are there situations in your life where the prevailing energy is rising up? Is your perception of that energy streaked or flecked? Are you being influenced by tenacity? Is your soul's transformation empowered by knowing access is possible?
And yet the other understanding of this phrase is that hardship is averted. The sun does gather warmth. New life does survive. Something older and wiser keeps what is soft and fragile nourished and protected.
If this card has connection for you in your life now, are you honoring the effort you give to bring something through birth to first steps, and also honoring what you give to be a good mother to your creations: protecting yet allowing, guiding yet encouraging. Are there situations in your life where the prevailing energy is rising up? Is your perception of that energy streaked or flecked? Are you being influenced by tenacity? Is your soul's transformation empowered by knowing access is possible?
