Within the Edge We Clear a Hollow {March 2023}

LIMINALITY  •  DISTILLATION  •  CONTRACTION

In January, we cast a circle beside the river of time. In February, we traveled behind the mind like one might walk through a waterfall and watch the world from behind its veil. In both spells, we’ve been establishing perspective and protection. March’s spell focuses our attention inside the boundaries of these spaces and asks us to do something a little strange: hollow them out. 

Edges are boundaries, abrupt or gradual. Skin, seashores, thresholds. Edges are the places where worlds meet and where growth occurs. Often, humans reinforce their edges—wearing clothes, building walls, fencing land, resisting change. This spell guides us to approach our boundaries in a different way—by zooming in on the microscopic level where everything that seems solid is actually full of holes, waves, and spaciousness.

There’s a mystical Jewish teaching that the universe was created by the divine spirit contracting itself: that only by creating a hollow, a space where the divine was not, could something else come into being. This month’s spell is heralding the liminal space where winter’s contraction is beginning to spill out into the new life of early spring. Hellebore, the flowers painted here, are edge keepers. They are among the first flowers to bloom into the cold air and sing the brave song of spring. Hellebores are far more resilient than they appear and their flower essences support reintegration after a time of loss or lack. 

When the ground is fully frozen, nothing can grow. When our psyches are frozen, we have no inner spaciousness, no way to create a space for something new to grow or even name where there is lack. This month we bring in the warmth of the sun in spring, and everything it means. We let the ground thaw before we dig. And then we clear a space for windborne seeds to fill. We watch and wait.