I've been working alot with Hawthorn lately, the Celtic tree of Bealtaine. This old photo is of a West Cork Hawthorn, recorded just after Samhain, the polar opposite of Bealtaine in the Celtic Wheel of the Year. For balance, and perspective. Fire and earth. Purging (fire) and composting (earth).
As we journey deeper into the Winter, and closer to the longest night of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere, Hawthorn reminds the importance of thorn medicine. Fire and earth. Purging and releasing, healthy boundaries and protection whilst doing journeying the fire walk to Solstice.
Thorn medicine is earth medicine. It is the magic of the Hawthorn (and Blackthorn) in all portals of transformation, and all fire walks. Not just during Samhain and the death of the old year and birth of the new, but also in the end, the liminal space in between, and the beginning, of every moment, every breath, and every footstep we take. As such, Samhain (and the Cailleach) can be experienced at any moment, and time, irrelevant of what you are doing. All that is required is your mindful decision.
These energies and festivals are not fixed once a year calendar events, and you can live them every day. The festivals themselves are a formal acknowledgement and highlight within the solar year/Celtic Wheel of the Year, and those dates are arranged by the stars.
Thorn medicine also reminds us that there is shadow in the light too, especially when you walk tall and shine bright.
For those who feel drawn, you can hear my FIRESIDE CHAT on boundary perspectives and thorn medicine here.