Nurturing Your Spring Garden: A Season of Spiritual Devotion

Spring marks a time of renewed devotion as nature's awakening mirrors our own spiritual stirrings, inviting us to recommit to our deepest values and aspirations through mindful tending of what matters most.

• Spring as a season of devotion, when we figure out what we want to devote ourselves to

• Connection between tending physical gardens and our inner spiritual gardens

• Five journal prompts to explore what deserves our devoted attention

• Importance of journaling as a spiritual practice and self-care tool

• Three-card tarot spread for spring devotion: the sacred seed, daily practice, and worthy sacrifice

• Personal examples of cards drawn and their interpretation

• Balancing inner conflict through parts work and internal dialogue

• Releasing the need for external validation and arbitrary timelines

• Finding value in slowing down and embracing natural rhythms

If you do the tarot spread, drop a comment! I love to hear what cards people pull and their responses to the prompts. When we share with each other, we learn and grow together - and that's the entire purpose of Blooming Wand.

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Transcript

Welcome to Blooming Wand

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey friends, welcome to Blooming Wand, your home for grounded spiritual content. I'm Emily O'Neill, evidential Psychic Medium, intuitive Healer and Coach, and on today's episode I wanted to talk about spring as a time of devotion. I love to explore and offer journal prompts and a tarot spread whenever we have shifts in season, and we had one, obviously, at the end of March with the spring equinox, and as we move to April we'll have an or we are in April. As we move towards May, we'll have another shift on May day or Beltane, that being the halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. But for now we're in that early spring season, which I believe is a time of devotion, when we figure out what we want to devote ourselves to, and I always use the analogy of the garden and nature to help us understand well, what do you mean about devotion.

Spring as a Time of Devotion

Five Journal Prompts for Spring

Speaker 1 1:08

But this is the time of year when I begin to need to pay extra attention to my herbs and vegetables that are going to go into the garden. It's when I have to keep a sharp eye out for aphids, on my teeny, tiny little rosebuds, on my teeny tiny little rosebuds. So I become more and more devoted to the land during spring because I'm more active and engaged with it, as opposed into the wintertime when, while I'm still connected, I'm spending maybe more of my time indoors. There's a lot less to do in terms of tending the garden. Around the wintertime it's when everything kind of goes fallow and you leave it alone. But spring is when we move back into tending and caring, and while we can tend and care to an actual physical garden, we can also tend and care to our own personal garden within. So I've always believed that spring marks a time of renewed devotion, as nature's awakening mirrors our own spiritual stirrings and as dormant buds burst into bloom and silent earth yields fresh growth. I'm seeing it all around here in Southwest Washington. We too can feel called to recommit to our deepest values and aspirations, and the lengthening days do invite contemplation, while the vibrant displays of life around us can inspire gratitude. And I know that I'm really feeling that because I have a magnolia tree that's pink and blooming and bringing me so much joy and a flowering cherry that's just about to burst, and I just love when these two trees are in bloom because they're pink and beautiful and striking and they make me just feel so, so much grateful for the sunlight, for the shift in the season, for getting outdoors more and connecting with people and nature. So I feel like this is a season definitely of rebirth I mean not to point out the obvious and that we may find ourselves naturally drawn to practices of mindfulness, prayer or service to honor just that. Spring isn't merely about a change in weather, but a sacred invitation to cultivate what matters most in the garden of our lives, so what matters the most to you and for me. I need prompts sometimes to help me kind of dive into how I'm feeling, and so I have a couple of journal prompts for you and I'll just read them to you really quickly and then we'll get into the tarot spread and I won't do anything like a collective tarot reading or anything like that. What I'm going to do is just share the cards that I drew for myself and to demonstrate how the spread can work, and then you guys can give it a whirl and see what comes up for you. Those that read my newsletter have I've gotten a lot of positive feedback about this tarot spread and how it was really helpful, and a lot of people about the journal prompts too. So I have five journal prompts and I'll go over them with you really quickly and if you're new here, I'm just going to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak.

Speaker 1 4:31

Journaling is like one of my favorite things and I think it's something that we can do for ourselves. That's pretty simple, but we make it hard sometimes and I used to resist journaling because I think I didn't have anything to say and I thought what am I going to do? Just run down everything that happened to me in the day, and I don't want to revisit that, or what if somebody looks at my journal. But as I've gotten older and become a middle-aged person, I've kind of gotten over some of that stuff. And it was the tarot actually that got me into journaling, was pulling cards and then just like diving into my response to the sacred imagery within the cards, and then now I can't stop journaling. So you know, give it a try, see how it goes for you. But it's a really powerful tool that I do think of as a spiritual practice as much as it's a self-care practice, and I think that there is even information out there about how journaling really does help us out.

Speaker 1 5:36

So the first journal prompt which I'll read to you is what winter dream now requires your devoted attention. So I always think of winter as the time of dreaming. We're in the dark, it's quiet it tends to be quiet around here anyway we turn inward more and we enter in the state of like, kind of a dreaming state. I liken it to the wildflowers in winter. Those seeds are tucked so deep beneath the soil they're dreaming a dream of fresh, new life come spring. What does that dream feel like? What does that dream look like? And the other part of this prompt is describe the specific, tangible steps that you will take to demonstrate your commitment to nurturing this intention into reality. So what have you been dreaming about? What have you been wanting to do? What's been something that you've been feeling into? Here's your second prompt Devotion requires both discipline and love.

Speaker 1 6:37

Where in your life can you bring more loving attention to the daily practices that support your growth and transformation? So devotion requires discipline and love, and we are in the season of devotion, spring. So where in your life can you bring more loving attention to the daily practices that support your growth and transformation? Daily practices don't have to be rigorous, they don't have to be intense, they can be simple. Things like a daily practice for me is intentionally making sure that I drink water or that I meet my body's needs. So right now I'm standing at my desk instead of sitting, because my body has had enough sitting. So it's just what can I do? Simple things can I do that might feel good to me mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Speaker 1 7:31

Now your third prompt is this Our ancestors understood that spring required physical labor and dedicated effort after winter's rest. Yes, it does. And so what are you willing to sweat for this season? What deserves your sacred effort and focused energy? And I won't lie to you, this prompt is the one that I'm still working on, which reminds me to point out to you you don't have to get these all done in one sitting and you can come back to them. And this one is one that I'm still feeling into is like where do I want to put my like sweat equity? Where do I want to put my labor in terms of what matters to me during the season of devotion? Where do my efforts feel more aligned with my values? And for me, things are kind of shifting and changing in terms of how I want to use my time and energy. So I'm giving this prompt a little bit of space until I have a better sense of that, but it's coming into picture for me.

Speaker 1 8:39

I can tell you that here's your fourth prompt. Consider a project or relationship that matters deeply to you, and what does devoted tending look like for this particular garden in your life, and how will you show up consistently, even when the initial excitement fades? I think sometimes we get excited about things and then get a little swirly twirly and put a lot of effort into them initially, and then the hard work sets in and we're like I don't know if I want to do that. Fair enough, maybe it is something that you don't need to be doing, maybe it is that's for you to figure out. But I tend to have the opposite problem. When I've set my mind to something, I'm going to get it done, period, and so I have to be careful about what I set my mind to and have to make sure that it really is aligned with my values and how I want to feel and move through life, because I've got a little bit of a work horse tendency and I'll just work to work. I don't know, maybe that comes from actually being put to work as a child, at a young age I first job at 11. So I have my own like things I have to be careful of, and I'm sure that you do too, and that's okay. So the fourth prompt. I'll just read it one more time Consider a project or relationship that matters really deeply to you, and what does devoted tending look like for this particular garden in your life, and how will you show up consistently even when the initial excitement fades? Your fifth and last journal prompt is devotion often involves sacrifice and the sacred act of choosing one path over another, so we can't do everything all at once. So when we're really devoting ourselves to something, sometimes it means other things don't get done. So what might you need to release or set aside to fully devote yourself to what you truly want to be doing? This season, and and that's one I'm still working on a little bit too I definitely am getting the sense of some things I'm going to be letting go of and kind of new things coming into being, and I just I offer this because the prompts are really just intended to get you thinking and feeling, and if that's all that it does and you don't journal for all five of them, great, I mean, you get to do whatever you want to do.

A Three-Card Tarot Spread

Speaker 1 11:19

Now let's dive into the three-card tarot spread that I crafted for spring devotion, and it's only three cards. I have found in my tarot practice that one card can give you a lot. Three cards can give you a lot. You don't need to pull a ton of cards to kind of get a sense of things. You can if you want to. Sometimes I like to mix decks and pull lots of cards, but mostly in my personal self-care and spiritual practices I keep it between one and three. So card one the sacred seed. What intention from winter's dreaming most deserves your devoted attention and action now? And this card reveals where your commitment will yield the most abundant harvest.

Speaker 1 12:13

Card two the daily practice. What form of devoted tending is needed to nurture your intention into reality? This card illuminates the consistent actions, rituals or mindsets that will sustain your growth. Card three the worthy sacrifice. What must you willingly release to transform to? Oh, let me say that again, what must you willingly release to transform or fully devote yourself to what matters most? So what are you willing to release to transform, to fully devote yourself to what matters most? This card shows what needs to be composted to feed new growth. So just to simplify that language, because I definitely maybe overcomplicated, that it's just what do you want to let go of so that you can really devote yourself to what you want to be doing. We can't do everything all at once, and I think most of us are trying to probably do more than we need to in most cases.

Examining My Personal Cards

Speaker 1 13:21

And so this is this opportunity to say what am I going to just intentionally set aside for the season of spring? All right, now let's get into it. Let me tell you the cards that I pulled and sort of the messages that I got for myself around spring devotion and you know what? There's always cards that were like hmm, that's a big one. And so for me, my card one the sacred seed was the nine of swords, which you know. You see a figure sitting upright in bed in the dark, head and hands maybe they're crying. It definitely looks like feeling overwhelmed and like you're having a hard time. So how does that connect to what intention I might set for myself or the sacred seat? So let me grab my trusty journal.

Speaker 1 14:16

So when I looked at the Nine of Swords, I see kind of processing difficult emotions, identifying thought loops, maybe wanting to cultivate some mental clarity and prioritizing mental and emotional well-being and emotional well-being, and so I would say that my intention that deserves my devoted attention right now is that I need to be making time to process some difficult emotions, that it would be helpful for me to identify thought loops or perhaps limiting beliefs identify thought loops or perhaps limiting beliefs, and that working towards cultivating a little bit more mental clarity for myself would be beneficial, and that I need to make time and prioritize my mental health and my emotional well-being. And the reason that this resonates with me is I'm about two and a half weeks or so post-hysterectomy. That was a big deal. I definitely had a lot of feelings and thoughts about having the surgery. It was very much needed, but I was afraid to have it.

Speaker 1 15:27

I'm always learning and growing in terms of developing Blooming Wand and how I want to be balancing my work-, life self with that, and if you're a small business owner, you know how it is. You put everything into your work, but we also have to remember just that healthy boundaries around that I've also. I'm in therapy who's not? And in order for me to do the work that I do with clients, I feel like I need to make sure that I'm doing myself work, and I've really learned a lot about my need for external validation lately and how it's been such a big in ways I didn't understand motivator for me to just be validated by something outside of myself, and I've also learned that I can be really very hypervigilant. If you don't know what that's all about, I suggest you look it up. So, yeah, I've been feeling really overwhelmed and I do need to make time to process my mental and emotional health and well-being, so that nine of swords is not really a surprise to me. That that's an intention that I know. That would be a great sacred seed for me and, interestingly enough, during the winter I knew the surgery was coming up. I knew it was going to unlock some things in me in terms of, like, deep wounds, childhood stuff and anytime anything big happens to my body. That's something that happens to me. I think it's pretty standard for most people. So I set aside time in the spring so that I could do this devotion. I worked it out in my calendar and my schedule and I set some healthy boundaries up because I knew this time I was going to need to take good care of myself and I'm really glad that Winter Emily was thinking about Spring. Emily and you know, did that. So that's a really kind of a deep and intense sacred seed.

Speaker 1 17:32

Now the second card is the daily practice. What form of devoted tending is needed to nurture my intention into reality? And I got the five of um wands, which it's like, oh, look at all those Trying to get something done, trying to make things come together, and it's quite a process, looks like maybe having some difficulty. Now, when I always look at the five of wands, I see the potential. I see that these wands are about to form a five-pointed star, if all the figures can kind of get on the same page. And if you're not familiar with parts work, it's really popular right now.

Speaker 1 18:18

Right now, parts work is related to internal family systems, but also other techniques and tools around listening to your body, understanding that we're not a monolith of identity, that we have many sub personalities or identities or parts within ourselves. And this makes me think of internal conflict and like different parts of myself, like probably all being well-intentioned but not maybe some inner conflict there. So when I look at the daily practice and take into consideration the message of the five of wands, I see that I need to be more present and actively engaged with myself when I feel that inner conflict in the parts of myself that maybe want the same things but want to go about it differently, or when I have more than one thought or feeling at the same time and they're very different. So, like an example for me is always like work harder and the other part of me is like you need to rest, and then another part of me is like, oh, you need to rest, and then another part of me is like, oh, I have all these really cool ideas I need to put. Oh, let's go do this or do that, like an energized part. So it does feel like this kind of a little bit chaotic. So what daily practice can I do for myself? Which, for me, I think I need to really just actively engage and be present for for that inner conflict and figure out, um, what parts of myself are being activated, what do they want or need, what values do they have? Cause, typically, when I do that exercise, I noticed that they all kind of want the same thing for me and they often share values, and once I'm able to integrate that into my system, then things feel a little bit less chaotic. I feel like it's a time to be more collaborative and cultivate stronger communication, not just internal dialogue but external as well. Make sure I let people know how I'm feeling and what I need as I continue to heal from surgery and things like that. Um, yeah, so that's kind of what I'm feeling about. The daily practice is that becoming a little bit more comfortable with the inner conflict and realizing that it doesn't have to paralyze me and that if I can do some of my self-care practices, like I have one where I put a hand on wherever I'm feeling an emotion and I just say I see you and ask it what do you need from me? And then that's how I kind of integrate some of this five of wands, energy, um, so I think I'll need to lean into that daily practice, um, kind of keeping it simple, not overdoing it. Uh, cause I tend to overdo. Uh, we'll just kind of keep it simple. Maybe I'll do like a minute or five minute practice when I feel the need every day. So that's going to be my daily practice. So the idea is setting the intention and then aligning that with something simple that you can do to honor that intention every day without making it become too overcomplicated or overwhelming for yourself. Like we don't need more stress right now. Things are intense enough.

Speaker 1 21:34

Now the third card, the worthy sacrifice. What do I need to willing release, or willingly release or transform, so that I can devote myself to what matters most? And it was really interesting. I got the. You know I love to garden, or if you don't, or if you're new here, I love to garden, I love nature, I love plants, I love animals, I love bugs, I love all that stuff. And I pulled the seven pentacles and I thought, well, what do I need to willingly release to honor what matters most? Well, they're not really doing anything. They're kind of just like watching things grow, maybe waiting too long and letting it kind of rot on the vine. So what does that mean? What do I need to sacrifice?

Speaker 1 22:16

So I had to think about that or feel into that, and then I realized one of the messages I got was I need to tend to my own garden, which means I need to let go of the need to be paying attention to what everybody else is doing and sort of keep my eyes on my own page, so to speak. So I really need to work on that external validation thing and that comparison thing that I personally do and kind of release that how do you release that feeling into why I need it in the first place might be a good thing to think about. I also feel like I need to release this need for instant gratification, that somehow if I do something, I'm going to immediately be validated or something for it. So I'm or that like because that's where I get my gratification is when somebody says good job or like that was awesome and I need that, or I feel that I need that. So I think I'm going to sacrifice or work on releasing the need for instant gratification and the need to constantly do as I mentioned. It's like I like to kind of work a lot and my body needs to rest right now, and so this is releasing the need to do so that I'm kind of more still and present for what I'm nurturing.

Embracing Slow Growth and Self-Care

Speaker 1 23:39

I also got releasing fear of setbacks, releasing over analysis, releasing attachment to timelines, because nature is on its own timeline and maybe I could just lean into that like releasing the need to know how, when, why things are going to happen, which is so ironic considering that I'm an evidential psychic medium, because people come to me because they want to know things and like obviously I get it, but sometimes we don't need to know and sometimes we just need to let things be and on our natural rhythms, rather than self-imposed timelines that could potentially be totally arbitrary, potentially be totally arbitrary. So that's kind of one of the things that I'm going to be releasing. And so in releasing that sort of arbitrary timeline thing, I feel like I'm releasing the need for constant progress and so that I can lean into more of a natural and organic unfoldings. So I'll just hold these up for you. Card one for me was nine of swords, card two, five of wands and then card three, the seven of pentacles.

Speaker 1 25:02

So my hope was in sharing with you the spread and the cards that I pulled and kind of how I got down to the intention, the daily practice and the worthy sacrifice so that I can be really devoted in this season of devotion to the things that matter to me most, that you would have like a model and an example that you could use to help you with your tarot spread. And, as you can see, this season I'm going to be devoted to some, really a lot of self-care, which to me sometimes sounds cliche, but really it's not. I'm definitely in a season of life where there's been a lot going on and this is really important for me. It's simple. I feel like sometimes these tarot spreads and these journal prompts point to some pretty simple things that we can do. But simple doesn't mean that it's easy and, um, that's why I think we try to overcomplicate it, because we think it can't be that simple that I need to slow down and take care of myself. No way, um, but yeah, yes, way.

Speaker 1 26:04

We do live in a world where we're looking at our phones and getting more information than I think our brains can honestly handle within a day. But think about within an hour how much email you've read or how many things you've scrolled through on the internet or on social media. Brain and science is catching up with that and I know, for me it makes me feel like I need fast, fast, fast, like go faster, do more, get more, and it becomes almost a compulsion. So I do think that slowing down is kind of a radical act these days and you know, paying attention to how you feel and what you're noticing through your senses and sort of decompressing from that fast push energy and leaning into. Yeah, things do kind of happen over time and some things can turn on a dime in life. I certainly understand that, but most things, most of the time, we're between this and that we spend a lot of time in the in-between.

Speaker 1 27:05

So, if you do the tarot spread, I'd love to hear from you. Drop a comment. Don't forget to like and follow or subscribe. I really do like to hear the cards that people pull, what their response was to the prompts and the tarot spread, because when we share with each other, we learn and grow together, and that's the entire purpose of blooming wand. So, as always, take good care of yourselves and I will see you soon.