Summer Steeping, by Molly M. Remer

“It was one of those days so clear, so silent, so still, you almost feel the earth itself has stopped in astonishment at its own beauty.”

—Katherine Mansfield quoted in Meditations for People Who (may) Worry too Much

The editor of this anthology, Anne Wilson Schaef, goes on to say:

“When we do stop, many times we look around and realize that we are the only ones rushing around. We realize that the roses, the trees, even the clouds seems suspended in space, and it is as if the universe has paused for a breather. Life has time to experience itself.

Often, when we stop and let ourselves take in the beauty that is around us, we realize there is much more than we originally imagined. Our eyes begin to see beauty in the cracks in the sidewalk, the crookedness of tree limbs, the cragginess of faces, even the color of cars.

We don’t have to travel to see beauty. It is everywhere.

How much more alive we are when we can feel those times that the earth has ‘stopped in astonishment at its own beauty.’”

Do you have time for beauty? When was the last time you stopped in astonishment? What is astonishing you lately? Where are you discovering beauty?

In midsummer, I find, as we keep rolling with the wheel, we begin to sense a cauldron call resounding in landscape and bone, a call deep and persistent, irresistible and strong. It is time for steeping, we sense it close at hand, the yearning becoming more potent with each bright day and each to-do list item checked away. We must gather together our courage, our trust and our patience. We must draw together the threads of our work, our purpose, focus, and caring. We must call upon our magic, our wisdom and our wonder. We have what we need. Now we wait, as the call grows and we ready ourselves to respond, to sink in, to retreat, to step into the cauldron and discover once more. 

I have written here at FAR previously about my “Cauldron Month” concept and sustaining myself during a whirling year. Each year, in August, I honor what I call a “Cauldron Month” for myself. This is a month in which I “take it all to the cauldron” and let it bubble and brew and stew and percolate. I pull my energy further inward to let myself listen and be and to see what wants to emerge. It is a month in which I delete my social media apps and mindfully, intentionally draw my scattered attention inward in order to listen to my inner wisdom, to take all of my bubbling ideas to the metaphorical cauldron of my own being and see what is brewing, what is stewing, and what is ready to be dished up. I clarify goals for the remainder of the year, my next word of the year usually finds me, and I take time to consciously “steep” in my own flavor. It is a time of clarity and renewal for me, a time when I withdraw from outer life and re-collect my energy in order to determine where to put my focus for the remainder of the year.

Cauldron Month dates back to 2016, a year in which my pace of living became unsustainable and I experienced a persistent and inexplicable cough that lasted for six full months. A past audio exploring this experience and the Cauldron Month concept is available here. After this experience, I came to clearly see a pattern in myself, of speeding up and revving harder and harder through the spring and summer, until I reach an annual point of having taken on too much, in which I must make choices about what to let go of and what to pursue. It helps to know it, to name it, to say to myself: oh, yes, this. Cauldron time is here again. The understanding of this pattern has helped me to prepare for it, when I feel the familiar tension, the drive to push and speed, I step back instead. I sit down. I shut things off. I get still and I listen.

Summer is a time of generosity and of thriving, not only of plants and land, but of ideas and plans, visions and possibilities. There is much that asks for our patience and our power. We may feel poised at a crossroads, held in a luminous space between comfort and risk, effort and ease, determination and desire. Now is when we discover we are invited to choose a way forward, that we can’t tend every dream into flourishing, that we must make our peace with closing some doors if we want to step forward. May we gather our resources. May we pause to listen to longing. May we let the sensation and the knowing of thriving and flourishing seep into us. May we steep for a spell in this abundant warmth and pulsing desire of summer’s power. May we hold our offerings close to our hearts one more time. May we lift what we’ve chosen up into the sun and set forth. We have chosen our way.

Cauldron Month Resource Kit collection (free)

We each need time
in the cauldron of reflection.
Time to steep low and slow
in our own wisdom.
We need time
to cocoon,
still and soft,
to listen to our soul song,
to the story woman,
to the one within
who knows we need
time to replenish and renew ourselves,
time to dialogue with destiny
and with divinity,
to tap into purpose,
and to root into restoration.
It is here that we tune in
to the infinite pulse
unfolding,
sacred,
sacred,
sacred,
this is now.

Resources:

• Cauldron Month Resource Kit collection (free set)
• Taking it to the Cauldron
• Sustaining Myself
• Goddess Magic community for shared practice
• Audio edition of Taking it to the Cauldron + companion audio about Nourishment
• Older Cauldron Month audio exploration