WHO
AM I?
I am just an old guy with a paper grocery
store sack out on his lawn at dawn on May 1, plucking dandelion flowers,
dealing with creaking knees and sciatica. I always hope to fill the sack
quickly, but the repetitiveness of the task makes it tedious to me, and I have
to focus on what I'm doing. That is my part of the alchemical nature of the
process – having to overcome tedium and remember the lofty spiritual process
which I am undertaking. While I am picking, I try to think about next Winter's
Solstice, how dark and cold it will be at that time of year, and to remember
all the blinking ice and snow which only melted a few weeks ago here in New
England.
As the kids begin to drift by on their way
to the middle school up the street, I realize just how slowly I have been
working, having to remember all these things and pick and keep reminding myself
I am doing a mighty and alchemical transformative task, a spiritual task.
Picking is a spiritual practice; I tell
myself. Just like Miguel Cabrera does batting practice to win a Triple Crown, I
do my spiritual practices in hopes of having a spiritual experience. Can't make
Dandelion wine without picking.
When the kids ask, “Whatcha doin’?” and I
respond, “Batting practice.” And they look up at the house and note its
features to remind themselves later where that “old nut-case” lives so they can
avoid this part of the block completely.
WHY
AM I HERE?
I gather the petals on May 1 because it is
a cross-quarter day between the Vernal Equinox in March and the Summer Solstice
in June. On or after May 1, alchemists for centuries have said that the dew on
the plants after dawn is a Holy Essence. Knowing this adds meaning to the task.
All of this is about adding meaning to life.
At the Vernal and Autumnal equinoxes, the
Sun and Moon stand with their arms out wide and balance the days and nights.
Coming out of the kind of winter we had this year, that was a significant
marking point for many of us. Winter lost its grip. Now we are facing a long
summer which many feel portends drought in some parts of the country the likes
of which have not been seen for decades.
The Dandelion petals drink in the bright,
warm sunshine. This is one of the key alchemical components: Sunshine – and all
it means literally and spiritually. I want them filled with as much sunlight as
possible because I will be making wine out of the petals and want the essence
of all that sunlight to be released into the wine. Dandelions are also the
first flowers of affection and joy which children give their mothers or others
– an essence of childhood innocence.
The Dandelion wine will be fermented with
a special Saccharomyces yeast and, in
the six months between the Summer Solstice and the Winter Solstice, I will call
upon the Queen of the Saccharomyces
to transform all this: the Dandelion petals and the sunshine they have
absorbed, Holy Essence, the love and joy of the children around the
world, the thoughts of the alchemist, and added sugar (or honey) – while doing
her mysterious work.
In my basement work area I add all of
these ingredients, stir, pound, squeeze and all the other techniques while
holding all the other thoughts in mind as best I can, add purified water, and
call upon the Queen of the Saccharomyces to
come and multiply herself thousands of times over to do the task which no
person can.
My role is to serve the single-cell beings
who now do the work. When the primary fermenter is "boiling" with the
cold heat of fermentation, it is frothing and foaming, and the transformation
process is well underway. Yeast is a benevolent being, and if I have made a
mistake, they always have forgiven me. The Queen, like a queen bee, has created
a hive of single-cell beings who are serving the process and leaving nothing
untouched.
WHAT
DO I WANT?
By the time of the Summer Solstice, the
Dandelion Wine will be out of the primary fermenter and into the secondary
glass fermenter. It will be opaque
yellow, to begin with. The opaque plant matter will gradually settle, and the
wine will clarify. I will siphon it into
a clean glass fermenter several more times before bottling on or about another
cross-quarter day in September. Then the bottles will sit in my dark wine
cellar at about a 57-degree temperature.
During the winter, we give bottles of our
wine as gifts. Then, on the Winter Solstice, when we are already tired of the
dark and the cold, we will remember that we have something very special in the
basement just for this occasion.
So, we will bring up the first bottle, and
we will uncork it with anticipation. As we sip, the wine releases an inner
experience of sunshine and joy within us. We are flooded with memories of the
warm days that have disappeared, the warm friends we visited, the bright
moments and incidents of the year gone by. Even the dark experiences of the
year seem somehow brighter. The mystery is that this inner flame ignites our
will and helps us bear the darkness and look forward to the light of the new
year about to born.
And, each year, I pause to remember that
this total process from May Day to the darkness at the Winter Solstice is in
its own way a "batting practice" for my preparation to enter into the
Great Dark.
NOTE:
Stella*Natura
Biodynamic Planting Calendar,http://www.stellanatura.com/
©
Copyright 2014, Jean W. Yeager
All
Rights Reserved
Available at
http:/www.th3simplequestions.com
By WestBow Press
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