Inside the four major seasonal categories (winter, spring, summer and fall) lie clusters of hidden interlocking seasons that define time inside of time, creating the broader temporal and spiritual landscapes.
The floral and faunal constellations of the Sun’s residence in Gemini are made up of fragments of Late Spring and Early Summer, and they recall May’s Taurus and foretell Deep Summer and the sign of Cancer. Each fragment of the natural year is a land star, that rotates within galaxies of objects and events both above and below.
Late May’s clovers still sweeten pastures and lawns. Nodding, yellow meadow goat’s beard and pale blue chicory stand by the roads. The first wild daisies give way to Shasta daisies that last to July. Gaunt yuccas of Early Summer compete with new tall great mulleins of Deep Summer.
The orange day lilies (ditch lilies) that are the crown of June are easy transitions to the multicolored day lilies that bloom under July’s Dog Star, Sirius.
Queen Anne’s lace and black-eyed Susans foretell the heat of August’s Leo. Milkweed opens for the deliberate, venal milkweed beetles, and for monarch butterflies of September’s Libra.
All these creatures are representations of a homely universe, land stars of an immediate landscape.
So we live in tangible reflection of the sky, and the distance between the Dog Star, Sirius, and lilies is not as great as it might seem.
This is Bill Felker with Poor Will’s Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with notes for the first week of Deep Summer. In the meantime, if it’s cloudy and you can’t identify any stars, just look around at the green leaves and the flowers. They are star clocks of Gemni, too.
