Hello Friends,

I love not Winter! I love the sun. The warmth and endless energy. The flowers and the birds. The buzz of the bees and the impossible blues of the sea and sky. The oak moon is so many smells and colors, a kaleidoscope of life. The most light, the whitest white…which is all the colors. Opals.
Opals are my favorite. In Australia, the aborigines believe the creator came to earth on a rainbow and left the opals as his feet touched the ground. I love this. My great grandfather found stones and made jewelry in his later life. He made my grandmother a set of Opals. When they arrived she wore them to bed and felt like a Queen. Grandma Mary is a Queen. She gifted them to me, and I have worn them in celebration and when I needed strength.
Opals are wild magic. A Hydrated Silica that fills in the cracks and heals them with colors. Each opal has 6-10% of water which creates the rainbows. They don’t have the crystal structure of a mineral, like diamonds. Instead they are little spheres that diffract the light as it passes through. Without order and yet beautiful.

The Mexican Fire opals are more orange and red like the fire in the volcanoes they were created in. They gather their color from iron oxide. The Fire Opal was sacred to the Aztecs. It is still know for it strong ties to young love.

The Oak moon hosts the Sumer Solstice. The bittersweet time when the sun reaches its fullest and in the beauty and brightness change turns our lengthening days a little bit shorter. Our nights are now a little bit longer and we have gone through the door to Summer. The Druids called the Oak Duir, which means door. Historically Oak doors inspire images of strength and safety…Oak magic. The Oak King rules from Winter Solstice to Summer Solstice. Bringing the planet out of the darkness and into the light until June 21 when Holly Rules till the darkest night.

While we are in the Oak moon we have it all. The light, the flowers, the songs, the love and all the colors the gods bring. It starts at the strength of Spring when the roses bloom and the jasmine spice the night and it ends in the brightness of Summer when mountain peaks still have snow and the dark green leaves promise an endless abundance. Life is sweetening on strawberry vines. You can watch apples grow on trees while being distracted by the white billowy clouds and their endless art walk. Oak is Everything.
It is also the time of Cancer, the Crab. Cancer is a water sign. Emotions and Oceans run deep in Cancer. The key to winning a crab? Compassion.

Most of my art this moon was exploring the crab. I loves crabs. They are the clean up crew of our beaches. Always willing to give a free pedicure, the crabs of Hood Canal seem to greet me when I soak my feet.

I wanted to also try to capture some of the sparkle and wild magic of the opals. They did not picture well. Hopefully you take time to see the color play by looking at your hand painted card in different lights.

You are Spring. You are Summer. You are Everything!

COMPASSION
Blessed Be,

Dian Mali – Funky Fiber Witch