Landscape words: Colour

Does nature book end winter with colour?

If that’s the case, what am I feeling when I see so much yellow around today?

Ok. Before I go on even further, I need to bring up the subject of Gorse. When I think of yellow it is always a plant that comes to mind and one I see it flowering with such vibrancy and at so many times of the year there’s barely a moment when some isn’t present. Leaving the smell aside, I have always wondered if each of the species flower to herald in the new celebrations of the solar festival? Does it provide a signpost to nature that the subtleties of the season are changing? I have not real idea but I think it is something that I would like to track when I walk though gorse landscapes – Do I always see it when a solar festival is imminent? What fun would that be? Sure it is associated with some of the fire festivals as it burns so well but maybe that’s only part of its role and symbolism. A thought for another article maybe.

Anyway yellow it is and yellow does carry symbolism for all of us. It is the solar plexus chakra colour. That understanding of self and how we see and love ourselves. Lets dally here a little. 

The solar plexus – solar huh – sun – and the source of our personal strength. It is to do with ego, self empowerment, self worth, our will, our intuition and our integrity. A final thought, it is to do with facing up to “who I am”, “who others want me to be” and very importantly “Who I want to be”. (www.sairasalmon.com). 

Makes me think about how much colour can influence my own thinking and herald in my own growth. So maybe me seeing that colour at this time of year is reflecting on my own focus as to growth. The yellow is but nature’s marker to me and that a fresh period begins when you really “see” its colour.

This is the point of the year when we begin a more introspective time of the year and so the focus does tend towards the self. But what then of spring? Well, in great tradition of post rationalisation, it’s the point where you can begin to see the potential of the growth in self, that comes about through the reflection in the darker days. I’m not sure but I do feel this book end of that time of the wheel of the year.

Whatever, it still feels like nature’s moment of celebration. Yellow is celebration in my heart and can see it as a marker to a change, a shift in the year or a shift in self?

Well this piece of writing seems to be more about the nature of yellow than nature’s yellow. 

Though both of these are intertwined, as often what we notice and what we are drawn to is a visual key to where we need to put our focus and if that’s in sync with the wheel of the year then that’s where the flow happens.

However, yellow in the spring is because those flowers need pollinators and those can be in short supply at that time of year and so nature has evolved bigger and bolder flowers to capture the attention of what’s around then. 

In the autumn though, this is less required I feel. However, none the less, they still put on a show that must be worthy of attracting pollinators. Maybe at this time of year it’s less about pollination of the flower but providing a resource for the times to come. Bees need to fill the coffers for the winter ahead and so it could be that that these flowers are saying. “There is nectar here that will give you all you need at a time of year, that your needing to work so hard, to provide for the future”.

Could this also be why I see so much yellow myself? In spring, it is about the future but the future of the plant and the setting of seed. In the autumn it’s about the future but ensuring that the future is secured, in that the colonies of pollinators are provided for and nature sees to both through the flower and the colour yellow. 

How amazing is it to think that whilst it required pollinators for its own purposes but it also needs them to flourish and to continue to do so and it provides the same in return. 

This is timely as I was asking the same question of a friend of mine today “What plants require human interaction for nature alone to reap the benefit?” and “Have we developed varieties of plants specifically for the benefit of nature and not ourselves?”. Answer is there none. Possibly again another article to explore that further.

If yellow in nature signifies both a need – for pollinators and an indication of resources  – again for pollinators and different times of the year. Then I can take from this, my seeing the yellow at this time of year, the need to gather my resources for what’s to come in the wheel of the year and particularly at this time when we are approaching another solar festival that of the Festival of Consummation or Law Aila Miheel. The second of the three reaping or harvest festivals. These are all about taking what we need from all the work we have put in on ourselves and reaping the benefit from it. It is also about assessing our own self worth and that provides our link back to the colour yellow as represented by the solar plexus. (solar festival celebrations)

Does nature then also provide us with the colour most symbolic of the times of the year. Providing through the colour yellow, both sources for nature and the symbolism of our own focus on our own growth. 

I’ll take the hint.