What drew a dozen dream of a grove of trees to practice in? Well, lucky for me, I just planted one. Hey there, saplings! Welcome back to SOTRAC moment. I'm so excited to share with you a garden project that I have been longing for for many years. Now, it isn't complete yet, but I'm too eager to wait to share it with you. I want to show you a few bits and pieces of my sacred grove that I planted this summer. It took me many months of communicating with the land, demanding offerings to the land spirits here, working on the practicalities of our farm plan, versus the spiritual necessities of the grove, to find the right spot. That whole process was very enlightening for me because it was the first time that I had like actively seeked out to make a change to nature for spiritual purposes. Like, I could just pick a random spot in the woods and work there over and over and over again and build energy that way. But there's something about planting and actively working with the land to create that sacred space in both a tangible and energetic way that really appealed to me. I also knew I wanted to plant oak trees are like the king of the prairie ecosystem. We've done a lot of damage here in this area by reducing the number of fires that we have. Previously, the Native Americans would use fire very actively to manage their landscapes. It really did a great thing for the prairies and the oak savanna. So we're not actively using fire here yet, but that is definitely an intention down the road as we get some of the prairie areas planted. And I wanted to make sure that the oak trees would survive that. And the things that were planting in that area would survive that natural management tool. So on each cardinal direction, I planted a different oak. In the east, I've planted a heritage oak, which is short and stubby because the top of it had gotten cut off and I got it on sale. But it's a really cute little tree and it's a cross between an English oak and a burrow oak. So an English oak wouldn't survive here very well, but the burrow oak is perfect. So it's a nice little tree. In the north, I have a burrow oak, which is the epitome of our landscape and just like so stable and secure for wildlife and other plants. It's really slow growing, but just beautiful. In the west, I have a nice watery white swamp oak. It might struggle on the top of the hill where this is planted, but I'm hopeful. And then in the south, I have a fiery red oak, which is super fast growing for an oak tree. And we'll hopefully provide shade before some of the other trees get growing. Also just represents the south and fire energies so well. I hope to add in the spaces between the trees, some large boulders, maybe standing stones. We have an edge of a quarry, maybe a wool, try and use or purchase landscaping stones. In the center, I also want to do a fountain, altar, fire combination that I have designed. Again, it's just a matter of like time and resources to be able to make that happen. After these trees were planted, which I did in ritual, I have spent a lot of time going out there performing different magic, just building energy, getting to know the trees and connecting to the land through that energy and in that new way. Every morning I go out and say hello to the trees and do a light body exercise. And let me tell you, connecting to a place that you are participating with in the cultivation in such an active way is not like better but different, so magical in its way of just feeding that energy and changing that space. I haven't experienced something like it before and I'm really loving this process of tapping into that energy and establishing a relationship like co-creating that sacred grove with the land spirits and the plants and just everything there. It's kind of blown my mind. Obviously, if you are a druid, you do not have to plant a grove. You do not have to have land to make this happen. There are a multitude ways of connecting to nature or finding groves that you can work ritual with groups or individually. This is just something that I've desired to do and a really special project that I wanted to share with you as it's kind of halfway completes and in progress. In the comments below, let me know if you have a place outside that you're connecting to and working with what is your grove like? I am so curious to know. All right, this week's sampling shoutout goes out to thank you so much for watching and commenting. You want to be a sampling shoutout? Definitely talk to me in the comments of this video or over on Instagram. Thanks for watching and as always, me you fun peace and the sacred grove.