Contributed by Rev. Heather Westenhofer
It is sunset, and I am standing on a ridge in East Orange, in the wildlife corridor between Irvine Regional Park and Peters Canyon Regional Park. A healthy-looking coyote has woken up and is on the hunt. A lone purple sage plant, the only known specimen to grow south of Blackstar Canyon, is beginning its fall growth period. A tarantula hawk is building a burrow, in preparation for its prey that will be walking the land as the day comes to an end. A white-tailed kite hovers nearby, scouring the landscape for dinner. Each week I visit this piece of land and get to know its inhabitants more and more. To developers, it is just empty space ready to be turned into a profit. The developers look the other way from teeming life already there, from the wealth that is the expansive vistas of this open space.
I raise my hands in the east to begin the Sphere of Protection ritual which is a fundamental part of my Druid practice. I have crafted a unique version of this working, calling in elements with imagery of the local wildlife and banishing that which threatens it. The Sphere of Protection culminates in a blessing which I can only hope will hold the land in its web of safety for another week.
It is hard to imagine all of the threats our native species face. This entire wilderness area was burned by wildfire in 2017. However, the most intense pressure on wildlife comes from urban sprawl – the noise, pollution, and habitat fragmentation that comes from careless human behavior. But even our sympathetic city council is not willing to stand up to big business, even to request a new Environmental Impact Report for this particular project to update the 2005 (!) original.
Would you like to learn more about connecting to this threatened land, and lend your magic for its protection? Join me for a solstice land blessing on December 23. And support our magic with action: sign the No Orange Heights petition. Our few remaining open spaces in Orange County are so unique and precious. We can’t afford to lose another acre.
Rev. Heather Westenhofer (she/her) is an artist, registered yoga teacher and ordained minister of the Sacred Well Congregation. Heather is currently working through the Bard Apprentice curriculum of the Ancient Order of Druids in America and serves on the Ritual Planning Committee of Reclaiming LA. Sometimes she can be found on Instagram at suburbanartemis.
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