Frogs Return Moon, May 13

Why frogs, you might ask?

In many indigenous cultures, people used the activities, cycles, animal behavior, etc. in nature throughout each season to provide a model or metaphor for what they needed to learn at that time. At this time of year, the frogs return from their hibernation. Furthermore, frogs can teach us a lot about transformation and transcendence.

That’s quite a bit for a frog.

Frogs begin as eggs, turn into tadpoles, and then into frogs. During their transformation, frogs learn to live first in water, then in the air and water. While their transformation is in reality gradual, it is actually quite miraculous for such a short period of time.

As a metaphor for our own lives, frogs can help us see how important it is to learn to transform easily from one stage to another, because we so often resist change, instead holding back in so many ways.

At the same time, frogs teach us to be happy with each stage we’re in while we’re there, rather than wishing we were in the next stage or at the end point. While we must envision where we’ll be eventually, we also need to be content with where we are at that moment and not beat ourselves up because we haven’t reached the conclusion already. It’s so easy in our culture to judge where we are now, rather than acknowledge the stages of transformation.

Frogs can also teach us about transcendence because they are capable of living at all three worlds: the lower world or in the mud and under the waters, the middle world or on the land, and in the upper world or in the trees. In most indigenous cultures, they believed that our world was composed of multiple worlds, essentially each with their own job description or place where activities took place. For example, one interpretation is as follows: The lower world is the place where one greets and engages their unconscious. The middle world is where one lives current reality. The upper world is where one greets ones becoming or future.

The transcendental quality of frogs comes from their ability to move between these three worlds easily – and that is what they can teach us about ourselves. We can take their example and learn to navigate these worlds easily ourselves, going beyond our limitations of experience and the unknowable and toward a more integrated worldview.

As you hear the frogs return over this next moon cycle, learn from their examples of transformation and transcendence.

Next Month: The Corn Planting Moon on June 11.