Owl

Week 29

OWL

Animal and human spirit guides come and go depending on where you are on your journey through life and what you need at that time.  One of the animals that seems to be working with me at the moment is owl, specifically Barn Owls.  When you are drawn to something over and over again, you have to stop and wonder why.  So I dug out my *medicine cards and read up on Owl.

Owl is 'deception'. Associated with clairvoyance, astral projection and magic (dark/light), owl sees what is really there and cannot be deceived.  A deadly hunter that flies silently, thanks to it's amazing feathers that literally absorb sound. Their prey really don't know what's coming until it hits them.

Owl has always been associated with wisdom and you must remember the little clockwork owl in Clash of the Titans.  Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom and her owl is said to have revealed unseen truths to her and lit up her dark side so she could truly see all around.  You know about their impressive head rotation, they really do see all the way around.  If you can see it all, you can be furnished with the whole truth and speak the whole truth.  This scares people apparently as you can see through people's ulterior motives and call them out on them.

The card says that* "if you've pulled the Owl card, you are being asked to use your powers of keen, silent observation to intuit some life situation.  Owl is befriending you and aiding you in seeing the total truth. Owl can bring you messages in the night through dreams or meditation. Pay attention to the signals and omens. The Truth always brings further enlightenment."  Going on my current situation, I can certainly see why Owl is around.

Interestingly, Native American stories, which these Medicine cards are based on, have contradicting views on Owls. Owl is a harrbringer of death, so to see or hear one means there will be a death.  So I had a look into this a bit more and found a really interesting article on it.  America is a big place and there were many Indian nations, most share the same viewpoint about owls - they were either feared or embraced.

Read this great article by someone who's gleamed this knowledge from many tribal elders over the years.

I found the remains of a barn owl in 2010 in the woods. I have two wings and a foot that I have been storing, ready to turn into a smudge fan and other craft tools, for my use.  Maybe Owl is reminding me to get a move on with it, four years is long enough to dry out.

Kyle is an amazing wildlife photographer, check his website out

Granny, Green Man and Guides

Week 14 - as I can't decide which one, I shall discuss these three =o))

Paul Kidby - love his work! Just how you imagine the characters to look.

Granny Weatherwax
I love the Discworld novels, I've read them all countless times. My favourite ones are the ones with the witches in.  If you want to know about witchcraft, real witchcraft - read these books. I met 'Grandad' a few years back, he runs the Hitchhikers fan club and was telling me about how he knows Terry and apparently the witches are based on real people.  I love the fact that there's actually people out there like this.

Granny: “I don’t hold with paddlin’ with the occult. Once you start paddlin’ with the occult you start believing in spirits, and when you start believing in spirits you start believing in demons, and then before you know where you are you’re believing in gods. And then you’re in trouble.”
Nanny Ogg: “But all them things exist.”
Granny: “That’s no call to go around believing in them.  It only encourages ’em.”

“There’s magic, and then again, there’s magic. The important thing, my girl, is to know what magic is for and what it isn’t for. And you can take it from me, it was never intended for lighting fires, you can be absolutely certain of that."

I don't read craft books. I like Granny's attitude to 'Boffo' and I agree, you don't need a special knife to cut air with for ritual, you don't need coloured candles, you don't need trinkets and triple goddess pendants to be a witch....... but if that's your thing, more power to you... we all need something to make it 'real'.  I don't but that's me lol

---------------------------------

Green Man

I love going into old churches and going Green Man hunting.  You can guarantee that if it's an old Norman church or from around that time, there will be a Green Man, on the ceiling.  The picture above is one that I took in St.Mary's church in Hitchin, nearly 1000 years old.  Just because they are churches, doesn't mean that the craftsmen that built them were Christian.  In the really early churches, you can also find Sheela-na-gigs - sometimes described as 'imps' in the church logs but these are often a female figure pulling open their lady parts and some have their tongues lolling out... there's lots of stories about them and no one can agree on their meaning.  It's the meaning you give it, I suppose, as with all things. Also another Green Man spot, is sometimes you find the old lecterns have what looks like Jesus with leaves and vines coming out of his mouth, which is actually very early Green Man carvings. 

When I'm gazing, I have seen the outline of a big green face in trees before. I feel that he is the spirit of the nature, of trees and things that grow. I have no thesis behind my attraction to the Green Man, nor have I read up on it to form an educated opinion. I just feel connected to him.  As always, I like to provide links to sources of information and I found a good one I think you'll enjoy, there's also a regular podcast. 

-----------------------------------

Owl - one of my animal guides

Guides

I work with spirit. I have been made aware of several guides over the years. Each guide will come to work with you depending on what help you need.  It seems that everyone has a red Indian guide... no seriously, how many people have you heard speaking about their guides, haven't boasted about their Native American? Been in a spiritualist church lately? Seen the Indian pictures and then there's all those books on people channeling an Indian guide.  It's a bit of a phenominononononon lol

Just because you don't know they are there or who they are, doesn't mean they aren't there and helping you.

When I was sitting in development circle, I became more aware of my guides. I'm afraid to say that I lost the way a bit and didn't do much spirit work for a few years and lost touch with my guides. They are still with me though, I'm just not aware of them all the time.

There's a bit of a craze with people claiming to have animal guides.  Everyone always purports to have eagle, wolf or some power animal as a guide.  What's wrong with the other animals? I have been doing the Medicine Wheel cards for 20 years and there's a wide spectrum of creatures, all with stories from Native American cultures.  The nature of the creature, it's mannerisms and character, depicts those within yourself or ones you need to akin to.  We already met Rabbit in my Fear blog.  

You cannot always be eagle or wolf or some other noble creature... you have to learn the ways of all the animals, for they all have a lesson to teach about ourselves.  Claiming to be just the one, isn't a guide, it's your fantasy.  Fantasy has it's place but it's not spiritual growth to deny yourself these lessons. 

I've encountered a nun as a guide before. It surprised me at the time because I don't have any love for dogma or the confines of church.  But Cara (the name she gave me) was a carer, a healer and helped me understand the journey I was making as a healer.  There was four that I knew of at this time... all had something to teach me, not that I was fully aware of those lessons. Doesn't make them any less valid, knowledge can be glimpsed in dreams and the world around.  

Hope that makes sense... it's nearly 5am, my eye is twitching and telling me it's time for bed.

Thanks for reading my rambling thoughts x

Dreamtime

I saw this in the prompt list and thought hmmmm... think I'll give that a go.

Back in 1998, I met one of my spirit guides. Everyone has a Native American one it seems.. at that time I wasn't really aware of any of my guides, although I'm sure they were there all the same.

I was laying on my bed whilst on the phone to Lorna with a piece of Laboradite on my forehead, as you do, when I became aware of an Aboriginal man standing there, not wearing much and holding a big staff. He told me I could call him John, although that wasn't his real name. He also told me that we used to walk the Songlines together in a past life and that he'd stayed in spirit and I'd decided to be reborn. I have always had a longing to return to Ayres Rock/Ulura, although I've not been there in this lifetime.  I have friends in Australia and I intend to go there in the next couple of years.  Money is very tight but it's worth saving for.

Just wow! Source - here

The songlines are what we'd call leylines or meridians. They are energy pathways, linking places in the land. In the UK there are several main leylines that have prominent monuments on them. They are ancient procession routes, pilgrims walked them and worshiped at key locations on the way. These can be found throughout the Earth.  Some are so straight, it's a wonder how the ancients were able to map them without our modern instruments. Look at the pyramids - there's no clear view, yet they managed to line them all up within a few degrees. There's so many examples to give, it makes you think 'how' they did it. I find this all truly amazing and it's something I'm deeply interested in.

Source here

People seem to think that because you know about a past life, that it means you know everything about it. Not true. I am shown glimpses of it and then I have to work it out.  Also what I knew then, isn't what I'm supposed to know now unless I'm shown it.  I have found that I am able to tap into old knowledge, I seem to just know things... I will be given inspirations during a working to do something a certain way, which I believe is spirit guiding me. I certainly do not own any books on that sort of thing. I have had many past lives but as I always say to people, it's what you learn in THIS lifetime that's important. Usually there's a repeat lesson to learn... not sure what my one is. I keep coming back though, hmm.

I am a big dreamer. I travel in my dreams. I often get a flashback of my dreams a few hours after I've woken up.  They are always in colour and always so real.  I find myself thinking that I've been somewhere and then realise that it's only a dream memory, not one from actually going.  Very discombobulating. Had to get that word in somehow hahaha!  Your dreams are the key to your subconscious. I like to do dream analysis and have a couple of books that I use for reference. One is all doom and gloom, everything you dream is going to mean something bad... and the other is one of those you find in WHSmith, basic, with pretty pictures and a more user friendly.  Using keywords from these and some clairvoyance, I am usually able to give a good reading on a dream.

I have woken up, sitting up in bed before talking Italian. I can't speak Italian. I was talking to my great grandad, whom I never met.  I have woken up talking to a knight sitting on a chair in the corner of the B&B room opposite Beaumaris castle. That was freaky.  I often wake up talking and more recently 'what are you doing?' to a person who's saying something to me whilst I'm asleep. There's only me in the room.  It's really annoying! I have been woken up after it felt like I had been stabbed in the hand.  I turned the light on, looking at my hand to see if there was a mark and remembering the pain but couldn't see any evidence.  He's not visited recently but for a while, I could hear a deep voice and there was a man with tight curly black hair talking to me.  I got the impression he was Greek or from that part of the world.  I did consider whether it was my voice and even downloaded one of those apps on my phone to capture it happening. Haven't yet.

Dreamtime art, done for a school project! See more here

Lizard is one of my totem animals. Lizard is dreaming. Yes, I incorporate the beliefs of many nations, into my own. Their stories resonate with me. Yes, I have since met my Native American spirit guide.. I didn't want to be left out lol.

Living in a dreamworld

Reality within reach

Crystal blue skies

And a warm sandy beach

High peaks capped

With white fluffy clouds

Fast mountain rivers

With mist as their shrouds

Lost in space

As time passes by

Billions of stars

Burn holes in the night

Faraway places

That call to me often

Ayres rock, plateaus

Table top mountain

The inevitable question

Breaks my astral dream

My son wakes me and asks

'Mum, what's for tea?'

by me circa 1999