Owl Medicine - Final Lesson

Dog Hat Hand Crocheted by ShaggyChic on Etsy

Since my last post, Owl has been my teacher and it was one long lesson for sure.

Owls are highly intelligent, solitary, noctural predators who swallow their food whole. They especially like mice and small birds.  Their feathers are designed to enable them to fly silently and they make a wide variety of sounds aside from hoots.  An interesting fact about owls is that their eyes are fixed in their sockets so in order to see sideways, they must turn their heads. After awakening, owls spend at least two hours grooming themselves with their talons, and then the talons are cleaned with their beak.  Their biggest threat is loss of habitat due to human encroachment.

Owl medicine involves the truth, which can sometimes be painful, and during the time my teacher has been with me I have learned one of our six-year old dogs, Shama, has aggressive lymphoma, that chiropractic adjustments are not always to a dog's benefit, and that 2 weeks of extreme stress including 4 days without power, is my limit before I snap. 

However, on the positive side, I learned I do not snap, give up, or stop seeking creative solutions for more than a day before bouncing back. Nor do I crawl into bed and hide, stop taking care of my responsibilities, or run away. Of course there were other things I learned; many things, but this was a character test and except for a short lapse, I feel I did very well. Not perfect, but very well indeed. 

When my time with Owl was finished, Salmon appeared and told me that I have completed the circle of lessons assigned to me for this particular 5-year period and The Animals Game is officially over.  Now what is left is to apply and practice what I've learned. 

Much gratitude to Owl and all the other animal spirits for the wisdom and the lessons that were always given with love, patience, and kindness. 

Namaste my Teachers, namaste ~

Opossum Medicine

Opossum ACEO Print by WoundedTreeGallery on Etsy

Welcome to my teacher today, Opossum!

There are 60 different species of possum, and the females can have up to 20 babies in their litters.  The babies are the size of honey bees when they are born, and immediately crawl into their mother's pouch, but usually less than half survive.  Possums eat grass, nuts, fruits, small animals including chickens and also like carrion, and in some areas of this country, people in turn eat possums.  They are most well know for playing dead when threatened and can even emit a  "death musk" at will.

Possum can teach us how to "act" in certain situations. Some examples would be not reacting to hurtful words or actions by others as they might expect you to (thereby spoiling their fun), not responding to aggression with aggression, or pretending to be unafraid when you are actually scared to death.  And regarding the last, pretending to be as we would like to be can be a powerful tool to faciliate real and permanent change.

I have no idea why Possum has appeared as my teacher today and am not even going to try to guess but will just go with the flow and see what comes up :)

Fox Medicine

A Mother's Love Fox Barrette by beadlady61 on Etsy

My teacher last week was Fox, and although I didn't have time to post, she certainly has been keeping me busy!

There are 12 species of fox, and believe it or not, they belong to the canine family.   Their favorite foods are rabbits, beetles, worms, berries and fruit. Foxes are found worldwide and are solitary and noctural so to see a fox during the day means something is amiss or they are desperate for food.

  I can attest to their love of apples as I used to often toss an apple out on my front lawn for the animals,  when apples were less expensive than they are now :>)  Sometimes one of the squirrels would grab it, and bring it up in the tree out front which was pretty amazing to watch considering the size of the apples compared to the size of a squirrel's mouth.  And the crows here like apples too.

  But for a period of a few years, a fox made it a habit to visit our front lawn at dusk, and she most often got the apple.  As a matter of fact, as time went on, she would wait under the big pine tree for me to throw it out and I got a lot of pleasure watching her happy expression as she picked it up and gracefully trotted away with her tail streaming out behind her.

This went on for a long time until one day I ran out of apples and decided to offer a large ripe tomato instead.  After all, tomatoes are red and considered a fruit, right?

Wrong!  The next morning, when I went out front to feed the birds, I saw the tomato still sitting on the lawn where I had put it, but now topped with a perfectly placed fox stool!  I laughed so hard tears came from my eyes because the message was so clear,  and after that I made sure to not offend my friend by running out of apples!

Fox is known as the great magician and protector of the family unit.  She teaches us to use camouflage to become invisible in order to observe others without them knowing they are being watched or slip in and out of places unseen.  This can be practiced by imagining yourself to be the same colors as your surroundings and seeing how people react.  I have done so myself many times and it does indeed work!  Foxes are also known to draw attention away from their young, who are called kits, by engaging in seemingly silly antics, drawing threats away from their den, or allowing their children to escape unseen.

Foxes are also very quiet, and there is protection in silence, which was my lesson last week.  Not letting ourselves been seen or heard can shield us from potentially dangerous situations.  Doing this can also allow us to win a prize that is coveted by someone else.

Many thanks and much gratitude to Fox for the lessons!

Lizard Medicine

Water Dragon by oceloteyes on Etsy

Welcome to my teacher today, Lizard!

Lizards are found everywhere throughout the world except for Antartica and there are countless species, so today, in keeping with "becoming" my teacher, and in memory of my 2 childhood pets, I will be a chameleon. However, the beautiful Austrailian lizard artwork by my fellow Etsy For Animals team mate is just too good to miss showing off!

Because of allergies, I was permitted only cold blooded companions when I was a kid, so there were turtles, fish, and the chameleons.  One day, the chameleons escaped from their tank and I was left with only a sad feeling and a bag of mealy worms in the refrigerator.  But some weeks later, I spotted one of them on the metal venetian blinds in my room and as we regarded each other, I felt my friend was happier being free and was not inclined to go back into the tank.  So I did not try to catch him and bid him safe travels as he slipped away.

Lizard medicine teaches us about dreaming the future and how to bring our dreams to life.  Most dreams are communications from our subconscious and superconscious selves.  Our subconscious mind stores everything that happens to us during our waking time and then points out how we feel about these things when we sleep,  through our dreams.  Then our wise all knowing superconscious mind tells us what to do about these things.

  Occasionally dreams are straightforward, but usually our mind communicates with us through symbols which are metaphores.  And since symbols have different meanings to each individual, it is mostly up to us to figure out what our dreams mean.

For example, during a dream workshop I shared a dream I had the prior night.  In that dream, I was naked and a spider emerged from my vagina.  More curious than alarmed, I watched as more spiders poured out of me,  of all different sizes,  until I had given birth to hundreds of them.

Everyone thought the dream was creepy until I explained that to me, spiders symbolize creativity and the dream told me I was open to new things (I didn't panic when the first spider appeared), and that I was capable of giving birth to many ideas, both large and small.  At this time I was in a period of change and learning, so to me the dream was positive and supportive.

This morning's dream was of a plain white 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper which had come to me with an unknown shipment from a seller I know on Etsy.  This seller's shop contains the name of one of my totem animals. On the paper were abbreviations in letter form with numbers after them.  At the top of the paper was written the words "get up" with a check mark after signifying completion.  My thought in the dream was the seller had accidently included one of her daily lists with my shipment, and that it must be a chore for them to get up in the morning if they had noted that and checked it off.  And I thought, "well, good for you".

Of course, the dream could be about that seller, but most likely it is about me.  It could be a straightforward message regarding my night owl tendencies which cause me to oversleep, or it could be about something else.  So I will think about that today.

Of note, there are actually different types of dreaming, but Lizard says we are focusing on the sleeping kind for now.  

10/3/12 After lesson notes:

 I ought to know better than to try to anticipate exactly what my Teachers are up to, but I keep trying!   A little help was needed for someone and not of a nature to be discussed here.  Much gratitude to Lizard for a good lesson! 

Deer Medicine

Deer Sculpture by promisespromises on Etsy

Welcome to my teacher today who is Deer!  

Deer tells us about gentleness; both with others, and ourselves.  Yes, it's important to be gentle with ourselves too as we are often our own strongest critics!

We have whitetail deer as neighbors and they can grow to be seven feet tall.  They are found living in woodland areas across the US and in Central and South America and are herbivores. One thing I didn't know about deer is they are excellent swimmers. 

 Deer eat just about every type of plant imaginable incuding poison ivy!  Their usual favorite in my garden is English ivy. And this year they sampled the leaves on the tomato plants.  They must have liked them because they ate all the ones in the circular garden in front of the house, then went after the potted tomatoes beside one of the dog yards.  Sometimes in harsh winters with deep snow, they will actually come up on our front porch out of desperation, to eat the ivy growing on the wall there, after they've stripped everything else within reach. They do it very tentatively because there are a number of stairs, plus there's usually a very upset looking dog face glaring out the window at them. 

Once, I got to know one of the deer here as she used to visit every day.  So often did she come, I communicated with her telepathically one morning to learn her name, which she said was Iris.  I could feel her calm and peaceful energy so much so that I wanted to stay connected with her forever so I could always feel that way too.  She told me,  "it is the unlovable who need love the most". Here are some photos of Iris that I took that day.  I wonder what Deer wants to tell me this time?

End of day notes:  I spent some time thinking of the unlovable people I have known personally.  Appearance means nothing to me.  And I'm not bothered by many types of behavior that others can't stand. Honestly, I can usually find some good in just about anyone.

  But one thing I have zero tolerance for is cruelty directed to those who are helpless, especially animals, children, and the elderly. Today, after reading a couple of CARE petitions posted on my Facebook wall, I thought about what Iris told me.  One was about a young man who killed his dog in an especially horrible way,  and another was about a dog who was raped and killed. The latter reminded me of a sheep who was raped in our local zoo by one of the employees to get back at the girl he was dating there who broke up with him.  She loved the animals so he thought he'd hurt her by doing that. 

Could I find a way to love the young man who killed his dog, or the men who raped the dog and the sheep?  No, I could not and if I had my way, they would be recalled immediately to Spirit Land in the exact same way they sent those animals there. 

Surprisingly, when I asked Deer about this, I was reminded of a quote, "All that's needed for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing".  But whatever we end up choosing to do, it should be done with love and compassion.

I cannot say for certain I would always be able to do that. But I am thankful to Deer for the lessons today. 

Post lesson note:  Thank you Deer for teaching me more about how to be gentle with those I dislike, and to myself also, and I will try to practice what I have learned!

Alligator Medicine Day 9

Albino Alligator Angel Goth Art by strangeling on Etsy

It's been a while since my last post but it takes time to truly open one's eyes and see everything in one's life from all angles. There are responsibilities, a lot has been created and expanded upon, my interests are many, and there are things I haven't done yet that I would like to do.

Looking carefully, I see many choices.  Deciding isn't easy; I want to go the right way and make my remaining years count.  When one is young there seems to be endless time to backtrack if the road you're walking turns out to be a dead end - plenty of time to explore choices, try different things, see how they work out.  But now I feel an urgency to choose carefully.

The words that keep coming to me are my Dad's:  "Family first".

Thinking of those two simple words and looking at what I do, I realize that my family is often not first, second, or tenth.  Even considering that I'm part of my family and that things I do for me also count, I realize how much energy I give to others.  And although I don't expect anything in return, I can't help but notice that not much is given back.  What goes around comes around, right?  But it isn't.  Which reminds me of Racoon's lessons about giving to family and the source of your strength, then to others with what's left.  And also,  to not waste energy giving to those who only take. 

I'm not necessary talking about only people here - where you put your attention - what you read, support, worry about, explore - that is a type of giving too.  I'm thinking about emails, links people send, news stories, facebook, television, other people's causes and problems, global problems...information abounds all around us.   And everyone wants you to read their stuff, their views, and for you to support them.

But what is the value of all this?  How does it apply to our own lives and goals specifically?  Well, some of it is informative and helpful, but most is not.  Most is distracting and steals time away from what we really want to focus on, if we allow it to.

Would it not be better to direct our extra energy towards listening to what Spirit and our own hearts are trying to tell us? 

A long time ago I read a book by Steven Covey titled The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It was a very good book.  One of his suggestions was for us to work within our circle of concern, which is ourselves and our families, then expand from there. I have a lot to think about for sure as far as what I would like to eliminate from my life and will continue to work with Alligator to simplify things so I can focus on what truly matters to me.  Many thanks to Alligator for the lessons!

Alligator Medicine

Alligator Lady by Daniellelaurenti on Etsy

Welcome to Alligator, who will be my teacher today!

Alligators are only found in America (with the greatest numbers living in Florida and Louisiana),  and China (where they are endangered) and can grow to over 14 feet long, weighing over 1,000 pounds!  There is little recorded data on their age, but two are known to have lived into their 70's!  They mostly eat small animals that can be consumed in one bite, but if a larger animal is caught, they will store it under water until it becomes "tender" enough to eat in bite size chunks.

It was interesting to read that the sex of an alligator is determined by the temperature in the nest the mother alligator makes - 86 degrees or lower produces all females, 93 degrees or higher produces all males.

Alligator can teach us to appreciate all that life offers, both the good and the bad, and to roll with the punches life gives us in the same way they roll when seizing large prey.  And sometimes it's better to let something sit for a while before making a decision, to think and let some time pass lest we bit off more than we can chew. Observing things carefully and being flexible are also practices that Alligator can teach us.

I'm off to visit my Mom today and then do errands so I'm not sure how Alligator's lessons will apply to me today.  But I do tend to sometimes make snap judgements about people or situations so I'll try to be aware of that and keep Alligator's teachings in mind!