The Opossum
The opossum is a crafty animal that shows us how to play
different roles. It knows when to act, when to hide, and when
to show its true colors. Opossum is a master at recognizing
truth as well as falsehood. When it wants attention it gets it.
When it wants to be left alone it plays dead. It is a strategic
animal that knows how to mold each situation according to its
needs. It has the ability to decode hidden messages and read
between the lines.
A supreme actor, the opossum can be aggressive or submissive
depending on the situation. The opossum knows that each
situation has commonalties as well as differences and reflects
on them carefully before it responds. This links the opossum to
the energies of practicality and ingenuity.
Always full of surprises and unpredictable opossums are
masters at playing dead. When the time is right they can
suddenly spring back to life. Playing dead is a self induced state
in which the heartbeat actually slows and the pulse becomes
minimal. This ability serves to confuse many predators giving
the opossum an escape from life threatening situations.
Opossums are nocturnal and raise their young in a pouch on
their mid section. The young are born blind and rely on their
feelings to guide them to their destination. They learn to sense
their way around at an early age developing strong instincts by
the time they reach adulthood. These instincts are
complimented by their inherent ability to disguise themselves.
The opossum is a multi-faceted actor that continually changes
its appearance. It does not allow its emotions to consume its
actions and partakes in the game of life with strategic
maneuvers. Part of what the opossum teaches to those with
this totem is emotional and mental stability.
The opossum is a craftsman in the art of appearances. When it
appears in your life it is telling you to wake up and pay
attention. Things are not what they seem to be. By observing
your actions, reactions, thoughts and feelings, deeper insights
emerge. This emergence leads to self-empowerment.
Congratulations and welcome home!
Hawk Medicine
The Power Of Perspective
Hawks have the power to soar high above the earth, giving them a perspective previously only available to the inhabitants of the heavens above. Because of this, people from various cultures throughout history have seen them as messengers of spirit, bringing wisdom from the heavens and the value of their higher vision down to earth. From their vantage point, riding on the wind and sunlight, they remind us today that there is a bigger picture to be seen. When we get bogged down with the details of what is right in front of us, hawks help us remember that we are part of a larger plan and that everything fits together beautifully and perfectly. Once in this expanded frame of mind, we can harness their reputation as visionaries, using their keen eyesight to focus on the exact spot that truly needs our attention. With inspiration and focus on our goal, hawks teach us how to interpret and then follow our personal vision.
Hawks were thought to be able to look directly into the sun and see what is not visible to the rest of us. Using our spiritual vision, we too can look deeply into the inner light that guides us, seeing clearly what is not visible unless sought: our personal truth glowing within us. With that knowledge, we, like the hawk, can confidently ride the winds of chance, moving as one with the flow of whirling energy. This ability is what inspired the Egyptians to make hawks the hieroglyphic symbol for the wind.
The hawk's ability to live on land but visit the sky is a good reminder for us all. They remind us that their strength and survival comes from communing regularly with the spirit and bringing the guidance received into earthly affairs. Soaring in the province of the heavenly bodies of the sun, the stars, and the wind that moves the clouds reminds us to consider a larger perspective, one that inspires us to move through the world we inhabit with strength, certainty, and grace.
Dance With the Universe
The Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore, summarizes the miracle of life more beautifully than science can explain it. He says, "The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass, and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment."
The oceans and rivers of this biosphere are the lifeblood that circulates in our heart and in our body. The air is the sacred breath of life that gives energy to every cell in our body, so that it may live and breathe and participate in the dance of the cosmos. To have the experience of "the life-throb of ages dancing in our blood this moment" is to have the experience of joy, the experience of connectedness to the cosmos. This is the healing experience; it is the experience of being whole. And to be whole is to live in grace.
Excerpted from Power, Freedom, & Grace: Living from the Source of Lasting Happiness
Published by Permission of Amber-Allen Publishing, Inc., San Rafael, California.
****************************************************
From The Four Agreements by Don Miquel Ruiz
My teacher opened his chest and took our his heart, and he took a beautiful
flame from his heart. Then he opened my chest, opened my heart, and he put
that little flame inside it. He put my heart back in my chest, and as soon as
my heart was inside me, I felt intense love, because the flame he put in my
heart was his own love.
That flame grew in my heart and became a big, big fire “ a fire that doesn't
burn, but purifies everything it touches. And that fire touched each one of
the cells of my body, and the cells of my body loved me back. I became one
with my body, but my love grew even more. That fire touched every emotion of
my mind, and all the emotions transformed into a strong and intense love. And
I loved myself, completely and unconditionally.
But the fire kept burning and I had the need to share my love. I decided to
put a little piece of my love in every tree, and the trees loved me back, and
I became one with the trees, but my love did not stop, it grew more. I put a
piece of love in every flower, in the grass, in the earth and they loved me
back, and we became one. And my love grew more and more to love every animal
in the world. They responded to my love and they loved me back, and we became
one. But my love kept growing and growing.
I put a piece of my love in every crystal, in every stone in the ground, in
the dirt, in the metals, and they loved me back, and I became one with the
earth. And then I decided to put my love in the water, in the oceans, in the
rivers, in the rain, in the snow. And they loved me back and we became one. And
still my love grew more and more. I decided to give my love to the air, to
the wind. I felt a strong communion with the earth, with the wind, with the
oceans, with nature, and my love grew and grew.
I turned my head to the sky, to the sun, to the stars, and put a little
piece of my love in every star, in the moon, in the sun, and they loved me back.
And I became one with the moon and sun and the stars, and my love kept
growing and growing. And I put a little piece of my love in every human, and I
became one with the whole of humanity. Wherever I go, whomever I meet, I see
myself in their eyes, because I am a part of everything, because I love.
And then the old man opens his own chest, takes out his own heart with that
beautiful flame inside, and he puts that flame in your heart. And now that
love is growing inside of you. Now you are one with the wind, with the water,
with the stars, with all of nature, with all animals, and with all humans. You
feel the heat and the light emanating from the flame in your heart. Out of
your head shines a beautiful light of different colors. You are radiant with
the glow of love, and you pray:
Thank you, Creator of the Universe, for the gift of life you have given me.
Thank you for giving me everything that I have ever truly needed. Thank you
for the opportunity to experience this beautiful body and this wonderful mind.
Thank you for living inside me with all your love, with your pure and
boundless spirit, with your warm and radiant light.
Thank you for using my words, for using my eyes, for using my heart to share
your love wherever I go. I love you just the way you are, and because I am
your creation, I love myself just the way I am. Help me to keep the love and
the peace in my heart and to make that love a new way of life, that I may live
in love the rest of my life.
Amen.
******************************************************
The seed cannot know what is going to happen, the seed has never known the flower. And the seed cannot even believe that he has the potentiality to become a beautiful flower. Long is the journey, and it is always safer not to go on that journey because unknown is the path, nothing is guaranteed.
Nothing can be guaranteed. Thousand and one are the hazards of the journey, many are the pitfalls - and the seed is secure, hidden inside a hard core. But the seed tries, it makes an effort; it drops the hard shell which is its security, it starts moving. Immediately the fight starts: the struggle with the soil, with the stones, with the rocks. And the seed was very hard and the sprout will be very, very soft and dangers will be many.
There was no danger for the seed, the seed could have survived for millennia, but for the sprout many are the dangers. But the sprout starts towards the unknown, towards the sun, towards the source of light, not knowing where, not knowing why. Great is the cross to be carried, but a dream possesses the seed and the seed moves.
The same is the path for man. It is arduous. Much courage will be needed.
Commentary:
This card shows a small wildflower that has met the challenge of the rocks and stones in its path to emerge into the light of day. Surrounded by an aura of bright golden light, it exposes the majesty of its tiny self. Unashamed, it is equal to the brightest sun.
When we are faced with a very difficult situation we have a choice: we can either be resentful, and try to find somebody or something to blame for the hardships, or we can face the challenge and grow.
The flower shows us the way, as its passion for life leads it out of the darkness and into the light. There is no point fighting against the challenges of life, or trying to avoid or deny them. They are there, and if the seed is to become the flower we must go through them. Be courageous enough to grow into the flower you are meant to be.
******************************************************
Water wisdom
"When flowing water ... meets with obstacles on its path, a blockage in its journey, it pauses. It increases in volume and strength, filling up in front of the obstacle and eventually spilling past it....
"Do not turn and run, for there is nowhere worthwhile for you to go. Do not attempt to push ahead into the danger ... emulate the example of the water: Pause and build up your strength until the obstacle no longer represents a blockage."
********************************************************
At the dawn of summer, in the warmth of springtime, Spider peeks her head out and begins again to spin her tale. Her tale, like her web is spiral, each year bringing greater more elaborate worlds and possibilities into manifestation. Her story, her web is the spiral of life. Her ability and joy in creation is woven deep into the hearts and destiny of mankind. We can all learn from spider how and what to create in our sacred roles of Creators.
Spider is the grandmother of creation. She will tell you, and she loves to tell, that the center of each creation you weave must be strong and well anchored; the center must hold if a world is to rest upon it. The center of what is human is our ability to perceive beauty and the divine. Strengthen these things, and you will strengthen humanity; stifle them, and you remove one delicate strand on which we all rely. Destroy one child's capability for approaching the sublime, and you threaten us all.
Similarly, the center of each person must hold strong, if the soul is to be fed, if the person is to survive. The true center is the heart, and the heart is sweet and delicious. If we live from our hearts, our soft delicate centers, we will taste the sweetness in pleasure and pain, loses and gains. Like Spider, live your life only to find the delicious nectar of the heart and let it nourish you and fuel your creations. Let your creations only be born from heart, from sweetness. If you live your life ever striving for the honey of the heart, there you will find reward.
When you are fed by the beauty of a sunset, by justice, by soft touches and love, you nourish the heart of humanity and hold strong our center. When you create beauty from the heart, you create a new delicious center from which can spring a radiant world, the likes of which we have only glimpsed--in the eloquence of Shakespeare, in the light of Renoir, in the buildings of Frank Gehry glistening on Spanish shores. A strong delicate shimmering world of light, beauty, truth and justice is ours for the creating. Spider lives in this inter-dimensional shimmering center. Seek her and she will show you how to spin a cathedral from silk, light and dew, though she tells me some of you have already felt the sweetness of her kiss.
Spider honors each individual's essence. Honor and encourage each person's individual essence, recognizing and gathering only the sweetness. In our world, humans are often honored for their actions instead of their essence. We often look to be fed by what we do instead of who we are, by work and play instead of our divine essence. Spider assures us that a thousand hours of work will never be as valuable to her or Great Spirit as one drop of your essence.
Have you ever looked closely at a spider's web sparkling in the sun? Each place four directions intersect (much like the intersection of our world) is the home of countless rainbows, adding to the spectacle that is the kaleidoscope of her creation. Can you be dedicated enough to Beauty to encourage each of her creations to shine forth their own light so that the whole web can sparkle its infinitely complex pattern? When an individual's essence is not honored, a rainbow is stifled. Are you secure enough in your own shining that you can allow others to join and compliment your light?
Spider also encourages us to discard the heaviness in our lives. Delicate worlds of light must be inhabited by delicate beings of light. Take only what is yours, the nectar, and leave behind the old forms and baggage. Take with you only the sweetest relationships, possessions, ideas; the rest belongs to the heavy world of yesterday. Cut free from your life the carcasses of dead, the forms from your past heavy world, anything that does not smell of love and honey. There is only room for the necessary in this new world: love and light. Those who wish to travel, to see wonderful things, must travel light and often alone. Do not fear, though you must travel alone, you will not arrive alone; you will not live your new life of beauty and bliss alone. Eat light, think light, create light and make that subtle shift into the next dimension.
Ask Spider for help when other spirits cannot. Many spirits and guides prefer to exist in the formless, where they can be limitless. Time is patterned; in the formless there is no comparison. As Spider gives birth to patterned manifestation (she lives in the grid), she can help you create in a smooth effortless, even timely, manner. As her hourglass shape would imply, she is nothing if punctual. She can weave it all, everything at any time in existence. Though she would remind us that it takes even her at least a night to build wonders. And all things patterned, come in their patterned time.
Of course there is free will. Like her, the patterns you weave can be changed instantly. If you would choose to be limitless, she would be happy to immediately escort you beyond her realm, to a formless realm where you can begin to spin tales, worlds and patterns of your own. She tells us that humans live (more often than they realize), between form and formlessness; our potential is unlimited. Fortunately for her, she says, humans appreciate form. It keeps her busy.
She reminds us that within the web of life, ups and downs are natural, not evil. Her web lays the grid-work for contrast. That's why all of creation thanks and despises her. She doesn't take this personally. She understands that her constructs facilitate much growth. She is mindful of our contracts, both this and otherworldly, and helps us to fulfill them.
Like a patient grandmother teaches her grandchild to weave, she illustrates for us the sacred geometry at the center of our existence. She creates always in a circle; circles always in spirals, reflecting even within her tiniest creations the grandeur of infinity and the secrets of life. Within the patterns of her webs are the maps of creation, the cosmos, the laws of the universe and mathematics.
Looking to travel to other worlds, other dimensions? Spider is multi- inner and outer dimensional. She will help you to travel throughout creation, and in death, when asked, she will give your essence a respectful passage to your next destination. She can travel freely between worlds and dimensions because she laid the gridwork; it's only a matter of placing her awareness. She makes her web available for you to travel to any destination in any creation. Simply ask for directions, and she will show you the way to climb. She would like us to understand that being multi-dimensional is our natural state, that with clear intention and an open mind anything is possible.
When you attempt to create, listen to the questions Spider asks you: What lies at the center of your intention/creation? Are you taking only the nectar from the raw materials of your creation, or are you attempting to weave in outdated superfluous heaviness, baggage and worn-out ideas? Have you cut-free from your life anything that is not necessary, that is not pure love and light? Is your creation born of who you are not what you do? Are you ready to see only the wonder of beauty, encouraging diversity and individuality in every soul you meet? Do you create from the perspective of your limitlessness, keeping an open heart and mind?
Spider is always at the edge of your awareness, ready to whisper her stories of truth, beauty and justice to anyone who would listen. She is ready to provide the frame for the worlds you would weave; or when you are ready, teach you to lay the geometric patterns for your own foundations. All she asks in return for her secrets eloquently told is that you honor her brothers and sisters and that divine essence within us all. With spider's grace, may you forever create in sweetness.
********************************************************
