 |
|
Reply
| | From:  «Mistyblue» (Original Message) | Sent: 18/05/2005 11:37 p.m. |
PEACOCK Peacock Feathers were thought to be very unlucky, because they resemble an eye. The eye shape represented the evil eye which people were afraid of. Today the beauty and natural strength of the peacock feathers are again recognized. They are specially valued for their multicolored eyes. BLUE JAY BIRD Blue Jay feathers are valued as bringer of light and joy and are said to have the ability to brighten up even the darkest places. CROW The Crow is one of the animals humans have always been afraid of. A crow at the window is said to represent the soul of a dead person. Crow feathers are used for mourning and letting go of unwanted feelings or situations. ROBIN Robin feathers can help to bring new things into ones life. They can also be used to induce fertility. SWAN The pure white feathers of swans are used to purify and cleanse by attracting new energy. They represent beauty, grace and goodness. Black swan feathers can be used to purify of unwanted energy. NIGHTINGALE This bird´s feathers are good communication feathers. They help to tap into the deeper consciousness and can teach sacred wisdom. HAWK The feathers of hawks not only hold the active energy of those artful hunters, but can also be used to identify diseases at skilled hands. EAGLE Eagle feathers are thought to be great energy bringers and remind us of the basic sacredness of all birds . They represent peace and happiness and can also drive away harmful energy. Basically all feathers can be used for any spell, they can either attract or repel energy. Naturally colored feathers are more powerful than chemically died ones. Often colored candles are used in conjunction with feathers to give additional strength
Feathers COLOUR BASIC ENERGY, ABILITY, BRINGS ABOUT, HELPS WITH: RED Courage, good fortune, life, energy, lust, courage, enjoyment, vitality, overactivity ORANGE Attraction, energy, success, creativity, physical love, new ideas, will power, love, loneliness YELLOW Intelligence, blessings of the Sun, thinking, reasoning, playfulness, pondering, reasoning GREEN Harmony, unity, fertility, growth, finances, nature, nature spirits, animal and plant spirits, forgiveness, selfishness BLUE Psychic awareness, peace, health, connection with spirits, protection, believe, faith, knowledge, communication VIOLET Spiritual awakening, deep spirituality, knowing of ones, faith, devotion, intuition, idealism PINK Love, romance, caring, feelings, empathy, kindness, love, tenderness, loneliness, longing WHITE Purification, spirituality, hope, protection, peace, blessings of the Moon, balance, finding peace, absorbing energy GRAY Peace, neutrality, being invisible, doubting, neutrality, static BLACK Protection, driving away, slow energy, grief, loss, repelling energy |
|
 First
Previous
2-8 of 8
Next
Last
|
Reply
| |
Dream symbol: feather
feather, feathers, feathering, feathered, feathery
Interpretation:
Feeling light and free
A symbol of having received message from spirit
Seeking comfort
Embellishing something
Something with little value
Attracting like-minded people, birds of a feather
Needing to congratulate yourself, acknowledge your achievements, a feather in your cap
A white feather may denote cowardice |
|
Reply
| |
Feathers! Magical, mystical, incredible feathers! Feathers of all shapes, sizes, varieties, colors. Throughout history, feathers have served as spiritual symbols for shamans and priests, as symbols of royalty for kings and chiefs, symbols of healing, or symbols of sacred power for cultures as far back as ancient Egyptian, Asian or Celtic eras. These cultures possessed abilities to communicate with nature in ways that have been overlooked or forgotten in our own time.
Yet feathers are more than history. For many, they are mystical signs, messages, or opportunities. They are scraps of synchronicity in the flowing patchwork of universal meanings. They appear in unlikely places as assurances of well-being, as a comforting sign of abundance in the universe, and as unmistakable messengers of hope and encouragement. Their ephemeral grace makes them the perfect emissaries of spiritual and emotional freedom.
For the past three years I have been guided to collect true stories from people whose lives have been changed because of feathers: feathers as sacred messengers, as conduits to enlightenment, as harbingers of inner truth, or as gentle reminders of a synchronistic and abundant universe. These stories are powerful accounts of how feathers teach, guide, and inspire us. They offer true examples of how the universe speaks to us through an “ordinary�?but mystical object—a feather.
How can a feather -- an inanimate object-- speak to us? How can we receive messages from part of a bird’s wing? What is it about feathers—as opposed to coffee cups or quilts or wildflowers �?that qualifies them to be harbingers of universal truth?
I turn a large gray feather over and over in my hand. It is sturdy, yet delicate. It began life as a tiny bud under the skin of a baby bird. The fledgling has thousands of these buds at birth, ready to grow as needed. Feathers unfurl and lengthen day by day as the young bird achieves enough strength to fly. By the time nature and its parents prompt the fledgling to leave the nest, these feathers are ready to create the lift needed to stay aloft, to protect the skin from extremes of weather, to enable long-distance flight or short-distance hops, to shelter and camouflage from predators, to attract mates.
We live in a holographic cosmos, where a piece of the whole reflects the entire whole. When a feather leaves its bird-home and falls to earth, it carries all of the energy of its former attachment to a living being. From a cosmic perspective, it also carries within it, as we carry within ourselves, the universal energy we call by many names, from “God�?to “Spirit�?to “divine life force.�?nbsp;
Why not, then, receive the message that this feather falls into our lives to give us as a message directly from that
life force?
My own cosmic view goes further. The universe is a place where anything—living or dead, animate or inanimate, human-made or natural �?can bring a message, if we pay attention and stay open to receiving it. Many people have an intimate relationship with “spirit guides�?who cannot be seen with the physical eye, but whose messages are nonetheless helpful. Others rely on beings they call angels. Still others find a spiritual affinity with crystals or certain kinds of minerals and stones. Feathers, coffee cups, quilts, wildflowers: all may be filled with this marvelous spirit-energy. All may speak to me and I to them, creating a universal dance of synergy and synchronicity that spirals toward truth, love, and connection.
When I see a feather lying in an unexpected place, or even in a usual place but noticed only by me among the hundreds who have passed by, I know it is meant for me. Not every feather is “special,�?nor is every piece of stone or every crystal. But the potential for connection is there. I need only to listen from that open-hearted space inside me that urges me to soar higher. I need only to acknowledge, as one storyteller put it, that “there are simple powers, strange and real�?that affect me.
Feathers also have universal symbolic meanings, recognized by tribes and traditions worldwide. Feathers speak to us of flight, of freedom, of going beyond boundaries, of getting “above it all,�?or of the need to let go and travel light. In many cultures, they carried prayers to heavenly gods and bestowed extraordinary powers in battle.
Above all, feathers come to us as gifts. They come from the sky, from the sea, from trees and deep grasses, even from �?as these stories illustrate �?enclosed spaces never inhabited by winged creatures. They come to us unexpectedly, but not without purpose. Their messages may be startling, soothing or sudden, but they are always an opportunity for seeing �?for finding answers to questions we may not even have known we were asking.
What, then, is a feather? It is a part of a bird’s body, and it is a part of us. It exists for itself, to serve its primary purpose in the cosmos, and it exists in alliance with every other aspect of the cosmos. Just as we bring life-inspiring messages for others while simply fulfilling our own lives, so do feathers bring their messages to us. They remind us that we walk in a world overflowing with meaning.
This book contains my own feather stories and the experiences of others. In each, there is some bud of wisdom or truth gained from an encounter with feathers. They are offered as gifts for your own life journey, and as evidence that the universe speaks to us in many ways.
You’ll also find suggestions for ways that you, the reader, can explore the feather connections in your life, from attracting feathers for your own collection to using feathers in a variety of ceremonies, meditations, and rituals.
Feathers will teach us many things if we are ready to learn. Linda Hogan, whose miraculous feather story is included in this book, reminds us that there is “something alive in a feather. . . . It knows the insides of clouds. It carries our needs and desires, the stories of our brokenness.�?nbsp;
The feather stories you read here will confirm that feathers heal our wounds, lead us to newfound freedom, help us surrender to a joyful universe, and create a powerful sense of connection with all that is beyond the rational intellect. Feathers carry us into the soul’s most intimate places, where we find our own wings to climb higher than ever before. Little White Feather
Cate M. Cummings |
Cate M. Cummings is President of Cate Cummings Publicity & Promotion Group, specializing in alternative health and healing, metaphysical, new age, spiritual, and visionary books. You may contact her at www.bookpublicity.com |
| It is October. I stare down at my father's driver's license. I hold it and try to visualize, on this small, precise government issue card, the dimension of a man's life. I am trying to keep in mind, as I sit in the hospital waiting room with my husband consoling me, that the man who is my father, lying in an ICU unit close by, with five bodily systems shut down, deserves more consideration and deliberation than the doctors are giving him. Apparently it is my burden because I will not pronounce my father done.
How in the world, though, to make these decisions? The doctors want permission to remove the breathing tube from the tracheotomy, the feeding tube from his stomach, the dialysis equipment persuading his kidneys to continue functioning...and on...and on. The hospital staff, having given up on my father and pronounced him "ready to pass on," "no way out," is goading me to free up hospital space for someone who has a chance, a real chance of being "fixed."
It is November. Sometimes, when I walk the halls of the hospital building , I feel as if I am in a surreal moment, dreamlike if you will, nightmarish if you’d rather. All the floors of the building are exactly alike �?distinguished only by the elevator buttons I push in a daze of despair. This morning, once again, my husband and I walk along the never-ending corridor in shadowed light toward the ICU double doors which do not welcome us but serve as barriers. As we reach the doors, I become aware of something on the floor in front of us.
There we are--in the hospital corridor in front of the double doors, both bending to pick up the little white feather we see laying on the floor. A little white feather! A feather in a sterile hospital environment!? “I think it’s for you,�?my husband impulsively says.
Puzzled, holding the feather in my hand, I begin to move through the doors. As I look up again, I am astonished as I realize we are not on the fourth floor ICU unit, but on the second floor. Together, we hold the little white feather as we read in huge letters before us--"DELIVERY". It is the place where babies are born, where hope is born, where new life �?new life! �?becomes a reality.
In the midst of chiding relatives urging me to give up on my father, my father's own living trust stating "do not use extraordinary measures to keep me alive in the event of a medical catastrophe," the medical staff's inexplicable lack of faith in any type of recovery at all-- I still insisted immutably on not deciding to take a life. To persist. To endure. To persevere. To choose life. Not the cliché “life,�?but life as a never-to-be-seen again version of, an extraordinary expression of, that benefactor we cannot really name.
The gift of mind is an immense blessing bestowed upon us; and, sometimes with a hint to create a stir in our mind's moment, we wake up and come to understand that we are being soothed in the warmed gloved hand of God as if we might protect a small fragile bird in our own hands.
It is December. In a few more days it will be Christmas. My father is here in my home visiting with me. "DELIVERY!" | |
|
Reply
| |
|
Wings At my Feet
Starfeather |
Starfeather is founder and owner of Starfeather's Gallery of Sacred Art & Provisions for the Journey in Edmonds, Washington. She is a spiritual leader, visionary artist, healer, ceremonialist, writer, and teacher of creative and sacred arts. Her life is dedicated to re-establishing the Sacred Feminine on the planet, restoring balance, harmony, and respect for the Earth. Starfeather facilitates several on-going Circles and spiritually focused retreats throughout the year. She created and performs in "In Honor of Trees," ceremonial theater. She can be contacted at: [email protected] |
| My connection with feathers began before I noticed. As a young adult, I spent many hours walking the beaches of Cape Cod picking them up, along with sticks and shells and stones. The gathering and walking were part of my emotional healing process. I had old spaghetti sauce jars full of feathers that I collected simply because I loved their beauty.
Slowly, I found my path to Spirit through meditation, yoga, beach walks, and a study of metaphysics. During one of my classes, we explored guided visualization as a way of receiving guidance. As I entered the meditation, I asked, “What is my life’s work?�?I had hoped to get a couple of clear sentences written on a chalkboard in my mind, but instead I got a movie. I saw a starry night sky with four white feathers coming to the center. These sparkling feathers were tied together with a golden cord. It was a powerful image with rich symbolism and it affirmed my path as a spiritual artist.
I believe that the purpose of “making art�?or the creative process is for healing and that the finished piece is a reminder of that process. I saw the white feathers of my vision as a sacred paintbrush. Opening a small studio/gallery called “Art & Soul,�?I created a workshop called “Painting Inside Out,�?encouraging people (including myself) to express and heal their innermost selves. We painted in a free-flowing intuitive way, often using images we received from guided meditations. Some of my paintings had a Native American theme, and feathers showed up often in my work. The eagle feather, for example, is a classic symbol of connection to Spirit, for it has touched the clouds and fallen to the earth.
There aren’t any eagles on Cape Cod, though. All around me artists were painting seagulls, sand dunes, and quaint scenes of Cape Cod Bay. I cared less and less about the commercial aspects of art, and more and more about exploring this inner-art, meditation, automatic handwriting, and other psychic abilities. My focus was definitely changing. I began to wonder if I was doing the right thing, or was I losing touch with reality?
One day in my confusion I decided to turn it over to Creator. I went for a beach walk and said, “Hey, look! Am I on the right path or not? I need a sign, something that I will know for certain, something that affirms my beliefs.�?I walked further on, but saw or felt nothing that was in any way like a sign. On the edge of despair, I stopped again, and opened my arms to the sky. “This is IT for me,�?I pleaded out loud. “Please show me that you hear me. . . that I am connecting. Or I must turn away from this path.�?My heart was raw with anguish, and I saw nothing. I felt no response.
Saddened, I looked down to take my first step to head back home. There at my feet were a pair of seagull wings, one by each foot. This was my sign: wings at my feet! Suddenly, I felt truly seen and affirmed, as if Spirit had indeed written a big YES on my spiritual chalkboard with those seagull feathers. This sign gave me courage to continue on my path, relying on the universe to support my life choices.
A couple of years after my vision of the four white feathers coming together on the starry sky, I met the man I was to marry. A week after we met, he called me “Starfeather�?as a sweet nickname. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end: I had not told him about the vision. When he called me Starfeather, it felt like he was speaking to my soul as the deliverer of my spiritual name.
The vision took on even more reality when a woman, whom I hardly knew, presented me with four sparkling white feathers. She said she was walking on an island path when she had a strong premonition that she was going to “find some feathers for Starfeather.�?Moments later in the path were the four white feathers, which she brought back to me. I have made a special beaded fan with them, which I use in my healing work.
Over and over again, feathers have been important signs for me. They are a way of receiving affirmation and acknowledgment that Spirit is not a figment of my imagination. Feathers are a physical manifestation of the Spirit that connects us all. They help me remember that anything is possible.
| |
|
Reply
| |
Beacons of the Night
Eleanor K. Sommer |
Eleanor K. Sommer is a writer and editor who lives in Gainesville, Florida. She is also an Artist-in-Residence with the Shands Arts in Medicine program where she works bedside with heart transplant patients. Her most relaxing moments are spent in her garden where she grows herbs and vegetables. |
| Owls have always crept into my psyche as symbols of mystery and wisdom. Even as a child I loved to listen to the deep calls of the owls that populated the woods surrounding our New Jersey home. Every now and then I would see their wide eyes and massive wing spread, hear the swoop of air as they lifted from a branch in search of prey. Night hunters. Specters of death. Sharp-eyed visionaries. The owl sees what others cannot. The owl does not always bring happy news, but it is a powerful symbol of transformation.
My residency in the woods ended when I moved to Florida for college and my glimpses of owls came only on visits home, on camping trips, or when I visited friends who lived in less populated areas.
It wasn’t until I moved to Naples, Florida, that owls once again became a regular part of my life. Two nearby towering pines were home to a pair of Great Horned Owls, probably residents long before we moved in! Their familiar calls and ethereal presence rekindled my bond with these great birds of prey.
Our neighborhood had a small park in the middle of it. A live oak, a handful of palms, and some pine trees made perfect perches for owls and a nice vista for the residents. My husband and I often walked around the park at dusk, listening to owls as they prepared for their evening foraging.
The walks always relaxed us, especially as we wrangled with some tough decisions about moving to a different part of Florida. We loved Naples, but it was becoming crowded and commercial. We longed for “old Florida.�?Our walks became meditative discussions. Should we go? Should we stay? I posed the question one night out loud to the stars and opened my arms to the sky. At that moment, a moment that seemed like a surrender, one of the owls swooped down so close to my head I felt its tail wind brush my hair.
“Well, there’s your answer,�?my husband exclaimed.
Indeed it was an answer. Transformation. A change. A sign that it was time for something new.
The next morning my insight was confirmed when my husband brought in an owl feather that had fallen on our driveway.
“I think this is probably for you,�?he said.
Our avian friends were almost run off by the screech of buzz saws that claimed one of the trees in the stand of pines they called home. Our callous neighbor was frustrated with pine needles falling on her car. Move the driveway, I suggested, but down came the tree.
At our going away party, a friend brought me an envelope of several owl feathers that she and her husband had found on a camping trip. I tied them together with my owl feather and some sea-worn rocks and shells from my favorite beach in Naples: memories to carry with me inland.
Good-bye, owls. May your home be safe.
We rented space in a house in Gainesville, a north central Florida community know for its spectacular tree canopy and surrounding miles of undeveloped land.
We looked for land to buy. We drove and drove, got lost on dirt roads, were chased by dogs, and lied to by real estate agents. We settled on a piece of land and bought it before we had spent the night on it. When we finally camped we were met by a glaring security light belonging to a neighbor. It illuminated our five acres like Disneyworld, creeping into the trees and casting bizarre shadows. The majestic live oaks that could have dimmed the unnatural pink glow reached too far west to allow room for the house. Worse than the lights was the silent morning sky.
“Do you hear that?�?I asked my husband upon awakening.
“Hear what?�?BR>
“Exactly,�?I said. “No birds!�?BR>
A combination of the light, a nasty neighbor, and the dearth of wildlife put us on the road again.
We finally discovered acreage close to town and obtained permission to spend the night first -- before signing any papers. This lovely 40-acre piece of property with a creek meandering through it was more than we could afford, but friends were interested in sharing the expenses in order to restore and preserve some of the land. It was also adjacent to several hundred acres of land already preserved by two communities with strict rules against tree-cutting and wayward development; we hoped for no surprises on our overnight visit.
As the sunset faded behind the pines and sweet gums, a breeze glided over the open field where we imagined our home. Birds and frogs and crickets actively took up the evening song. We were pleased. This land was alive!
As the gray blanket of night covered the trees, I heard a faint hoot, then a louder, hoo, hoo-oo, hoo, hoo.
I could feel my husband’s smile through the darkness.
“You heard it?�?BR>
“I heard it.�?BR>
More than a year later, we finally moved into our modest cabin, glad to be part of a community with a love of nature and rules against outdoor lights. Our owl friends were assured of good neighbors who desired to protect the habitat.
The next day, I ventured outside in the chill of the December morning. I inhaled the pine-scented air and watched my breath hang like smoke as I exhaled into the frost.
As I looked down, I saw, just inches in front of my toes, a feather. An owl feather. I felt transformed, alive, and ready for a new adventure in the woods.
We hear them often, screeching as they descend upon their dinner, hooting as they pass signals and declare territory. Beacons of the night. Seeing what we do not. Guiding us toward transformation.
| |
|
Reply
| |
| Meditation: A Fistful of Feathers |
Early this morning I walked down to the beach. I wasn’t looking for feathers, just walking. But the feathers were there and I couldn’t ignore them, could I? I kept picking them up, wet and washed up along the shore line, pelican feathers, gull feathers, even a heron feather or two.
Pretty soon I had a fistful of feathers -- enough for a healing bundle, then enough to fill a large vase. I wasn’t sure what to do with this plethora of feathers, nor did I know if they were truly meant as a message from the universe; they seemed like “ordinary�?washed-up feathers. Still, I had never found this many before. The acquisitive side of me kept forcing feathers into my fist.
I walked further, and met a woman walking in the opposite direction who was picking up shells. She dragged a huge bag behind her, stuffing it with shells as she slowly shuffled forward, bending intently to the sand. I showed her my feathers; she showed me her shells. Then we parted, engrossed in adding to our respective collections.
One of yesterday’s sandcastles had survived the night tides and sprawled before me. I had the urge to stick my feathers right on top of it. After all, a sandcastle is a sacred thing, too, something a child’s mind (even in an adult’s body!) builds out of nothing, knowing it won’t last, knowing the sand ultimately belongs to the sea and not to the hands that shape it into towers and moats.
I thought of the birds who had shed these feathers. It was spring molting season. Perhaps they left these feathers behind so that newer, stronger ones could go grow in. The birds seemed comfortable, too, with the idea of change and impermanence, with letting go of whatever was in the way of flying free and unencumbered.
One by one, I let my feathers drop from my hand. The morning tide would take care of them, as it would the sandcastles. They would soon return wholly to the earth and become soil again, as all things eventually do. Their sister feathers would ultimately join them, even the new ones just grown in.
Meanwhile, I felt lighter without the feathers I so fiercely clutched a few moments ago. I decided to take my feathers one at a time, and leave fistfuls to someone else.
What would lighten your load and help you fly free? Imagine yourself preparing for a long journey to the stars. What would you take that would help you fly faster and farther? What would you leave behind that would weigh you down?
Close your eyes, get quiet, let your fingers lie loose and open, and pose these questions
1) to your physical self;
2) to your emotional self;
3) to your mental self; and
4) to your spiritual self. Allow plenty of time for each of them to answer in their own ways | |
|
Reply
| |
| A House Blessing with Feathers |
>> A house blessing can be done when you move into a home, or whenever you feel the need to cleanse and purify it. In my household, we perform a house blessing once a year, usually around the fall equinox.
>> For your house blessing, you may want to invite friends to bring their own feathers. They may accompany you as you walk through the rooms and around the perimeter of the house, strengthening and enforcing your own motions. Or you can ask each of them to take a room and lead the blessing in that room.
>> If you have a special prayer feather or feather bundle, use it in the blessing. If not, choose your most powerful feather and spend some time in meditation with it, claiming the intention that it sweep away energies.
>> Taking your feather, walk around the perimeter of each room, sweeping with the feather. Pay special attention to the corners, where stale energy can collect.
>> Pause at each door and window opening, making prayers of protection and blessing, asking that each entryway be reinforced with the energies of the Spirit.
>> End your ceremony by traveling the perimeter of the house, pausing at each of the four directions to honor the natural environment surrounding and supporting your home.
>> You may want to leave some feathers in each room, as a convenient way to cleanse and renew the energy whenever you wish.
| |
|
Reply
| |
| A House Blessing with Feathers |
A house blessing can be done when you move into a home, or whenever you feel the need to cleanse and purify it. In my household, we perform a house blessing once a year, usually around the fall equinox.
For your house blessing, you may want to invite friends to bring their own feathers. They may accompany you as you walk through the rooms and around the perimeter of the house, strengthening and enforcing your own motions. Or you can ask each of them to take a room and lead the blessing in that room.
If you have a special prayer feather or feather bundle, use it in the blessing. If not, choose your most powerful feather and spend some time in meditation with it, claiming the intention that it sweep away energies.
Taking your feather, walk around the perimeter of each room, sweeping with the feather. Pay special attention to the corners, where stale energy can collect.
Pause at each door and window opening, making prayers of protection and blessing, asking that each entryway be reinforced with the energies of the Spirit.
End your ceremony by traveling the perimeter of the house, pausing at each of the four directions to honor the natural environment surrounding and supporting your home.
You may want to leave some feathers in each room, as a convenient way to cleanse and renew the energy whenever you wish.
| |
|
|
First
Previous
2-8 of 8
Next
Last
|
|
Return to ♣Shamanism