divine
The Mystical Symbolism Of Feathers
I attended an angel reading workshop some years ago, during which our mentor said, “When you find a white feather in an unusual place, it’s a calling card from the Angels. Just know that your prayers have been heard and when spirit feels that the timing is right, your prayers will be answered”.
A client of Native American heritage recently explained to me how her ancestors used to make their headdresses with feathers. The reason for this is when you look at a feather there is a hollow shaft running up its center.
She says when the wearer of such a feather headdress prays, it is believed there is a direct connection to spirit, because the prayers travel up that shaft to the Divine. And similarly, blessings are sent down from the Divine via the feather’s shaft.
Feather symbolism can be found in many spiritual traditions. For example, it is an ancient Celtic belief that a feathered cloak enables one to visit other worlds with speed.
Many of my clients have the experience of finding feathers. These feathers are signs from spirit and sometimes appear in a place where one wouldn’t expect a bird could have possibly been! The color of the feathers we find is also believed to have a certain spiritual or metaphysical meaning.
In The Grace Of Divine Time
Several bald eagles flew in above me this morning, as I drove along a peaceful country road, which I travel several times a week. For the past month or so, I’ve been seeing these eagles roost in one particular area along my route.
I usually see them poised in stillness upon the bare branches of the winter trees. But today, most of my sightings were of them circling in flight overhead, crossing back and forth over the road.
Sometimes they appeared to be pursuing their prey, other times leading their young, or simply enjoying the freedom of gliding through the sky beneath the beautiful morning sun. This occurred in several places along my journey, spanning a range of miles beyond the one roost and eagle family I’ve been witnessing.
Before, during, and after my way was bedazzled with this abundance of bald eagle beauty, my thoughts had been steeped in the topic of time. I sensed the eagles crossed my path to affirm and guide me in my contemplation of eternal time.
I also sensed they came as signs of a shift in my life. They were reminding me that what has been waiting in my life – energy that has been paused, stuck or still, resting, gathering, or incubating – is beginning to move on the horizon of visibility, and gradually gaining momentum.
When I arrived home, waiting in my mailbox was a pamphlet with the printed words: The Times Are Racing. Well, message received loud and clear! It’s time to express my appreciation of time.
Be The Star Of Your Show!
Are you the star of your own show? If not, then maybe it is time. For once put yourself first by honoring your spirit, your sacred body temple, and the higher work you have been called to complete in this lifetime.
You can begin by honoring your spirit with deeply soulful ‘food.’ This can take the form of meditation, prayer, or simply enjoying whatever self-care activity or spiritual practice feeds your spirit the most. But in doing so, it is important to consciously disconnect from the mundane world around you, and allow the blissful energy of Spirit Divine to pour in.
As I write these words, I can literally feel the healing energy of the sunlight bathing me, even though I am logging on from deep in the cold Rockies on a cloudy afternoon. This intense energy is a message to my soul that each of us has the ability to tap into spiritual warmth and renewal within a single thought.
My late mother used to call this connection with the Divine the I AM presence that is abundantly accessible to us all. It is important to tap into this presence as a reminder that we are spirit energy, divinely guided, protected, and in ‘the spotlight of our own shows.’
Being a ‘star’ also means that you must take deliberate time to honor your sacred body temple. You do this by enjoying healthy foods and balanced nutrition.
Smudging Your Home To Clear Negative Energy
It’s a good idea to cleanse the energy in your home once a week, in my opinion. I do this with smudging, going around the perimeters of my house asking the powers that be to bless and protect my home and those who dwell in it. It helps to keep negativity and toxic energy out.
Smudging is an ancient shamanic practice and a ceremony practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Americas, which involves the burning of sacred herbs and resins. The smoke is believed to neutralize negative energy – as it clears it takes the unwanted, toxic energy with it, releasing it into another realm where it can be regenerated into positive energy.
I have also attended Catholic church ceremonies several times in my lifetime. They always start with incense at the beginning of a service. I like to describe it as ‘cleaning the negativity and toxic cobwebs’ that have accumulated. Yes, homes collect all kinds of energy over time, just like dust on a lampshade. And it needs to be cleaned! Every home benefits from a frequent smudging.
I especially like to always smudge after any negative encounter that may have taken place in my space – literally anything negative, be it the presence of an actual person, a bad dream, or telephonic argument with a loved one, I like to clear out that energy, as it makes my home brighter and lighter. As a highly sensitive empath, I just love the feeling of fresh, peaceful energy in my home.
On smudging days, I first dust my home and clean it, always with the windows wide open. Then I smudge myself, before smudging my home. I cleanse my own aura from my feet up, then go back down in a swirling motion all around my entire body. I use both hands when doing this, to evenly move the smudging stick around me. I visualize my aura being cleansed completely.
Do It Anyway
No matter what we go through in life and with who, we always come back to the same place… a familiar place of being alone. The thought occurred to me the other day that we come into this world alone, and we go out alone.
Though we may be surrounded by others, at the end of the day, we are still alone when we go to sleep at night. Even if we are married, or in a relationship with someone who sleeps next to us, we still enter into the sleep state or dream state, alone.
Have you ever noticed that people who are comfortable being alone, have somehow mastered being alone without being lonely? There is a true comfort, freedom, and delight in being by oneself, alone. When we are alone, we can take an honest inventory of our life, who we choose to spend time with, and also decide how we wish to spend our time.
The relationship arena seems to be one of the most challenging areas of life. We all fall into traps and pitfalls that can steer us away from our natural state of happiness , which we come home to when we are alone. However, relationships also seem to provide a fast track for our own personal growth by revealing how we interact with other people.
Our relationships point out areas within ourselves that may require growth or increased self-love. Simply put, relationships show us exactly where we need to focus on to come back to a state of wholeness.
Choosing A Spiritual Path With Heart
There are many blind choices we make when we are too young or inexperienced to make the best decisions for ourselves. We are born into a family, or raised in a culture, for example, with its unique traditions and beliefs, or lack thereof, and we are usually quite susceptible in our youth to these influences.
In the process of becoming an adult, the questioning of such beliefs and traditions leads us towards who we will become, to discovering what truly resonates with us, and what does not. But this is something we may have taken lightly in our youth, and therefore needs to be looked over several times in our life to find out with real sincerity what is truly calling us.
It is possible that being born in a traditional Christian home, for example, we felt constrained and limited, even small and powerless, ultimately causing us to reject all dogmatic religion. For someone else, brought up maybe in an atheist home, the search for God or faith may bring a profound sense of empowerment and life purpose that nurtures their life. It all depends on us as individuals, and how we process our own reality.
Carlos Castaneda writes in The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, “Before you embark on any path ask the question: does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him.”
The Return Of The Divine Feminine
Sometimes when I do psychic readings, I sense a powerful female presence from Spirit, with wings spread wide, who appears to be lending strength and support to my clients. I recognize her as the Egyptian Goddess Isis, or by her Greek name, Auset.
When Goddess Isis comes into a reading, I know that serious business is at hand and that my client needs to be brave, strong, and to believe in themselves. This brings in the grander subject of the Divine Feminine and how that is showing up during my client’s reading.
The awakening of the feminine is alive and happening all around us, and more widely recognized now than ever before. The rise of the Divine Feminine is showing up in all sorts of arenas, including the corporate workplace. Women, as a whole, are speaking up and no longer have much tolerance for sexual discrimination, lower pay rates, or other outmoded ways of female disempowerment.
However, the interesting thing about the Divine Feminine is that it has a quality of power that is not based on forcefulness. It works more in alignment with the psychic realm and intuition. The Divine Feminine works in harmony with what is, and ways to empower everyone.