traditions
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.
Isolation Is An Opportunity For Deeper Practice
In the challenging circumstances we are now facing all over the world, many people are facing a period of self-isolation, social distancing, and even quarantine, in the interest of public health. Despite its impact on our lives and economy, a lot of good can also come from this, as it can be approached as an opportunity for spiritual retreat and inner growth.
In many spiritual traditions, solitude and isolation is actually considered essential. And it is not a spiritual practice reserved only for gurus, monks or initiates. It is in fact recommended for everyone to spend some alone time with their thoughts, and their spiritual practice.
Now, I am not talking about a luxury weekend retreat somewhere, on a sunny coast, in the mountains, or in a quaint monastery with beautiful gardens and amazing food. That sort of thing you can do any time of the year, and simply call it vacation!
Isolation is the doorway to an internal practice that leads to a more stable, fulfilled life, among other things. Why more stable? Because everything that we do in isolation, even if we are living with someone else, resonates in our mind in a much deeper sense than usual. Of course, if you do live with a partner or family, there is also the option of doing these practices together, but solitary is usually best.
If you regularly meditate, or pray, or repeat mantras, alone and without distractions, you will feel the powerful ‘echoes’ of those practices energetically. This is true and easy to see, as long as you do not turn on the TV immediately afterwards. I call this a deeper practice.
Thank Goodness, It’s Friday The 13th!
Superstition is a highly personal matter. For example, the number 13 was my Father’s favorite number. It represented good luck for him. My dad was a highly intuitive man, always trusting his inner guidance when making important choices and decision. Things always seemed to work out well, whenever he paid close attention to his gut feelings.
I inherited his liking for the number 13. I guess you could say it is in my DNA. If given the choice of a number between one and twenty, I will always choose 13. My second choice is the number 3.
Like many people, I also love Fridays. It signals the end of the work week for many, and the start of the weekend. We generally seem to just be in better mood on a Friday. And while some people get the superstitious ‘heebie-jeebies’ about a Friday falling on the 13th day of a month, I absolutely love it. Yes indeed, thank goodness it’s Friday the 13th!
You either love Friday the 13th, or fear it. There is not much middle ground in these matters. Every Friday the 13th is a great day for me. I wake up and put my feet firmly on the floor, feeling I’m lucky and grateful to be alive. Friday the 13th for me is like finding a four-leaf clover. It brings me good luck. Truth be told, I even feel more energized on a Friday the 13th, especially when it falls on a Full Moon.
Meditation Made Easy
No doubt you’ve heard of the many physical, mental and spiritual benefits of meditation. And like many people, you are keen to give it a go, but still don’t know where to start? Well, it doesn’t have to be complicated or intimidating. According to Shunryu Suzuki, the Sōtō Zen master who helped popularize Zen Buddhism in the United States, approaching meditation with a beginner’s mind is actually ideal.
The most common misconception it that meditation is a state of “thinking of nothing” or “clearing your mind.” It is simply impossible to not think at all. One would basically have to be totally unconscious to achieve that. Instead, meditation is a spiritual practice in which we learn to be more mindful – to center, breathe, and achieve greater calm, inner peace and clarity.
Meditation is about embracing whatever is happening in the present moment, but without getting caught up in any of it. Meditation is about going with the flow, instead of resisting or suppressing your thoughts and feelings.
Meditation in its various forms has been practiced by cultures all over the world for millennia. The oldest documented evidence of the practice of meditation has been found in ancient Indian wall art that dates back to approximately 5,000 to 3,500 BC.
Meditation is an awareness practice, or an enhanced state of consciousness. It does not have to be associated with a specific religion or spiritual tradition. Anyone can meditate, no matter what their belief system. It also does not have to involve sitting or lying passively. It can be anything from coloring mandalas, to taking a walk in nature.
The Power Of Your Totems
Those of us who are metaphysically inclined often believe in the power of carrying a sacred object, symbolic item, or ‘totem.’ The totem is worn or kept on one’s person for various purposes, including healing, protection, guidance, or support.
This spiritual practice is known as Totemism. It is a system of belief in which humans are said to have a mystical relationship or kinship with a spirit-being, such as an animal, plant or symbolic object.
Believing in the power of a ‘totem helper’ gives one the kind of spiritual self-confidence that can make the difference between success and failure. Actually, I wear on my person a medicine bag in the Native American tradition, which contains various totems or ‘alliances’ I have found in nature.
Some of them were gifted to me, because they resonated with my energetic frequency and “wanted to be with me,” as friends and fellow metaphysicians have stated through the years. It is our custom to save special things of this nature for gifting to each other, especially at sacred times of the year, such as when we celebrate the solstices.
Right now, I am surrounded by all of these charming personal offerings. There are the great horned owl feathers that were gifted to me, for example. I used it to make a prayer stick, that I now make use of during meditation, and sometimes also as an altar piece. In the tradition of Totemism, I consider it to be part of a living being, which is the altar. Indeed, every altar has its own ‘being-ness,’ the same as any other sacred deity.
Gauchito Gil – The Cowboy Saint
There are many saints not officially recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, or by any other religion for that matter. One of the most popular among them is Antonion Gil, better known as the Gauchito Gil (Little Gaucho Gil). His popularity rose exponentially in the last few decades and he is considered miraculous by many people who venerate him. He might not be properly canonized, but he is informally considered to be a saint in Argentina. His cult is so widespread that everyone in the country at least knows of his existence.
When traveling from one town to another in the Argentine provinces, it is very common to see a tree with many red ribbons blowing in the wind, and underneath it a small wooden case that holds an image of Gauchito Gil. In some places there are even a small temple, or even a church dedicated to this saintly figure. None of them are recognized officially by the Catholic Church, but the service of a priest is not uncommon.
Gauchito Gil’s life came to a tragic end 142 years ago, on January 8, 1878, near Mercedes, Corrientes, in Argentina. His executioners were a group of policemen who had to transfer him to the courts of Goya, but who decided instead to execute him on the way there.
Gil was accused of being a deserter and a matrero (someone who lives in isolation to be out of reach from the law). But the laborers and peasants in the area knew him instead as a warrior for justice, who protected the weak, relieved the sick and avenged the humiliated. His enemies considered him a fearsome expropriator, as well as a healer capable of making people fall in love with him, or paralyzing them with his powerful eyes.
The Universal Law Of Karma
Karma is a universal spiritual law, the same way that gravity is a law of nature or physics. The Law of Karma basically states that ‘as you sow, shall you reap.’ Karma is therefore the spiritual principle of ‘cause and effect.’ For every action there is an equal reaction, or ripple effect.
Karma is also what keeps everything in the Universe in balance. The Chinese symbol of Yin and Yang perfectly illustrates this process of ‘karmic balancing.’ It shows how all the positive and negative forces in the universe balance each other out, because karma equalizes the energy that flows through everything.
Every single action that we take in life is therefore like a spiritual seed we plant. Some of the seeds will sprout quickly, while others may take lifetimes to come to fruition. However long it may take, one thing is for sure, in time every seed we sow will germinate… and we will eventually have to face the result of all our actions and choices.
Karma is therefore an endless chain of actions and reactions, which binds every soul to their good and bad deeds. The soul, born into a physical body, is constantly acting to bring about the results of activity from one life to the next. We choose to act in a certain way, and then become involved with the reactions or consequences of each chosen action.
After giving up one physical body, we eventually enter into another, and we mostly forget everything about that previous life. In this way the soul reaps the results of his actions, from lifetime to lifetime. Everything that happens in our lives is nothing but the reaction of past activities.