Spirit Journey: Finally Meeting Raven

Oh boy, has it been mad, I think I had another 'Dark night if the Soul' this past week. I pretty much isolated myself from everyone I could. I had no interest in anything in the outside world, nothing & that is what I felt, nothing, it was as if I was on auto-pilot this whole week. I felt so disconnected, all I wanted to do was be alone. I had a feeling I knew what I had to do, I had to go inwards, to the Underworld, I needed to recharge & renewal and refocus, the problem was I had no idea HOW and it was so frustrating that it bought me to tears in my desperation. So, not knowing what to do, I carried on drifting, thinking all I could do was ride it out. Spirit energy of Ivy has been with me the whole time, ivy is the labyrinth and that is where I was, I could see no way forwards or backwards or sideways The only direction I had was the animal medicine cards, I kept each the same two card for about 5 days straight 1 card one day then the other card the next day. The cards were Ant: Patience & Snake: Transmutation, I read this as "Be patience, you're transmuting". Sometimes I got Blue Heron: Reflection or Lizard: Dreaming. They were the guides that help give me some focus in the fog that surrounded me as I kept repeating what was now some kind of mantra "Be patience, you're transmuting". Then the other night I had a vivid dream, I had a small brown snake wrapped around my right wrist, it was friendly & playful, then suddenly it changed into a black snake and become aggressive, trying to bite me, I shook it off my wrist because I sensed it was poisonous. Later I came across a picture of a black mamba & it was the same snake in my dream, so I look it up. (I'd drawn Lizard: Dreaming that day so I knew I had to pay extra attention to my dreams)

Art & words by Ravenari

Black Mamba : Leave Me Alone!

Keywords:
Looking into the abyss, being feared, the emotion of fear, terror, leave me alone, using fear to keep others away, threatening because you feel threatened, notoriety, death incarnate, prepare to strike, a willingness to do anything to protect yourself and loved ones no matter what the consequences, anxiety, wrestling with your fears, aggression, fighting back, wanting different perspectives on a situation, having hidden sides to your personality, protecting yourself. 

My thoughts were "Yep, that how I've been feeling alright" but it didn't stop there because I was being stalked by other animal energies, Lynx, Cougar & Snow Leopard. I know when Spirit is trying to get me to see something, it'll send me a bombardment of visual images & pictures, and that is what I got. I've been hiding on Tumblr for the past week & on my dashboard I had a mass of pictures of these 3 great cats, so once again I went to the same website  and looked them up too

Art  & words by Ravenari

Lynx: Seer of the Unseen

Keywords: 

Seer of the Unseen. Solitude. Reservation. Vigilance. The Hermit. Understanding Spiritual Mystery. Sphinx Energy. Invisibility. Knowledge vs. Superstition. Play. Perception and Protection on All Levels. Seduction and Eye Contact. Manipulation of Time & Space in Otherworlds.

Art & words by Ravenari

Cougar: Many Names

Keywords:
Going by many names, the significance and insignificance of a name, power and grace, preferring to stay private, being secretive by nature, hiding your projects and things that are important to you, not being boastful, competing with other big personalities for career, a connection to sky deities, the ability to snag large opportunities quite easily, being capable of great physical power, athletics and fitness, looking after yourself, a connection to many different sacred environments, possibly being drawn to more than one spiritual system.

Art & words by Ravenari

Snow Leopard: Snow & Mountain Wisdom

Keywords:
Cautiousness, snow and mountain wisdom, looking down on others, a sense of superiority to others, beware of elitism and judging others silently, reclusiveness, wariness, the power of holding your tongue, being able to reach great heights of personal achievement over your lifetime, constantly searching for inner and outer balance.

I sat & thought for awhile, "What do these animals have in common?" They're all solitary by natures, and what does one do in solitude? Internal work, something I've been wanting (needing) to do, but still the question of how plagued me. I was then drawn to read one of my e-book, so I logged in & browsed the titles & straight away "Stories from Spirit" by Sheila Callaham by  jumped out at me (Indigo night sky cover with a purple wolf baying at the full moon, how could I not!) I had no idea what the book was even about, and I have only downloaded purely based off the cover. The book is all about spirit journeying, something I'd been eager to learn for a awhile now. The first half of the books, Sheila shares some of her own journeys, and then she walks you through your own (there are links in the e-book that take you to guided meditation by her. The first journey you make is to the Lower Spirit World, it is similar to the Middle World (the one in which we live) but it is an all natural environment; forests, fields, mountains etc. and in the Lower World you meet your Power Animal. After you have followed the necessary steps to prepare yourself for spirit journeying, she instructs you to visual yourself in a natural place (In the Middle World & already my 3rd Eye was humming), I saw myself in forest divided by a river to my right there was misty mountains & to the left hills. Then she instruct to image a portal to the Lower world; it can be anything, a pool, a hallow tree, deep forest. Across the river I saw an old hallowed willow tree & I thought that was my portal. 

Shelia then begin to count from 1 to 10 while drumming and this is how one enters the Lower World, but my portal was on the other side of the river, so when the drumming started I saw stepping stones across the river & with each drumbeat I hopped to the next stone until 10 I was one the opposite bank and immediately I knew I was someplace else, it's turned out that my portal was in fact the stepping stones across the river. The colours here were much brighter & the forest on this side much lusher. Then Sheila says about meeting your Power Animal, I already knew what my power animal was, Raven (I felt him sit on my left shoulder before I entered the Lower World). So I waited for his arrival and sure enough there he was, he flew in over head which is flap of his wings he change from black to white and back again, the very sight of him bought tears to my eyes, I was awe stuck at his majesty & beauty, and trailing behind him was the Sun. With that sight my spirited lifted & my heart swelled, Raven had bought light back into my life, because Raven is the Light Bringer. Then Sheila says she'll drum for 3 mins while you get to know your Power Animal, and when she fell silence Raven began to twist & turn in the air as if he was dancing, and he wanted me to join him. My green druidess robe changed to black & my arms were not adorned with black raven feather making wings, and we danced. We span & twirled in the light of the sunshine, hopping & spinning with glee. Then Shelia spoke & it was time to leave, the feathers on my arms fell away & my robe became green once more, Raven landed on my left arm, I hugged him goodbye and thanked him for everything. Then back across the river I hopped, back to the Middle World & then back into my body & the present moment. I was so surprised by what I had just done, I'd always thought that journey would be complex & harder, but this was a breeze, I had no trouble finding my portal & any reservation about entering the Lower World & the journey was only 10 mins! I was blown away, and so very happy to finally meet Raven, I've always felt his presences & caught glimpses of him in some of my visions. He bought the Sun back, this animal of the darkness & the Void bought me the light.

Green Blessings /|\

Raven Dreamer

Spiraling into the Centre: Returning to the Beginning

It's been a bit of a bumpy time for me recently, I had one of those experience where the mat pulled out from under your feet, and I've been trying to find my balance every since. Old issues & old pain began to surface, things that have not bothered me in years, so on the Full (Pink) Moon in Scorpio I decided to so a ritual to release, cleanse & heal these old wounds & past pain. The ritual went very well & I felt better for it. When Beltane came I focused on self-love & reaffirmed my intention to heal. Despite this, my mood & energy have been up and down, it got to the point where I could not bare to be around anyone, not even my family, everything felt so overwhelming & everything was too loud that it made me want to breakdown and cry. The next day when I felt alittle better I decided to do something about it, clearly something was not right. So began reading a couple of e-book I had on self-healing & creating better flow in your life, I took notes and did some of the exercises to call back & protect my energy. I've been doing a daily card reading from David Carson - Medicine Card, this has been helping gain insight in themes & energies to be aware of. Couple days ago I thought I go to another site to get alittle more insight, it is a online Tarot site called Students of Tarot, you can choose from a range of decks & spreads, I decided to a single card reading from two different decks The Greenwood & The Crone, I chose you use only the major arcane, I got the same card from both decks, The Wheel & then, because the Universe like to show me things in threes, a card from the Heart of the Faeries Oracle appear, a card I have ran into a couple of times, the card is called The Returning

Then something dawned on me, the way I had been feeling & thinking was the same way I was back at the beginning of my journey into my spiritualism, fearful of the future, self-critical, low self-esteem & negativity thinking plaguing my mind, and these three cards all hold the same message, go back to your roots, go back to the beginning. "Endings have new beginnings and we cycle on like a great wheel". That is what is written (by my lovely soul-sistar Dawn) about The Returning. When I took a step back and look at what I was doing, it was the same thing I had start way back when I started, changing my negativity & critical thinking, balancing my energies & chakras, affirmation, positive intentions, living in the present moment, it was all there, everything that I had work on when I began my spiritual journey. So The Returning got me thinking, what was it that sparked my passion for my spiritual path? The theme had been appearing in some of my exercises too; What is your passion? What is it that makes you happy? Nothing came to mind so I took a break & decided to look at some Youtube videos, 2 videos caught my attention, they were both about a wonderful herbalist called Cascade Anderson Geller who sadly passed last weekend.One of the videos was Cascade talking about dandelions, as I watched something in me was rekindled & I began feverishly taking notes on dandelion medicine. To began looking up more dandelion medicine videos and I began making plans for harvesting & preparing herbal remedies, I came across a wise old face, the wonderful Susun Weed, the woman whom made me full in love with herbal medicine, and then it hit me, my passion, the thing that had driven me forward was my love of herbs.

Susun Weed

Cascade Anderson Geller

And thus I had come full circle & the lesson of the Wheel was released, return to the beginning & remember why I began this journey.


Green Blessings /|\


Raven