Rediscovering the Raven, Branwen's return

Wow-wee today been a killer for me, I woke up very stressed out after having one of my tidal wave dreams, so stressed  that I awoke with a tension headache, emotionally it's been a rough month for me and me I'm the kind of person whom bottles it all up because I don't want to worry those I care for, even me mentioning it here is a great effort for me. Anywho the stress got so bad that I was shaking, eventually my partner came home from work & I broke down and told him about the dream and what I was feeling, and he set me straight (like he always does, love my Ryan sooooo much) and I calmed down.

So I went to my facebook page I run to do my daily update & answer any questions or messages from members, well one member had asked about how they're go about finding there (Native American) Birth totem, so off I went on my google search & came across a page I felt had sufficient info. After I had passed on the links I decided to look at my own birth totem which is

Raven/Crow, I was looking down the list of correspondences when the stone mentioned caught my attention, the stone being Azurite, so off to google I go again searching for pictures of the fore mentioned stone & what I found took me by surprise, the stone caused my soul to reach out, I felt a stir within me that said "I need this", this is not an ego desire, but a soul desire. I was taken aback even more when I saw the bead *gasp* oh my gods the beads, the beads look like little mother earths.

I was stunned, so I decided to look into the metaphysical & healing properties, again I was blown away, the properties were for things I need help with, balancing certain chakra, aid in intuition, psychic work, Divine connecting, the list goes on. So I started looking at jewellery, do decide the best place to wear it, as I looked  

this ring caught my attention, it was the feather that had really caught my eye so I went to look at the information regarding the ring, the remind was made to honour the goddess Branwen, curious I decided to look into Branwen and went to my favourite goddess info page Order White Moon, I found her section and began to read and once again I was blown away with what I found, Branwen is the goddess of empathy, healing love & prophecy. This is what hit home for me...

"

Branwen’s great heart filled with love, associates Her strongly with the Heart Chakra.  In my own work I have found Branwen to be steady and gentle in Her assistance to help us open in love.  When opening to Branwen’s love, we are healed by Its vast power.  Love has the power to heal and Branwen is quite gentle in taking our emotional wounds and wiping our tears away.

More subtly, it is through Branwen’s great love that we see Her empathy.  So many today, myself included, struggle at times wondering at the purpose of empaths.  Overwhelmed, we grow angry at our gift and call it a curse.  It is at these times that the Great Empath Branwen is crying with us.  She feels our pain as Her own.  Filled with compassion, She feels sorrow at our sadness.  It is here that Her love greatly heals and teaches us.  A purpose of empathy is to grow in love.  When we experience the energy of emotions and allow our hearts to open, we can flow through the sorrows around us without being overwhelmed.  And yet Branwen does not ask us to open to the maelstrom of the world around us either.  She beseeches us to respect our limitations and use our empathic gift of love wisely.  Branwen can teach us how to set boundaries healthfully while allowing our love to be expressed freely, shielding us from taking on too much.  Master of the intricate layers we each have, She is ever willing to gently help arrange them optimally so that each time we grow a little closer to seeing empathy as a healer’s gift and not the curse of the weak society portrays it as."

Artwork by Emily Brunner

I myself am an empath and healer (I'm still discovering what form). My heart chakra is my most powerful chakra (along with my 3rd eye), my heart energy centre, it is where my strength comes from. I struggle with my gift, not as much as I used too but I slip up every now & then, today being one of those day, so Branwen is a gods send, but what made me smile is the fact that this isn't the first time she's come to me, right in the very beginning when I had first come into my spiritualism, she (as well as Ceridwen) were one of the first gods that made themselves known to me, and then (like Ceridwen) I forgot about her until today and I am overwhelmed by her return, it like being reunited with a long lost relative. And here's the icying on the cake her name means 'Blessed (or white) Raven'.

Green Blessings /|\

Raven

My Plant Spirit Primrose

Currently I am reading through a book called 'Plant Spirit Medicine' by Eliot Cowan, it is a wonderful book & as soon as I started reading it I knew this would be something I want to adopt into my Ovate studies. In his book Cowan talk about contacting the spirits of plant, just like you would the spirit of animal or person and you use that plant's medicine to heal. About a week ago I was looking up some more info' online about the subject when I came across this article about plant totem, I've seen it before but I didn't bothering reading it, well I was bothered this time! Near the end of the article it asks you a series of questions to help you figure out what you're totem plant, just like if you were figuring out an animal totem. The whole time I was reading one word kept on repeating in my head "primrose" over & over. I sat & thought about it for awhile, turning the possibility over in my mind. I thought back to a section in Plant Spirit Medicine where it say about decide which plant you'd like to visit in the Shaman Dreamworld, primrose was the first to come to mind. Prior to my shock that I had a couple week back I had been very drawn to primrose, I even had the plant oracle card on my altar a mere days before the shock had happened & it's stay with me through the day when everything was up in the air.

Primrose is also connected to Grandmother Cerridwen who is my patron goddess & is one of the herbs mentioned in my favourite meditation 'Clothed with Flowers'. But still I had my doubts, so last night after all my thanks to the gods I spoke to the spirit of primrose, I asked her that if you are truly my plant totem please give me a sign, a sign that I will know for sure that it is from you telling me that you are my plant totem. So today I step outside for my daily walk & for some reason I look over into my neighbor's front garden, and lo and before there was a bunches of creamy yellow primroses, I smiled to myself and said okay primrose I'm convinced, you are my plant spirit