Between the alarm not going off and starting up my Priestess training program again this day has gone by very quickly. When I first got up I saw three male turkeys courting a single hen. They puffed up their feathers and spread their tails. They do this little gliding thing that makes it look like they are not really walking, followed by a slow regal strut, then will turn sometimes and do the same thing back in the other direction, or move closer to the hen. One of them was larger than the other two. Its tail was longer and spread out wider too. It certainly would have attracted me, at least as much for its grace in the gliding movement as the beauty of its feathers. One of the others tried chasing the hen but she was having none of it. It dropped the puffiness and put its tail down and went after her rapidly but she just ran around the other two turkeys and stayed away from the impetuous one. I never saw if she made a choice or not as they gradually moved further and further back of the orchard until I couldn't see them for the tall grass. Since BelSummer is coming we will be mowing it and for a time I will be able to see all the way to the back again. I like being able to see everything but I can't handle the tractor and huge mower, and Tom doesn't think it is worth mowing. I also like letting the wildflowers grow though.
The first part of the morning was filled with little chores, exercise, and tai chi. Then I did a trance, wrote down what transpired, worked a little with the images and wrote a short poem (not a good one but mine own:) I've also done email and it is late afternoon already. Most of the day was grey and rainy. I stayed somewhat huddled in a blanket while I tranced and then finished reading Shamanism. I thought it was a good book with a lot of interesting ideas. I have made notes to myself on many of the journey ideas that I want to try as well as the ideas sparked by the book. It is bright and sunny now with a cool breeze, a beautiful day. Oops maybe I wrote that too soon. It just clouded over again and the wind really picked up. I don't know if it is going to rain again or just threaten.
So far I have done two of the shamanic journeys to meet allies of the elements. Below is part of my entries from my journey journal about these. I found them interesting and a little unexpected.
*** Air Ally journey: The purpose of this trance journey was to do the first journey to meet an ally from each direction. I planned on starting with east and it worked out that way in the journey. I traveled with snake. We came to the top of a rocky cliff, where the ground dropped out below. It was a huge chasm. I looked out and called to the power of air. And Eagle/thunderbird shadow came by but it went on. A fluffy white cloud came by but drifted on. Then an air dragon came with its body shaped by the current, by movement. I've encountered it before. It flowed around. Its gift is direct perception as it has no skin or body, perceiving directly with no filters between the actual experience and awareness of the experience. But the cost or required virtue is change. All our form is subject to change. Only the inner essence remains, not changeless, but stable.
Its name is the sound of the air as one hears it coming towards one through the trees, then feeling the air as it whooshes by and around one, then hearing it move on. I thought of it as being like an invisible snake formed by movement. It seemed to me to be shaped by external forces then and not by itself but essence is stable.
Fire Ally Journey: Underneath my feet was a path and we, snake and I followed it. Then I asked to meet a fire ally, the spirit of fire. Suddenly we were walking a barren stony dirt path with fires breaking out from the ground along side, not exactly volcanic like terrain but similar. Finally we came to a kind of altar - a rock ledge in front of a rock cliff/grotto. A huge pillar of fire erupted skyward. I could feel the heat on my body (also felt physically very warm where I lay on the sofa). Its name is the sound of crackling as gases are released, as the burnt pieces that have been consumed cave in against each other, and the roaring sound of the huge flames along with the sensation of heat against my skin.
Fire/flame is the meeting ground between the worlds of air and earth. Here where they meet for transformation in the magickal dance of life and death. They are consumed and forever changed in the joining from which fire arises, clean and pure spirit of will and determination. The form is sacrificed and falls away to reveal the dancing flame of beauty, all dross burned away to reveal true spirit.
I stepped into the flame and felt a rush of heat, fire shot out my eyes and mouth as I felt it working on the dross, then dropped away from me, and it was time to return.
Copyright © 2001 Kyril Oakwind