Monthly Archives: February 2013

Forgiveness – An act of self-love

“Forgiveness is no longer an option but a necessity for healing.”
~ Caroline Myss ~

Forgiveness is a concept that many of us struggle with. We are told from early childhood that we are supposed to forgive others when they hurt us, physically or emotionally, or “turn the other cheek”. The idea here is that we say it’s okay and “let them off the hook”. And we go through our lives letting everyone off the hook on the surface, while we nurture many of these wounds as fear, anger and resentment throughout our lives. From a shamanic perspective, we are giving away our power to those who harmed us.

I stumbled upon the concept of forgiveness that really helped me as I was going through my own healing crisis about twenty years ago. I was working on some old childhood wounding that had been so deeply buried that when it came up, it hit me in the face like a beach ball that had been pushed under water and then suddenly let go. Continue reading

The Wise Old Owl

Owl-The Druid Animal OracleI spotted an owl the other day on our property and made me think the Owl would be a good blog topic. Oh, I can’t pass up the pun… “spotted” owl (groan). And yes, we do live in spotted owl territory, but I only got a quick glance, so I’m not sure what kind it was.

Much mystery seems to surround the owl. Maybe because Owl is a night creature and we humans are intrigued and/or fearful of “things that go bump in the night”. Symbolism for the owl ranges from the symbol of fertility, higher wisdom, insight and protection to an intense fear of the owl as a symbol of bringer of bad news, evil and death. In fact, I found a couple of wonderful articles on the internet that I would highly recommend–Owls in Lore and Culture by B. G. MarcotD. H. Johnson, & M. Cocker on The Owl Pages and Owl Mythology and Folklore that covers the different cultural symbologies of the owl.

So, where does owl get its title “The Wise Old Owl”? It is mainly comes from the nursery rhyme…

A wise old owl lived in an oak
The more he saw the less he spoke
The less he spoke the more he heard.
Why can’t we all be like that wise old bird?

So, we extrapolate from this that the ability of the owl to see in the dark, detect subtlies and its keen hearing and patience (oh, that “p” word…) is what makes this old bird wise. Owl is associated with wisdom because it can see what others cannot. It can see into the shadows and show us secrets that appear only when the Sun is gone. Continue reading