I can always tell when Spring is truly here by the return of the hummingbirds. I keep a feeder on the front deck and delight in the antics of the “hummers”. This Spring, as I sat at my desk working, I was visited at my office window by a lovely green hummingbird. It just hovered in the window and watched. The messages came clear, one being that a feeder in my office window was needed. Our friend who was visiting from The Netherland saw to it that a new feeder was quickly added. So, now I get to work and enjoy their multiple visits. Of course, they torment the cat who sits on the window sill and watches. I have my very own Nature Channel 🙂

The hummingbird is associated with love and joy. In MEDICINE CARDS: THE DISCOVERY OF POWER THROUGH THE WAYS OF ANIMALS, Jamie Sams and David Carson tell us that the hummingbird is the creature that opens the heart. When we connect with hummingbird consciousness, we delight in the sheer joy of living, and of living the bliss of loving. Our life becomes a wonderland of sensuous delights…We live for beauty, delighting in flowers, aromas, fine mist, and delicate tastes…We laugh and enjoy creation…We appreciate the magic of being alive and the of the beauty around us.

Hummingbird feathers open the heart chakra.  Continue reading →

“The red, red Robin goes bob, bob, bobin’ along…”

Courtesy of Wikipedia

The trees are blooming, flowers are peeking up from Mother Earth and Spring has arrived. But we know Spring has truly arrived when we spy the robins hopping through our yards and parks.

Robin, like Spring, signifies stimulation of new growth and renewal. Robin teaches us how to “spring forward” and welcome the new growth and experiences, with joy, laughter and a song in the heart. Like robins that get their nourishment from the earth, pulling earthworms out of the soil, we are reminded to ground and pull up life energy from Mother Earth to nourish our physical and spiritual selves. Yes, it is true that the early bird gets the worm (and a healthy does of life force energy)! Continue reading →

Samhain has arrived and the Wheel of the Year has turned once more.

As I was searching the web to prepare for our Samhain celebration, I ran across this great post at Salem’s Moon – Magic & More. So, I thought I would share it with you instead of recreating the wheel (pun intended). There are also some other interesting Samhain posts at Salem’s Moon if you are interested. But let’s talk Crow … Continue reading →

photo courtesy of cbsnews.com

I was going to write about a completely different topic this week, but a second visit from Bobcat this week made him the focus of my attention. This is important to remember when working with messages from Nature, whether the spirit of the animal, stone, plant or tree to pay attention, especially if the same spirit comes back for a second or third visit.

This week’s visit from Mr. Bobcat put him at the top of my “Endangered Species List” if he returns for a third time. The first visit Gary saw him sitting outside my chicken pen choosing from the menu for the mid-afternoon special. Gary scared him off. Yesterday, sometime during the day, he returned and got under the pen to snack on one of my hens and left another with only one tail feather. It was a sad day indeed.

So, let’s talk about Bobcat’s message and medicine, other than an easy lunch. Continue reading →

I was getting ready to write this week’s post and was doing some research. I came across a very interesting and informative website at www.spiritanimal.info I thought you might enjoy. It has wonderful information on a variety of animal guides as well as a nice page on how to find your spirit animal and how to develop a relationship with them.

There was a page for a Spirit Animal Quiz that caught my attention. I decided to take a couple of minutes to complete the quiz Continue reading →

Artist-Mervin Windsor ©Garfinkel Publications

It’s salmon season here in the Pacific Northwest so it seems an appropriate time to talk about Salmon Medicine.

Salmon are an extremely important animal to both the lifestyle and the spirituality of many Native American cultures, especially the tribes of the Pacific Northwest Coast and the Columbia River. This powerful creature is considered a source of strength and power for many of these costal tribes. Like the buffalo, the salmon willingly give themselves up as food for the People in many of the Northwest Native American myths, Continue reading →

The full moon brought a new visitor to Shaman’s Grove this month. At 3:45am Thursday morning, I was quickly roused from my sleep by the sound of a coyote yipping outside my bedroom window. I bounced out of bed, quickly reviewing the location of our pets as I dashed to the front deck. Yup, I did close up the chickens after dark, and the cat was on the bed. I flung open the front door, purposefully making lots of noise to encourage our visitor to move on . . . Just needed to be sure he wasn’t in the chicken pen. All my feathered goddesses were safe and the interloper moved quickly past my garden and down through the woods. After double counting noses, I returned to dream time.

So, it was time to see what message, if any, coyote might have for me. Continue reading →

I 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. Marcot, D. 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 →