1/6 Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Trouble on the Horizon? – Photo: L. Weikel

Never Challenge Worse

Here we are, living the last week of 2021. If nothing else, I trust this year has been an object lesson in the truth of the adage: “never challenge worse.” Last year at this time, I cringed every time I saw someone declare how 2021 would haveto be better than the abysmal year we’d just experienced. And it didn’t take long for everything to fall apart to an even greater degree than it had before.

Even the dramatic inroads that were made vis-à-vis vaccine availability and the possibility that opened up to get the virus under control seemed promising – at first. But alas, we know how things unfolded in that area. I don’t need to hash and rehash here.

The same goes for our political leadership. We thought we dodged a bullet. And undoubtedly we did. But now it seems we’re realizing we better hope we’re capable of dodging a bazooka. Or maybe a grenade launcher. Or heaven forbid – a nuke. Because the bullet we dodged was, viewed with a longer-range lens, probably the least of our worries.

Can’t Close Our Eyes

And that’s the rub, isn’t it? We keep thinking, “It can’t get any worse.” And yet it does.

What do you remember thinking and feeling as you sat before your television or computer screen on January 6^th? I can tell you what I wrote about that night – fresh from the experience. This is my post from that night.

Even more surprising to me? I just searched my posts with the key word insurrection and discovered 26 entries. But even more chilling is my first mention of insurrection: the warning I wrote the night of September 21, 2020. I’m equally surprised by my entry the evening of January 3, 2021. And wow – I called it on the evening of January 6^th.

I’m not providing these links as proof that I’ve got some super cool oracular powers. Far from it! If you read the posts, you’ll see I actually just stated what was right before our eyes the whole time. And if I could see it, we all could see it. But our eyes seemed to be firmly slammed shut. I dare say the Capitol Police felt unheard and unseen.

Calm Before the Storm

I don’t want to be an alarmist. Indeed, I seek peace. I yearn for justice and equality. I do my best to promote communication and connection. But I’m feeling a sense of foreboding. This week feels like the calm before the storm.

My worry – as is being conveyed in other outlets; I don’t claim to be a singular sage – is the lack of accountability. The fact that 51 weeks have gone by with no major players or instigators being indicted is exponentially emboldening the insurrectionists. We cannot let this stand without imperiling everything we rely upon and hold dear in this country.

And I don’t think it will simply play out, lah-dee-dah, and disappear into the memory hole. No. I suspect within the very near future we’re going to see other additional direct attempts to subvert our democracy. Or perhaps we’ll finally see some well-investigated and highly documented indictments (and then convictions, if our system works at all).

Either way, I’m not betting 2022 is going to be a ‘relief.’ It may, however, bring relief. If we can manage to keep our republic.

(T+20)

29 – Nautilus – The Ocean Oracle by Susan Marte

A Way Forward

In last night’s post, after expressing worry over both the state of our country and our overall morale, I wrote: “There is precious little overlap between realities anymore. And without common ground? How do we salvage what’s left of our country’s future?” Holding the energy of those questions in my heart, I consulted The Ocean Oracle to “seek a way forward. What do we need to know? How can we help ourselves?”

The answer I received? Nautilus on a foundation of Sea Urchin.

Nope, this isn’t an order of sushi. Rather, it stands for New Beginnings – on a foundation of Truth.

29 Nautilus – New Beginnings

The story behind this card is lovely and bears repeating:

“He wore the shell around his neck, on a cord long enough so that the nautilus rested just over his heart. A reminder to him of his past which had led him to the present, hopeful about the future. He had been going through some personal issues, issues which weighed him down. He felt stuck – stuck in the middle of something he could not see clear of. He took himself away to the beach, to clear his head and hopefully gain insight into how to move forward. It was on a long walk during this that he found the nautilus. There had been a huge storm the night before and this treasure had been left behind in its wake. He had seen shells like this before but had never realized their intricate and intrinsic beauty; how they were formed into a perfect spiral – that nature had the instinct and intelligence to allow a grain of sand to grow into this perfection. He opened himself to the sacredness of the design realizing it offered a new beginning – a new way of being in the world. That everything was an opportunity for growth and change and beginning anew. This awareness released him from his past, allowing him to be fully aware in the present moment.

The Messages

What needs to end? What needs to finish so something new can enter? Open your heart to divine perfect timing. Let go that which keeps you stuck. If you free the energy around holding onto something which no longer works for you, you will have more energy to put into a new beginning. Enjoy the newness of your latest endeavor. Be awed by the perfection of nature and the new beginnings she offers.”

22 Sea Urchin – The Ocean Oracle by Susan Marte

The Foundation

The foundation, or card on the bottom of the deck, when I pulled the main card (above), was 22 Sea Urchin – Truth. The ‘story’ accompanying this card is as follows:

“These creatures had not been seen in these waters for years. They had left long ago, driven out by the pollutants that people had left behind. They needed clean water to thrive and the waters here became too murky and infested for them to live in a healthy way. So they chose to leave, find a place where they were part of a balanced ecosystem. They flourished for years but grew too may for their home to sustain them. Some migrated into new waters and some eventually ended up back in the place they had left long ago. But it was not the same place. Something had shifted. The things that had polluted the water were no longer there. There was more awareness of the way the oceans and ponds and tides worked. There was a place now for the urchins to thrive. They were able to expand and contribute to the ecosystem in a life enhancing way.

The Messages

Your truth is your truth. Are you in a situation toxic to your truth? Do you need to reassess your truth? Has a situation changed in which your truth can come forward again? Is your environment supporting you in your truth? To live in our truth and integrity, it may be that we have to move, and something that means physically. Stand strong in your truth and respect your limits. Set your boundaries but know rigidity may not be the answer. An urchin’s spines protect it but if pushed too hard, or in the wrong way, the spines break.”

My Take

The way forward for our country very well may be via a new beginning. I don’t mean ripping asunder everything we’ve built over the past 245 years. But I do mean that we are stuck – road-blocked in so many ways from accomplishing anything productive. Thwarted from listening to the needs, hopes, and dreams of a majority of people who comprise this nation.

The story of the young man is almost transparently applicable to us as a nation. We’ve surely been ‘going through some personal issues’ – and, indeed, we’ve recently endured a huge storm. Sadly, I sense the storm has yet to abate. Precious little has been accomplished as a result of that maelstrom – neither change nor accountability. But the fact that it occurred at all is, perhaps, the sand that will result in an even more ‘perfect’ creation than was created two centuries ago.

We tend to think our system of government is the be-all and end-all. And as an idealistic person who believes in democracy, I’m pretty fond of it. However, I do believe it can be better. I believe money has corrupted the fundamental tenets of our system – and if we stand any chance of keeping our great experiment, we must get the money out of it.

Idealism

Yes, I’m idealistic. But I also believe that our country was founded on idealism. It makes sense to me that the foundational card underneath Nautilus’s vision of a New Beginning for us as a nation was Sea Urchin – Truth. But I can’t say that I entirely agree with ‘The Messages.’

Yes, when it comes right down to it, we all have our own unique perspective on the world, on life, and on the way things ‘should’ be. We have our opinions about the way things should be. Need to be. Must be, if a system is going to work. And our firmly held beliefs can be called our ‘truth.’

But for our country to move forward as a democracy, we have to at least be able to agree on what is ‘truth.’ We have to be able to start from a foundation of shared understanding of what is true and what is fear or paranoia or deliberate disinformation meant to rip us apart.

Back to Letting Go

In order to get back to at least some modicum of a shared reality, I think we’re going to have to let go of some of our beliefs about how our country is currently set up. That includes changing at least a handful of (and possibly a lot more) ‘ways we’ve always done things.’

This post is becoming long and unwieldy. I wanted to quote the full text from the two cards, though, even though the simplicity of a New Beginning built on Truth is a hopeful outcome.

And I do believe it’s possible. But I don’t think we’re going to achieve it in the next few months.

No, we’re going to have to work for it over the next few years. We’re going to have to figure out a way to discern truth and be willing to let go of ‘the way things have always been done’ in order to create an even more perfect union of people and cultures and belief systems from all over the world.

You know: e pluribus unum.

(T-11)