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Sitting Hawk – Photo: L.Weikel

Hawk’s Message (Part 2)

Yesterday I chose Hawk reversed with Dog underneath, and as I wrote in my post, my usual ease in interpretation just wasn’t cutting it. And I grant you: there are definitely days that I remain in the dark on why I chose the Medicine Card I did for that day. But after decades of practice, I’m fairly decent at discerning the messages conveyed by the wide variety of creatures represented in the Medicine Cards^®*.

Which makes my difficult yesterday all the more amusing – since Hawk is traditionally the ‘message carrier.’

And as I stated toward the end of last night’s post, with Dog underneath my Hawk reversed yesterday, I felt I could not escape the fact that somehow, in some way, loyalty – either in delivering a message for others or in being loyal to myself enough to receive a message I need to hear – was underlying this message from Hawk.

As the Day Unfolds

As I’ve mentioned before, sometimes we’re quite sure what our ‘pick’ on the day means – we know exactly the issue it relates to and how we should best address it. Other times we have an inkling, but have found it best to keep an open mind. And then there are the days when we have no clue. Those are the days when we reflect on our pick throughout the day, to see what is revealed as the day unfolds.

Yesterday was such a day.

Before I’d even picked yesterday morning, I’d remarked to Karl that my post on Silence seemed to erupt from deep within. The words came to me sort of like slow moving magma – they may not have erupted from me in an explosive torrent of hastily scribbled words, but they did feel as though they were originating from a very pensive place deep within – and their flow was not easily stanched.

The post had a different feel to it, and I wondered how – or if – it landed with anyone.

Unexpected Appreciation

Imagine my surprise, then, when a neighbor (who I didn’t even realize reads my posts) approached me from across her yard to specifically thank me for writing my Silence Abounds post. She said it was “just what she needed to read this morning.”

I was delighted. But I have to admit: if Karl hadn’t pointed it out, I probably wouldn’t have recognized my neighbor as the messenger she was, and in particular, one bearing a message to be loyal to the posts (and not second guess their value).

Yet Another Messenger

Finally, later last night, I received an email from a person I worked beside nearly twenty years ago. (Is it possible it’s really been that long?! I kept trying to make it only ten years ago, but alas…). Receiving this email was a wonderful surprise, for as relationships are wont to come and go when people’s paths no longer cross, we rarely correspond anymore.

But the best part about receiving this email was my friend’s relaying of two brief stories that interconnect in their shared power to provide inspiration and hope to others – and his specific and pointed message to me that these stories matter. Our stories matter.

The light went on.

In spite of all the exhortations I make to others about the value of our thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and especially the value of writing them down, I’m not always loyal to the value of my own writing, my own stories.

It just might behoove me to bring loyalty to both the messages and the act (and privilege) of being a messenger.

I’m listening.

You listening? I’m lookin’ at you. – Photo: L. Weikel

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Hawk Stink Eye – Photo: L. Weikel

Hawk’s Message Today

I chose Hawk reversed on my day today – with Dog underneath.

As you may be aware, the so-called* Weikel Way of choosing Medicine Cards** interprets that as Dog adding color or somehow guiding or laying a foundation for interpreting the meaning of the primary card, in this case, Hawk reversed.

Hawk is a messenger, and of course, choosing Hawk could indicate that either I was going to act as a messenger in some way today, or I would receive a message. At least, those would be the two scenarios I would expect to arise as primary interpretation possibilities.

Perhaps at least partially due to my post last night on Silence, I’ve had a rather extraordinarily quiet day today.

Didn’t Really See It

I read out loud the text of both upright and reversed Hawk this morning, as recommended by the authors, Jamie Sams and David Carson, in the instructions. (When a card is chosen upright, however, it’s customary to read only the upright narrative.) As we not all that infrequently have happen, Karl and I both chose the same card, in this case, Hawk reversed as our primary today – so we listened and contemplated Hawk’s message twice. (Karl had Elk underneath.)

A few salient lines are as follows:

“If you have drawn Hawk reversed, it may be because you have shut down your powers of observation on some level. If something in your life has become too painful to feel, too unbelievable to hear, or too dark to see, it is time to examine the point at which you chose to let yourself become emotionally involved, and to no longer be the observer.”

I’ll admit, there have been a couple of recent instances in my world in which each of these descriptions of circumstances could reasonably have applied. While I’ve done my best to exercise vigilance and remain the observer, that detachment is not always easy to maintain.

Nevertheless, I didn’t really see it. What was I being told to look at and, possibly, remediate?

Another clue might have been these lines:

“Freedom of flight is a privilege, and being a messenger is an honor. The responsibility for delivery of the message is up to you. Take your flight and forget about interpreting the omen your own way. Let the receiver decide what the message means. After all, unless it was sent specifically for you, you would be tampering.”

I could see how this might apply to some of the more difficult challenges I’ve encountered recently, but I still couldn’t really see it. Maybe…but it was a stretch.

So I let it go and hoped the meaning and its application to my life might reveal itself to me as the day wore on.

Regarding Dog underneath (at least in my case), I couldn’t help but imagine I was being asked to examine whether I was being loyal to either my role as a messenger or loyal to a message I was receiving (and perhaps not taking in).