Stingray Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Another Shoe

I was going to title this “There’s the Other Shoe!” or something like that, and then I realized all the crazy destruction of the Rule of Law in our country that’s flagrantly taking place in plain view of us and the rest of the world isn’t ‘THE’ other shoe. It’s just ‘another’ shoe.

Welcome to the apocalyptic Final Five Months. They’re either going to be the final five months of DT’s presidency or the final five months of the United States of America as we know it. And as I mentioned the other night, no matter what happens on election night (just like it didn’t matter how the Supreme Court ruled), if he wins: we lose; if he loses: we lose because he acts out, throws a bomb into the toilet (or worse), refuses to respect the election results, and dares anyone and everyone to remove him from office.

Whoa, Lisa. That’s dire. Aren’t you being just a tad hyperbolic?

No, actually. I don’t think I am.

Not the Half Of It

I sensed this week would be a challenge. The eclipse took place over the weekend, and it just felt to me as though it was going to kick off a month of unprecedented revelations and discoveries of corruption and rot throughout this Administration beyond our worst fears – including its malignant enablers in both Houses, but especially the Senate.

Sadly, I don’t think we’ve seen the half of it yet. (Then again, to be fair, it’s not even been a full week since the eclipse.)

But believe it or not, I’m trying to rein myself in. I’m trying to refrain from gaming out the repercussions of DT’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence and the effects it will have to the bigger picture.

I’m trying to wrap my head around the fact that DT did this, tonight, when we also received confirmation that the number of positive Coronavirus cases in one single day in our country topped 70,000 tonight, too. In case you’re keeping track, only one week ago we were horrified that there were more than 50,000 positive cases diagnosed in one day.

These are daily cases. Over 70,000 people tested positive today. And our president just commuted the sentence of a man who said out loud just today (when requesting a commutation) that he deserved it because he resisted providing evidence of the president’s complicity in a crime.

Step Back – Re-think

I chose cards a few days ago requesting guidance on how we might want to view and respond to whatever unfolded this week. As you might recall, I chose Stingray – Flow the first night, and then followed up in the next post with Jellyfish – Hidden Gifts and Sea Glass -Transformation.

Choosing the Flow card was in itself a comfort. In some ways, every moment I deliberately chose to go with the flow and not worry over “What ifs” provided my nervous system with opportunities to remain peaceful, which in turn kept me centered and even hopeful every now and then.

The Hidden Gifts and Transformation cards were the ones I chose specifically for guidance on dealing with DT’s reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling on his tax return cases, so it feels incumbent upon me to actively resurrect them in our consciousness.

There are hidden gifts in the blatant erosion of the Rule of Law. Our country is being threatened from within in a way that rivals anything in our just-shy-of 250 years, with the possible exception of the Civil War – and it may even, pardon the irony, eclipse that.

Hope

But my eyes keep going back to a couple sentences in the accompanying text to The Ocean Oracle, in ‘The Story’ of the Sea Glass:

“(…) She thought of the journey the glass before her had taken, how these pieces were all parts of something else at one time. A bowl, a jar, a bottle – some sort of vessel. And how these vessels had been abandoned. Or lost, or broken; left to the rhythms of nature, broken down over time. And she thought of the forces which had shaped the sea glass in front of her – forces which broke down the original structure by pummeling, pulverizing, caressing into a shape which was softer, translucent, and more adept at change. (…)” (emphasis added)

I want to hold on to hope that our country and everything we stand for will, in the coming days, grow more translucent and adept at change as we face, head-on, the gifts that are hidden in the egregious behavior and neglect that’s being perpetrated on us and our system of government every day. Every day there seems to be another shoe dropping. Please let us discover the hidden gifts they reveal that lead to a transformation that benefits us all.

(T-504)

Ocean Oracle

It’s summertime (in the Northern Hemisphere, that is), a time of the year when many of us make a pilgrimage to the ocean if we’re not lucky enough to live near one. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, or the Arctic* (since in fact there is only one ocean on Earth). The simple truth is that humans flock to the ocean for inspiration, rejuvenation, and relaxation. Thus I’m drawn to consult The Ocean Oracle created by Susan Marte, for some insight.

I mentioned quite a while ago that I thought I might consult various oracles now and again to give us some guidance through these confusing, turbulent, and increasingly unbelievable times we’re experiencing. It’s been weird: while I thought it was a great idea at the time, I’ve repeatedly felt a resistance to choosing from the myriad decks and other tools that are a part of my library. So I just go with the flow. And tonight, for whatever reason, I was nudged to pull some cards for us from The Ocean Oracle.

Point of Focus

I keep wanting to choose three cards for a wide-ranging discussion on what we need to contemplate over the next several days in order to get the most out of what will be unfolding in the world. But I feel a push back.

My own thoughts aside, I feel like I’m only supposed to choose one card for us to use as a Point of Focus. So I’m going to choose one card while holding the following question in my mind:

What do we all need to hold as our Point of Focus in order to gain the most benefit out of the next several days:

Ocean Oracle 39 – Stingray (Flow) – Susan Marte

Stingray – Flow

I think we can all relate to how this may be sound advice for us all to heed. We’re going to need to flow with whatever is thrown at us over the next few days (or weeks and months, for all we know). It’s easy enough for all of us to ‘intuit’ what this card is telling us. My sense is that we will want to keep repeating the mantra to ourselves, “Just go with the flow. Keep flowing. Don’t get caught up in the drama of others, because now – right now – our point of focus must be to go with the flow.”

As Susan Marte, the creator of the deck and a dear friend of mine, so beautifully states in the booklet that accompanies this unique and beautiful deck, “(…) You are the grace and ease and flow of the stingray as you navigate life’s waters.”

Note: I just want to point out that I wrote that second paragraph, above, before I chose the card on our behalf. So I had to laugh – when faced with the sense that I wasn’t supposed to do things the way I first ‘thought’ I was going to, instead of balking and forcing things, I chose to ‘go with the flow.’

I’m guessing I’ll need to keep that up. We all will.

*There may be less actual flocking when it comes to the Arctic Ocean, but I’m sure it happens.

(T-507)