endings Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

What a Number

What a number I just typed into the title line, above. Could I really be writing my last three-digit post tonight?

Numerologically speaking, this feels like an ending, even if I’ve not yet arrived at my goal of 1111 consecutive posts. Nines are completion. Three nines, no matter how you look at them, sort of hammer home the concept of completion. Beyond the simple fact of three nines comprising the number, if you add the nines, 9+9+9 = 27 and then 2+7=9. No matter which way you look at 999, it reduces to a 9, and thus it represents a wrapping up, a conclusion, an end to something.

Not My 1111 Devotion

The number 999 may signify completion of something, on some level, but it does not mean I intend to quit my Act of Power before I reach my goal. No; there remain 112 posts to write, and I intend to write them, Goddess willing.

It represents the end of three-digit posts. That’s pretty lame.

Honestly, I don’t know what – if anything – reaching this number signifies, other than I’m plugging along, doing my thing, honoring my word.

Day after day (technically night after night), I blow a quick kiss to my eldest son when I hit ‘publish’ and whisper, “I miss you so damn much. I remember you every single day. And I do this one little thing each night because I said I would. Because I love you.”

And although it’s a little thing, sometimes that’s the best I can do.

Fire Sprite Rising – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-112)

Illuminated Willow – Photo: L. Weikel

Cycles

I’m sitting here in my usual spot on our couch. Our front door is open and I can hear a powerful wind whipping through the tops of the 30’ pines across the road. The huge stand of trees is actually dying out, much to the relief of my sinuses, which have been dearly taxed by the pollen that’s wafted from these trees for decades. The quantity of now barren branches of these huge sentinels makes me sad nevertheless. I’m reminded, of course, that everything in life comes down to cycles.

Everywhere we look in our lives, cycles prevail. Indeed, our lives themselves are ultimately the cycles that both drive and haunt us at the same time.

Some cycles are much greater than a simple human life; and by that I mean they play out over periods of time measuring much longer than even the longest of human lives. And of course there are other cycles that begin and end in the blink of an eye.

Endings and Beginnings

Of course, if we’re talking about cycles, then surely we must consider beginnings and endings. Endings and beginnings. We really can’t have one without the other because nothing lasts forever, except eternity, I suppose.

Pine trees have life cycles, as do maples and dogwoods, sycamores and weeping willows.

Recently, while I feel they’ve been staring me in the face almost everywhere I turn, I’ve been contemplating a couple of cycles in particular. It’s fascinating to realize just how unwilling we are to let go of the familiar – even when we know it is both time to do so and ultimately for the best.

Global Scale

I am sure that all of us are capable of pointing to half a dozen cycles we’ve taken for granted in our lives that have been completely upended in the past six weeks or so. Cycles we didn’t even realize were cycles – until they were no more.

One cycle that we’re currently experiencing is actually reflected in the stars. Well, the planets, more specifically – an astrological cycle. And the similarities of configurations that were present in 1918 and are occurring once again in 2020 are remarkable.

It seems to me that it’s incumbent upon us all to learn from the past. If we don’t make a point of learning from and evolving as a result of what’s transpired before, won’t we end up finding ourselves just repeating the same patterns, possibly even mistakes, over and over? Wouldn’t we rather evolve? Isn’t that ultimately the point of life?

Check out this latest astrological Pele Report by Kaypacha. There’s a lot of good stuff in it, including similarities of cycles from 100 years ago, as well as links to other sources. The mantra resonated with me right down to a cellular level. Maybe it will with you, too.

(T-574)