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“WHALE – The All Encompassing – Magnificent nomad of the world’s oceans, Whale glides through the black, star-sparkling sea of space, inviting us to swim in cosmic consciousness. Whale dreams large, and expansive awareness that enables travel to other worlds and dimensions. At the threshold of enlightenment, we understand: outer space and inner space are the same.
As the last card of the Major Arcana (big stuff happening!), Whale indicates completion and success. Your stars are aligned, your goals achieved. Moving through life’s ups and downs, we mature and integrate ourselves with wholeness. Fully present, balanced and aware, you become a doorway of being. The world brims with meaning and you are a soul fulfilled.Diving deep, leaping high, Whale inspires us to experience all of life – and enjoy. Toning healing frequencies that expand consciousness, Whale circles the world, reminding us that we can feel at home, everywhere and always, when we embrace ourselves. Peaceful, compassionate, Whale signals wisdom, happiness, and spiritual awakening. In tune with the heartbeat of the universe, whale sings with a radiance of love.
Welcome home.”
From The Animal Wisdom Tarot by Dawn Brunke
The Blue Whale appeared in the blue. He asked for companionship, and offered you acceptance. This was loving and unconditional. He shared a bit of his domain with you, and the two of you cherished the silence and beauty of the water.
Blue Whale, blue water – these, too are about communication. You have untapped depths! The Whale is the librarian of the Akashic records. He is ancient and has the memory to tell the tales, if only we could listen. There may be something of Deep Earth Memory that you may wish – or need – to share with others in your life.
The whale is deep memory, the record keeper, wisdom holder. He asks you, in asking for Accompaniment (I like that word – like – a song, needs an accompanist!) to listen to your inner voice, cultivate peaceful strength, cherish your family, and communicate!
There are a lot of messages here about instinct, intuition, and trusting your instinct. And a few hints that you may be communicating more, sharing more of your instincts with others.
The owl speaks of the ability to see in the dark, while the black panther speaks of physical power, health, vitality, grace.
The black panther is a representative directly of Mother Earth, the dark of the moon, and the power of night (not unlike the owl!)
While the bison is about caring for the whole tribe – the Musk Ox is ancient, and walked with Mammoth! In Northern European traditions, the relative Aurochs, is a symbol of Strength – of drawing up energy from the earth and condensing it into the clouds, and raining down like fertility from the sky – the strength of this repeated cycle = is the strength of Aurochs.
Musk Ox, like Bullocks, is a travelling companion. He carries your load, indicating that your emotional burden will be lightening. With Musk Ox, it is important to keep your emotional objectivity, but also important to share with the herd – to keep your community around you. There are similarities between Musk Ox and Bison, but I just wanted to add these few additions to a previous vision.
The horses are ancient friends of humans. With a horse, human can travel further – it is a power, it is a relationship. With a human, a horse develops its intelligence and skill and can be taught things it would not naturally know in its herd. Horse is sacred in nearly every culture, and the relationship with the horse – is about movement, going far, but the most important part is the relationship.
You hear of horse whisperers, who can talk to horses, using body language, and communicate safety and care to the horse. This gentle relationship with others is an essential part of your journey. Horse means nobility, freedom, power, grace, and beauty.
The Arctic fox, or white fox, is only white during the snows.
Fox is an opportunist. Fox knows about luck and how to use his skill to make his luck work. The Arctic fox has the additional skill of changing himself to be invisible, depending on the conditions of his environment. Adaptable, skilled, clever, and knowing when to find the luck, he can change his coat and disappear.
I’m guessing that you are seeing a white fox against green background, green trees, rocks, and not against the snows. That means to me that he has shown himself to you, and shows that you can choose whether to be invisible or not.
Deer is a creature of great gentleness. This was a young, male deer – which emphasizes that even your practical nature is intuitive and sensitive, and has the Power of dealing with great challenges with graceful and powerful choices. The deer is also vigilant, able to warn the whole herd with a flash of the tail. This was not a stag, but a stag will sacrifice himself – hang back and fight the predator – to let the herd escape. This self sacrifice ensures the safety of all.
Gentle, sensitive, graceful.
Black bear.
Black is the physical manifestation of spirit, the body, the dealings with life incarnate.
It is taught by some indigenous American tribes that if you live your life really well, if you give deeply to your tribe, if you are brave and become the best Human you can Be, then as your reward for this life fully lived, you would come back as a Bear.
Bear was considered superior to humans in many ways. Powerful, intelligent, clever, the bear was seen as the “perfected human.”
The bear was comfort, protection, safety, family. grounding. Bear is also the power of introspection, of looking within. He hugged you to himself, so this may be a time of going inward, of “caving” or hibernating, to let yourself heal and replenish yourself in spring.
Bat is about rebirth. Bat can see in the dark – and so he is a little scary to some folk. Folk are superstitious about bat and owl, because they can see in the dark – bat and owl people know secrets, which is the source of most superstitions about them – folk don’t want their secrets known! Bat (except for flying fox) also uses echolocation to find his food – keen sense of hearing, and navigation.
The bat folds up in the daytime, and flies at night. The folding of his wings is like a womb, from which he is reborn every day at dusk. He is a transformational animal, and you are on the path to new insights.
There is information about bat medicine, here:
Bat Medicine in folkloreThree Fates and Three Norns
Many pantheons have room for three women who spin, weave and cut the fates of our lives as they weave the cloth of existence.
In Greece, this was the 3 Fates, in Norse culture, it was the 3 Norns.
Loosely interpreted, this can be the past, the present, the future.
Another way to look at it is Birth, Life, and Death.
Ganesha, the elephant-headed god is often invoked at the beginning of any enterprise. He is the remover of obstacles.
Ganesha is sometimes portrayed as a child, sometimes dancing, sometimes seated. He addresses and destroys demons and obstacles. He’s said to be a son of Shiva and Parvati, though some myths say that Parvati created him directly.
The symbols here give great clues as to some of the roles, meanings and purposes of Ganesha.
Hey Coda – wow, this is good stuff!
There’s really very little to comment on, because it’s so complete!
I realized that the reason the key concepts in Shamanism are found in so many cultures is because these concepts come not from experiences defined by culture, but the experiences that are universal to ALL cultures and to ALL humans
This is what attracts me to Shamanism, it is not dependant upon religion, beliefs, dogma, doctrine – instead, it is about a universal human experience for accessing the unconscious wisdom that we all carry, and learning to apply it in our daily lives.
I was listening to a talk on Dream Yoga, and what he (Andrew Holocek) said was, you want to merge your dreaming (unconscious) with your waking, so that the two braid together and make you stronger.
This is what shamanism is to me, too. Bringing up the experiences of the subconscious, the unconscious, the collective consciousness – and then savouring them in the world of acting and doing, letting them enliven and enrich every aspect of my life.
I found it interesting that some people don’t become Shamans until they have reached a certain age.
This is encouraging, as I’m in the 3rd age of my life, and this seems to hold more wisdom in it as I age. In Yoga, and in East Indian practice in general, the phases of life are childhood, householder, and then when you have earned your money and raised your family, you devote your time to meditation, and become a sage.
I do believe that my experiences were more intense and vivid when I was younger and juicier – but I also didn’t have the wisdom and restraint to integrate and make use of those experiences.
So many things you – and Mindell – write are so true, about social justice, about the eradication of Native Ways, and the programmed social aversion to altered states.
The exercises involve thinking back to when you found yourself having a good “trip” during an altered state.
This is basically what we do in class – not remembering, or focusing on memory – but seeking to gain the positive trip, the affirming Journey. There is much to be learned from the dark, the frightening, the traumatic – but – by focusing on the uplifting, the pleasurable, the delight of Journeys, we can gain so much support and personal power that it aids us when the tough stuff comes up.
Since the group meets only monthly, we really don’t have time to go into the tough and difficult stuff. Besides, most experiences are positive, even if the harsh experiences hold a greater charge. And most experiences – even the frightening ones – can be explored and perceived in a positive light. By adjusting and seeking the pleasurable, we find that most of what we experience, really, is goodness, and this goodness can spread and make us more whole.
I am a huge fan of Shadow Work, of facing and integrating demons – but really, it is not necessary for growth to happen. There is enough growth and affirmation to happen in the “good trip.”
Another exercise:
For a moment, see yourself as a person who always follows the dreaming process.
This fits with the Dream Yoga work, too, where the daily practice is to acknowledge the daytime world as a dream. “This is a dream,” and then, when you are dreaming, it is easier to wake up (lucid dreaming) in your dream. When you no longer prefer the state of waking or dreaming, then that boundary becomes more flexible, and information can pass more freely between the two.
The exercise of re-visioning yourself is a good one. Another possibility might be to vision yourself as one who makes only rational, logical decisions – then – to re-vision yourself as one who only makes intuitive, in-the-moment decisions, following the gut. The real you lies in between, but by exploring these two extremes, you can learn a lot about what you love and what you fear about the way you perceive the world.
Wading from shallow water to deeper water:
So you were in ankle deep water. You kept walking and the water got deeper and deeper until you found yourself in an undersea paradise.This tells me that you can now go deep and see the beauty inside, and use that beauty as power for when you need it. It’s a vast realm, all available to you.
Breathing in water: You were fluid in water, you could breathe – which means you are capable of joining your thoughts and emotions into Oneness. Your thoughts help you breathe in the emotions, the emotions give you movement and flow for your thoughts. It’s a very balanced place to be – breathing in water.
I’ve seen some reference to “this is not our native environment,” and that breathing in water is operating outside of our expectations, or learning something new.
But we came from the ocean, and we probably have a distant ancestral memory of this, which is why it’s so beautiful underwater – so silent and peaceful.
Having the horses become lava horses, means that there is no way they will be tamed. What is your relationship to the lava horses – are they a global event, of which you are just an observer? Or are they personal – climbing up through the mountains of your inner being? Can you tame them with a word – or are they a force which will continue regardless of what you choose or say?
