The messengers

I am that person. The one who sees signs and symbology everywhere. The one who knocks on wood and won't walk under a ladder. The one who sees a rainbow and knows everything will be alright. I trust the signs I interpret and the symbols I delve for information, even when they lead me into a toxic marriage. I learned a lot. Some of it was hard lessons but I really did need them for I am stronger, more powerful for the lessons I have learned and I also happen to now have lived experience so if someone comes into my art therapy room having been in a similar situation I won't fob them off and dismiss their experience. I will know. I will know what they are still trying to figure out and I will be capable of holding space for them while they figure it out.

So when an animal or symbol keeps popping up in my life, I take notice. I take notice and then I go hunting in my Symbol books and Dream Dictionary and my own personal dream dictionary to see if it has shown up in my dreams lately and what meaning I might have made from any dreams with it in it - it's the Dream Therapist in me. I might also go a-Googling but usually, my own collection of books will give me what I need to know.

At the beginning of the year, it was Frog. Frog was hanging around everywhere. So many different people posting about frogs on their timelines, walking through Woollie's and the Freddo Frog bags had pictures of real frogs on them and more. In fact, Frog is still hanging around cause another friend has just today posted a photo of a saved frog on Facebook. A timely reminder that the message from Frog is still relevant and the magic and medicine of Frog is still with me. Frog is a symbol of transition and transformation, it supports us in times of change. It symbolises things such as renewal or rebirth, abundance, metamorphosis and ancient wisdom. Frog is also symbolic of coming into your power. There is more but this post isn't about Frog. Nor is it about Spider, the weaver of fate, the builder of connections, the birther of the threads that connect us all. Spider is still with me too. 

Just recently the crow has been showing up for me. It started with the story about the girl who would feed the crows and they would give her gifts in return and that they watched the whole family, returning a lost lens cap the crow knew was an important thing for the family member who lost it. Another person on Facebook was talking about building a fairy garden and how the crows kept coming and taking the little dark blue pebbles and leaving a gift in return. There's been a couple other things just the past week or two that I'm forgetting and then as I was watching Effy's Journal Jam and she uses a bird stamp that starts off as a crow and it kind of hit me then, oh hey - Crow has a message for you!

Crow is not inconspicuous, they show themselves without apology (ummm, Onion spell on myself anyone?). They are destructive as well as helpful (lol, I'm trying to destruct my protective walls so I can help those who need my help - including myself). They can be disruptive of the status quo (well that's always been me, it's part of what my ex-husband hated so much about me in his mainstream rule-following way). They do not necessarily wait for doors to be opened, they do it themselves and of course, like me, they like to hoard shiny trinkets. They are the tricksters, the shamans and magicians. They are incredibly intelligent, more so than the average human so it is said.

Scott Alexander King's book, Pocket Guide to Spirit Animals, states that the Crow is telling me I'm on the verge of manifesting something I've been working toward for a while (I'm in my final year of my Bachelor degree!). I am to expect a big change very soon (My second placement is about to begin!). I am about to get a glimpse into some future event that affects me directly. In his book Animal Dreaming Scott speaks of the crow existing in the past, present and future simultaneously as they are creatures of the void, they are the yin and yang symbol embodying darkness within light and light within darkness, watching over all the worlds and dimensions from all viewpoints in chorus. Ahhh poop, another message to sit in silence - I've been getting that one and successfully ignoring it for some time now. The Crow encourages us to seek wisdom found within our inner silence. The appearance of Crow heralds a sudden but necessary change, a wake-up call or a lesson in self-discovery (I'm so ready for this). 

"You have all the wisdom and knowledge you need within you to make the right decision. Call upon it now and you cannot make a mistake." (King, 2003, p. 139)

And so it is.