Leopard Guides Me

Leopard is back this morning, sitting in my meditation room. I feel comfortable with her, and I wonder if she is replacing another of my Spirit Animals.  “No,” she quips, “I am just joining your zoo!”

 

                                        Picture from Wikipedia

While I thought this was an odd thing for her to say, I guess it did make sense.  I seem to always have a lot of spirit animals around me.  In fact, when I drew a card from the Animal Tarot deck the other day, the card that came up was “The World” which literally means all the animals in the world. I love them all!

Leopard then stepped forward and said that she would be working with me. She reminded me that often, in my “Word Of The Day” meditation, I receive the word “Clarity”. She told me that one of the gifts of Leopard is the ability to see clearly – they have keen eyesight, and can clearly for a mile. She said that being up in a tree also allows them to see great distances clearly, and to map out what approach they might take to kill an animal that looks like the next dinner.

Leopard told me to think about how easily we had connected.  She says that I have good intuitive abilities and that I need to use them even more then I think I already do.  She says this time of change is going to bring great challenges that will require instinct and intuitiveness to get through.  Leopard showed me walking in a woods/forest and foraging for food.  

One of the things about Leopard is that even though they like their solitude, they do also like the tactile.  Touch is important for Leopard and she said that it is important for me, and that when ever I could, I should touch people.  Touch is a way of connecting and of protecting. 

I thanked Leopard for her teachings, and she padded off.

Blessings,

Judy

Intuition

 

When we talk about a gut feeling, we are really talking about our intuition.  Intuition is the built in tool that tells you what is best for you - not others.  Many refer to intuition as instinct - the instinct in all things is for self preservation.  We call that “for survival”.  

Today, walk through the day and use your intuition to help you make choices.

Many blessings,

Judy

Trust Your Inner Voice

 (¯`♥´¯) .♥.•*¨`*♫.•
´*.¸.•´♥ “Your mind knows only some things. Your inner voice, your instinct, knows everything. If you listen to what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path.” 
~ Henry Winkler

Last week, I was able to spend some time with a very good friend.  We talked about how sometimes your mind conflicts with what your gut or instinct tells you is the right way.  I believe our gut instinct knows inherently what is right and not right for each individual.  

I also believe that our inner voice is connected to the wider Universe and therefore is quite different then our ego… the ego that wants you to say “look at me” or to thrust you into competition.

Let ego go.

Many blessings,

Judy

Cow To the Rescue! - Spirit Animal

Picture from an email, origin not known.

Normally one thinks of a mother cow protecting her baby, her calf, and this seems pretty normal.  Cows are one of the most protective parent animals in the animal kingdom.

The other night I had a dream.  In the dream, I was running from four men who were chasing me because they believed that I had stolen money from them.  In the dream, i had stumbled across a drug deal gone bad in a rural area.  Because I happened to be the closest to the scene, the “bad guys” assumed that I was the guilty party.  They did not even ask; they just started yelling at me, firing a gun over my head, and running.  When someone does that to you, the instinct is to run and get away at all costs.

I slipped through the fence, and into a cow pasture.  I was running towards the small river about a quarter of  a mile away.  The cows did not seem to notice me.  Then the bad guys climbed through the fence.  As one, all the cows swung and looked at them.  There was this huge bellowing moooo sound, and all the cows rushed at the bad guys.  The cows stomped on them, butted them, trampled them, and basically took them out of commission.  I was so dumbfounded that I stood with my mouth open.  The cows all came over and sniffed me, and licked me to make sure that I was all right.  And, then they went back to grazing.   I went and looked at the bad guys.  They looked quite dead.  I then looked at the cows, all quiet and grazing.   I would have never guessed that there was that kind of power in cows to protect a human.  I started to grin.

I woke up sort of laughing and shaking my head.  I wondered what the dream was telling me.  Here are some of the teachings:

• Know that you are always taken care of.
• Know that help will come from unexpected places.
• All beings are related and feel your emotions.
• Protect the children

I now think of cows even more fondly than before,  I am glad I had such an uplifting dream.  May you have wonderful dreams, too!

Many blessings,

Judy

Mother Duck Trusts

 

    This picture is a random picture of a duck and a grate, and is not part of the story below.

 

To finish off this week of blogs, I am writing up one more story.

Years and years ago, one of my friends sent me the coolest story of a duck trusting her instincts and going to a policeman for help to save her babies.  This Mother Duck is a shining example of faith, of extreme love for her young, of the way Nature is changing with all of her children, and it is simply a great story about having the spirit to survive regardless of the obstacles.  Animals and birds are like humans, our future survival depends on the survival of our children.  And this Mother Duck has it right!  The story below originally appeared in the Vancouver Sun back in 2008.  I loved the story so much that I kept the clipping.

Judy  (Send me any interesting animal stories and I will include them!  email - lightstationwisdom@gmail.com)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mother duck's 'bird brain' saves ducklings  
She grabs police officer by pant leg to lead him to her brood trapped under grate  
Nicholas Read Vancouver Sun

*********************************************** 

Ray Peterson, Special to the Sun / Mother duck shows police officer where her ducklings fell through a grate into a sewer underneath the Granville Street Bridge.

Don't mention 'bird brains' to Ray Petersen, because after what happened this week, he won't hear a word of it. 

Petersen, a community police officer for Granville Downtown South, was walking in the 1500-block Granville Street (directly under the Granville Bridge) Wednesday morning when a duck came up and grabbed him by the pant leg. Then it started waddling around him and quacking. 

'I thought it was a bit goofy, so I shoved it away,' Petersen said in an interview. 

But the duck, a female (he thinks it was a mallard), wasn't about to give up that easily. Making sure she still had Petersen's eye, she waddled up the road about 20 metres and lay on a storm sewer grate. 

Petersen watched and thought nothing of it. 

'But when I started walking again, she did the same thing. She ran around and grabbed me again.' 

It became obvious to him then that something was up. 

So when she waddled off to the sewer grate a second time, Petersen decided to follow. 

'I went up to where the duck was lying and saw eight little babies in the water below. They had fallen down between the grates.' 

So Petersen took action. He phoned police Sergeant Randy Kellens, who arrived at the scene and, in turn, got in touch with two more constables. 

'When they came down, the duck ran around them as well, quacking. Then she lay down on the grate,' Petersen said. 

While Kellens looked over into the grate, the duck sat on the curb and watched. 

Then the two constables, John Schilling and Allison Hill, marshalled a tow truck that lifted the grate out of position, allowing the eight ducklings to be rescued one by one with a vegetable strainer. 

'While we were doing this, the mother duck just lay there and watched,' Petersen says. 

Once the ducklings were safe, however, she set about marching them down to False Creek, where they jumped into the water. 

Kellens followed them to make sure they were all right, but elected to remain on shore. 

The experience has changed Petersen's mind about ducks. He thinks they're a lot smarter than he used to. 

And while he never ate duck before, he says he wouldn't dream of it now.

*****************************

Many blessings,

Judy

Dove - Spirit Animal

 

                                            

Picture of “Mama Dove” in our back yard – picture by Judy Hirst 

 Wikipedia says this about doves:  “Doves….. build relatively flimsy nests from sticks and other debris, which may be placed in trees, on ledges, or on the ground, depending on species. They lay one or two eggs, and both parents care for the young, which leave the nest after 7 to 28 days. Doves feed on seeds, fruit and plants. Unlike most other birds (but see flamingo), the doves and pigeons produce "crop milk," which is secreted by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop. Both sexes produce this highly nutritious substance to feed to the young.”

This passage from Wikipedia basically sums up that Dove is about home, security, and the maternal instinct.  Dove appears to us when we need to be reminded about the importance of home and security.  She may appear if we are having issues with childhood issues that we cannot resolve.  And, since the dove is a ground feeder and eats mostly seeds, nuts, and grain, she tells you to eat more healthily, as any mother will.  Dove is often associated with Buddha and indeed, has a “Buddha nature”.  It is no surprise then, that her diet is similar.

Many of the legends and myths tell the stories of Dove being associated with the Goddesses of old.  Even the Bible tells of the importance of Dove and how she is associated with Christ and often is a symbol of Christ – standing for peace.  
Dove may be telling you:

• Find peace in your life, or move away from that which is not peace
• Look to find something creative in your life that brings you peace
• The cooing sound Dove makes is a communication to your cellular memory – what it is it that you once were?  She helps you find that peaceful, spiritual person deep inside you.

Blessings,

Judy