On Winter Solstice, December 20, I pulled two cards for each member of my coven for 2015. I pulled two because I wanted to use two different oracle decks.
The first was from the Green World Oracle with art by Sandra Stanton and written by Kathleen Jenks. These cards are new to me and I am still getting used to them.
The second was from The Faeries’ Oracle with art by Brian Froud and text by Jessica Macbeth. (Warning: The Froud Faery Oracle cards have consistently been the most accurate oracle cards that I have ever used, and that includes all my Tarot decks…)
They are each very different decks for different things as you will see.
The purpose is to see what ‘flavor’ the new year will be…
Initiate Number 3 –
Green World Oracle card – Rain Forests
The card depicts the Vodoun Loa Erzulie with her magic mirror imprinted with her Veve. She is a major Goddess of love, sexuality, health, good fortune, jewelry, dancing, flowers, wealth, dreams, art, language, beauty, creativity, hopes and aspirations. Her rain forest roots were in Haiti and Africa and when her people were made slaves, she added vengeance, jealousy, discord, and wrenching sorrow. The birds depict the time she transformed into a pigeon and escaped into the waterfall’s iridescent mists to escape the Catholic priests.
Reading:
Rain Forests are the earth’s lungs and womb. Take time to breathe deeply. Enjoy fragrances, scented oils, exotic blossoms, brightly colored fabric, birdsong, and music. Go within – this is not a time for action. Let good fortune, whether material or spiritual, come to you. It is a time to stand still and be, living as fully as possible in the moment, detached from whatever is trying to wear you down from the outside. You are your own Rain Forest – Trust that the forest is good as the ancient ones who once worshipped Erzulie trusted.
Do not let your life get too fragmented. You are a rich ecosystem just as you are. Do not let anyone write you off. Do not suffer any abuse. Do not let your resources be wasted.
In relationships, find new ways of cooperating and sharing tasks so that you will have more time to enjoy each other. Do happy, playful things with one another, but also explore dimensions of the sacred that you can celebrate together. Be generous and great-hearted with one another.
For health, consider combining Western medical techniques with alternate approaches using herbs, roots, leaves, flowers, seeds, and nuts. Breathing exercises and forms of breathing meditation will be useful. Instead of writing off an illness as an “evil curse”, (which is how many people see the jungles and rain forests), shift your attitude to one of deeper insight and trust.
In many cultures, rain forests are considered realms of good fortune, abundance, and treasure. Drawing this card may mean that wealth is about to enter your life.
Froud Faery Oracle – 7: The Singer of Intuition
Singers are the great ones, whose wings span the multiverse in all dimensions. They show us what we have the potential to ultimately become. They also help us move in that direction when we stray from the path. The Singers are always with us, and their energy and compassion are always available to us when we need. We but only need ask. Gratitude is their payment. Open yourself to the Singers and allow their essence to flow through. As with any Otherworld help, we may not get what we ask for, but we will definitely get what we need.
Reading:
The Singer of Intuition – Perceptiveness – Oracular Powers – Awareness – Trust
The song of the Singer of Intuition carries all of the information there is. Some call this the Akashic records, the great collective unconscious that we all have access to. This song is in our blood and flesh and bones just as it is within the rest of the universe.
In a reading, the presence of the Singer of Intuition indicates that information is available to us if we will just listen to our own inner knowing. Perhaps we have already heard it and still doubt our subtle senses. The Singer says this is the time to really listen to our intuition. What are our feelings, hunches, or insights? It is desirable to seek solitude, meditate, and practice stillness and patience. This is a time for inward focus, a time to open the inner door to intuition (there are a lot of “in”s in this sentence because important answers are to be found within ourselves.)
Always remember what the Faeries say, “Not all meanings are meant to be clear at once. Some ideas take time. Some words are designed to lead us on inner journeys with truth hidden deep inside them.”
Initiate Number 2 –
Green World Oracle card – Bija
This is the seed. It is not a seed you can hold in your hand. It is the formless primal impulse or point at which everything starts. A profound example of this comes from the opening passage of the 2nd Century C.E. “Epiphany of Hekate” from the Chaldean Oracles’:
…You will behold a fire leaping skittishly like a child over the aery waves;
Or a fire without form, from which a voice emerges;
Or a rich light, whirring around the field in a spiral.
We are given a sense of those moments when the Greek Goddess Hecate, as the playful fire-seed, the bija (a Sanskrit word for “seed”) first begins to take form. Hecate, as the Cosmic Soul, brings all of creation into being out of that playful, fiery spark. She is Birth-Mother and Death-Mother and another title, “Closer of the Boundaries of Things within the Cosmos.” While it might seem strange to think of Hecate as a child since we know her as the Crone Goddess, in BIJA she reclaims her wholeness and reminds us that when old age is wise, as opposed to egocentric, it is also child-like, spontaneous as fire, and full of joyous music.
Reading:
When you draw the primal seed, bija, all possibilities are open. This is a time of destiny – do not hold back out of pettiness, modesty, a conviction of unworthiness, or any other form of self-hate. This is a powerful time for you, a time to explore, full of a wise-fool’s curiosity and delight. Let yourself range through new times, spaces, ideas – “boldly go where no one has gone before.”
If you are agonizing over several paths or options, drawing bija frees you. It tells you, you cannot make a mistake no matter what you choose, as long as your decision is based upon a deep sense of self-worth. Decide from strength, not from fear. Be aware of your interconnectedness within the vast shimmering patterns of the cosmos, and know that you are never alone.
This may require loosening bonds that have held you back from your own fulfillment. It may feel like decay or a death as you allow what was once solid to dissolve back into formlessness. In that process however, new forms come to birth from that emptiness. Energy is transformed. Nothing is ever lost.
Drawing bija should lead you to a positive emotional response – a fire-spark leaping within you, a sense of pleasure, an “Aha!” If it leads instead to disappointment or a sense of being overwhelmed by the magnitude of what lies before you, this might signal that your question is premature. If you feel ‘blah’, this may be an indication that your query is part of a worn-out pattern and no longer works for you. You are beating a dead horse. Let go, boldly, of whatever it is and release it to the formless. Something new will come.
Froud Faery Oracle – 64: Gawtcha
Gawtcha is one of the Faery Challengers. The Faery Challengers bring us face to face with our fears, our denials, our inner traumas, our insecurities, our delusions and confusions, and our misbehaviors. These are the faeries who, metaphorically speaking, stick out a foot in front of us to see if we are paying attention to where we are going. They test our alertness and awareness, our insight, our knowledge, our wisdom, and our dedication to our personal growth. Without them, we might get very lazy…
Reading:
64 – Gawtcha – Sudden shock – Unexpected events – Rude awakenings
Gawtcha is the ‘Out of the Blue’ Faery. He likes to surprise us. You know – you’re walking along, minding your own business and the universe smacks you on your blind side with something that makes an awful splat. Gawtcha is capable of happy surprises as well as shocking or miserable ones.
There is a school of thought that says this is just karma. Not so. Karma is about lessons we need to learn, not about punishment; and meaningless events don’t teach us much. So this may be karma, but it isn’t that kind of karma.
There is another school of thought that says all of these things are our choices; we chose to be there when this was happening. We choose to step in front of the invisible cosmic bus. There is some truth to this, but it is on a higher level of consciousness that we don’t usually operate at. Gawtcha says, “I know more than I see!” Many of us do get hints, little flashes of intuition, and sometimes even big flashes of insight. We often say, “I knew I shouldn’t have gone that way, {or trusted that person, or invested in that stock, etc…}”
There are two things Gawtcha is trying to teach us. First, we need to learn to listen to and trust our intuition. We need to be awake and aware. Second, we need to learn to roll with the punches, to take what comes at us, learn what we can from it, and regain our balance as quickly as possible. Things happen. We can’t always control them, and we can’t always get out of their way. We often don’t even have a choice about them.
Gawtcha in a reading speaks to us of sudden, often violent breakdowns of existing structures, habits, patterns and/or attitudes. When we become too tightly confined by our own self-imposed limitations (including the desire for comfort and security), Gawtcha kindly breaks the structure restraining us – whether we think we want him to or not. On a soul-level we know this to be necessary, but it can still be hard to take. Remember breakdowns can lead to breakthroughs, but do not try to put the pieces back together just like they were. Instead, build something new, and leave room for growth.
“Faeries are profound – profoundly annoying!” Brian Froud
Initiate Number 1 –
Green World Oracle card – Myrrh
The Myrrh Tree’s name comes from the Arabic mur, meaning bitter. Myrrh has long been associated with the bitterness of death. Along with Frankincense and Gold, Myrrh was one of the precious gifts brought by the three Magi to the Christ Child – myrrh spoke of his death, not his birth, for barely three decades later his corpse would be anointed by the fragrant ointment by another triad, the three Marys.
In Greek mythology, a young princess of Cyprus named Myrrha was raped by her drunken father. She fled into the wilderness where the gods turned her into a myrrh tree to prevent further abuse; gum-resins exuded by the tree came from her tears, for she was pregnant with her father’s child, the tragic Adonis. The child grew within the myrrh tree for ten months, until her bark swelled, burst, and he emerged. In another version, a mother-boar gores the tree so a passageway is made for the infant to be born. Adonis was so beautiful and beloved that he spent half a year with Aphrodite as foster mother and the other half in the underworld with Persephone as foster mother.
When he reaches adulthood, he is castrated and killed by a wild boar. The boar is one of the earliest known sacrificial animals and was often Adonis’ and other Near Eastern “dying Gods” alter-ego who were sacrificed either in boar-form or by someone dressed as a boar. Adonis, moving between the twin-poles of birth and death, came to both, equally, in violence. Each year, Adonis, like Attis, the Oak King and Holly King, Osiris, and Jesus were slain, then resurrected (re-born). Myrrh myths are mirrored in the life of Jesus, born of Mary whose name is cognate with Myrrha. Mary was known as “Myrrh of the Sea” by early Christians. She is both birth-mother and death-mother and was myrrh at his birth and myrrh at his death. She, with the other two Marys present at the Crucifixion, were called the myrrhophores, “myrrh-bearers,” a title also given to ancient death-priestesses.
Reading:
Drawing Myrrh suggest that you have just emerged from a difficult, painful, perhaps even dangerous period. You may have given birth, physically or symbolically. Or you may have experienced the ‘death’ of releasing a person, plan, or situation that you greatly valued. Myrrh invites you to let yourself simply relax and be pampered. Release troubling thoughts and feelings. Sink deeply into the goodness and wonder of your body. Treat yourself to a massage, pleasing fragrances, soft clothing. Blissfully squander as much time as you wish. Put your anxieties on hold and let the Myrrh-deva whisper over your body, running across your skin like the finest balm, soothing every joint and aching muscle.
Drawing Myrrh can also be a signal to take physical health matters more seriously. You might be ignoring your body, forcing it to pay the price for short-term goals. Myrrh-balm is priceless in value but so is your health.
Emotional or spiritual areas of your life might be in need of purification. Explore your underlying motives in either trying to birth or complete a relationship or project. Take time to honor your interior life.
Your body, like myrrh, is precious. Wind back to your essential nature: you are able to birth wonders from your mind, womb, heart, and your soul. You are wise, a healer with an understanding of the ongoing cycles of cosmic birth and death. You have within you a well-spring of ancient strength and you will be able to succeed if you draw that into your life. Honor what has passed, grieve for what is lost, but find spaciousness and compassion for yourself.
Froud Faery Oracle – 54: Epona’s Wild Daughter
Epona’s Wild Daughter is one of the Faery Challengers. The Faery Challengers bring us face to face with our fears, our denials, our inner traumas, our insecurities, our delusions and confusions, and our misbehaviors. These are the faeries who, metaphorically speaking, stick out a foot in front of us to see if we are paying attention to where we are going. They test our alertness and awareness, our insight, our knowledge, our wisdom, and our dedication to our personal growth. Without them, we might get very lazy…
Reading:
54 – Epona’s Wild Daughter – Inner Shadows – Nightmares – Depression – Madness – Growth
In the bleakest part of the night, Dorcha comes, wearing her crown of faery stars. She kneels on the ancient owl, bearer of the hidden wisdom of the night, and, facing into the past with a clear, unflinching gaze, she holds us. We are held immobile, inwardly focused, by her comforting yet implacable light-filled hands. She asks riddles that often seem impossible to answer at first – and yet she will not let us go until we find the solutions within ourselves. She is one of the great teachers of Faery, but her method of teaching makes Socrates’ questions look like child’s play. We must expect this of Dorcha because her lessons are about the shadow side of ourselves – the things we fear, our insecurities, self-doubts, and denials. She is a practitioner of ‘tough-love’ therapy.
Dorcha is the Wild Daughter of Epona, Lady of the Horse and the Moon, and she takes us through the dark, hidden side of ourselves and into healing and fulfillment. She drives us on the journey through our internal hells. When we complete the journey, we are transfigured and transformed, transcending our old selves. We can never be frightened by that darkness again, whether our own or that of others. But until that journey is fully complete, we exist in a state of vulnerability – which is where most of us are most of the time.
Dorcha wears the crown of stars, a mark of service, compassion, and great wisdom. Dorcha’s element is moonlight, the fifth element, which tempers and tests the spirit. Through her teaching, our inner conflicts and struggles become, as they are resolved, our greatest strengths.
Epona’s Wild Daughter, Dorcha, is the Sphinx, whose riddles must be answered lest we otherwise be destroyed by our own internal conflicts. Dorcha reminds us that we cannot go forward until we have faced something buried within us that is holding us back. Her presence in a reading suggests that finding and working through this is a task of some urgency. We can expect help in this from other people, from the faeries, and from our dreams, but we must be open to these difficult questions and answers and be ready to face things about ourselves that are not as we would wish them to be. She urges us to heal the unresolved issues about who we really are and what we truly want to be.
The answers to her riddles often come in a sudden burst of enlightenment, like the ‘solution’ to a Zen koan. We may watch a leaf fall or catch a glimpse of the tiny sliver of the new moon in the sky and suddenly be hit by the answer. Before that happens, we usually work long and hard upon the question, searching and digging for an answer. The realization, when we really have it, will be transformative, we will no longer be the people that we once were. Ask Dorcha what message she has for you – and don’t be surprised if her answer is another question or riddle. The solution may be deeply buried within you. What do your nightmares tell you?
“I believe no faery is completely good or bad but fluidly embodies both extremes.” Brian Froud
Maiden –
Green World Oracle card – Olive
Long associated to peace, the Olive was sacred to Mediterranean Goddesses. Robert Graves identifies Libya as the original home of the first cultivated olive tree and argues that Athena’s origin is also Libya and she brings the olive tree to Athens. The Libyan precursors of Athena would have been the ancient pre-patriarchal Great Mother Goddesses, bearing little resemblance to the Greek’s Athena. Athena, the war-goddess, fully armed when she emerges from her father Zeus’ head, is motherless, often scornful of women, fiercely loyal to male comrades, and famous for her cunning military strategies. Yet she has the same piercing eyes, wise and all-seeing, of older, staring, owl-eyed Goddesses. She is usually accompanied by her owl, whose oracular vision looks deep into secret places.
Athena gifts the city of Athens with the Olive Tree in a contest to best Poseidon, where the winner gets to name the city, hence the name Athens since Athena was victorious. The olive plays a role in another Greek myth, when the Goddess Leto is in labor she reaches out to a female olive tree with her left hand and to a male palm tree with her right hand. Clinging to the ying/yang partnership she births her daughter Artemis, Goddess of the Moon, and her twin brother Apollo, God of the sun.
Reading:
Olive is a tree of peace, harmony, wisdom – and also hard work. Whatever area of your life has brought you to seek the tree’s advice, know that you are promised rich rewards, but the path may be gnarled, not smooth, and you must be prepared to invest quality time in this endeavor. The work will require attention to details and the results may seem bitter at first, but that bitterness, like the olive’s, is amenable to transformation. From the olive comes the oil of gladness – trust that the harvest will bring you satisfaction.
Your attitude towards this work is significant. Although the olive originally symbolized peace, not war, the olive’s symbolism was eventually so warped that wreaths fashioned from its leaves were awarded to Roman soldiers for excellence in battle. Stay alert and avoid seeing your work as a “war” requiring unrelenting bravery and heroism. That attitude bruises the olive’s vibration of graciousness and peace. Be a patient gardener, not a warrior-hero, and the fruits of your labors will ripen. Your attitude could be your own worst enemy – your emotions threaten your balance.
You may be living, emotionally or physically, in cramped quarters. You may feel your potential is being stifled, the duration of your imprisonment is unknown, the future hopeless much as Noah and his family felt on the ark in a vast sea with no land in sight. Like the olive, you may need more space for the extensive root system that is your nature. Olive asks you to keep sending out gentle doves. Do not despair. Keep probing beyond your confines. One day the olive branch will come to you as a promise of a new life, one that will require the best of your skills and give you a solid future at last.
Take care to not let the world swallow you up or disenfranchise you. Refuse to be subjugated to a realm of cold intellect without compassion. Find the both/and. Olive further suggests that you should be aware of the emotional ecosystems inhabited by your parents so you may work toward more loving partnerships. Athena, un-mothered, never managed it. Despite her many gifts of peace, she remained an unyielding warrior-maiden. Trapped in Zeus’ head, trapped in her own, this Goddess reveals much of vengeance but little of love. You deserve better. Work towards that.
Froud Faery Oracle – 9: The Singer of Initiation
Singers are the great ones, whose wings span the multiverse in all dimensions. They show us what we have the potential to ultimately become. They also help us move in that direction when we stray from the path. The Singers are always with us, and their energy and compassion are always available to us when we need. We but only need ask. Gratitude is their payment. Open yourself to the Singers and allow their essence to flow through. As with any Otherworld help, we may not get what we ask for, but we will definitely get what we need.
Reading:
9 – The Singer of Initiation – Passage through trial – Triumph – New level
The Singer of Initiation brings a major transition between old and new. As we prepare to pass through any gate, we are greeted by this Singer, who test us to see if we are ready to enter into the new realm – or whether, for our own safety and well-being, we must stay where we are.
There is no initiation without testing, and this testing must take us to our limits in order to be valid. Initiation is not just a charming ritual with candles and incense and other occult paraphernalia. True initiation is grounded in material reality and it extends through the body, mind, and emotions. The testing occurs on all levels of our being. The more profound the change being processed, the more rigorous the test. However, these initiations are only given when the Singer knows we have the potential, the ability, and the opportunity to pass them.
If we pass the initiation this Singer offers, we are strengthened by the process itself. In working through it, we learn something about ourselves, and we move finally and irrevocably from one way of being to another.
This card is about breakthrough. Drawing this card notifies us that significant change and challenge are both occurring in our life, with the potential for moving into a new realm, which involves a new way of being. This major challenge has been building for a long time, and the moment is now here to meet this challenge. We may already be aware of the initiation process but perhaps have only seen it as bad luck or fate. It is neither. It is an opportunity to see if we have, deep down, truly learned the lessons we have been working on and are willing to apply them in our lives.
When we stand in the gateway of an initiation, it is often difficult to tell where we are going, and the process may feel more like loss than like movement into a new level of being. Often, just knowing what the Singer of Initiation is all about can be the most difficult aspect of the process. It eventually will become clear in Hindsight. The Singer of Initiation says, “It can be done – look within your heart.” It is a test and much of the process is about discovering and showing what we can do.
The presence of a Singer of Initiation in a reading often presages a period of success, of seeing, accepting, and using our own powers at a higher and more ethical level. We move into greater fulfillment of our potentials. It also means taking on a new level of responsibility for ourselves and in the world. The gate is open to us, but we must take the action of stepping through it.
“Faeries hide what you want and reveal what you need.” Brian Froud
High Priestess –
Green World Oracle card – Linden
[I thought this was serendipitous since it is a form of my name (Faelind)!]
In Greek mythology, Linden was the Goddess Philyra. In a Linden Grove on a tiny island no bigger than 100 yards, she turned herself into a mare to escape the Titan-God Chronos. Undeterred, he turned himself into a stallion, then caught and raped her. To her horror, she soon birthed a half-human, half-horse. The unwilling mother begged the Gods to change her form so she would not have to raise such a grotesque newborn. They changed her into one of the Grove’s Linden trees.
The abandoned child could have grown up bitter. Instead, Chiron became famous for his kindness and wisdom. As a physician, he knew how to use herbs, plants, and dreams; as tutor and seer, he functioned as a living, human version of a divinatory tablet made of linden-bast; as a musician, he carved fallen linden-limbs into wind instruments. Somehow, he intuited how to express the best of linden-ness in his own life. Chiron knew how to “parent” as his own had not, raising many heroes; Jason, Achilles, and Aeneas; and the most gifted of Greek physicians Asclepius. He was accidentally poisoned on his knee, suffering an agonizing wound, but as an immortal, could not die. The Gods, finally allowed him to surrender his immortality to fire-bringer Prometheus, and Chiron died in peace.
Linden also played a role in an early 13th century Grail epic where the Fisher-King (Latin infirmatus – infirm man) who, like Chiron, has an incurable wound that causes longing for death is tended by his sister and he and his court fed from the mysterious Grail. Sigune, cousin to Parzival, niece and nephew to the Fisher-King, is raised by the Grail sister after being orphaned as an infant. As an adult, Sigune meets and falls in love with a knight, only to lose him to an untimely death. Parzival finds her in a linden tree holding her just-slain beloved. He offers to bury the corpse but she refuses. She spends the rest of her life mourning his death and grieving over his corpse, never allowing it to be buried, but it never decomposes, a sign of sanctity in medieval times. Parzival sees Sigune three more times where she is fed by the Grail via Kundrie, a shape-shifter and Grail-Messenger who travels between realms. Sigune, for all the victim-quality of her chosen life, has powerful, magical connections, and genuine knowledge.
Reading:
The Linden tree is famous for the warm, honey-sweet fragrance of its creamy blossoms, which reach their peak around Summer Solstice. Bees love the abundant nectar and Linden honey has long been prized. The flowers are fermented into a light wine; as medicinal tea, the deliver flavor of dried blossoms soothes anxiety and stomach troubles.
Guided by Linden, you are soothing, mellow, and good for yourself. Just as the bast-fibers that make up the soft, inner bark of the Linden trees were once used as bandages, recognize your gift for wrapping others in healing words.
A life-long romance is favored. It is a honey-sweet time, fragrant as Linden blossoms, light-bodied like fine Linden wine. Linden trees are vigorous, growing 60 to 100 feet high with trunks four feet thick in 50 years then growing slowly for another 4 centuries adding another 3 feet to its trunk. Your tall and spacious spirit can afford to be “lithe” (a word cognate with “linden”, playful, unresisting because whatever is happening to and around you suits your creative purposes.
The romance could be with a mate, but could also involve work you love deeply. It may have a magical quality, a sense of galloping into parallel-universes and returning with gifts of healing and wisdom.
In terms of children, issues of self-worth might be indicated (the child might be your own inner-child). As with Chiron, whose mother thought him a monster, there may be values and needs that conflict with your own but which, if handled wisely, will enrich you both. Be pliant, yielding, yet crafty. Much is at stake – there is potential access to a whole world of civilizing wisdom. Take steps to ensure your child’s access to that wisdom.
In matters of romance and creativity, you may have misjudged the commitment. The situation may require more work (or less return) than you envision right now. The extra work may result in something wonderful – but you are wise not to expect rapid growth just yet.
Be careful of accidental injuries. As with Chiron, these might be more serious than they seem at first. Do not delay in seeking help. Also be careful of emotional injuries, to yourself or to others. Do not let yourself get too tied up in your role as “rescuer.” You risk having your good intentions twisted, leaving you feeling abused and at the end of your (bast) rope.
With emotional issues, go within, trust that the honeyed times will spring anew from another season’s shorts – and never forget that Linden, once its time comes, grows fast, mighty, and lives for many centuries. Be aware of long-standing grief where like Sigune, you might live joyless, blighted, stern, or too damaged to embrace life. Linden asks you to look at the situation from an entirely new perspective. Climb higher into the tree.
Do not be afraid to look back at your life without anger or pain. Then was then, now is now. Do not cling to whatever contaminated your wellsprings of hope, poisoned your Chiron, or struck down your youth. Regardless of what guilt, need, fear, abuse, pain, self-hate, or anguish explored in your past, you survived or you would not be here now.
Tell your inner-Sigune you want her with you, but do not let her lose her way in grief. Call her back. You need her wealth of knowledge and mystical connections. She needs you to trace a new path for her through the flowering Linden wood.
Froud Faery Oracle – 10: The Singer of Healing
Singers are the great ones, whose wings span the multiverse in all dimensions. They show us what we have the potential to ultimately become. They also help us move in that direction when we stray from the path. The Singers are always with us, and their energy and compassion are always available to us when we need. We but only need ask. Gratitude is their payment. Open yourself to the Singers and allow their essence to flow through. As with any Otherworld help, we may not get what we ask for, but we will definitely get what we need.
Reading:
10 – The Singer of Healing – Healing of body, mind, and spirit.
The song of this Singer has the power of healing deep wounds of the spirit – wounds that can destroy mortals or immortals alike. Faith betrayed, love dishonored, trust abandoned, and other injuries of the spirit all inflict serious wounds, which are reflected in the body’s illnesses and injuries. Through the song of healing, we may be restored and renewed, but only if the wounded one is prepared to forgive and let go, returned to love and compassion. As always with all gifts of spirit, healing is offered, not forced, and requires active participation on our part.
True healing must take place on all levels at once – body, mind, and spirit. These levels are inextricably linked, all one piece, and we cannot expect to change one without changing the others. The principle of self-healing is simplicity itself. We need only let go of the things that are hurting us and nurture ourselves with the things that benefit us. So simple! So difficult!
The song of Healing is present everywhere and it is without limit.
This is the healer’s card, and its presence in a reading may speak of healing to be given or of healing to be received. The circumstances may seem easy or they may bring great challenges. In either case, we are asked to participate in our own healing as we are strengthened by this Singer.
Usually, this Singer speaks of both giving and receiving healing because we cannot truly and freely give without receiving as well. Healing is something that flows through us, not from us, and as such we are inevitably affected by its passage. Drawing this card tells us of both a need and an opportunity for healing ourselves and perhaps others as well.
When illness of body, mind or spirit prevails and we feel disconnected from the great song of healing, the question we need to ask ourselves is, “What feelings or ideas or beliefs am I holding on to that keep my wounds open and unhealed? What can I do to nurture myself and open to the song of Healing?”
“Faeries show us the flow and the possibilities of change. They show us clarity and insight and the fact that everything is connected and that we are all part of one another.” Brian Froud
Tree of Knowledge Coven 