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The first point of self-reflection I'm offering for your consideration focuses on the use of Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams and David Carson (affiliate link).
These cards are a staple in my life. As I've written many times over the years, in a variety of venues, it is an extremely rare day that goes by that Karl and I don't "pick a card" on our day as we sit and have coffee together each morning.
I sat quietly this evening, centered myself, and asked Spirit for guidance for myself and whomever chooses to embark upon this journey with me: "The 9 Days of (Winter) Solstice." Planting my feet firmly on the floor in front of me, I asked what card would be the perfect start for us in this time of Connection, Celebration, Reflection, and Contemplation.
The card I chose? Grouse.
To me, the choice is a lovely one. I urge you to read the full text of Grouse provided above, and consider what Spirit is telling each one of us.
Could it be that we are precisely at the beginning of a nine day Vision Quest (without, luckily for us, the requirement of fasting)? The symbol of the spiral, which is associated with Grouse Medicine, is a metaphor for the very human endeavor of going within in order to gain personal power and enlightenment.
If that is not an "invitation to the dance," an encouragement for all of us to make a commitment to ourselves to engage in at least half an hour of internal reflection per day over the next nine days, I don't know what is.
Read the card. Allow it to speak to you. Let it form a basis for some reflection tonight - and tomorrow - (until I post the next Point of Reflection!). Perhaps this is a message giving you a strategy (movement) for connecting to what's important. Maybe taking a walk outside and really paying attention to nature would help your process. Use your imagination. Listen.
Here in Middle Georgia, at the Ocmulgee Indian mounds, they host many Indian activities. I never know if they are real or not, but I do know that the dance described in the card is exactly what they do. I will look at it much differently now, knowing that they are 'connecting to source' through the dance.
ReplyDeleteYes, Stan, I've been to a number of native North American pow-wows over the years, where the main activity is often a dance contest. The Grouse dance is almost always performed and uncannily resembles the actual dance of the bird.
DeleteOur land's indigenous people have reclaimed many of their traditions, which were actively suppressed until only recently. More and more, they are encouraging their own youth to remember and celebrate their cultural heritage, and sharing their ways of relating to each other and the world with the rest of us.
It's the swaying, the movement, the body, graceful, lighter, lovely in it's elegant movement as spirit gives birth to song and song flows through body that I have been longing/seeing the past few days. The dance of the grouse while I climb the ladder towards the doors that are waiting, open...for me to glide through.
ReplyDeleteThis is so lyrical and poetic. You've painted an amazing image of dancing the spiral dance, Leanne. Thank you.
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