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Monday 10 August 2015

Symbolism in the Mundane: a Message from Feathers

I love seeing symbolism in the mundane, and recently I have found a message in the way feathers appeared to me. Feathers are useful tools for me in my energy healing work, but I have been without them for almost two years. This is because I moved to a different continent and could take very little with me. I left my feathers behind — ironically because they would not have caused problems with my baggage limitations — thinking that I would find new ones. I also reasoned that I had to be able to do healing work with or without the tools.

In the year and a half that I was in Scotland before returning to South Africa for a visit, I did not find a single feather, despite visiting the park on a daily basis and embarking on a few trips to the wild highlands. Back in South Africa I found to my delight that my old eagle and owl feathers, which I had left at my mother’s house, were still intact. I also found some more guinea fowl feathers and this time I took all of them with me on my return to Scotland. Since my arrival back, there have been feathers everywhere.

The feathers I had were special to me due to my relationship with the birds in question. The eagle appeared as a symbol of courage during one of my first encounters with spiritual healing, and is also the inspiration for my first novel, In Search of the Golden City. I have been drawn to owls since I was a child, and they came to me particularly in times of need. The owl feather I have came from barn owls that nested in our chimney. One of the birds got stuck and we had to rescue it. It was quite an emotional experience, especially when we saw that as soon as it was free, it joined another one in flight that had been waiting for it. Owls have also appeared to me in dreams a few times, often before or after I saw one in the physical world.

To me the message in the sudden abundance of feathers was one of cherishing what I have and believing in my own connection with spirit. This also relates to the process of soul retrieval, where healing is done through recovering lost aspects of the self. To bring the best of myself to the world, I have to use everything I have been given and be careful of discarding it due to the demands of the material world. If I honour what is precious to me, I will see more of it in the world around me. However, if I leave it behind thinking that there will be more to come, its presence in my life will diminish.