Seeing the Signs
A Morning Walk and the Cosmic Hello
I take several walks a day. Part of this is because I don’t own a car so my legs are my primary source of transportation. Sometimes I am merely walking a few blocks to the bus stop to catch a bus to some other destination. Sometimes I am walking up and down Bailey Avenue, the main drag near my home, going to the few shops that remain in this benighted neighborhood, buying the items that I need to complete a meal or to fix something in the home. Sometimes I just need to get out of the house.
Walking is a way to exercise. It’s a way to calm a manic mood or to bring me out a depressed disposition. Walking is a form of meditation. I focus on my breathing and stay centered within each step. Because of my arthritic knees, I cannot and do not distance run but I do sprint across the many cross streets. Movement feels so good.
This morning, I went to Family Dollar. Family Dollar is where I go when I need to go to the supermarket but I don’t feel like spending twenty minutes on the bus getting there and back, not counting the time I’m waiting for the bus. I can get bread and milk and other basics at Family Dollar but not fresh produce. They just remodeled the store near me and it would have been great if they had added a produce department. This neighborhood could really use something like that.
I came out of Family Dollar with my milk and bread and chocolate and toilet paper in my canvas bag and started walking home. It had been raining earlier but the sky was clearing and it was warm and windy. I was walking south and the wind was blowing into my face. From way down the street, I could see a white feather floating on the breeze. It fluttered this way and that. I watched it approach me. It looked like it was coming directly to me. It flew up the street – this lone white feather – and landed at my feet.
If it hadn’t been so windy, I would have taken a picture of the feather at my sandal-clad feet with their red-painted toes but I was afraid that the wind would blow the feather away so I quickly picked it up and put it in my bag and continued on my way home.
When I got home, I took a picture of the feather.
Notice that my feather is white with a black tip. A friend who saw it told me that it fell from my guardian angel’s wing – “Angels wear white!” They do? Really? I thought they dressed in the colors of the rainbow. My feather is white with a black tip because it isn’t from an angel’s wing, it’s from a seagull’s wing. When it gets stormy around here, seagulls come in from the lake shore and fly over the city and suburbs. I knew it was a seagull’s feather as soon as I saw it.
You would think that with all the books and notes I have on divination that I would have something about feathers. Only one book – Discovering Signs and Symbols by Kirsten Riddle – mentions anything at all about feathers and it’s about the “Feather of Maat” and advises the reader on how to cleanse their aura using a feather. She writes, “…take a feather and waft it around your silhouette, making short, sharp movements to brush away any stagnant energy.” (Riddle, 34). What great advice! And how easy is that? There’s also a “Feather of Maat Ritual”.
When I first read this, I thought that it was rather general and that it really didn’t have anything to do with my particular feather but it could be argued that it was the goddess Maat who directed that feather to me – does my aura need cleansing? I would have never thought about this on my own. I mean – this is how the Universe works.
I did look online for “what is means when you find a feather”. I found a lot of “fluffy bunny” stuff. Honestly, most of what I saw online I wouldn’t share with you readers or anyone else. But I did find this one site that I did find informative and thoughtful: http://www.nataliakuna.com – there’s a page dedicated to “Feather Signs & Colour Meanings”.
Natalia writes, “When a feather actually [l]ands at your feet, it is traditionally seen as a positive omen that your calls have been heard and answered.” I thought about the feather landing at my feet and I wondered – which one of my prayers have been heard and answered?
She also says that it’s a “Cosmic Hello”. I really like that.
And she mentions recognizing the bird that the feather is from. Just like I instantly recognized the feather! For instance, seagulls represent freedom. So now I am thinking about how this feather – that literally landed at my feet – is giving me a message of freedom? Right now it seems like I am less free than ever with all my family commitments and obligations. But who knows? Isn’t this the point of divination? To trust in the signs that we see?
After cleansing my aura, I put the feather on the dream-catcher that hangs over my bed. Here’s what that looks like:
The only other thing I need to do now is research the Goddess Maat. I have never had much to do with her but perhaps she is calling to me. At any rate, it can’t hurt to find out who she is and what she may want with me.
Until next month, Brightest Blessings!
Discovering Signs and Symbols: Unlock the Secrets and Meanings of these Ancient Figures
References
Riddle, Kirsten. Discovering Signs and Symbols. London: CICO Books, 2015.
Natalia Kuna. “Feather Signs & Colour Meanings”. http://www.nataliakuna.com/feather-signs–colour-meanings.html.
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About the Author:
Polly MacDavid lives in Buffalo, New York at the moment but that could easily change, since she is a gypsy at heart. Like a gypsy, she is attracted to the divinatory arts, as well as camp fires and dancing barefoot. She has three cats who all help her with her magic.
Her philosophy about religion and magic is that it must be thoroughly based in science and logic. She is Dianic Wiccan and she is solitary.
She blogs at silverapplequeen.wordpress.com. She writes about general life, politics and poetry. She is writing a novel about sex, drugs and recovery.