Cody’s Column: Working With Land and Animal Spirits
It is eclipse night, and the rain is pouring down. I won’t get to see the eclipse, but I will feel it. I have been feeling it in the land and animal spirits that live here along the Magic Skagit River. The ravens who have been visiting again, the elk all standing in a line alongside the road, two eagles perched on a branch chattering with each other, circles of water rippling on the river, nettles peeking up off the forest floor, Indian Plum flowers blooming, and of course the iconic daffodils blooming in the Skagit Valley. Tonight, I write to you about being receptive to these spirits.
For some of you readers, you will feel more comfortable with a perspective shift, a mind shift, or a change in feeling about the land and animals. For others, you may feel more comfortable with ritual, routine, or ceremony. For the rest of us, we will probably land somewhere in between. With my outdoor cat watching me through the window, I will attempt to delve into the mysteries one can find themselves in when working with land and animal spirits.
The first mystery we find ourselves in is the inherent secrets of this work. Skills have been lost, connections severed, guidance obscured. Modernity has its own pace, and my first advice is to practice slowing down. This will have two effects. Once you slow yourself down, you will notice a change in your attitudes and feelings with the land and animal spirits. Keep at this practice of learning to use your own brake pedal. With training, you will notice the second effect and that is in the land around you. You will perceive how your actions become integrated with the actions of the land and animal spirits. This is beneficial because it helps us develop an authentic relationship to the land and its spirits.
Land and animal spirits have their own relationship hierarchies, communities, places of friction, and unimaginable beauty in self-actualization. They want you to become more aware of this living system because you are already an integral piece of their world. Just as you observe how an organization, restaurant, or service industry is structured, you can begin to observe how the land and animal spirits are structured. Look to the smallest thing that you can see, the insects, seedlings, stones, leaves, and snails. How did they get here, what is their origin story? What do they do for the surrounding land? What small or big lessons can they teach us? I like to ask them questions like this and then observe even more. If you are feeling up to it, ask about the unseen microbial life next.
I do a meditative ritual to help me see how small is beautiful, but I also have a ceremony for the smaller land and animal spirits involving the use of a snail shell. I find a little oasis of beauty, a smallscape that catches my eye. Sometimes it’s in my driveway and other times I’m deep in the forest on a bed of moss. I place the snail shell down in an artful way and begin tracing the spiral shape with a wand made from holly. I imagine my body shrinking to the size of an ant so that everything small becomes big. Then I sit and meditate on this new shapeshifted state and use my mind’s eye guided by beauty to find three treasures to notice…sometimes there are more…before I retrace the shell in reverse. Last, I take a moment to express gratefulness for the small treasures. I revaluate my large size asking, how I can make room for these small treasures in my daily life?
As I said before, the land and animal spirits exist in a hierarchy but it is not like our human one. All the spirits I work with are fully actualized and they live in community. They are wise elders, occasionally into mischief, but open to teaching. Some just want to be left alone. In my practice I honor those spirit’s wishes and ask that they leave me alone as well. You can do this with the help of your guardian or guide spirits or you can do this with your own protective ceremony. I strongly recommend that you reach out for a guardian spirit if you have not done so already. Some say work with one, others have many they work with. I am a bit of a hybrid who started with one, Wolf, who led me to others…Raven, Bear, Elk, Frog, Snake, Snail, Coyote, Mountain Lion, and Eagle. There is also a guardian of the land spirit whom you may speak with.
My journey with the guardian of the land spirit is one of mystery to me. In previous articles I mentioned that I have seen him in human and animal form, (also as a tree that fell and later disappeared). Guardians of the land are patient and quite willing to help us remove what isn’t working for us or the land. They help teach us some foundational lessons for working with the community of spirits present and they offer guidance to medicines for the land and for us. Many times these medicines are plants and trees, but I have on occasion seen the medicine be the presence of animals. A guardian of the land will help guide you into the history of the land. They will also help you find your place on the land, whether through hard lessons or patient understanding. Be willing to learn from the hard lessons of others.
The spirits can teach us about big things going on where we live and even bigger things happening on this planet. The spirits have access to something greater than what we can see. I encourage you to try and sense what that is while you are walking in a forest, tending your garden, or noticing that small spider in your house. I have from time to time seen glimpses of what is happening globally but much more frequently I am instructed by the spirits on what is happening locally.
A ceremony you may consider is that of a land trust ceremony. It is a ceremony that shows you will be there for the land when the land needs you most. First make an intention to work with the land and animal spirits by representing them with feathers, stones, bones you have found, plant material you exchanged respectfully for, or something else that you have felt an inspiration to do with your land and animal spirits. Welcome them into your ceremony with an acknowledgement of their names and presence on the land. Offer to the spirits your gifts of communication and dedication to work with them in observing the land, helping the small elements and the larger elements harmonize with the seasons. This may look different for you in your area than it does for me in my area, but I urge you to allow yourself to learn while in ceremony. You may notice something new, something difficult, or something urgent for yourself or the land. You may also receive a job to complete whether it is a clean up task or a rejuvenating task. I have seen the spirits offer teachings for our own mental, spiritual, and physical health. Be ready for a change in your path.
I use rune, Tarot, and oracle cards to assist with the guidance in my path while working with the land and animal spirits. Try out an animal oracle deck. Sense the Fey at work on the land? Consider a faerie tarot deck. Are dragons involved? Guardian spirits? Ancestors? Make small steps towards understanding. Big changes will come but not without the small steps. For my next article in April, I will discuss how I use rune, Tarot, and oracle cards to assist my practice in working with the land and animal spirits. Spring will come and show you how beautiful it is to take small steps towards change. Until then, I hope your journey with the land and animal spirits is filled with harmony, commitment, dedication, mystery, wonder, peace, and love.
I am a husband, father, farmer, and friend. I live on the banks of the Magic Skagit River, ancestral lands of the Sauk-Suiattle people. I practice rune reading, tarot, land magic, and work with many spirit guides. My life began Pagan but I veered off into the Christian church in college. I found my way back to my Pagan and ancestral roots in 2005 and have journeyed along this path since then.
