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| Illustration by Bill Worthington |
Today's Card: SOW -- "Muc" in Gaelic: Generosity, Nourishment, Discovery
The card shows a semi-domesticated female pig with her brood of striped-back piglets. They are foraging for acorns on the edge of a wood overlooking a field of wheat. Deciduous woods are beyond that, and a bare hill peeks out behind the trees.
I step through the doorway and little ones squeal and scatter. Their mother looks at me, and if a sow could smile with amusement, she would be doing just that. I take a few steps forward and look at the field of wheat. So neat and all in rows. The sow silently follows behind me, her piglets calmer now, are following her.
She walks ahead of me into the field of ripe wheat and I walk behind. We leave a path through the crop. Her piglets think its a game, and duck in and out, leaving very little impression. They stop and eat bits of fallen grain as we go. I put my hand out and let the wheat tops brush my palms. The sow grunts happily, and I follow her.
She leads me into the edge of the woods on one side of the wheat field. There's a grove of apple trees there, and I reach down to pick one off the ground. The piglets quickly go through the fallen apples. I take a bite of one and then share it with a couple of piglets.
Next we cross a small brook, where everyone gets a drink, and on to some blackberry brambles, where I pick a few to eat and the little ones eat fallen ones off the ground again.
When we get to the edge of the woods, the sow shows me the bare hill. There is nothing growing there-- only short grass. Its a good place for some activities, but nothing she cares about. Still, I climb it and decide to talk to her there. The piglets stay behind, happy to play and hunt for mushrooms.
I'm getting that much of this is about our/my relationship to food. The search for food is an ongoing hunt. There is plenty. Food is abundant, so the sow and her brood are very relaxed about it and share and things seem okay for them.
Our conversation is not in words, but I understand her. We need to be 'fed' affection as much as we need to be fed food. Without feeling loved and cared for, we sense we need to hunt. But we get confused and think we want food, when really we want to be nurtured by companionship in a safe place. The sow is a part of the mother in the Universe that feeds us freely and happily. Without her abundant energy, we are afraid we'll be left alone on the bare hill.
I look around that hill. The place where it is lonely and bare. I can see much from there. But I'm not trapped. I can always go down into the woods or fields to find new sources of sustenance. The sow is telling me that if I need help to not overeat sometimes, I should call on her. Ask her to help me remember that I'm not stranded on a bare hill. She will let me know to ask for a hug, or to pet my cat, or cuddle with my fuzzy blankets, if I am feeling a hunger that is not for actual food.
I never thought on calling on spirit animals for such a thing before. Not really. Ravens sometimes and rabbits are omens to me, but asking for help from a pig so I can feel okay about food? Hmmm! I tell her yes, I would like to ask for help! She's happy.
We climb down from the bare hill and join the piglets. The run up on their short little legs and nuzzle their mom, and we all continue to walk through the woods to the open fields, and I run a little, and let the wind blow my hair, until we reach the doorway to my world where we started.
I thank the Sow for helping me understand her more deeply and personally. I kneel and kiss her on the top of her muzzle and scratch her between the eyes. She grunts in pleasure. I say good-bye and return.
END.
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