Druid Animal Oracle: Fox

[Meditation journeys based upon Philip & Stephanie Carr-Gomm's oracle deck.]

Illustration by Bill Worthington

Today's Card: FOX-- "Sionnach" in Gaelic.  Cunning, Diplomacy, Wildness.

The card shows a fox, emerging from a forest to venture onto an iced over lake. Holly sticks out by one corner, an evergreen that shows its vitality in the heart of winter. Snow lies everywhere. In the distance, pines or firs grow on the distant shoreline, and a sunrise or sunset shines brightly, showing that a small mountain is even further in the distance. But something doesn't add up..! Behind the fox (behind its head and tip of its tail) the forest that the vixen just exited seems to blend into a snowy mountain much closer up! But how is that possible? Is it just a cap of snow covered tree tops? But that doesn't quite jive with how its drawn...

This card may be showing an overlapping of two realities! Which one is more physically 'real'? Which is our world, and which is another? And is the fox the only animal that demonstrates this ability? I guess it's time to find out!

I step through the portal and wonder about the ice! The Fox isn't even looking at me to begin with, but she soon does, and her expression is both playful and compassionate. I like her very much! I also remember the cranes I met with the bull, and how they directed me to the vixen to answer my question...

I asked for some sign of hope that I might find "IT" again. It being my passion for life, my ability to trust and love. My belief in myself as someone who can negotiate life successfully.

The Fox eyes me for a moment, then takes off over the ice-- looking back over her shoulder a few times. I hear crashing, and realize she's being chased, so I gingerly follow her onto the ice. I slide a little, then start to skate more gracefully. When I catch up to the vixen, she seems happy with me, and then leads me towards the rising sun.

I realize why when the big ogre chasing her comes out onto the ice to catch her, and me as well, apparently! The light of the rising sun blinds him a little, and so the fox and I criss cross in front of our enemy, confusing him more. Eventually, she leads me to an area where the ice is thin. I know we're going to trick our enemy...

... and it works. He's so angry at us puny tricksters that he blunders onto the thin ice and then falls through! We did it!

By now, we're to the opposite shore, and we climb up and look back to the hole in the ice, satisfied that we are safe and our pursuer will bother us no more.

Now the Fox speaks with me about my problems dealing with enemies. I try too hard, she tells me, to not lose. I'm not good at beating my enemies at their game. I need to create my own game, and have fun doing it-- once I get angry or desperate, I lose my advantage completely. She reminds me of when I was so successful at beating one infernal little bitch once. I never got caught up in the angst like I usually do, instead I got smart, and I turned things into a fun game. And I beat her easily.

I need to remember that, she tells me. I sit there on a pile of moss, looking out over the lake, and I stroke her thick fur. She tells me how foxes have had to learn to be wily to hunt and to get away when hunted. They are often in-between the powerful and puny, just like me. But they are also smart, just like me. I need to hold on to my humor and sense of play.

When we play, our minds are more keen and engaged-- at their prime. When, by contrast, I am upset and struggling, I can't think clearly. I lose my creativity, which is one of my strong points. Staying upbeat and laughing at life can be the difference between life and death when one deals with enemies.

I realize this is what I needed to hear. That all is not lost-- that I'm not doomed to repeat the same mistakes every time I am threatened. I CAN turn things around into my favor. People that are gunning for me also lose their advantage when they take things too seriously, if I let them blunder into losing-- just let them fall through their own hubris, I can walk away the victor!

I feel happy to know I can be okay. I think of my ex, and how he often sided with my enemies or even created them in the first place-- but in the end, all the quality people came to me and he was left with the losers in life. He played them and they all ended up with each other. No loss to me!

I jump up and go ice dancing. The sun shines down and the fox comes to join me, and we chase each other and skate around in glee. Eventually, we make our way to the originally spot by the holly tree where I came in. By now, the sun is high in the sky, and the world is very bright.

I kneel down to hug and kiss Fox. She wags her tail like a dog and licks me back. I will know to call on her for inspiration or advice in the future when I realize I need help in a 'game.'

I step through to my own world again, grateful for my vixen friend.

Druid Animal Oracle: Bee

[Meditation journeys based upon Philip & Stephanie Carr-Gomm's oracle deck.]

Illustration by Bill Worthington

Today's Card: BEE-- "Beach" in Gaelic. Community, Celebration, Organization.

The card shows a close-up of a bee sunning itself on a rock on a bright, sunny day- only a few high, hazy clouds in the sky. The line-counting figure for '5' is etched upon that rock. In the background, there is a path winding through upright stones, or dolmen, leading towards an ancient Celtic community hut, reminiscent of a beehive shape. The closest dolmen is also an ancient Celtic art figure as well.

I step through the doorway to find myself uncomfortably close to a stone dolmen, almost nose to stone! I move to the left and step back, and the bee crawls and wriggles her way around the upright stone. She turns to look at me, and I realize I hear drums in the distance. Its coming from the 'hive'-like community house. It sounds powerful and thunders into the day, and there is excitement in the air...

I'm feeling pretty eager to head towards the sound, and the bee seems to be on board with this. She flies to the next dolmen, which is also the Celtic figure from the Neolithic Age. I walk along the path to the figure, watching as the bee crawls over the face. I am reminded that even long ago, humans kept bees for honey, and to create alcoholic beverages out of it like mead. (Note: I love mead!) I notice while I stand there that other bees are busily flying around and landing upon the heather and gorse that seems to be everywhere in the surrounds. We seem to be in a region of low hills covered by such flora, like an area of moors.

I feel the collective energy of the bees, and I sense that the bee is telling me humans have our own form of 'hive'. We're very social animals, that is why I'm so excited to join the other people in their community house.

I continue down the path to the next dolmen and then the next and the next... I touch each as I pass it, feeling the rough stone beneath my hands. I realize the zigzag pattern of the path between the stones resembles the pattern bees make to communicate to each other in their bee 'dances.' I realize the Bee has brought my attention to this.

As I move up the path (we actually are going uphill slightly) I take all this in and enjoy the warm feeling of the sun upon me. The sound of drums gets ever louder and deeper, and soon I am at the entrance. I hear whoops and singing as well! At the doorway are two men, both dressed in bee outfits! They wave me in with smiles, and so I join the exuberant party.

Within, I see there is a festival going on, with honeycakes and mead. I'm IN!! I get my share and notice everyone is in a merry mood as I find a seat. Bee is still with me. She alights upon my hand (but I have no fear of being stung) and I offer her a bit of the honey dripping off my cake. She partakes with satisfaction. Around the hut-like enclosure, I notice bronze swords hanging off the walls. Bee thinks of them as human stingers.

I then commune with her silently, and I get that not only this party required a crowd, but an entire community was needed to build the large round building as well as the excavating and moving all those extremely heavy dolmen stones. There are some things that require a hive, or a village, to do. But more than that, bees and humans found a way to help each other. Bees who provide us honey have been transplanted and assisted to survive all over the globe. We have developed a symbiotic relationship to our mutual benefit.

I finish my mead and cake and think about all the comforts and the feeling of safety and belonging that can only occur in an organized community. Despite all the 'drama' and political headaches of dealing with groups of people, when things run well, life feels so much more right this way!

The people fade out slowly, like ghosts. Sadly, so does my mead mug! I look up at the high ceiling and call out, only to hear an echo of my own voice. It sounds lonely...  So I leave the way I came, with Bee flying beside me. As I make my way back to the doorway down the zigzag path, I realize that I totally missed that a bee hive was next to that first stone!

I take a little time to watch the many thousands of bees flying in and out of the hive. It is constructed to resemble the community house! Very adorable. I feel very comfortable with the bee energy here, and all that it means, but all the same I step through back into my own realm, bidding the Bee good-bye with an air-kiss.

Druid Animal Oracle: Hind

[Meditation journeys based upon Philip & Stephanie Carr-Gomm's oracle deck. I'm struggling to stay focused enough to do this every day, but I'm not giving up!]

Illustration by Bill Worthington

Today's Card: HIND-- "Eilid" in Gaelic. Subtlety, Gracefulness, Femininity.

The card shows an albino doe, or hind, in a small clearing in an oak forest, surrounded by ferns. The light appears to glow a lovely spring green that shines like a spotlight upon the delicate creature. She is posed facing away with her body, but her head is turned to look back at us (the viewer of the card.)

 I step into the Greenwood. It is obviously early to mid spring, that time when the leaves first come out and are that pure and precious green. (Note: I love that color, and have painted my bedroom this color because of the positive feelings it invokes.)

The hind waits for me to join her. I do so, walking upon a carpet of moss that I am just noticing for the first time. The sunny spot she chose is a Green Ray, and when I step into it, a dreamlike euphoria enters my mind...

Then she and I begin walking forwards along the path, my hand upon the back of her neck-- but the Green Ray seems to follow us. Knowledge enters my being: I know that the quality of innocence and purity is prized by the "Other" spiritual-faerie-weird element in the Universe because only an innocent mind can take in this Otherness of the Green Ray without losing their sanity.

The hind, especially the special albino kind of doe, is the natural born manifestation of the Unicorn energy. Perhaps once there was a race of mutant deer that had a single horn. If so, they were hunted out of existence. Nonetheless, the race-memory of what they represented lives on...

Young women, especially, seem to have the mind to take in the wisdom of the wyrd without falling into ego-driven messianic fantasies or becoming unhinged and succumbing to addictions or dangerous compulsions like many other people of differing ages and the other sex often do. This is why oracles and certain types of mystics are chosen and tested as adolescents. I am reminded that I was once one of these women.

I realize I'm having a deep conversation with the hind, surrounded by this Green Ray light, and have decided to go with it, to take in the nourishing wisdom.

I was once Chosen in this way, its true. I was terrified and unbearably curious. The spiritual part of this lesson for life has changed me forever due to what began in childhood, but exploded into my existence only shortly after menarche. I have mixed feelings. I decide to confront this -- what EVER it is that is telling me this with the help of the Hind.

What was it all FOR? What was its purpose? I learned much but what could I DO with it? I feel very much alone. I tried leading a circle of spiritual people, and it was too much about power and status to keep others focused on learning. I write of my experiences now, but that is all I do. I feel like these "gifts" were wasted on me. I'm nearly useless as a conduit for the Green Ray. I feel I've mostly failed.

Maybe not, says this voice that is voiceless. Maybe not...

I turn and look this white Hind in her eyes. They are deep, dark blue. Not pink like a true albino. She has this gentle spirit that I find reassuring. She comforts me with her presence, and I find I must hug her to me for a time, because my heart is heavy with so much that doesn't belong to the current cultural world as the authorities define it. The hind encourages me to take my burden-- bags manifest upon my body-- and transfer it to her. She will take some of the baggage that is too much for me to handle. I do so and thank her.

She leads me back to the clearing, and the Green Ray fades away slowly. She will help me with my role, give me reassurance when times get rough that she is with me and nurturing my heavy spirit.

 I feel grateful, and I bend down to grant her a kiss on her muzzle. I rest my forehead on hers for a few moments. Hind truly is a calming power that lightens one's being. I am glad to meet her formally.

Then I turn and step back into my own world.