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| Book of Shadows, LS 2012 |
The 4 of Air in Book of Shadows Vol 1 depicts divination through noticing Omens, or signs. Wiccans and other pagans (and in fact many, many traditions both religious and cultural) find significance in omens. The 4 of Air card shows a man walking down an urban street at night, an eclipse of sorts in the sky above (itself often considered to be an omen), his way lit by a streetlamp (the streetlamp is a motif seen several times in this deck, actually). He has a scarf around his neck against the cold. Ahead of him, four sylphs are busy placing 'omens' for him to notice: a coin on the ground, a black cat, a crow and a four-leaf clover. These are all very well-known signs or omens, meant to represent all such omens, both those made famous through folklore and tradition, and those that perhaps only an individual attuned to such things would notice or find meaning in. The suggestion here is that such things are deliberately placed in our path in order to communicate with us. It is down to us to learn to take note of them.
In a reading, this card would tell me first and foremost to be on the lookout for signs and omens regarding the issue I'm reading about, and to ask the querent (person I'm reading for) if they have noticed anything, unusual or not, that has caught their attention lately. Usually, omens happen outdoors in the natural world, or can be observed out the windows. Signs and omens seem to happen under the open sky, in the open air, involving anything from plant life, to animal behaviour, cloud formations, sounds, smells; anything that catches your attention for unknown reasons should be considered more closely and examined for possible messages, either as affirmations or as warnings. In other words, if you get the sudden flash that something is a sign, most likely it is. But as my mother always says, the Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He will not make a nuisance of himself and will not outstay his welcome. He can be very subtle and won't press the issue if you dismiss him. If he waves at you and you don't wave back, he's not going to block your path and shout 'Oi! I was talking to you!'
So may I be attune today for any omens that may come my way.
(I love referencing songs in my blog titles. I'm from the South, and often the songs are country or gospel. Today's card made me think of the song from 'The Color Purple'. Because I do believe God -- or the Universe, or whatever you personally call it--is always 'tryin to tell us something'.)
A few years ago I was at an alternative holiday place, and did a vision quest. We just went out into the local landscape, in silence, to look and see what we could. It was a deeply moving encounter with nature, so full of messages if you're looking for them :)
ReplyDeleteA weird thing happened. I included mung dal in the mix I was making today. I went in the kitchen, and, oddly, the little green hulls from the mung beans all had sloughed off the beans. The pot had boiled over, and there was a pile of mung bean hulls sitting on the stove beside the pot. I took off the lid, and the inside of the top of the lid and the rim of the pot were both stuck with hulls. I took the pot over to the sink and flicked the hulls off into the sink. What was left in the pan was hulled mung beans. I have never seen that happen before. These beans had sloughed off their outer shells in the crucible of the boiling pan. I've been contemplating something lately that seems strangely related to that process. And I've certainly never seen beans behave like that before.
ReplyDeleteHow fascinating! Well, I'll look forward to hearing about your own crucible experience...
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