Thanking the six directions | Accepting my totem/power animal

After always seeing brahminy kites in close proximity to me whenever I am in need of certain reminders in my life, or when I go through tough patches, I finally got the hint and talked with the kite.

Incorporating Jim PathFinger Ewing’s methods of inviting the six directions in (Father Sky, Mother Earth, the East Wind, the South Wind, the West Wind, and the North Wind), apologizing for my ignorance in what they represented and how to thank them. But I thanked them anyway, and they came and stood at the four corners of the room I was in, which nicely coincided with the four cardinal directions. Father Sky and Mother Earth came and drew me in two directions to ground myself. Father Sky was a little stern but still kind; Mother Earth was really warm, and she took my hand and walked with me. The Four Winds took on human-like forms without faces. East Wind was red; South Wind was yellow; West Wind was black; North Wind was white.

They acknowledged my newness at this, and they acknowledged that I didn’t have a proper teacher. But they were willing to help me and guide me anyway. So with their help, I set my boundaries (after smudging the room) and then invited my two guides with me – Kiesh’ra and the hellspawn. (For my own information, I might need to confront the latter one day and see why he’s around; he exhibited some strange behavior today. But Kiesh’ra didn’t show anything, so for now I’m keeping quiet but keeping an eye out).

From the distance, a rapidly-growing form came, and I saw that it was a/the kite who had called out to me, somewhat. She (yes, I finally have a female guide in the midst of all these males) landed, cocked her head at me, before taking a human form (why for, I’m not quite sure) for a few minutes. Maybe she wanted me to be able to relate to her. I said a hello, and then she reverted to her kite form, walked forward a little, and started scolding me in perfectly comprehensible mind-image-English talk, which surprised me greatly, since any and all of my guides have never spoken a word to me.

The kite scolded me for taking this long to ask for her, and then kind of went straight to business. She said she offers to be my guide. I thanked her and accepted her help. So, the first thing she wanted me to do was to dance the brahminy kite. I knew what that meant, and asked everyone for permission to stop drumming. The permission was given, and I placed my drum down and went into a crouched position, holding my palms out as the kite shared her…energy and memories and experiences with me. I thanked her and integrated those into myself, and then streamlined my arms with my sides to mimic folded wings. I took a few experimental steps forward, feeling the awkwardness of large birds at walking on land. Then she told me to fly, to flap my wings/arms a few times for takeoff, and I did, feeling the air beneath my cupped wings as resistance.

As I gained altitude, kite told/taught me to search for and feel for a thermal, and once I got it, it was as if I got onto a surfboard and didn’t have to do much, just adjust the positions of my wings/arms/fingers a little to soar and glide, feeling the exceptional control I had over how my body reacted to the winds. I felt my clawed feet tucked snugly beneath my body, the resistance of the wind beneath the span of my wings, and how I could feel tiny whistles of wind rushing through my wing tips and fingers.

When kite finally told me to stop dancing, I folded my wings to swoop down and then opened them at the last moments to flap a few times for resistance, and then landed. I could only grin at her. It was empowering.

She scolded me like a concerned mother, that dancing the kite and flying weren’t the only things I had to learn. I sobered up, and she told me that at this point in my life, I was like a hatchling (she gave me imageries of her whole life from birth till this moment) who got out and was finding a lot of trouble with my wings. The challenges I meet keep making me fall. But she said that the moment I found out how to use my wings, then I could learn how to fly. And she’d be around to teach me that. She’d also be around to teach me how to adapt, since the brahminy kite is famous locally for being a bird of prey which had adapted to human environments so much I can see them thriving in the city.

She and Kiesh’ra seemed to recognize each other but they didn’t acknowledge each other. She told me to internalize what she’d shared with me, nodded at my thanks, and somehow sensing I needed comfort, told me I could hug her. So I did, gently, smoothing her feathers down. I projected an image of the large feather I’d picked up a few years ago, but she didn’t know who it belonged to. So after some time, I thanked her again and let her fly off.

I thanked my guides and all six directions for their help and presence, and clapped my hands to break up the energies I’d formed. All of them helped me with dissipating the energies as well.

Perhaps it’d take a bit of light meditation and finding my Stillpoint to internalize and integrate what I’d learn…