The young prince of Bush Turkeys is building a luscious, leafy mound beside the garden steps which lead from the road to the house. He began this monumental task last Tuesday, and has been going ever since. His first choice of location was on my front path. He came and got me and showed me his fine work, and I told him it wasn’t very protected there, and showed him a spot on the front embankment, protected by trees and elevated to allow water to run off. He must’ve liked the idea, because he moved his project up there. Every now and then, on a daily basis, he will make some noise around the front verandah, and when I go out he runs to the nest to show me. I tell him it is beautiful, and he puffs out his wattle and runs off.
Yesterday, I was sitting on the steps watching him work on the nest, when his chosen female came in for a look at the proceedings, her wings held out like a cloak. He immediately prostrated himself on the ground. Then got up and kept digging a hole in the centre of the mound. When the female came onto the building site again, he would lie down flat in the nest, wings outstretched, covering the hole. He was so still, yet I could see him quivering. She went closer, digging around, her wings and feathers puffed up. Suddenly, he leapt up, but she was too quick for him and, in a flurry of feathers, got away.
The young prince kept going at the mound, making it bigger and bigger. Then, the beautiful female came over to where I was sitting on the garden steps, and laid down beside me. The prince jumped on top of her, holding her wattle in his beak. He wiggled about a bit, then jumped off and kept going with the nest.
I thought it was a lot of trouble to go to for a few eggs, but then I read that the female can lay up to fifteen! I was also a little jealous. No man has ever gone to that much trouble to woo me!! Perhaps I’ve always given in too easily, and he hasn’t had to go out of his way for me. I think I’m learning a lot from these Bush Turkeys. Whenever the chosen female comes near, the male lies down. She goes away, he gets up - always keeping an eye out for her, and lying down if she comes within sight. The male does all of the work, as he is also the one to guard the nest. It’s amazing, and truly awe inspiring to be this close to nature in all its glory.
However, the Bush Turkeys aren’t the only ones courting. The Goannas (Lace Monitor Lizards) have been having their honeymoon on the roof of my back verandah, which I can see from the window in the loft. They spent a couple of weeks up there last year! When she's had too much, the female sometimes gets away by herself –inside my ceiling! The male is too large, and can’t get in, so she's alone. For a while, she was in the wall cavity above the bedroom window, and, at night, I could hear her breathing. It was quite lovely.
The first time she crawled into my ceiling, the male came looking for her through the back door. I went out to talk to him –such a beautiful creature –and told him that his girl wasn't inside the house. He went off, down the vine-covered post, and into the ferns. After a few days to a week of solitude, the beautiful female emerges, and he takes her - many times! Between sessions of sexual activity, they lie in the breeze on the roof, touching each other. It is a beautiful sight, and I once again thank God and the Sacred Mother for all that I am witness to in this place.
I realised the other day that my house is a great metaphor for my own process. It is set down from the road, under a great canopy of trees, palms and dracaenas. The inside of the house is dark, but when one exits the back door onto the verandah, they come out into the light, with views into the distant mountains. I too have gone down into the Underworld, and spent much time in the darkness, to emerge into the Light. And now, my view of the world is much greater, and from a higher aspect, than before going into the darkness. I am Shaman, and my Divine Purpose is to keep working in the dark, in order to help bring all in the darkness into the Light.
Love and Light,
xxx
Monday 24 October 2011
Friday 21 October 2011
Beautiful spiders and praying mantis...
2.45 am, Friday, 21 October 2011. I turn on the bedside light, not for any reason I can think of – other than to witness the extraordinary transformation taking place beside my bed.
In the dim light, I see a Huntsman spider, which seems enormous and appearing to have too many legs. I can’t work out what’s going on, so I shine my torch light on it. At first, I think it has caught something, but then realise that I’m watching the spider shed its old shell. Apologising for the light, I am transfixed –completely in awe of this miracle of transition. I’ve seen many empty spider shells over the years, but thought they were the skeletons of dead spiders.
When the beautiful creature has completed this exhausting process, she is ghostlike in appearance, pale and beautiful. She slowly steps out of my torch light, and moves around to the back of the chest of drawers, in order to rest in the darkness, and recover. She is still there.
I am so ecstatic, I can’t sleep. I know it is a gift from Nature –awakening me in time to witness such an event. I, too, have had an exhausting transition, and have shed my old shell as well. I stand naked and pale in the Light, awaiting the next steps I need to take in order to fulfil my Divine Purpose...
10.30 am. I go outside to put away the emptied bin. Back in the kitchen, I feel something in my hair and brush it gently with my hand, thinking it’s a leaf (but maybe something else). A beautiful Praying Mantis lands on the kitchen floor. Apologising, I bend down and offer my hand. She puts up her front feet to take hold, and, in the halting manner of Praying Mantis, she slowly climbs aboard. She really studies me (and I her) –her little triangular face inquisitive. She reaches out again, so I hold her closer, allowing her to climb up my top, towards the tangle of my curls. She is still on top of my head, as I write. 1.50 pm.
As a child, I befriended a Praying Mantis who was living in a pot plant in our lounge room. She, too, would sit on my head, and went with me all around the house and yard. I’d walk around the back garden with her on my head, and she would fly off to investigate, then fly back and land on my head again. I really loved her. She laid eggs on the planter, but I don’t remember whether any of them hatched.
Do insects reincarnate? The way this one is acting, I feel it is a reunion. I know what a privilege it is to be so accepted by insects, birds, and other animals. I feel blessed to have been accepted by the Sacred Mother, and all of the creatures who reside in this dimension. It feels like a celebration of my coming into my Shamanism, after such a long initiation, and I am filled with love and gratitude. Namaste.
Love and Light,
xxx
In the dim light, I see a Huntsman spider, which seems enormous and appearing to have too many legs. I can’t work out what’s going on, so I shine my torch light on it. At first, I think it has caught something, but then realise that I’m watching the spider shed its old shell. Apologising for the light, I am transfixed –completely in awe of this miracle of transition. I’ve seen many empty spider shells over the years, but thought they were the skeletons of dead spiders.
When the beautiful creature has completed this exhausting process, she is ghostlike in appearance, pale and beautiful. She slowly steps out of my torch light, and moves around to the back of the chest of drawers, in order to rest in the darkness, and recover. She is still there.
I am so ecstatic, I can’t sleep. I know it is a gift from Nature –awakening me in time to witness such an event. I, too, have had an exhausting transition, and have shed my old shell as well. I stand naked and pale in the Light, awaiting the next steps I need to take in order to fulfil my Divine Purpose...
10.30 am. I go outside to put away the emptied bin. Back in the kitchen, I feel something in my hair and brush it gently with my hand, thinking it’s a leaf (but maybe something else). A beautiful Praying Mantis lands on the kitchen floor. Apologising, I bend down and offer my hand. She puts up her front feet to take hold, and, in the halting manner of Praying Mantis, she slowly climbs aboard. She really studies me (and I her) –her little triangular face inquisitive. She reaches out again, so I hold her closer, allowing her to climb up my top, towards the tangle of my curls. She is still on top of my head, as I write. 1.50 pm.
As a child, I befriended a Praying Mantis who was living in a pot plant in our lounge room. She, too, would sit on my head, and went with me all around the house and yard. I’d walk around the back garden with her on my head, and she would fly off to investigate, then fly back and land on my head again. I really loved her. She laid eggs on the planter, but I don’t remember whether any of them hatched.
Do insects reincarnate? The way this one is acting, I feel it is a reunion. I know what a privilege it is to be so accepted by insects, birds, and other animals. I feel blessed to have been accepted by the Sacred Mother, and all of the creatures who reside in this dimension. It feels like a celebration of my coming into my Shamanism, after such a long initiation, and I am filled with love and gratitude. Namaste.
Love and Light,
xxx
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