learning to listen

i know enough about the way energy works that when i looked outside my window this afternoon and saw, of all things, a woodpecker busily pecking through the woodpile on the ground, i recognized a Messenger.

i've had a sense that this whole issue with my neck contains a Message - a message that requires close and careful attention.

interestingly, woodpecker appears prominently in both native american traditions and roman myth. a woodpecker fed romulus and remus - the original founders of the city of the rome - along with a wolf. the woodpecker's rapid-fire rapping suggests a messenger from the Upper World. and woodpecker, like the ram, resonates with aries energy of initiative, persistence, and sheer willfulness of action.

for jung, woodpecker is a symbol of a return to the womb. the woodpecker makes its home within a tree, which like the womb is earthy, grounded, sturdy and secure. as some of my Gentle Readers may remember an issue Beloved and i have been carrying for many months is the weight of my mother’s family house at the Jersey shore. like my grandmother herself when she was alive, it hangs around my neck like an albatross. it's time to release it, to allow it to pass out of my hands, out of my family, to allow whatever bitterness and emptiness remains to pass. all things end. perhaps the woodpecker comes to lend me strength and perserverance, as well as some of that dogged determination.

North American Prairie tribes had a myth that the title of protector of humankind was once vied for by the turkey and the woodpecker. the woodpecker won the title because of her ability to make such marvelous nests wherein the spiritual seed of humankind would always be sheltered from predatory threat. this tickles me, especially in light of my almost-instinctive flight last night.

and last, but never, especially in my case, least, woodpecker reminds me to be mindful of my words. its narrow tongue, so effective for picking up food in narrow places, is symbolic for finding the most delicate means to achieve the most profound impact.

she's gone now, having pecked her way through the woodpile, leaving only a spray of woodchips behind.