Thoughts on the Year of the Tiger (+ another hawk story)

Don’t you love a fresh start? I especially love “new beginning” points across time….Winter Solstice, modern calendar New Year, Chinese New Year. They feel like flavorful openings with messages for our growth, if we listen correctly. Giving us the opportunity to sharpen our intentions.

The Year of the Tiger is Tuesday (Feb 1, 2022). In terms of the Chinese zodiac, the Tiger is the strongest “real” animal in the pack. (We’re not including the Dragon right now).

Tigers are strong, graceful, magnificent….independent, fierce and silent. Qualities that can inspire all of us to be our BIGGEST selves.

I also had an amazingly related message from the animal world today.

It was really cold this morning on my walk! I saw a hawk (possibly a red-tailed one) sitting on my neighbor’s house.

There was a crow facing her on a telephone pole across the road. Squawking and scolding and carrying on, disturbed at her presence. Other crows in the air joined in.

The hawk sat still, regal and unbothered by the crows.

This scene reminded me of my 8 of Arrows (Swords) card in the Brady Tarot Deck. The image is bunch of blue jays scolding and yelling at a red-tailed hawk. In the card, the hawk cowers and tries to make himself small.

Crows and blue-jays are in the same family. I was literally watching a living tableau of the 8 of Swords card unfold in front of me.

The tragic humor in the card is the red-tailed hawk is a HUGE, powerful bird, capable of soaring much higher than a blue-jay. Yet in the card, the hawk cowers. Lowers his energy to meet the level of the smaller-minded birds.

How many times do we do this to ourselves?

How many times do we keep our energy and power small, letting those who are either jealous or don’t understand our wingspan tear us down? How many times are we both the hawk and the blue-jays for ourselves? Stopping ourselves from being BIG?

The difference between the card and my “tarot tableau” is that the hawk DID NOT cower this time. She let the crows voice their opinions, but was unmoved.

Eventually the crows subsided. The hawk sat there for a bit longer and then she flew to a neighbor’s tree and enjoyed the warmth of the sun.

Moving on her own time. Being true to herself.

One last symbology for you. The house number of the hawk’s 1st perch added up to 7…the number of mysticism and spirituality. On the spiritual path, we must choose to stay big and embrace our power with love. The hawk flew off to a different neighbor’s tree, with house number added up to 22…the Master Number of Building.

If we are to build the most sound, spiritually-intact, loving future that taps our full potential….we must stay BIG. We need to keep our energy high, and let no one drag it down.

We are our own worst enemies. Remember, no one can take your energy unless you give them permission. If someone takes our energy, that’s a sign that we came down to a lower energy right before they did.

May the strength, grace, and power of the Tiger and Hawk inspire you to embrace all the BIG things you deserve this year.

love and light to you,

-Adriana

Preparing for our blessed Year of Balance

I was going to write about gratitude (ie Thanksgiving vibes), but it feels more relevant for us to focus on the massive opportunity in front of us.

Before the holiday craziness takes over, you might want to take a quick second to reflect on all of the changes and growth we have experienced this year (2021 was a universal “5” year in numerology: change, freedom, transitions.)

If anything feels unintegrated or unresolved inside you, it’s of paramount importance that you give attention to it.

As we move to 2022, a universal “6” year in numerology, we will be called to embrace the energy of balance, stability, and harmony. What is already in place will only deepen.

This is important.

In 2022, the good stuff will get even better….but unresolved baggage will also grow stronger. Positive self-beliefs and structures will flourish, but negative entanglements will become more negative. If the slate is not cleaned, dysfunction and negativity will intensify…becoming hugely uncomfortable and painful.

It may seem counter-intuitive that a “6” year of balance would produce chaos….but my guides say that 2022 is about our collective FREE-WILL DECISION to choose balance. If we are out of balance, they will push us even further to the other side of the scales so that we have a chance to come back to the middle.

As a collective, we are moving from the fear and domination-based power structures of the Age of Aries + Pisces….to the love and equality of the Age of Aquarius. How every single one of us chooses to embrace balance has never been more important.

It’s time to be very sensitive to yourself. If you take steps to resolve any fear regarding in your abundance, financial wealth, relationship health, or fear of moving into your truth…..before we hit 2022….you’ll reap amazing rewards.

In fact, they will seem to fall into your lap with no apparent effort from you.

Heed to the wisdom of your internal compass and be open to an honest assessment of where you truly are.

The time to sow the seeds for abundance in 2022 is now.

Dig deep and dream big, my friend.

And then take a deep breath and dream just a little bigger….

Turkeys in the Sky

I don’t often look forward to Mercury Retrograde.

While searching for “Survival Guides” about the current one, I found an overwhelming number of astrologers saying Mercury Retro in Libra was “positive” and a “great time to revise and reflect.”

I was willing to revise my opinion until I read, “I actually look forward to people from my past coming back…those people who seem to have fallen out of my life for some reason or another…”

Well frankly, I do not look forward to people from my past coming back. In my experience, the past is best left in the past. My spiritual mentors have often said, “Relationships are for a season, a reason, or a lifetime.” I have observed that for those on the Path, certain relationships and people are meant to fall out of our lives. Not because of anything we’ve done, or they’ve done….but because the relationship has served its purpose. Or often, because we have shifted, transformed….and the relationship can no longer house our new selves.

We may walk away from the relationship consciously, but still hold onto it in our subconscious.

Luckily, the universe conspires to help us.

I was talking with my guides one morning on a walk….and doing some work on manifesting. I rounded the corner, look up, and had to catch my breath.

Turned out to be a Turkey Vulture.

I was captivated by this magnificent bird, purifying itself in the ultraviolet rays of the sun. A commanding presence. Still. Proud. Peaceful..

I watched it gracefully deter magpies trying to steal its perch. A rustle of wings made me turn my head to look across the street…….…where 9 more Turkey Vultures sat, unmoving, in another tree.

This isn’t the full 9 vultures, but the magpie in the middle was too funny.

Turkey Vultures are rare on my walks. I knew the universe was trying to say something big, but it didn’t fully click until the next day….

….when, in full-on Mercury Retrograde in Libra style, I was unexpectedly contacted by a person from the past. A relationship I had walked away from, over five years ago. And felt tempted by guilt to reopen.

Again, a classic example about how we can walk away consciously….but still be holding on inside.

Turkey Vultures…. beautiful and misunderstood Masters of Letting Go, of transforming that which has died…into flight. They encourage us to discern relationships that are truly “over” or “dead” (they apparently have an amazing sense of smell…most birds can’t smell). And when we have correctly discerned, to unabashedly purify ourselves of what needs to be released.

Reflecting on the symbolizing of these birds gave me so much clarity. Guilt is a strong negative emotion…really tricky.

But let’s spend a second on the 10 Turkey Vultures: 10 is both an ending and a beginning: a doorway. We approach, enter, and exit through many doorways on our journey to self-love.

A doorway is the path and gateway to newest version of Self. Relationships are transformational doors. We enter and exit a different person…discovering new identities (and preferences!) in the name of Self-Love

In this time of Retrograde, the Turkey Vultures encourage us to Recommit to self-love, gently closing certain doors behind us. Doors that are not growing. Trusting that in closing them, our abundance lays in front of us.

Letting go…to fly higher.

9 Thoughts for September...the 9th month of sacred culmination

9 thoughts for September...

1. September is the 9th month, and the number 9, in addition to being the one Beatles song I struggle listening to, holds the energy of completion, or culmination.

2. September gives us the bittersweet last taste of Summer and the warm colorful glow of Autumn, the transition from the busy, outwardly expressing first half of the year to the slower, inward, more contemplative vibe of the colder months.

3. In the zodiac, September is that special shift from embracing and exploring the Joy of Self (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo) to embracing different commUnions with Others (Libra, Scorpio, Sag, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces).

4. A bittersweet ending, my Cooper’s hawkling companions have finally taken wing, though they did leave me 12 iridescent magpie feathers before they left the nest in my backyard.

5. And so, my fellow Seekers and Protectors of Light,

….much of what we have been working through, and sometimes struggling with, is reaching its final stages.

6. We are asked to focus, to open the sacred Space of inner release.

7. So we may hold space for who we truly are--which is often so deliciously different from who we “think” we are…

8. What we chose to leave behind in the remainder of September will have profound effects on our journey through 2022.

9. It's truly time to say goodbye to that which has ended, to never look back, and embrace a lighter, more luminous sense of being.

Wishing you peace and love on your journey. We’re shining right here together.

Enter the Hawklings (Stephen's story continues)

Since we last talked, it’s been a much more uplifting journey with the rest of Stephen Hawkling’s family (so far).

At least 2 other hawklings survived that horrendous cold and rainy storm, and my backyard has been busy as the hawklings grow stronger and more confident. They have even been sharing (read: dropping) their breakfast with me in the backyard. I keep telling them ‘thank you, but no thank you, I’m a vegetarian.’ (Recent shares have included small bird’s bottom torso complete with feet and a squirrel foot complete with leg bone…..yum).

It’s so wonderful hearing them chat and argue shrilly amongst themselves in the mornings and the evenings: here’s a short impromptu video I took of one such morning chat. (The sound is amazing!). You can even hear the 2nd bird, who was sitting in my front yard tree.

I also wanted to share some photos from the last few days with you…since the last story about Stephen was so bittersweet.

I feel so blessed to have these amazing creatures so close.

I was talking to my guides this afternoon and they gave me this message:

“Love, and the protection it provides us, is much closer than we realize. There is truly nothing to fear.”

The Story of Stephen the Hawkling

My story for you today is not all butterflies and rainbows…

Last Wednesday a fledgling Cooper’s Hawk fell into my yard. His parents built a nest in my tree about 2 months ago. I fell in love with him, and dubbed him “Stephen the Hawkling.” I instantly very connected to him, and came to understand that my guides were sending me a literal message: check out this video about his first flight.

The rest of the week was blessed by visits from the slightly awkward and endearing hawkling….hopping around the yard, looking in the house, sitting on my deck chairs...he even shadowed my cat through the glass door. One morning I found him playing in the sprinklers. 

I felt he was trying to teach me something- a lesson about learning to fly with new powerful wings. (My own gifts have been changing and getting stronger as of late). I felt so attached to him, as we learned to “fly” together. I smiled and laughed with Stephen for a very special six days.

Then……

We had a terribly cold storm one evening. Torrential rain, and a temperature drop of 30 degrees. That night I had a dream about the Titanic--knowing we were going to drown because no help was coming. I woke up freezing and sad on a deep level that I couldn’t explain.

Again I went outside into my backyard, to see a fledgling Cooper’s hawk on the ground, but this time cold and lifeless. I have no idea if it was Stephen, but I was devastated nonetheless. I cried for a long time. I figured being inexperienced, he did not take proper shelter from the rain…and then the cold snap got him.

Worst of all, there were no hawk calls or hawk activity in my tree that morning. Maybe the whole family had not survived the storm.

On a hike, I asked the universe to send me signs that Stephen’s family was ok. I asked for a dream, or at least a feather...just some kind of special sign from Stephen.

Next day, I called Animal Control to take away the body. After they left, I burned some palo santo at Stephen’s final resting place to help me say goodbye. The minute I lit the stick….I heard baby hawk calls coming from my tree again. 

I was overjoyed and overwhelmed with gratitude that my request had been answered. And the blessings didn’t stop there: one of the Cooper’s hawks left me a wing feather in the yard…and a few hours later, another juvenile Cooper’s hawk paid us a visit. 

Yet again, I am in awe of the universe. The universe brought Stephen and me into full circle: sending him to my yard to learn to fly, allowing him to transition under my tree, and then sending me a wing (ie FLIGHT!) feather back again in my yard.

Many messages here! The circle of life, the healing after the storm (The Star card after the trauma of The Tower), connections between realms. But for me, the biggest clarity came from my friend and mentor who helped me understand another message about Stephen’s passing: that it is time for my masculine to leave. I named the bird Stephen because it felt right…he might have been Stephanie for all I know…but for some reason I choose to identify with a masculine totem.

The masculine energy has helped me and protected me through so much, and it is very easy for me to identify with it. On a collective level, the (often unbalanced) masculine has defined us culturally. Now the Feminine is regaining her power, but we are still confused and fighting ourselves. We see the once-victimized feminine, having broken free of her chains, now trying to use those same chains on her captors. We can’t solve the problem the way we created it.

Reactivity of any kind keeps us ALL still in chains.

I thought feminine energy was something I could practice, but never fully embody. But my guides through countless dreams, messages, and now Stephen are telling me something different. I need to become Feminine in all aspects of my being.

As the world shifts back into balance, as we learn to navigate a new world based on equality, mutuality, and love rather than hierarchy, greed, power-mongering ….embodying our individual Healed Feminine will be the catalyst for our new world.  For our awakening.

We will not fly until we leave our need for control, our embrace of separation, our tolerance for pressure and fear.

We are more connected than we realize. And we can ALWAYS choose love.

In light,

~Adriana