Totems / Gifts
Owl is my mother, Serpent my father,
Owl is my mother, Serpent my father,
both are my spirit protectors,
Owl at my left side, Snake at my right.
I was led to this knowledge years ago,
and liked it. 'Yes!' I said.
I said yes. I think that's important.
In some cultures owl
is a harbinger of death. To some
she means wisdom, to some deception.
I'm a Scorpio woman. I speak truth, see far,
cannot easily be deceived, and move
between life and death in a number of ways.
Serpent is wisdom too – a deep, hidden kind –
and healing, and transmutation. Its venom
has many uses. The shed skins proclaim rebirth.
I am a Scorpio woman; my still waters
run deep. I work as a healer and psychic medium.
I've lived many lives in one. I am a witch.
One night, soon after I was told, we drove home late
down a long road through trees. An owl, ghostly white,
flew in front of us slowly all the way, like a guide.
We arrived home, she glided off. A diamond-backed snake
lay sinuously along our verandah, dim in the dark
but visible, departing only after we'd seen.
Wise and winged, wise and serpentine,
transformers, agents of healing or death (the greatest healer?)
I know their presence and show this by many tokens.
(The silver earrings I wear, the figures on my altars....)
The wings of owl, the body of serpent later combined
in a new, overseeing totem: dragon.
More and more the outwardly-powerful people
push back and back on the habitats
of owls and serpents, whales and honeybees, and all.
We who love inner power, finding it hard to wield
(or working too mysteriously) against the onslaughts,
resort now to mythic protectors and to the fire they breathe.
May it be a cleansing flame of burning words,
an energy of passion and reason, fire and light
to wake the Angels and stem the flood!
What we are given, we must use.
I see us banding together around the globe,
a circle of held hands, a circle of firm stands.
(As the Four Horsemen begin their ride.)
Written for Brendan's Weekend Challenge: Totems at 'imaginary garden with real toads'.