With a shift in my schedule I decided to relocate for a week or so to the desert. The intent centered around letting go of the alluring draw of my surroundings as an excuse to put aside the writing of my storybook on the Mayan Tzolkin spiritual life cycle.
During my time in these dry desert days I was expecting my writings to focus on the vultures that are returning to the area. I’ll save that for another posting. Instead I would like to share the story of an evening that was both enlightening and enriching.
It was Saturday, and my friend had picked up tickets for a fund raising concert in Sisters, Oregon. The concert was great, featuring Hal Ketchum, and several students from Sisters High School performed as well. Everyone was amazing. During this concert I watched the flow of energy on the stage as well as the connectivity in the audience. I too felt a surge of emotions, creativity, and inspiration.
Many life experiences re-entered my consciousness that evening, and I took the opportunity to lift myself into my next step, something I had been speaking of in prior days but yet to achieve. I knew the next few days would be rich with ideas, release, and insights.
As all things must the concert ended, and we transitioned out to the car. The drive would be at least an hour. On the drive we conversed, and I shared with my friend some of my insights. Many of those insightful thoughts centered around the direction I would take in my work, and how strong a footprint I could leave in the sand.
In the final stretch of our drive we wound through a curving section of the back roads. Suddenly we spotted a form in the headlights. A cougar was crossing, leaping up the hillside and quickly disappearing. It’s presence was astounding, and its movement was graceful and certain, with each step within its own timing, with no concern given to the approaching vehicle.
As we continued the last few minutes of our drive, and I gave quiet thought to this encounter. Just on the wildlife perspective this was an amazing sighting. As an intuitive worker of the spirit realm I also turned to the shamanic meaning.
The cougar represents a state of solitude, and the art of following one’s own path. Many of us, when we focus on power, think of our career and business choices. But personal power, or the act of standing in one’s own footprints, is something that is carried into each waking moment. It is the depth of awareness, the silent observation, and the precise moment that follows that give the cougar such power.
“Walk your path”, shared the cougar spirit. “You cannot strike and recoil in the same movement, to do so would only bring havoc within yourself, and neither completion or separation will be achieved, and you will be lost in the mixed-up middle world of indecisiveness.”
Later that night, as I transitioned from the waking world into the dream state, I felt the presence of the cougar, and as I type this story I see the eyes upon my back.
Totem spirits or animal totems have offered us so much in our millenniums of learning. Many of us have forgotten how to learn on such a simple yet powerful way, turning away from the living representation of our world to a manufactured substitute. Find your totems, be it cougar, antelope or hummingbird. The qualities they possess are only a fraction of your own capabilities, but they serve you as you turn within and focus on your own power. You are the master of the art of living, not the your car, or your computer, or the money in your pocket.
Learn more about your totem spirit guidance and the insights that await you. Intuitive Sessions are available by phone, by appointment, with Author and Teacher Estee Taschereau (Hummingbird Shaman). Use our contact form to schedule your session.
He fanned out his tail feathers, hovering in a most menacing way. At times his actions were carried out by charging the others at the feeder. Sometimes the hummingbird war dance was symbolic, with the feather demonstration followed by flight, not fight.