An actual pigeon isn’t going to speak English in your head.

Winter Solstice, 2011.

~*~

Listen, she says. Learn to listen to body-language. Don’t assume that, if only you were a better witch, all the Other People around you would start speaking to you in English.
A Jade Plant doesn’t speak English, but it’ll tell you it’s happy, or not, needs water, or better lighting, or not, if you start paying attention to what it’s saying with its body.

~*~

Animals are easier, and mammals the easiest of them, because they’re working with the same body-systems that you are. But rocks and squash vines[1] and rivers will do it, too, if you know how to pay attention.

A pigeon won’t land on your balcony and literally say-in-your-head “Listen up. I’m your ally on this trip. I can teach you resilience, persistence, and how to thrive against great odds, but you’ve got to start listening to me.”

She might say that if you went into trance and asked your allies to swing by and formally introduce themselves and Pigeon was who turned up. Maybe. I don’t know how it works for you. But an actual pigeon (a pigeon, not The Pigeon) isn’t going to speak English in your head. I don’t think.

However. A pigeon (or a lot of pigeons) might land on your balcony, billing and cooing and checking out the space behind your snow-shovel, until you notice that, Hey, that chicky-babe there has only one foot, and she’s doing just fine. Or: Isn’t it amazing how – in spite of humans putting down poison, and raw rice, and road salt, and belching exhaust into the atmosphere, and throwing rocks at them, and cultivating them as prey birds in the first place – pigeons are so capable of thriving in urban environments? Or: Y’know, even though everyone says they’re ugly, parasitic rats-with-wings, pigeons are actually really, really beautiful. Look at how they dance together. Look at how they fly. And maybe you eventually take a lesson from that.

This is the thing I forget when I’m reading Starhawk’s books or the blog-posts over at Root and Rock or what-have-you. That asking Nature “How do I change the system from within?” and getting a reply of “Systems don’t want to change themselves” isn’t literally a Q&A. It’s more “observe –> realize”. (It’s a bit like divination in that regard?)

And yet, I wonder. My Ghost (who is the [she] mentioned, above) gets memories off of everyone. Including, like, fish. She has to work on consciously shielding herself on the regular. Me? I’m wondering what I can do to open myself up a little wider – in a controlled way, at times of my choosing, granted – to be able to hear/see/know/catch things a little more easily.

Suggestions?

Cheers, and Happy Solstice,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.

[1] Hail! :-D[2]

[2] Oh, how I love the squash. She’s one of my favourites. Spiky little thing when she’s freaking out, though. O.O