{"id":13274,"date":"2023-03-29T15:36:35","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T14:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/?p=13274"},"modified":"2024-01-02T16:45:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T16:45:45","slug":"birds-breath-balance-and-blessings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/resources\/birds-breath-balance-and-blessings","title":{"rendered":"Birds, Breath, Balance and Blessings"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\",<\/div>\r\n
by Penny Billington ~ You can find Penny\u2019s Website and Blog\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Let us consider the warming earth beneath our feet at the vernal equinox \u2013 a time of rising energy and joy!<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Now, the Roman VENUS equates with Greek Aphrodite, the Goddess of love. But before that association, she was a rural Goddess, of the tilled fields and the garden. I have heard her referred to as the Goddess of the market garden and the cabbages!\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

So let\u2019s view our shoot-springing gardens with love and, as birds are our joy-bringers, with their chorus in our ears and our hearts. If we lost our oomph a little during tired February, let\u2019s rediscover it through our fascination with the wonders of nature.<\/p>\r\n

The joy of\u00a0 the swallow, whose return we await, was brought to life in a recent Touchstone article. The sight of the first swallow for the writer is a transcendent, ecstatic moment; and I second that. Knowing its superhuman(!) abilities \u2013 a 25gm bird which travels 200 miles per day and can fly at 69 mp, for goodness sake! \u2013\u00a0 it seems miraculous that soon, when I pause in the park silently asking to see wonders, dozens of swallows will circle round my knees\u00a0veering, rising and swooping<\/a>\u2026 It is our private magical vortex, amazingly always invisible to the playground and dog-route users.
\",That joy to come reminds me to look\u00a0now:\u00a0<\/em>yesterday, I felt almost voyeuristic seeing a blue tit fully engrossed in the most thorough bath I\u2019ve ever witnessed; like the swallows\u2019 flight, it was pure embodied joy. This is the nearest image I\u2019ve found to the thrunging, de-grunging, splashing totality of what I saw.
At this time of balance, the avian world is in flux. Too late now to cut hedges in case we disturb them; better to watch their courtship rituals and birds flying with huge grasses and twigs as they start nest-building.<\/p>\r\n

Join an evocation of early-morning spring in the next clip; be overwhelmed and imbued with the sounds and sights of the massing birds with\u00a0 this gentle, 3 minute expression of\u00a0 beauty;\u00a0golden plover massing in the UK,<\/a>\u00a0on the border of England and Wales.<\/p>\r\n

At this stage I usually remind everone that this mailing loves to sing and dance, so here\u2019s a gentle\u00a0\u2018Lullaby of Spring\u2019\u00a0<\/a>from Donovan to sway to.<\/p>\r\n

Birds will be laying soon, Easter with the eggs of Oestre approaches, and the world burgeons. And so can all the plans that we\u2019ve been germinating over the cold, dark times. But a word to the wise \u2013 spring ecstacy can see us scattering our energies in all directions and achieving nothing! The previous clips are both gentle for a reason. Let\u2019s balance that creative urge with our will: focus on\u00a0one thing,\u00a0<\/em>break it down into small achievable stages, and carry it through to completion.\u00a0 And then on to the next. The days are getting longer; there is time for everything.
\",The Mythic Strain<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Lastly, the Mabinogi reminds us that we can call on birds for our support.
Throughout the four branches, the birds of Rhiannon can lull us into enchanted sleep, bringing deep peace to the afflicted. In the second branch Branwen daughter of Lir, was humiliated by her husband, the King of Ireland. But she trained a starling with kindness to take a message to her brother, the giant Bran, who set out to rescue her. Bran\u2019s totem is the Raven, and Branwen means \u2018White Raven.\u2019<\/p>\r\n

In the fourth branch of the Mabinogi the ancient king Math, son of Mathonwy, the holder of the harmonies, received messages from his kingdom from the winds \u2013 and presumably their messengers, the birds; just as the ravens Huginn and Muninn reported to Odin. The translation of their names is \u2018thought\u2019 and \u2018memory\u2019 which today we can send flying through our imaginations to gather all that we need to make our fresh paths clear.<\/p>\r\n

Our corvids are most intelligent birds; they communicate with each other and are tool-makers, as we are; they are worthy of a mailshot all their own, but for the moment, I\u2019ll leave you to google them \u2013 they\u2019re fascinating! With all that guile and initiative, it\u2019s no wonder that the chough, that Cornish red-legged corvid, is the totem bird of King Arthur. And it\u2019s no wonder that birds of all descriptions can be our teachers as we look to them this month\u2026
\",<\/p>\r\n

Ways of attuning to the season ~ Time to take our Vitamin E(quinox):<\/strong><\/div>\r\n

~Find your balance within; breathe; look outwards to nature; feel the inner and outer harnonising<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n
  • ~What messages have the birds for us? With a question in your mind, which bird do you notice? Decide which direction is your past and which your future and see which way they fly. Does their flight or what they do cast light on your question? It\u2019s purely subjective, but every slowing and deepening thought connects us to our intuition<\/li>\r\n
  • ~Playfully, lightly, look up and notice all birds. Which flock, which squawk, which answer your whistle? ~Hoot at night and see if an owl answers<\/li>\r\n
  • ~Send your memory out like a raven; let it fly and weave patterns with thought \u2013 where will they take you? Trust others to pick up all that you do not pursue<\/li>\r\n
  • ~Breathe deep! Either instinctively or according to your usual practice<\/li>\r\n
  • ~Take the overview \u2013 see wide and clear like the birds, in visualisation or imagination<\/li>\r\n
  • ~Like a hawk, focus your will on a new project, until it\u2019s firm in your grasp<\/li>\r\n
  • ~Sleep with open windows to be blessed with the dawn chorus<\/li>\r\n
  • ~In your feelings be a bird; light, flexible, beautiful, singing, coasting the thermals of your life to conserve your energy. Be busy and eager.\r\n

    And most importantly, every time you take wing to become enlivened by possibilities that can only be viewed from a wider perspective, emulate the Lapwing and the Golden Plover you saw on the clip earlier \u2013\u00a0come back to earth<\/em>; to your nest on the good earth, to nurture and grow your potential\u00a0here and now<\/em>, in every precious minute.
    \",<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Penny Billington ~ You can find Penny\u2019s Website and Blog\u00a0here.   Let us consider the warming earth beneath our feet at the vernal equinox \u2013 a time of rising energy and joy! Now, the Roman VENUS equates with Greek Aphrodite, the Goddess of love. But before that association, she was a rural Goddess, of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":13277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/druidry.org","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13274"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16070,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13274\/revisions\/16070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}