Owl Medicine

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

The call came to her unbidden in the dead of night. Pulled from a restless sleep filled with fitful terrors, dark shadows haunting a capricious mind.

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

Athena slipped from the tangled blankets, bare feet padding across the cool slate floor. Moving by feel, she found the matchbox and lit a match with a sulphuric hiss, then held it to the lantern wick. The flame flickered, sputtered, then caught alight, casting off the shadows of the night. Athena turned to gaze out the black-lit window and came face-to-face with her reflection.

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

Reaching out she touched upon the hollowed eyes and sunken cheeks, her fingertips tracing her reflection, trailing intrinsic patterns in the condensation. She leant forehead to forehead with her mirror’s image, the cool shock of the glass a Godsend to her overworked mind. She saw broken. She saw pain. She saw no way out. No escape. Only a life sentence, trapped within the confines of her mind. A mundane, misanthropic existence.

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

A flash of movement beyond the firelight caught her eye. A winged-cat, dark blur in the night. On a whim she cast the window wide, the lantern flickering in the cool Autumn breeze. Leaning out into the night, she enjoyed the dewy night air against her overheated skin and the earthy scents of changing seasons. Looking deep into the night she could see the sprawl of city lights in the distance. The spectre of human society, the mental hub of apparent civilisation. A world that she didn’t belong.

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

A rustle of wings caught her attention, and she pulled back from the abyss of dark and dreary thoughts with a sharp shake of her head. “Anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die”, she reaffirmed to herself. “Anyway, I have left that world behind.” Upon a sudden inner calling for something greater than paying the bills and meeting society’s expectations of living a normal, safe & secure existence, Athena had sold her condo and quit her job. Despite friends and family’s voiced cautions and concerns she had sold her furniture, donated her once-prized possessions to a reputable goodwill charity, and retreated into wooded seclusion and silent communion with Mother Nature. To reignite her passion as a writer, or so she told herself. Weeks of solitude and all she had to show from it was a fireplace kept alight with the torn-out pages of her journal. She glanced down at the writing desk at the scrawled scribble of yesterday’s attempts and fought the impulse to light the fire with it then and there.

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

Another sharp shake of her head as she reorientated herself with her original purpose in the moment and not old misbegotten dreams. Peering into the darkened woods, a splice of moonlight cutting through the trees reflected upon two golden orbs. The owl blinked, sweeping its hooded gaze upon her like a spotlight upon her soul.

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

The question pierced through the barrier of human knowing and resonated deep within her Being. Athena glanced upon her reflection once more and let out a shriek of surprise that tumbled her from the windowsill. A flurry of feathers caught her descent and she winged back to the open window to regard herself once more. Otherworldly golden eyes stared back at her from a heart-shaped face. Am I dreaming? she mused as she clicked her beak and ruffled her feathers, attuning to new senses and sensations. A lover of folklore, the stories of shapeshifters had always appealed to her the most. Dream or imagined, Athena recognised a message from the God’s when she received it.

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

The Barn Owl called to her outside her cabin, beckoning her forth on a journey. A journey of undoing, being, and becoming. Pulled forth by the call of the full moon she cast her doubts aside and swept her wings wide. The Owl guided her through the forest, teaching her to see and hear that which was hidden. The sound of a mouse scratching at a small morsel, the melodic call-and-response of grasshoppers and frogs, the pirouetting fall of a leaf, dancing to the orchestra of nightlife. Athena shivered, delighting in the richness of life all around her.

What-Hoo

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You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

The Owls flew across the blanketed forest landscape, winding along silvery moon-struck rivers and over freshly ploughed fields and verdant lands. They glided like ghosts in the night through outlying suburban sprawl, swooping over a worn tabby cat out on an evening repast. The cat rebuked them spitting warning hisses; his fur raised on end. A worn woman pushed a stroller down the subdued street, hushing the unsettled infant within. The two Owls alighted onto a nearby oak tree and the Owl guide taught Athena how to see the two paths available to each Soul, the Blue Path of Spirit and the Red Path of Physical Life. Gazing upon the child in the pram Athena could see these two interconnecting paths open before her, guiding energies of seemingly opposing forces, the intrinsic dance of yin and yang.

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

They took flight once more, leaving behind the twinkling lights and hum of human life, flying away across open fields, landscapes, and planes. Soaring above the mountains, in between the clouds and stars, between the realms of the visible and invisible that Owl was wise to attune. Flying away from the petty diatribes of the entitled ego, the disparity of the mind and the heart. Owl knew the importance of bridging the finite with the infinite, the magic in the mundane. A Master of the Metaphysical, Owl knew that the health of the visible, physical realm depended on the health of the invisible and spiritual one. Only with a willingness to see beyond the limitations of the known and conceptualised world and out into the expansive, infinite mystery of the unknowable universe could the truth be known. Those most connected to the wonders and wisdom of the universe were those with the most open and curious minds.

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

Athena awoke at her desk, a piece of paper stuck to her cheek by a sliver of drool. She blinked the sleep from her eyes and sat up, stretching the stiffness from her shoulders. The whisperings of a dream tickled at the back of her mind’s eye, but she couldn’t quite recall the details. Snarling a yawn, she donned a parka, beanie, and gumboots to brave the early-Autumn chill and went out to collect some kindling to start her fire. The morning air was heavy with mist, rays of sun piercing the gloom. An Owl hooted in the distance.

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

Pouring from the fresh pot of coffee upon the stove Athena took her seat behind her writing desk, as she had done each morning before. This time she picked up her pen, pressed it to the page and allowed the creative force to move through her.

What-Hoo

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You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

The Sun is alive in the Dark of the Night

From the Finite to the Infinite

In the blink of an Eye

An Aura of Mystery

Winged Cat

Wisdom Keeper

In Silent Flight

Over Fertile Lands

Pregnant with Possibility

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

Watched over by Love

Winged Ghost of The Night

Where humans hide their Secrets

Seeing in all Directions

Light penetrating the Darkness

That Burdens the Spirit

Tapping into the Joy

So that the Soul may Dance once more

Dance away your Demons! I implore

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

Returning to the Heart of a Child

Curious and Playful

Wise Seer, Wisdom Teacher

Open the Mind’s Eye

With Imaginative Wonder

A Vision of the Heart

Owl Medicine soothes the Spirit

Bridging the Day and the Night

Teaching us to hold Clear Vision

Of that which we Wish in Sight

What-Hoo

Do-Hoo

You-Hoo

See-Hoo?

Laying down her pen, Athena paused, moving to the windowsill to take a thoughtful sip of her coffee. A cool breeze curled around the slightly ajar window, scattering the silky swirling particles of steam that danced upon her coffee cup. A delicate movement caught her eye and she reached out to pluck a stray brown feather caught in the window frame. Holding the stem in between her fingertips she twirled the feather so that it caught the morning sunlight in sepia-toned hues and smiled. Crossing to her desk, Athena leant over her poem and scrawled the title, Owl Medicine.