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How I got my name...
Some years ago, when
I was foundering, not understanding where my path was leading, I had to
face the decision of whether or not I needed to put my dog, and faithful
friend of 15 years, to sleep. It was
 just
a day or two before my birthday, and he was not doing well. He could no
longer stand by himself, and as he weighed almost 55Kg (120lb) I was
obliged to lift him and carry him outside whenever he needed help. Along
with all of my family, I was heartbroken. Clearly he could not go on. I
sought help from my guides during a shamanic journey, and was told that
it wasn't yet his time to leave the earth-plane: he still had one
important thing to accomplish before he passed over. I needed more
confirmation, and decided to pull two cards from a special Tarot deck
that I use from time to time, a deck based on Native American
 wisdom.
I found myself contemplating the Medicine Wheel, confirming my
destiny as a healer, and the Spirit Dance, which told me that I
was finding the path 'to change my life' but I needed a tiny bit more
patience before I could embark on this path. Feeling the suffering of
our dog, I nevertheless heeded the advice I'd been given. I spent most
of my birthday sitting at the dog's side, connecting with my guides,
asking for their help to encourage the animal's spirit to begin its last
journey. It still wasn't his time. I kept asking the dog's spirit to
give me a sign that I could end the
physical suffering.
The next morning, I
saw our dog, on his side, still alive. He raised his head to look at me
as I asked him if he wanted to go outside. His eyes said 'yes'. I
stooped down and gently put my arms under his body and started to
carefully lift him. Something inside him must have hurt more than he
could take, and he bit me on my face, across my lips, which immediately
spurted blood. I cried out, but ignored the pain and tried to lower his
body back to the floor as gently as possible. One of his legs was
trapped painfully under his body and I decided, knowing the risks, to
lift him ever so slightly so that I could ease out his leg. He bit me a
second time, this time ripping my face open. It was the second time in
his life he had bitten anyone... I had my sign. an hour or so later, his
body was dead.
He had needed
to initiate me as a shaman, in the manner of many indigenous shamanic
cultures. I had needed to be mauled by an animal, but my dog had
not been ready to hurt me, his master and friend. He first had to suffer
the most excruciating pain before he could be ready to hurt me.
Bizarrely, before he died, as I lay on the floor with him, dripping
blood, forgiving him for biting me, I felt his spirit leave his body,
and prayed that it was his end - but his body lived on. A friend called
to say that an acquaintance of hers had felt his spirit soar over her
head at the same time... Afterwards, I reflected on this and realized
that indeed, the spirit does leave first, and it is only when the
 spirit
has detached itself properly from the physical, that the body can die.
Later that day, I
asked my my dog's spirit to give me a further sign that he was well, and
that I was on the right path. The cards pulled with the aid of his
spirit confirmed that he was well, and that I was destined for the
shamanic path.
As I recounted this
story to a friend the following evening, she pointed to something
drifting in the still evening air outside of our house, and we watched a
w hite
feather fall gently into my hand. I had just finished reading a book
that had talked of the Native American Indian concept of a 'Gift from
the sky' - a feather. Further confirmation.
In shamanic journeys
over the subsequent few days, I received many disturbing prophetic
visions of the end of this world. I was guided by an Indian elder
dressed entirely in feathers; white feathers. One day I was surfing the
web to find corroboration of some of the visions I had witnessed,
especially about the fact that I had seen the Light being overwhelmed by
the Dark, and that workers of the Light would be invited to leave this
physical earth-plane and join a new dimension to continue our growth
accompanied by a white creature that w as
named, it seemed, 'Piranha' - which I found very bizarre as I had been
given the vision of white dolphins... I also had been shown that there
needed to be a coming together of all the 'tribes' of the world, coming
from the north and the south, and meeting with a world-wide ceremony
based around an uninterrupted global drumming circle. For this reason, I
have decided to attempt to create a worldwide 'drumming for the earth'
circle. You will find many Native American prophecies that speak of the
coming together of the Condor (South Americans) and the Eagle (North
Americans), but at the time, I was unaware of these prophecies...
Amongst other things
on that web
search, I found a
prophecy
from a Hopi elder. In doing so, I had found my spiritual name, for
he, too, was named...
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