How lovely for the timing of this topic this week, as I received a phone call from someone today (after this post was already up for a few days ... today is Monday the 18th) and had the opportunity to play coyote! Or as a loving family member taught me: `` I played in the garden with someone today``. We have much to learn from one another, but it is not always clear who is doing the learning. We can play with trickster energies, remain open and play in the garden ...
And if we play in the garden and find that our lovely friend is really a snake ... remember... in the end, the only one who is deceived is the deceiver themselves ... Look to the end of this blog topic to find an added piece on the snake.
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Many cultures around the world have nature-based spiritual philosophies and ways of teaching and coming to Know about the inner and outer world(s).
I have always enjoyed teachings from many sources and see real value in being open to various ways of perceiving things ... various paths of study in spiritual disciplines. I am especially fond of nature teachings. After all, the 5 element and 5 animal style of Kung fu I teach comes from the ancient direct observation (or called stalking in shamanism) of these things ... direct experience and observations of these things over long periods of time ... centuries if one considers accumulated experiences.
Today I want to bring up my fondness for Crow and Coyote. We do not study these animals in Kung fu, Chi Kung or Yoga, but I have encountered these animals in nature, have stalked them, and have also had teachings and personal experiences with various animals we find here in North America.
Crow
Crow has had many associations over time. Today I will talk about one aspect of Crow: its ability to See and to Call out what it Sees.
Crow energy, as I was taught by one of my teachers, involves the ability to Call it as you see it. One of the gifts of this type of individual is that he or she sees into things that others gloss over and then feels the urge to do something ... bring something into the light ... he or she feels to sit up high on a perch and CAW CAW ... look, here, I have something to say about this and you may not want to hear it, but I will say it none the less. In many cases he or she is not the popular one in the crowd. Our histories are full of real life stories where people have been persecuted for having this gift.
For the most part, those who are popular in most crowds tend to follow the crowd. Over the course of our history we see many examples of this in politics ... politicians and other leaders have often given us lip service in order to win votes ... this is a popularity contest. It takes leadership and authority to step out of the norm and Caw it like you see it. It takes a good sense of self to speak up if a view is different than what is considered the popular or accepted one. Some politicians and leaders have been this sort of example, and we are in dire need of more.
It takes a higher level of consciousness and awareness to see things the way they really are as well. To call it as you see it takes courage as well as discernment. Crow in the light brings things up that others would prefer to brush under the carpet ... turn a blind eye to ... go unconscious about ... Crow in the light is all around us. Cultivate these qualities within yourself.
Crow in the dark is mistaken about what he or she is seeing due to a lack of higher wisdom, consciousness and awareness. Crow in the dark does not Know Oneself. Individuals stuck here will bring things up that may be a projection of his or her own darkness within. Negativities within this us may then become projected out into the world around us as we sit up on our perch and CawCaw ... calling everyone on their stuff while forgetting to look within and do our own work too. Crow in the dark speaks up and speaks out views that are incorrect ... like preaching that the Earth was flat! There are more popular views today that are also incorrect ... can you see them for what they are .... crow in the dark is all around us ... develop the ability to see it for what it is.
Coyote
Coyote is another marvelous teacher. Coyotes are known for their tricks. Here, in the country, even as I write this blog, coyotes are known to work together when hungry in order to trap and attack a tame dog so they can eat. I will give you an example of how they have been reported doing this: One of the coyotes plays coy... calling out and even darting in and out of a bushy or wooded area as though to call the pet dog out to play. When the dog goes out to check it out, the other coyotes attack it and then eat.
Coyote in the light works by tricking us. We may see our loved one, friend, or a teacher behave one way and then another. Things may appear to be full of contradictions and soon we find we are confused. This is not always a negative! After all, what in this universe or in nature all around us is always exactly the same - energies are always moving no matter how static things may appear to be. Trickster energy is at work when an individual tricks us by catching us being rigid or judgmental or assuming that we know exactly what this person or thing is all about.
In a teacher, trickster energy may be used consciously or come out in a students projections of how things should be. As a student ... and even as a teacher, one can always learn from the mirrors presented with coyote energy.
Coyote energy can be light, tricking us into learning things in new ways ... learning through trickery. If someone has coyote energy, they may appear one way in this moment and another way the next ... coyote adapts and cares little for flair or appearances. Coyote is not always direct, but can fool you and become so when you least expect it. Coyote energy is great for acting and for play!
Coyote in the dark uses trickery for power, greed, personal gain at the expense of others involved. Coyote in the dark will trick you and draw you in to his or her world where there is a potential for you to become a pawn in the world of someone else's dream. Learn to develop discernment and wisdom for coyote in the dark ... as with anything, this requires higher consciousness, awareness and wisdom.
Things, people, places, life, our world, philosophies, religions ... may not be as they appear to be ... in the light or in the dark!
Snake
Snake in the light is often used as symbol for the kundalini energy (taught in some Eastern spiritual disciplines ... as in some forms of Yoga) ... rising up the spine and clearing out blockages as it moves upwards within our main central channel (as we were taught in Kung fu and Chi Kung ... but also known in its physical representation as the spine). In Kung fu, as we were taught, the word kundalini was never brought up, but working with moving the energies to clear out blockages and to heal and develop spiritually was. We can feel these moving energies within us and kundalini rises whether you use the words or not, as a direct result of certain Work you do over time and according to how you Work ... It is best to avoid attempts at forcing this energy to move prior to being prepared ... one can Work to do so over time and with awareness; however, one can also Work to force these things and this is not advised here. We could speak of this in more detail, but this is not the space in which to do so.
Symbology of the snake can be found in most cultures and various spiritual paths. In some religions, it is seen as a symbol of evil, temptation - even the devil.
Snake is found in the Garden of Eden story taught to Roman Catholics ... it is in this story that a snake tempts Eve (who represents the first woman) to take a bite out of an apple off the tree of knowledge ... a tree both herself and Adam (the first man) were forbidden to touch. This story is very interesting and holds much inner meaning - which is misinterpreted to degrees depending on who is reading and interpreting this story ... and then this is based on an individual's level of being or some understanding they may have picked up intellectually.
The Virgin Mary in the Catholic faith can be found depicted in a statue or picture holding her arms out and standing on planet Earth while stepping on and killing a snake. My grandmother had such a statue, and when I asked her about it when I was about 6 years old, she told me the story she was taught. Anyway, the snake, here represents evil ... what kind of evil? Where did this originally come from? Has the snake ever been looked at in the light? Has it ever represented something spiritual and positive? If you spend the time and effort to ask and then search out these answers, you will find some interesting things out (if you haven't already ... this is common knowledge in these days).
Some sources even go as far as comparing a snake to a woman, as their beliefs teach them that woman is evil and a temptress in nature ... leading men to their fall spiritually.
In older spiritual cultures and traditions, the snake held a much more positive light. Depending on which culture you look at, it represented and still represents many more things than what I wrote about above: transformation and healing; transmutation of poisons in the body in order to heal; alchemy; wisdom expressed through healing; sexuality; a symbol for the sexual/creative life force energy within us as taught in Eastern spiritual traditions (Kundalini Energy Rising ... enlightening ... healing ... releasing ... transforming). It has also represented death and rebirth as it sheds its skin and renews itself.
Snake in the light brings about healing and transformation ... death of old things and old ways and rebirth into the new in one's life. A person operating in snake in the light offers forth healing energies and provides an atmosphere in which others can heal and transform ... transmutate ... and more.
Snake in the dark may represent someone manipulative and secretive in nature ... beguiling and lying ... twisting and turning things into something they are not ... bringing about death and decay without its associated rebirthing and regenerating ... Snake in the dark resides in dark places, stalking its prey and striking swiftly with intent to harm, playing tricky mind games with ulterior motives ... then moving in for a direct hit. Snakes can also hide in plain sight ... or hide in the light ... where they pretend to be something they are not. Snake in the dark is another kind of trickster -- not one to use when teaching ... not one to use when growing or evolving ...
Snake has received negative attention for so long that many people still do know of its positive light and inner meaning behind the dark stories told in religions. This is an example of how a symbol is altered over time and comes to mean what is only passed on in belief ... only by those who do not question and whom merely swallow what they are taught. In order to go beyond the intellectual knowledge, then, one has to Work and then snake will ``show you the light`` inside and around yourself.
Later, after some other projects are completed, I will write pages about the animals and elements as they pertain to the style of Kung fu I teach. Snake has other references I have not discussed here.
