Greetings Dear Ones,
This morning I was overjoyed to receive a negative Covid test after a week of healing. I finally am able to be in the Temple again, crafting magic and conversing with folks wandering down the streets of Marfa. I didn’t know how much I missed it.
To mark the occasion I wanted to give myself a gift, but given that the shop has been closed for the last week and this summer was brutal toward small businesses, money is a little tight. Instead of buying something off of my wishlist, I went outside to water the garden.
When I walked out into the yard a single, perfect chicken feather fell onto my path. My chickens have been molting for a couple of weeks, so it wasn’t a total surprise, but something about the perfection of this feather made me stop and pick it up. A little gift from the universe. Then as I went about watering the garden I found another, and then another, and another, until 6 feathers had been collected. 6 - the number of the Heart, the Sun…of Sacrifice & Devotion.
I knew immediately that I wanted to craft something with them to honor the sacrifice of my chickens and the medicine of my heart. When I arrived at the Temple this morning I got to work crafting a pair of earrings.
As I wove the feathers together I meditated on the reason these feathers had fallen in the first place. My chickens are molting. Twice a year they shed their feathers and grow new ones, and during this time our yard is littered with fallen feathers.
When the chickens molt, they stop laying eggs. Their entire purpose during that time is shedding and regeneration. We can learn so much from this.
Each of us has our own personal “molting schedule.” For me, it’s about every 3 months. During this time we have to shed the old layers of ourselves and make way for our new feathers to emerge. This time is one of deep transformation, and with that we have to remember not to force ourselves into productivity. It is necessary to tend to our physical, emotional and mental bodies deeply when we are in a molting cycle.
Something I’ve learned over this last week of transformation is the importance of stillness. When we use up what little energy reserves we have, the transformation takes twice as long.
in service & reverence,
Alexis Nichole Smith
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