Feathers and Truth

When I drew this card, instantly I was transported to that moment when I heard a voice whisper to me upon the tailing wisp of a dream... "wear the Gypsy feathers well"...

I feel my spirit flying, creativity soars and inspiration shares my mind. We are companions of story and images that cannot be tamed. We are the feathered ones, the ones who bring messages across time and space.

I feel my Self carried away from my body, from earthly desires and needs. I am free of the chains that weigh this body down and bind it to the manifest world. I am on the winds, they support and guide my spirit as we explore all the possibilities that hover on the horizon. My mind is one with Spirit and we abandon the practical to have our adventures. A voice calls to me from behind a shoulder - "wait!" - but I can't for the feathers are a headress of what lies beyond and not behind.

My body can wait as I watch it fall away... I see oceans and mountains, animals and people, flowers and trees. From above they appear so fragile and in need of care. How can I leave the beauty and sensations of the world behind? Can I bring them with me? But no, the world is one life and the visions beyond are something...different. Am I ready to soar the final time? Not yet. For now I venture only for a moment. Not even a moment, but less than that.

My hand holds a braid of flowers and stars that transmits sparkles of energy to and from my mind like the string of a kite, so that I can soar but without fear of losing myself on the winds that can suddenly whip and whirl, spinning me about, lifting the air-filled quill threaded through the Gypsy feathers. I feel such incredible peace up here, my spirit light, so easy here, isn't it?

I feel stories swell and swirl in my mind, lived and not lived, like the mists in a rainbow sheltered valley at the base of purple mountains. Up where the air is thin, the ether becomes more filling and yet more ephemeral, the space is neither empty or full. Yet how can that be? I waver between knowing and wonder, between the lift of my wings and the pull of my body.

Between worlds, this is where Truth dwells, and She is beautiful and mighty. She is that which cannot be hemmed in or tied down because She is more than a concept. Truth Is. My feathers allow me to see Her, to be near Her, to float in Her presence for a while. And then, so gently, as a snowflake rests upon the last rose petal, I drift back to my body, peacefully.

It's okay. I can be here now. I have seen Her and been held in Her arms. I can return any time, all I have to do is close my eyes and feel the feathers in my wings lift me for these feathers are Her - She is Spirit Within that lifts me up when I feel too bogged down by the mud of the world and She helps me know the shape I can create from the mud, the invigorating fire that transforms me into pottery filled with pure spring water and which can then rise as steam without the need of feathers, for all forms are Her. She is within me and I am within Her.

-- This was one of those times when the card triggered my thinking mind right off the mark and said Left Brain seemed to want to hold everything in a tight grasp; the writing felt more rigid, and soul more elusive. It was probably a blessing that I was writing under a time constraint, though, because that kept my pen moving along the page in a quick stream, allowing waves of Soul connection, in spite of my mind's attempts at control (my practice is to write for a full three pages, no less, although sometimes not all of that remains upon Soul Card impressions). Still, it was an interesting experience!

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SoulCards® Deborah Koff-Chapin, Center for Touch Drawing