Thursday, May 12, 2011






Moth will help in each transition and show how to adapt to the new surroundings.(S)He will teach you to find your own light as a beacon in the direction you should go. It is time to pay attention to your feelings to clarify your movement and discern what is real and not. Are you listening carefully to verbal and non-verbal cues, to what is and is not being said? Are you sensing the world around you? or sensing too much? Moth will teach how to be still, rest and listen and balance your being. In finding your own light, clarity in the moment of darkness will be found and your sensitivity to Spirit increases.—
http://www.starstuffs.com/animal_totems/dictionary_of_insects.htm

For a week now, each time I’ve approached the door to the lovely old Schoolhouse I do most of my work out of, I’ve been greeted by a different moth resting on the entry door or the warm brick near the entrance. I know it’s that time of year. I think the Maple Tree, the Walnut, and other shrubs around the building are ideal places for moths to lay their eggs and of course the whole life cycle does it’s miraculous thing. May is an “emergence” time of year for many creatures.

But every moth on my doorstep these days has been LARGE…impressively noticeable as any creature goes: A Luna, two Cecropias, and several other Polyphemus, like the one in the picture. These, along with the less visible mothy creatures hiding in plain sight, flattened against the door, convince me I’m being asked to pay attention. Their lives are short, I've recently learned --generally a week or two long. So this daily visitation in this concentrated period must mean something.

“Hello”, they say in their quiet way, “What DO you need to see these days that has not been clear to you before now?” “What do you hear in what is being said around you? And unsaid?” “How do you need to tune your sensitivities for better balance and insight?”

I've been shaking the bushes like crazy this past week. Shining light in dark corners. This started at the same time the Luna Moth appeared. I've been seeking a voice and, I hope, some balance in this voice to ask hard questions in a public way. I've been finding courage for the unsaid to become said because frankly, and in spite of my very good intuition, I have an issue with the withholding of truth...the unspoken, the secretive and the dark shadows cast by individuals and groups refusing to be transparent with one another. Ech. It's hard, but I will say I feel stronger for having made myself vulnerable.

That the doorway to the place I work, where, by and large, lots of truth telling, transparency, hospitality, creativity and healing happens, has been a moth resting-place feels appropriate to me. That I've found a voice I haven't used in quite a while and strength (without dominance), to speak my own truth into a kind of darkness, calms something in me in the midst of turbulent weathers and waters. Times of change and great shifting.

I simply want to invite myself and any of you reading this to notice and celebrate the guides that might appear in your life. They confirm or suggest. They might just be pretty to look at or disturbing. Consider the signs. See where they lead you.

BLR for the Poplar Grove Muse

3 comments:

  1. So interesting, Beth. To speak your own truth into a darkness...to find your own light as a beacon...dusting off a voice that hasn't been used in awhile. Schoolhouse moths with powerful messages. Thanks for this piece and the encouragement to watch for guides.

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  2. A luna moth was on the door when we came in for Poetry Detectives on Saturday. It made me smile. Your piece is very evocative of how we, as human, must constantly transform in order to grow. In order to find the places in the world that we need to be. Thanks for writing this so beautifully.

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  3. Beth--

    Enjoyed reading your post. The Universe is talking to us all the time . . . we just have to listen.
    Thanks for sharing!
    Joni

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