Octopus Medicine: do you realize how Big you are?

You’re an octopus!

Octopi can be so huge (physically), yet they’re able to squeeze themselves into the tiniest of spaces, like a glass jar, for instance. We’re all octopi, actually, the thing is though, we see the world through our glass veil without realizing that the tendril dangling in front of our eyes - the very water that flows around and through us - actually is us.

When working with someone, I’m always intrigued that I see what it is that Spirit intends as a message to them. It's testament to how truly expansive we are as energetic beings, to how far we extend past the apparent limits of what we perceive as our physical bodies.

When someone comes to me for guidance, I’ll sometimes do a card reading for them or a vision quest, but personally, I Love the experience of having the participation of the living, breathing, physical world. I may do a Shaman's Earthwalk for them; with my heart tuned to the awareness that I’ll be shown a(n unmistakable) sign, I’ll go on an intentional walkabout. I can’t say I’m surprised by what comes up, but I’m always amazed.

It may be that specific animals reveal understanding. On one particular occasion, I was shown Hawk and a kill site. In that instance, Hawk and its meal were sent as symbols to clarify what was ‘eating away’ at that person’s power.

After a distance energy healing on a woman’s dog during which I was shown a vision of a blue ball in an energy stream from the dog’s mouth (~ the place of ‘communication‘), I was guided to a specific spot in an unassuming roadside woods where - having been ‘told’ I was in the right place - I looked down at my feet to find a similar small blue ball, complete with dog toothmarks in it! The woman confirmed that her dog had once had an identical ball years ago, soon after he first came to her. I gave her this ball, and she took it back home with her (where her dog was at the time, 4,000 miles away) as part of their healing journey.

This is just a small fraction of what our interactive environment wants to impress upon us through our participation with it. It’s testament to how we shape our world and how it - in turn - shapes us.

If you’ve ever ‘primed’ a dream, you know how effective diving into those other levels of consciousness can be for solving problems or receiving inspiration. Try doing the same thing with your waking dream. Even though you feel ‘awake’ during your (for most people) daylight hours, those other levels of consciousness are active at the same time; an ocean of activity is alive and thriving under the surface of your awareness. Before you set out for a walk, ask of the Universe (/‘yourSelf ‘) for guidance on a problem you’ve been chewing on (or that‘s been chewing on you, Ha!). As you’re thinking about this idea now, I can assure you that you’ve already extended those great, long, energetic arms of yours, reached into the great Void from where all things are possible (Octopus' eight arms symbolise infinity and infinite possibilities), created and put physical signs down on the path you're going to walk. That's how 'Big' you are!

In an evolutionary sense, your animal mind is much older (and, I would argue, more effective) than your rational mind, your Spirit mind older still. Signs are all around you. I’m here to remind you that you’ve put them down on the path for yourself.

Big Medicine Love to You

~ Black Feather


*If, for some reason, you feel that you’re not able to make such a journey yourself (perhaps you’re not physically mobile at present, for instance) or you‘d just like some help with this, contact me and I will help you.


Contact: blackfeathermedicine@gmail.com
Phone: +44 779 891 2317

This Is Why I Call It a ‘LifeDream‘…

Photo: Wolfgang Staudt

This story is a great affirmation of the amazing power we have to manifest messages to ourselves as we walk our life path. I originally wrote it as a description of Pigeon medicine in May of 2010, after Pigeon appeared in an intuitive portrait I‘d done for someone.

I was having one of those days when you 'know' you're exactly where you're supposed to be...

After I dropped my wife, Jenny, off to do a Reiki healing on her mom (a miracle in itself), I went for a hike to rejuvenate. I went to a local park that I‘d seen on a map of the area, not realizing it was a campground rather than a hiking area. My logical mind thought about getting back in the car and looking elsewhere, but I felt that Spirit had other plans for me.

I wandered past dirty picnic tables and through the faint trails between the connector roads and empty site lots. It was still off-season, and what few campers there were at that time eyed me suspiciously - why would anyone be wandering around here anyway? I imagined that theft happened pretty often here, it being so close to town. You could hear the expressway - it wasn't exactly a wildlife area, unless you count the empty bottles and chip bags, signs of the previous night's parties.

Listening to my intuitive promptings about where to go, it appeared after a while that I was being left feather hints (Wolf often leaves them for me as sacred path signs). I got to what seemed an unlikely spot in the middle of a trail. Squirrel! I'd been thinking of getting my cashews out anyway... but he left. Funny, you'd think he'd be used to handouts from campers (yeah, I know, I shouldn't feed the wildlife). Ok, that squirrel was gone, but I could see another one just ahead, sitting on a stump, busily eating, watching me from a distance (but pretending not to notice me, I thought). Looking around, it wasn't exactly picturesque. This spot didn't really have a view at all, but it did have a log to sit on (imitate Squirrel, I wondered? After all, he was eating his lunch). I'm supposed to have my lunch here? I sat down and opened up my bag. Then I saw a mound of feather fluff (a kill site), and I knew I was supposed to be there.

As I was just about done, I could see a man walking down the trail towards me. Ordinarily, I'd have been at least a little surprised, but I can't say that I was today. Earlier, I'd seen what I'd describe as a 'serviceable' camper parked just outside the park boundary - people living on the fringes, I thought, perhaps not wanting (or able) to pay even the off-season fee. If I wouldn’t have stopped for lunch (thanks, Squirrel!), I’d have missed the upcoming encounter altogether. He walked with a stick he'd picked up. He was a thin wisp of a man. If you were to ask me to imagine a hermit... He seemed a little surprised that I was being friendly to him.

"I was hoping this was a park with hiking trails", I said, after exchanging some quick pleasantries.

He gave me directions to an out-of-the-way area, tucked between a sports field and - again - the highway. It didn't sound like anything you'd find on a guide-map. I headed that way anyway, since it was in the direction of my car, thinking that I could at least look polite about following his directions (even if I did decide to drive off). And on my way there, I saw a rabbit. Rabbit is about fear, but he's also about changing directions. As I got to the car, Rabbit came out of the bushes I'd seen him disappear into a second ago, and he continued down the road towards a sports field (in the direction the man had suggested). "Looked like rain", he'd said. I figured it as a good sign; I picked up the hat and raincoat I'd left in the back seat and followed my furry little buddy.

I found the trails all right. It turned out that they were behind a school. Hmmm... I was going to learn something today, wasn't I? Again, it wasn't exactly what you'd call 'pristine wilderness.' There were burned out stumps where kids had been playing with matches, for instance, and an old mattress - a make-out mattress(?) I didn't want to know. With how I'm describing things, don't think for a second that I didn't appreciate the nature that was there. I wholeheartedly believe that even though kids came there for other reasons altogether, nature gives herself to heal them, unconditionally.

The path ahead of me finally started to look a little more promising/picturesque. So why was Spirit urging me to go right? That way would take me to the top of a small ridge that was blocking the sound of traffic from the roadway (the busy traffic to and from the ferry terminal, no less). Ordinarily, I wouldn't have been there at all, headed towards that noise, on a nature walk especially. "But what's that little bright blue thing, part-way up?" I wondered. When I got to it, it turned out to be just a piece of cast away plastic. Thinking on the significance of it though, "...blue does symbolize clarity."

It wasn't really a trail that I was on at all; it was more like bushwhacking. Once at the top of the ridge though, I did feel as though I was in ‘the right spot‘. I looked around, thinking that perhaps Spirit was leading me to an animal sighting. Who would it be, I thought, and why would they be here, of all places? After all, the highway was right there, and I could imagine the activities of kids scaring pretty much everything off during the school-week. Mind you, cougars had to hide somewhere, and there had been the rare sightings around the city after all. Could I even hope for something as exciting as that here? I looked around, and then I looked up...

...and then I looked down. There was a nondescript piece of crumpled fabric at my feet. I considered it for a second. I thought that perhaps my 'mission' was to intuit who might have left it (not that I'd ever done that before), but then I considered that it didn't really matter... "I think I'm here to receive".

I grabbed a fold and tugged it up from the ground. The forest had started to reclaim it; it must have been there for some time. It looked like a throw rug, or a wall hanging maybe, but I couldn't quite make out the design (at first). "It used to be quite colorful once," I thought. It didn't take me long - likely because of my experience discerning images in my portraiture work - before I made out the lighthouse. I spread it out a little better, took this photo, and accentuated it's image when I got home:

I'd been considering my path at the time, and found myself doing much more healing work (and teaching) than I ever would have imagined. This lighthouse seemed to be an unmistakable sign that I should continue this work, I 'gushed' thanks, and then, thinking I'd gotten all I'd been sent for, headed back to Jenny's mom's, .

As I rounded the corner before mum's house, I already had the feeling that I'd be arriving too early. I looked in through the front window - Jenny was still working on her. I walked towards the shops, thinking I'd perhaps pick up a present for Jenny.

I noticed "The Haunted Bookshop", and went in (as Spirit knew I would), curious as to whether I'd pick something up - a 'presence', perhaps? (Sorry about the bad pun, but I really couldn't help myself.) Usually, I'm not one for used book stores, but - considering the day I'd been having - I was at this point assuming I was fated to go in.

I looked around aimlessly until I noticed that I was in front of the 'art' section. I didn't see anything that interested me. I considered a stack of magazines. I closed my eyes and pulled one out. It was on colour mixing - a little dated, and not necessarily anything I didn't already know. I thought that perhaps coming in was just about killing time after all, and headed for the door.

Before I tell you what happened next, I'll tell you (for those of you who don't know) that Jenny and I had been working at manifesting a move to Edinburgh (and working at keeping the faith on it actually happening …considering that we’d been picking bottles off the beach for food around this time, it didn‘t seem in any way ‘realistic‘). I turned right into a shelf of books about Scotland! There were two right in front of my face that I couldn't ignore if I tried: one had a large graphic of the Scottish Thistle on its cover, and the other... a lighthouse being built! "The Lighthouse Stevensons: The Extraordinary Story of the Building of the Scottish Lighthouses by the Ancestors of Robert Louis Stevenson" by Bella Bathurst.

Besides delivering messages, Pigeon medicine is also about returning home... I'd never been there before, but I couldn't help it at that moment... Scotland. felt. like. home.

There are people who would read my story from which you'd hear the words 'coincidence', perhaps 'crazy' even, but you know what? I'm really happy, and I'm pretty damn sure I'm on the right path. You want answers? Look inside, and open your eyes.

All the Love you can handle, and then some

David J. (Mac)Nagy


As I mentioned, I originally wrote this in May of 2010 (as “Pigeon Medicine - This is why I call it a LifeDream“). Remembering my time on the beach back then, it all seemed so unlikely, but as of today, I’ll have been in Scotland for 6 incredible months!

In honour of all the signs on your life path,
Big Medicine Love to you,

~ Black Feather