Coyote Medicine: self-sabotage made easy

What’s your Coyote trick that you pull on yourself? Yah, no… pretty much everyone does have one. It’s a thing that you do to get what you want that doesn’t actually get you that whatever-it-is-you‘re-after, except that the doing of it seems like such the right-smart, clever thing to do, that maybe you don’t even notice that you’re not ever getting it.

A better question, perhaps: what’s beneath your Coyote trick? Or, in other words, is there something added onto your motivation that’s different than what it is you think it is you’re after?

For instance, my Coyote trick is Turkey with contrary Fox, coupled with Moose and contrary Weasel. In translation, when it comes to animal medicines and healing, I have a difficult time just helping people. Don’t get me wrong - I absolutely Love what I do. I consider every opportunity to share medicines a total privilege, a Blessing. (If I’m honest with myself though,) my trick is that I often act on a subconscious push to make myself visible and prove my power. As a result of the karma I exposed myself to early in my present lifedream, I often find myself chasing recognition as a way of boosting my self-esteem, rather than just standing in my medicine, following my soul’s mission, and allowing opportunities for healing to come when and as they do (and they always do. After all, I’m really good at what I do! Oops… damned Coyote!).

Not being aware of your Coyote really is like chasing your tail (seems like a silly thing to do, but some dogs just love it, don’t they). You get caught in loop after loop after loop, after… it can distract you from fulfilling your lifedream mission, keep you from effectively using your abilities. For the fact that your abilities in their right medicine can be of such an immense benefit to others, it’s ‘the Dark Ones’ (for lack of a better term) way of trying to pick Great Spirit’s pockets, of ‘reducing the harvest‘, as it were. How many people are missing out for the fact that they’re avoiding - not ‘you’ necessarily, but - your Coyote’s trick, rather than engaging with your Divinely-gifted medicines?

Not only that, but the frustration of chasing your tail can have its consequences. Let’s say, for instance, that a reading or vision quest reveals what your Coyote trick is, and that it typically puts you in situations where you’re ripe for feeling overpowered or overwhelmed by others (described as imbalanced Horse medicine). In similar fashion to how Louise Hay describes metaphysical reasons for physical ailments, these kinds of contrary experiences might manifest as digestive issues. In and of itself, unbalanced Coyote medicine (~ falling under the influence of a scam artist, a disregard for causality, or not being able to laugh at your own folly, especially) can manifest as diabetes.

So, what’s your Coyote trick on yourself? Our own tricks on ourselves can be laughable, but besides having a good chuckle, how can you balance the medicine?

Meditate on it, ask your guides, use Medicine Cards, or ask your friends (unless putting others’ opinions over you own inner knowing is your particular trick. lol). Some starter questions you might want to investigate:

·        what’s my Coyote trick on myself?

·        what’s the motivation behind my Coyote trick?

·        how do I balance (/counteract) the medicine?

·        what to do instead of what Coyote’s had me doing?

If you feel as though it would help you to ‘cut (to) the chase‘, I’d be more than delighted to assist you myself (with my Coyote in the back seat - he‘s definitely worth keeping around for his entertainment value!).

Big Medicine Love to You

~ Black Feather

Loon Medicine: how conscious dreaming becomes conscious living

Because it’s natural that we do it that way ourselves, we assume that Loon takes an in-breath before diving. Her bones are actually denser than most flying birds, and while this makes her less buoyant and allows her to submerge easier, she actually breathes as much air out as she can before going under, enabling her to dive even faster, deeper.

You need only look at the fact that our breathing slows when we‘re dreaming during sleep to recognize the potential of Loon‘s medicine of breath restriction for accessing other levels of consciousness while awake. She’s a huge proponent of maintaining conscious control - remaining lucid - while doing so, in pursuit of information that will nourish you.

Just as the white dots on Loon’s back are a reflection of the stars, the other states of consciousness she renders accessible open the lines of communication to other worlds and dimensions. While the symbiotic relationship between her physical body and the way she uses her breath teaches us how to coordinate our own in such a way as to enable us to access the astral plane, dreams and other levels of consciousness, it also makes it possible for our guides, angels and spirit helpers in the Dreamtime to access and inform us.

The other day, a friend told me a story in which a pregnant cat had accidentally gotten locked in a neighbour’s backyard shed. She’d given birth while she was in there and didn’t get let out until days later, thoroughly dehydrated and terribly emaciated. Her kittens didn’t survive. That night, I dreamt a version of the story in which I was explaining to someone that - in a previous life - I’d been the man who’d locked the cat in the shed, and that I’d actually been aware of doing so.

What would be the intended purpose of such a dream? It didn’t seem to be as simple as (just) integrating that days events. The guidance I received about it suggested that it was about ‘acceptance concerning others’. While I’d been assured by my friend that the shut-in incident had, indeed, been accidental, the idea that it might actually have been intentional had crossed my mind, if only for a brief moment. When something so seemingly ‘unfair’ happens, it’s a natural inclination to find something or someone to blame - it‘s an anger borne out of feelings of helplessness. Mind you, if you were to extrapolate that inclination, it doesn’t exactly bode well for us as a humane race. Imagine, for instance, how things might play out if the feelings induced by the scenario I just described had been allowed to fester (unchecked); automatic distrust, judgement and anger don’t exactly jive with a world vision of harmonious co-existence. I understood this dream-version to be my spirit guides’ way of maintaining a sense of compassion for others, even in the face of something I’d describe as a ‘heinous’ event, and of helping me to outgrow reactions based on a paradigm that doesn‘t serve intentions for a new earth. By putting me in the position of the perpetrator, I’m reminded that I haven’t been blameless myself, given events in my previous lives (or in this one). Whether it’s of others or of self, no healing can occur without compassion.

Because we do have free will, of course, our spiritual support team will only interject in this way based on our intentions. But in doing so, they influence our mindset in accord with those intentions, thus shapeshifting us and allowing for change in our lifedream’s trajectory. Trusting in them and their input will lead you into more readily trusting yourself. They’re especially good at helping you to get out of your own way, and giving you alternative experiences to learn from, as through your dreams, for instance. Consider that your dreams are the Divine’s dreams. They’re Spirit’s way of helping you to see yourself and others through your angel’s eyes: All (as in ‘all parts of you’) are equally deserving. This is the conscious intention of Loon’s medicine, to increase your awareness by diving within, accessing other dimensions of your Universal self, other realities, and gleaning the wisdom from events that you wouldn’t otherwise experience in your waking, ‘ordinary‘ lifedream.