I had recently purchased a set of lectures that was being put on by the “Shift Network”.
It consisted of fifteen different Shamanic practitioners from around the world with each practitioner giving their view of Shamanism and how they are making a difference in the world with their perspectives.
I had been listening to this absolutely wonderful series in my truck on my way to work each day. On this particular day I was listening to Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, an Eskimo Shaman who was speaking about his job in the community in Greenland which was to go up to the glacier and come back and report how much the ice had melted. After he became a Shaman he discovered his purpose in life was to travel and “melt the ice in the hearts of man”. This was deeply moving to me to hear such a simple, yet profoundly beautiful purpose and I knew that I would someday have to meet this individual.
So as I am driving along listening to Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, in rush hour traffic in San Diego, I am on the on ramp between 805 and 52 and I look over and see a dead owl lying there! I can’t believe my eyes, it’s an owl!
My mind starts to race, I want that owl. But then I realize how dangerous it would be for me to stop. I am at a very unsafe ramp and their is no shoulder and as I mentioned, it’s rush hour. So I continue on my way to an appointment knowing that I made the safest decision, but I couldn’t get it out of my mind. My appointment lasted an hour and a half but all the while I kept thinking about that little owl. I thought “no way it’s still there”. But I just had to go back and see and if it was there it was meant to be. But I had to prepare, as I mentioned it was a dangerous part of the freeway, it could have ants covering it, it could smell really bad or it could be severely damaged. So I found a plastic bag in my truck and some plastic gloves and put them on. Then I went back to the nearest spot to the on ramp and considered the safest approach. Traffic had died down by that time but it was still a bit tricky. I stopped at a spot where I could wait to merge into traffic. I waited until I saw a break just before a box truck which I knew I could out pace. I stepped on it and headed for the spot. Low and behold it was still there. I switched on my hazard lights, thru the gear shift into park, did a minor bit of off-roading since there was no shoulder, jumped out of my truck, raced around the front to grab the owl, (ever so gently) ran back to my truck and slid him into a plastic bag, ripped off the gloves and floored it, unscathed.
Seeing that I was heading to work and it was a really hot day and he would have to stay in my truck until I was finished I decided to get a bag of ice for him to lay on to keep him cool. When I reached
the store I had a chance to look him over. He or she was about 18″ long from head to tail feather. He had no ants on him and two little tufts of feathers coming out the upper part of his head which made me think he was a horned owl, but I could see no injuries on him and his body was still pliable. So I put him on ice and went to work.
On my way home I continued to listen to Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, at one point he started to go into an Eskimo Shaman Chant. It was quite beautiful and then I remembered what I had in the back seat and I started to weep realizing the absolute beauty of the perfect synchronicity that I was experiencing. He also spoke of the hunt and how it was his peoples tradition to cut out the heart to connect with the animal’s Soul. I thought of my little owl and knew that this was not something I could do nor wanted to experience, but could appreciate and understand his perspective.
As I was merging unto the freeway underneath an overpass there was a huge brown moth that was approximately 6″ across that was doing this chaotic flight pattern is front of me. It was the most unusual spot for a moth to be, and I tried to swerve around him to not hit him. When I looked in my rear view mirror, he was nowhere in sight.
When I returned home. I texted Christina to get her opinion on what I should do with the owl. Upon waiting for her reply I thought it was best to do a ceremony to honor and release his spirit. I found a beautiful deep red and green handwoven Peruvian place mat that I laid on the ground and then placed him on top at an angle. I then took my rattle and lit some sage and sat down on the ground next to him and circled his body with the burning sage and using the rattle I did my best to honor his sprit. It was quite a moving experience and I began to cry. After I finished I placed a Chrystal on his heart and wrapped the Peruvian place mat around him and tied it up with raffia and placed a little sage tucked into the tie. I then placed him in a plastic bag and put him in the freezer for safe keeping until I could figure out what should be done with him.
I received a call from Christina who informed me that according to her sources, this was our Sacred Guardian and we should remove both wings and she should keep the left one and I should keep the right but first they needed to be splayed out and completely covered in salt for a month. Well I knew that I needed to get Vulfie to do this part for me. So we set a date for a Friday and when another friend of mine heard what we were doing she wanted to be a part of it. I removed the owl from the freezer in the morning and placed him in the frig to thaw out. We met that afternoon and Vulfie analyzed the owl. I should have taken him out of the freezer the night before because he was still a little frozen, but Vulfie massaged his wings to loosen them up. I saged everyone present, but I used Palo Santo instead of Sage. I then opened Sacred Space and then Vulfie started the procedure while I prepared a cardboard box with salt in it to place his wings and talons. I’m glad that I didn’t make the box ahead of time or I would have made it too small. One wing alone was 18″.
We then placed both wings and both talons in the box on top of the salt and then slowly poured more salt on top of them. We went thru approximately 60 pounds of salt! It was complete, and that was to stay in that position for a month to thoroughly dry out, and we closed Sacred Space.
After everyone left for some reason I just started to cry and thank our owl for giving his life to us. I felt my own body was completely drained and I thought it would be a good idea for me to take a salt bath also.
The next day, Saturday, I continued to feel really drained. In retrospect, I felt that for some reason the ceremony of the previous afternoon was deeply emotional for me. On Sunday I spoke with Christina and we decided it would be a good idea to do another ceremony for our owl to anchor our Sacred Guardian. Again I opened Sacred Space and I drew a Mandala on the inside of the lid of the cardboard box with a pyramid around it. I placed Egyptian key of life or Ankh, at each corner. I wrote Vuelosanto at the top and wrote words to signify what we were envisioning. I then read an incantation to call in help with our vision. I then burned it and spread it out over the salt, and closed up the box. I then placed the Peruvian weaving on top of it with a Chrystal and closed Sacred Space. I can’t express to you what an awesome experience that was. Doing this sort of ceremony just felt so right, to honor a creature so beautiful and mystical and to ask his spirit to help us bring our vision to fruition. To put this much love into the beginning of our journey is exactly the way something like this should start.
For you numerologists out there, I mentioned that I found the owl between the 805 and the 52 freeways, which I believe turns into a number 2, which stand for cooperation, diplomacy, balance, partnership, graciousness, sensitivity and peace which I think is an absolutely perfect representation for “Vuelosanto”.