Feather: Lighten Up
Feathers have often be considered signs of spiritual ascension in many cultures. As beings of the sky, birds are viewed as spiritual creatures whose feathers bring messages related to your spiritual path. But in truth, there are many different meanings to finding a feather in your path based on the type of bird, timing, location the feather is found, and condition of the feather itself.
Energetically, today's shaman oracle is feather which is coming to us with a message to lighten up, both literally and figuratively. Feather's message right now is to find joy in the seriousness and to look at any "heavy" situation with a new perspective of lightness. What is it that is troubling you? What is on your mind as a major concern right now? Bring some light hearted energy into the situation so you will be able to see more clearly. In our culture, when we hear the words "lighten up", somehow we can become agitated by that advice. We may feel that it means we are not to take something seriously, or that we need to avoid dealing with our responsibilities. Sometimes we can't possibly see how we CAN lighten up in a given situation, and the advice feels shallow and impossible.
But in the spiritual sense, lightening up is ALWAYS the best path. Creating heavy, stuck, intense seriousness in the path of something that is ALREADY serious, never helps. When we can bring in the light and lessen the heaviness of the overall energy, we create space to receive messages from the universe that help us navigate the seriousness with more ease and grace.
Lightening up means to set down the baggage for a moment, set down the oppressive nature of our ego and its mental processing, lighten our mind's attachment to the perception as it is formed right now. In order to receive new breath, new life, and clear answers to any current situation, we must create that space for a new perception to come into our vision. Whenever we are stuck in a situation that is serious and feels heavy, we need to give the old vision back to the universe while we await the new one. The new one always comes in with true guidance.
Feather is also bringing a helpful message for you if you are in the process of making a decision that you know in your heart is right, but that may upset other people around you. If you have been spending time contemplating the emotional reactions of others, now is the time to stop. You do not have control over anyone else's reactions to what you are doing. When you are making decisions that are best and healthiest for your life, you must release attachment to the reactions of other people. Feather is bringing you the confidence to let it go, release attachment, and fly free of any belief that you are in charge of other people's happiness (or sadness).
You can easily fall into the trap of expending energy on trying to predict, control, avoid, or change the reactions of the people around you, especially if you had a parent who led you to believe that you were responsible for their happiness. Examples would be if your mom said things to you like "Mom is so happy that you made the gymnastics team", or "you've made me so proud and happy with this excellent report card", or "you're making me mad". No. No one can make your parents mad. If they were mad, that was their own emotional responsibility. If they were happy, that was their ego deriving validation from the success of their child. That's not happiness. But many people grow up believing that actually IS happiness. Those conditional expressions of approval subconsciously led you to believe that you have to do, be, act or perform a certain way to make your parents "happy" or "proud". That translates into being an adult who is seeking approval and validation from those around you and an erroneous belief that you are "making" someone happy.
So allow feather energy to come into your space and place today and lift your heart, lighten your emotional and mental load, and create space for the Divine to bring in new breath. <3 Liana