Crane Medicine At Dawn

I woke before four this morning, a semi-regular occurrence thanks to hormonal tides. Some days I mind and other days I welcome the silence, the darkness, the space for practice, for uninterrupted thoughts and dreams before the busyness of the day begins with its duties and roles to inhabit. Today in the diminishing darkness I pulled a Card of the Day on my phone app. I like the apps for this purpose, times when I don't want to have to look through all my decks to find the one I want to use, times when I've not had enough rest but can't go back to sleep and dawn is beginning to unfold itself across the sky. Today's draw speaks directly to recent themes of distraction that feel like pulls on my energy which aren't contributing to a feeling of wholeness or equilibrium.

I used the wonderful Animals Divine Tarot by Lisa Hunt. I was fortunate to acquire this OOP deck from a fellow AT member and I'm so grateful I did as it has become one of my favorites. It combines animal medicine with Tarot wisdom through the lens of Lisa Hunt's gorgeous and evocative artwork. It's loosely based on the RWS system. The Majors and Court cards depict gods or goddesses from various spiritual traditions and the Minors encompass a wide spectrum of the animal, bird, aquatic, insect and reptile world.

Crane ~ Seven of Swords ~ Animals Divine Tarot

On this card a delicate crane stands in the middle of a small eddy of widening rings of water surrounded by a circle of swords, blades pointing downwards, tips submerged in the pool. Stars from the night sky are reflected across the pool's surface and as the crane bends towards them, trying to decipher the messages, her own reflection peers back at her calling her back to the present moment.

Crane medicine speaks to themes of balance, grace, navigating the world of water and air, heart and mind and, because Asian cultures associate the crane with longevity, it also represents drawing on ancestral experiences as a way to anchor oneself in the present. This could be as simple as recognizing my place on the path within the lineage of women who've gone before me. I can imagine them all standing behind me, a long feminine wisdom-stream ribbonning back into the liminal prairies of time.

While the bird below is not a crane but a Great Blue Heron, the body language and landscape it inhabits is similar. I remember the day I snapped this pic on a walk around the lake. This majestic bird stood absolutely still for a long time letting me snap pic after pic as the sun warmed both our backs and the wind ruffled hair and feathers.

The LWB for this card suggests that too many visions and ideas have contributed to mental clutter and clouded the mind and heart from its true north. This feels applicable and particularly so this morning as I lay in bed with the freedom to let my mind roam and wander down various possibilities and paths. The internet does not help and I often find myself dancing between screen time and real time, between the virtual and the embodied. With Crane's wings unfolding my intention I feel encouraged to embrace the opportunity to watch how often my mind feathers wildly away from the still point at the center as it reaches for stars, shells or some variation on a lack of presence.

As a way to bring this medicine into the body I have spent some time working with the Tai Chi move 'White Crane Spreads its Wings'. It's a beautifully slow and deliberate sequence of moves, watery and airy at the same time but rooted in the body's ability to shift and share weight and gravity. Like Crane I can aspire to step into the waters of the moment with deliberation and grace imagining as I do that a great, great, great grandmother might also have found herself pausing to breathe quietly in the middle of a day full of hard, physical work, the wings of her heart opening and closing gratefully around that brief, stolen stillness.