I Heard the Owl Call
I found an old book at the thrift shop on Saturday. Opening to a random page, I found this:
We really live magic lives, guided and provided for at every step; if we have ears to hear and eyes that see. Of course we have left the plane of the intellect and are drawing from the superconscious, the God within which says, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”
(-Florence Scovel Shinn)
We’re provided for at every step — if our lives are truly magic, (and they are) then whatever we need to know will be revealed to us.
Let the comfort of that thought sink in.
The author, Florence Scovel Shinn, who comes out of the early, early Law of Attraction school, said to ask for a clear, unmistakable sign. I usually wouldn’t, but I did.
“Send me an unmistakable sign.”
Then that night, I was watching the news (I know, I know, that’s a toxic thing to do!) and heard an eastern screech owl in the woods east of the house.
All last winter when I was writing my book Midnight Pages: A Mystical Workbook for Writers, Insomniacs and Night Owls, (especially when I was telling myself that I was wasting my time) I heard her in those hollow woods. I knew she was a guide from the Goddess. “Keep going. Keep listening,” she said.
So, okay, here was an owl again. Cool. But I still didn’t make the connection. I got in bed, ready to meditate on the noisy August crickets, locusts and cicadas. And there was the owl, again, right outside my window, LOUD.
She was so near and insistent, the hair on my neck stood up. I flew out of bed. The dogs came to the window with me but weirdly, they didn’t bark. The hair was up on their necks too.
Then I realized: it was my sign.
Why do we ignore the most obvious things?
What signs are you ignoring?
- Dreams?
- Coincidences?
- Strange snippets of conversation you overhear that feel like they are meant for you?
- Topics you’re worrying about showing up in your feed, newspaper, inbox? (Yeah, that might be marketing…)
If we’re using our magical eyes, or paying attention at all, the messages to guide our lives are all around us. I finally got mine. First, I remembered: my card pull from the Motherpeace Tarot earlier in the week: the Priestess of Swords, a woman in the cold wild, releasing a snowy owl toward the full moon.
Right out my window an owl was screeching at me, saying, “Wake up sleeper! You asked for a sign!! Here I am!”
The owl means wisdom, guidance, Goddess. Some say they mean bad news is coming, but I take the good with the bad.
Here is what she said:
Write, follow your weird, neuro-divergent creativity. Don’t judge, don’t stop. Keep talking about Midnight Pages (my antidote to Morning Pages for night people who can’t make that 5am wake up call to write first thing in the morning).
My owl, my guide, my spirit animal said: “Stay on the path, don’t give up, guidance is here when you’re ready to hear it.”
We are guided and provided at every step.
So I’m supposed to tell you (it’s my job to affirm to you) that
- Signs are everywhere.
- Don’t ignore (or Google) your signs.
- If you’re out of practice looking for signs, treat EVERYTHING as a sign for a few days.
- Remember: your weird is your magic,
- Being creative is how you connect to the Divine
- Putting other things before your creativity is the same as ignoring your calling.
- What you are called to do is for YOU ONLY. Nobody else can do it like you can.
Today, Ask for the Sign
Whenever you read this: Ask for a clear, unmistakable sign that only you would understand. Ask for the kind that will make your hair stand up because it is so right. Then: Trust the sign, don’t deny it or talk yourself out of it.
Don’t rush to the internet to interpret the sign like I did. I mean, seriously?? It was midnight (!) I wrote a book called Midnight Pages, I am listening to the night and I got an owl. So, what did I do? Trust it because it was so bloody obvious?
Nope. I Googled it.
Trust me, you already KNOW what your sign means. Believe yourself for once.
If you’ve waiting for a sign to begin your creative thing: your book, business, blog, art, new work, stop waiting. This is your sign. Do the thing.
If you don’t think this message is for you because you’re reading it 6 months from now or you don’t believe in signs or whatever, believe me, if you’re here, it’s for a reason.
Here’s an affirmation from Florence Scovel Shinn to repeat after you’ve asked for your sign:
I now catch up with my good, for before I called I was answered.
Sharing Love and Blessed Be,
Diane
P.S. My book’s on Amazon. Midnight Pages: A Mystical Workbook for Writers, Insomniac and Night Owls. Big, gorgeous paperback or ebook. They’re slightly different. Or, get the PDF version that you can write in, which is on the website.