Lions and Spiders and Owls, oh my!

Messages as Animals

As I sit here just days away from the new year, I am struck by how wildly unprepared I am for it. We only get 9 days for our break this year rather than the customary 16 or so. This is time I am grateful to have because holy goodness did I need the break, but I am realizing how important that additional week is to my ability to not only rest but also rejuvenate and reconnect with what is important to me. I am in rest mode, but in no way do I feel rejuvenated or like I can even begin to connect with the energies of hope and prosperity and newness that are abounding around me.

I did a year ahead spread with SunStar earlier this month, and I had set the intention of signs and messages from my guides/The Universe being less cryptic because my ND brain isn’t good at puzzling this stuff out. I feel like that has already begun, and it has been coming through in animals. Side note": This is my 3rd YAS with SunStar. I can’t recommend him enough. Treat yourself!

Lions have been coming up a lot for me, and I thought that was weird until my brain clicked on, and I remembered that i work with lion energy every single day I go to work. 2024 is also the year of Strength, which traditionally has that lion/Leo energy. So, ok, I guess it makes sense! I am trying to use these visual reminders to really feed that energy though, that energy of sovereignty, leadership, courage, confidence. What finally reminded me of 2024 being the year of strength (lion) was that so many people were also coming up with lion energy in their readings and work.

Collective energy can be very powerful. Making sure that we are riding the collective waves in positive and healthy ways is key, but I always find this time of year to be greatly improved by the energy and hope of my community. Thank you, community.

Spiders… probably one of my least favorite critters on the planet, but here we are with lovely photos of their webs, and their creepy little bodies just haunting my bedroom and apartment entryway. I know and understand their importance, but if they could live away from me, I’d be soooooo happy.

That being said, they are often all over my areas and spaces. I take it as a nudge from The Morrigan. Crows are everywhere on a daily basis here. Where I live, we get an influx of crows every November/December where there are thousands around the city. They hang out here for a multitude of reasons, and they are a protected species so their population just keeps growing and growing. Living amongst the crows can make it hard for me to know when one is a message.

Around the time I began chilling out with the 3 crows at work (this trio is my daily nod and acknowledgement to The Morrigan), I noticed a huge influx of spiders. Spiders are strong messages for weaving, creating, and divine feminine energy. All of these aspects are energies that I have been trying to work with consistently for years. They are evergreen and ever present in my life. After my initial freak out of “WHY ME?!” I remember to say hello to The Morrigan, thank her for her presence, and then focus on what message is coming through in that moment. Then I flee and cry a bit because whyyyyyyyy 😭

For a year or so now, owls have been coming through and coming through hard. While I am definitely open minded, I can be very rigid about established information. So this one has taken a while to sink in. It wasn’t until I was reading a message in The Herbal Astrology Oracle, and it literally said the name Artemis attached to the owl did I realize all of the owl messages I’ve been getting. I have been working with Artemis since 2021, but I have always had the hardest time connecting to her. I think the owl and connection the owl has to the moon might help me and my own trappings of rigidity.

Running water, the wildness of the trails, and deer and bears have always been signs from her to me. Now, I have clear guidance that owls are also her way of reaching out. She has been an amazing ally in achieving my goals. I am rededicating myself to working with her more intentionally in 2024, my guiding arrow. Mondays are my day of the week for her. I would love to weave, create, live a life where my Mondays are for me, Artemis, and the moon: a time of slowness, intentionality, self care, and reflection.

I have yet to suss out all of my intentions, goals, hopes, and dreams for the upcoming year, but I know that being more spiritually engaged is one of them. I want to work more closely with my goddesses, learn that balance of working a traditional job and still having the energy to come home and be the spiritual human I wish so desperately to be. I wish to be that person while I’m at work rather than being constantly triggered into a state of just enough dissociation to not feel the pain in my body but still being able to make coherent decisions. I am in this rat race until my loans are forgiven, I know that. I know that I will be able to get out in 5 years. Until then, I just need to keep going and figuring out balance as I can.

What is 2024 looking like for you? Have you decided on your intentions, goals, hopes?

Wishing you well this week! May your life offer what you need in this moment.

With love,

Aventurine ✨