Seeing In the Dark

It was time to move out of a rental in Washougal, Washington. I was not sure where I was moving to, so I procrastinated in my moving plans. Spirit had plans for me and made it crystal clear to make the move. I just didn’t know where to go. My home was in a magical forest with lots of fairies, elementals, trees, and nature to play with. I even found a secret space tucked behind a tree in the backyard to set up my fairy altars for ceremony. This safe place was healing for me and the perfect sanctuary I needed after traveling for three years offering water ceremony.

During a walk, I stopped underneath a tree. An owl flew up and landed on a branch a few feet above me. I watched in awe. A second owl flew in and landed next to the first owl. And then, a third owl flew in and perched with the others. What! Three owls! I was overcome! Three owls perched a few feet above my head and here I was gazing deeply into their eyes. 

What were they telling me? 

Change. Move. Release attachments to this home. Time to move on… 

Afterwards, I posted on Facebook about my three-owl experience. A woman commented that her experience with owl messages was this: It’s time to move! Good confirmation. I gave my notice and moved out a few weeks later.

Nature spirits and fairies are more active during the in-between times of twilight and dawn. This is a magical doorway as day is slipping into night or night into day: this is the liminal space, the in-between realms. I love spending time in the forest at the end of the day watching light fade. My feelings intensify and energy currents run more clearly through my body. I sense more nature spirits, fairies, and beings on the move and the awakening of nocturnal activities. The Night Creature owls appearing to me in daylight seemed telling. Why did these three owls come during the day? Maybe their message would come across more strongly because I view them as Night Creatures. Were they guiding me into darkness?

I was in Corbett, Oregon at an overlook dancing with the many wildflowers blooming in the early summer. I was delighted to spend time with the pristine white lily called Queen Bead Lily. I have made medicine with her in the form of a flower essence, and she has been so helpful in the emotional healing process for many women I have worked with as a flower essence alchemist. She is a deeply compassionate sexual healer and provides loving support in healing incest and forms of sexual trauma. She is a queen in my eyes in the way she has offered healing for such heartbreak. Here I am in the forest and night sets in. All around me is the glowing white of the Queen Bead Lilies. The wildflowers glow bright in the dark night. They shine with beauty and love. I am entranced by their magic as flower fairies and devas join my delight in celebration of the flowering night. We dance in the forest path. I feel such profound gratitude in the way the flower Queen delights in her own beauty and lunar light.

Much of my deepest intuitive knowing and physic experiences have come when my eyes are closed and I am in the dark. A curandero I studied with taught me to close my eyes when I am seeing through the veils as it would protect my physical eyes. This helped me let go of my attachment to seeing fairies or energies and lead to understanding the power of spiritual sight. I blend my sight with my imagination, clairsentience (feeling), and knowing. This practice helps me accept what I experience deep within my soul as real and true.

As it turned out, the three owls did guide me into darkness. The day I moved out, I entered a painful dark-night-of-the-soul experience brought on by my dear friend’s suicide and a period of financial hardship. I was offered the advice that if I stayed deep in the darkness for as long as I needed, I would access very deep healing. Just don’t get stuck down there, she warned. I was offered shelter while I grieved and sorted out my next move. Somehow, I climbed out of the dark and back into the light and into my deeper work with the spirits of Gaia. Grief from loss seems to be a powerful teacher for me. Grief is an experience that wells up in the night.

In a more recent healing mentorship session, I was learning how to navigate the Void, a place of power for me. Entering this space of darkness, I hesitated as this space holds Great Mystery. Yet when I surrendered, I was held in the beauty of space—the space in-between. Owl was present as my guardian spirit. This Night Creature holds space, guides my direction, and shows me that I am safe to be present. What has come through this exploration is the realization that I am here to nurture space for rebirth and that is why I have had so many death and rebirth experiences—and trips to the VOID! As a healer and teacher, I have held space and acted as midwife to numerous rebirthing experiences. Spirit calls me a soul midwife.

Jabari, my friend, and I were in awe of the dancing fireflies as they lit up the dark trees at the edge of the Virginia forest. It was a magnificent display. I heard a text tone and glanced at my cell. My sister texted me that Uncle Bob had passed. I teared up and then looked back up at the fireflies and began to dance with delight. My uncle was a very enthusiastic and beloved science teacher and summer camp director before he retired. He was really fun to be with and these fireflies reminded me of him. He took his students out to explore insects and flying creatures. This was such a fitting celebration of his life. Then, I saw a glow in the grass. I looked down and there was a dying firefly. Its light was fading. Good-bye Uncle Bob. I love you.

The mysterious lives of creatures that are nocturnal are akin to the mysterious beings of the unseen realms. Often, they are invisible. You can rely on your creative imagination, clues, intuition, teachings from others, and the interactions you have had when you are in the night. When darkness sets in, wander in the forest or outside in the dark. It is something many of us loved doing as a child… navigating pathways without sight. It gets your heart beating with excitement and delight as you find your way through touch, intuition, and the call of your body feeling its way forward. 

Night time is also the time to be reflective, rest, and honor the expression of your emotional nature, creation power, being-ness, and surrender to what is unknown. When you get to rest your thoughts, settle into your body, and allow yourself some mysterious time with Night Creatures, you open to great magic.

Co-Creating with Night Creatures

• Night Creature Ritual

Spend time in nature in the dark. What do you see or hear in the dark that you don’t see or hear in the day? Are you afraid of what you can’t see?

• Lunar Rituals

Connecting with the night creatures, plants, fairies, and nature spirits is a joyful endeavor that can call forth amazing experiences and manifestations. Night Creatures are thrilled to meet you here. It is a great place to acknowledge your shadows or aspects of self that you deny or keep hidden. It is a place of accepting what is unknown… and unseen.

New Moon Ritual – New Beginnings

Bring your drum, rattle, singing bowl, or voice out in nature at night.

• Ask the beneficial Night Creatures to join you in circle for the good of all.
• Sing, drum, rattle, or tone a bowl to create sacred space, connect with the new moon, and honor the darkness of night and beings present.
• Take three deep cleansing breathes with intention to create new beginnings.
• Sit quietly and allow your new moon intention to arise and be seen. Ask yourself: What do I wish to co-create with nature this lunar cycle?
• Speak out loud to the Night Creatures to anchor your manifestation.
• Thank the Night Creatures and close the circle by releasing them back to their perfect place.

Full Moon Ritual – Illumination Time

Set up a nature altar with crystals and sacred items to celebrate light and illumination in your life.

• Light a candle to honor the spirit of the full moon as it illuminates your life.
• Give gratitude for all you have, all you have experienced in this lunar cycle, all you see around you as Mother Earth.
• Hold presence as you truly reflect on this lunar cycle. Allow yourself to feel your feelings as the moon calls up your emotional body to be witnessed, felt, honored, and loved.
• Say to yourself or others present: ____________(name): I see you, I feel you, I honor you, and I love you.