Remember this: Some birds are for hunting and some are not. Either way the bird represents a little more than what is dead in your hand or on your plate. It gives you wisdom and nourishment. Treat it accordingly.
Feathers, in regards to structure and function, can be considered for thermal insulation, waterproofing, flight (or so gliding) and coloration but just as equally for protection and at times shelter. The last months of 2012, I was on this path to follow feathers left behind on the aptly called trail. Everywhere I went there was a feather of some kind.
Feathers have been symbols of positive things. To know you were receiving information from a virtuous person, a wax sealed letter bearing three feathers was commissioned to the receiver. These three feathers represented charity, hope, and faith. In dreams, it could mean truth, speed, lightness, flight, ascension, enlightened message, prayer, the ethereal realm and protection. In some cultures it was a symbol representing the judgments of the soul after death.
A feather is important. A feather could be considered by realists as evolutionary growth coming out the skin of a bird. Life has meaning. If you value something for what it represents then it takes on a whole new life even when it is seemingly lifeless. The feather’s meaning is the force of positivity that is supporting it. The feather becomes a light in what seems like the dark. Along the path, it could be considered an indicator to seek spiritual wisdom or in other words come to know yourself, where you stand in the world, how you act accordingly, and the effect you have on the ecosystem of reality in daily life.
You can also get feathers by doing a brave deed which in my case there are a lot of naked birds as my wall can attest. You have to earn feathers in the right context. If you go shoot something out the sky that is cheating. Feathers can be given as a symbol between people but it’s the feathers that you randomly find that the universe lays in your path. It boosts your life and reminds you that there is a great mystery out there and you have a purpose. It’s your personal perspective and how you carry through with your ideals.
Little birds are always overlooked as messengers with important gifts. Most people just stare at them. They are hours of staring fascination. We could learn a lot from the meager little songbird. These little birds are not eagles or hawks but scratch about looking for insects or landing on a twig near your face in a curious almost accusatory fashion of "I see you there. What are you doing?" This is the understanding I get from songbirds. They leave feathers but almost always are accompanied by a song. Songbirds also tell you the importance of communication because they are talking amongst themselves all the time. Singing their little songs.
When the mother bird sits abreast her nest she fluffs her downy under feathers to plop down on her eggs she has laid. This gives the eggs warmth along with rolling them to help the not-yet formed birdie inside a chance at life. As shelter for another life this gives it value. Once the little birds are hatched again the feathers must spread out to shelter them from the rain. This gives it the meaning of protection.
Once the baby bird grows up, it has to have blind courage to leave its nest to learn to fly and become productive. That gives the feather faith. As the bird becomes adept at maneuvering life, there will be times that arise when the feathers are used to combat other creatures that would take the birds life. This is a measure of strength, protection, and a bigger than life sense (as it is a form of bluffing). Trickery can save the bird’s life if the bird knows how to stay alive and defend itself. That takes guts. This gives it valor. In the military you will hear of medals called the Wings of Valor.
There is reproduction to consider. Feathers could represent bright displays of a proper mate. There are also different shapes, colors, and sizes of feathers but usage is closely the same. This gives the feather distinction, variety, beauty, and uniqueness.
In consideration of the bird taking flight, feathers are made to raise the bird up to varying heights and give them the ability to coast in order to move from place to place and find food. The feather is hollow, but each small strand that is stuck together and performs as a whole, can lift a bird up on an air current to a height that benefits the bird, if she is willing to just let go and have the wind carry her. Once she is there, all things can be seen. This gives the feather fearlessness, humbleness, and the ability to just be the feather doing its work. With this action there can be no thought of flight, only the moving forward as one would dive into rivers of water that is air and become one with the motion of an unseen force that moves all things. This gives the feather fluidity like water (for water can cut through the mountain), flotation (to rise above all things heavy), letting go to relax into the natural unrestricted world, and seeming defy gravity and the known way of the world in which heaviness/restrictions are defined. Feathers define transcendence from one spiritual place to another and travel in different realms.
I recently was doing some reading on this place out in Texas. In one of the drawings on the cave wall, there was an image of what looked to be a person accompanied by a spirit and laid across the form was what looked to be a feather. Feathers can also in some cultures mean moving in and out what is called the spirit world be it a very dangerous thing to do. That was during the time of archaic man. Even then archaic man understood the representation of what a feather could hold. Feathers hold unseen power and it is up to the receiver to discover what that power is. This power might be subtle or boisterous.
Either way, the weight of a feather in your hand as you hold it up will signify that you are on the path or the journey to somewhere, or someone important. Stay on the path, you will not be lead astray. Shelter yourself and others as the mother bird. Know when to spread your wings in defense. Take the leap of faith to dip forward as you take to flight. Rise up and feel the greatness around you and all you survey below. Be the unique individual that your outer feathers exhibit as you dance around with colors flashing. Be proud, but humble. Be the virtuous person that people will receive and let people know that you are brave. Pass your feathers on as they fall out and replace themselves to encourage others that they are chosen for a path as well, even if it is undefined or hidden from them until the right moment. When you see a feather found, think of the message you are to receive and pass on. Overall, a feather is a message of survival with the struggle of birth, life, and to death.
Don't make life meaningless.
Written by: W Harley Bloodworth
~Courtesy of the AOFH~
