The Eagle’s Message

Yesterday was the time I blocked off time for my New Year’s mini retreat (with myself).  This is a ritual I carry out every year at the first of the New Year. The time is spent on reflecting over the past year, my goals I had set regarding all areas of my life, and how I fared through the year in accomplishing those goals.  I also look at how I might have done growing through trying times and what I learned. I spend time journaling it and then setting my personal vision for the New Year.

As I hunkered down in my favorite spot for writing (which I call my Eagle’s Nest), I caught sight as a bald eagle circled outside the upper level window. As I watched it circle and soar, I was taken by its beauty and found myself reveling in the gift of the sighting. It landed in a tree in the distance where it joined the company of four other eagles.  As I have written about before, the animal, bird, and insect kingdoms offer us a message if we are aware and chose to receive the message brought to us. 

When I am gifted with a sighting, I reference Ted Andrews’words from his book Animal Speaks. (Andrews, 1999).  My book is worn with pages loose from its binding as I have used it for many years. I am always excited when I have been gifted and need to refresh my mind with the message coming to me in the moment.  I love that the Eagle was blessing me with a message for my New Year so spent some time with the message that was sent my way. Eagle is a great omen for the New Year. And since this is the time of the year we may sight them here in Central Nebraska, you may want to be on the lookout as well. Here is some of the tidbits of what the message may be from an Eagle sighting.

Eagles are associated with illumination of spirit, healing and creation.  Eagles symbolize the ability to be connected to Earth with their innate and skillful ability to hunt and yet to soar to great heights. Eagles remind us about being of the Earth but not in it. In early Christian mysticism, the eagle symbolized resurrection.  To the Pueblo Indians, the eagle represented symbols of greater sight and perception as it was seen as a bird that could soar upward until it passed through a hole in the sky to the home of the sun.  The bald eagle symbolizes the feminine and its feathers are considered linked to Grandmother Medicine which represents wisdom, healing and creation. 

Eagles symbolize heroic nobility and divine spirit and are considered messengers from heaven.  Eagle medicine encourages you to take on the responsibility and the power of becoming so much more than you now appear to be.  It may indicate that events will now fly faster and the repercussions for everything you think, do or say (or fail to think, do or say) – positive and negative – will be both stronger and quicker. It indicates the opportunity to accept a powerful new dimension to life, and a heightened responsibility for your spiritual growth.  And the eagle reminds us that this is done by learning how to move between the worlds, touch all life with healing, and become the mediator and the bearer of new creative force within the world.

Eagle medicine brought a lot to me yesterday as I contemplated the vision I have for my life in 2013. It reminded me to be of the world, but not in the world.  It also reminded me that soaring high above the scene makes it easier to remember that we can find another perspective to life if we take ourselves out of the drama of the moment and remember that we are more than our human experience. I was reminded to take responsibility for my spiritual growth and use the events from 2012 to grow and learn so that in 2013 I may call upon my past experiences and lessons with greater wisdom.  I am also reminded to be respectful that I have a responsibility to touch people in loving and kind ways. And finally, I am reminded to stay present to the messengers that come my way as the moments are filled with awe if I am aware and present.

Works Cited

Andrews, T. (1999). Animal-Wise. Jackson: Dragonhawk Publishing .