A Bouquet of Feathers

Over ten years ago my Dad was fighting lymphoma. He was doing chemotherapy and radiation therapy and even a bone marrow transplant at Stanford.

Obviously it was very difficult for me and my family. I wanted to do something. I couldn't just sit there passive. I was reading a book called "Plant Spirit Medicine" This book talks about using the spirits of plants as much as their chemical properties to heal.

So i did some research and found a practioner in Oakland that would see my Dad.  My Dad was a good sport and came along. This healer (I don't remember her name) took my Dad's pulse and applied Traditional Chinese Medicine practices to him. But instead of using acupuncture needles she used different tinctures made from different plants to treat him. I think it must have helped because he agreed to return when the elder Huichol Indian shaman and plant spirit healer Don Guadalupe Gonzales Rios came up to Oakland.

He was a man small in stature but filled with a presence. He looked at my Dad and said,"You have been through alot." My Dad nodded at this understatement.  "I don't think I can stop the cancer but I can help with the pain", he said next. I appreciated this honesty.

He had my Dad take his shirt off and put it on the ground. He had two wooden sticks that had leather strings which held bunches of feathers. He dragged the feathers across his torso where the cancer was and then off and he shook them into a paper bag. It seemed like he was gathering the sickness into the feathers and then releasing it into the bag. At one point he had me move his clothes further away from the bag, as if the sickness could fall back onto his clothes and then reinfect him. After the procedure was over my Dad said that he felt a little better. Any better was good to me.

After this day I have never looked at feathers the same. To birds, loosing a feather here or a feather there is probably like us loosing a hair or skin flaking off. It is not a big deal. But feathers over all are magical.

Why are they special? I think because they give the gift of flight. We humans basically live in two dimensions (X-Y). Feathers are the gateway to the Z axis.

Sacred Feathers—The Power of One Feather to Change Your Life by Maril Crabtree is an excellent book. In the introduction she says, “Feathers! Magical, mystical, incredible feathers! Feathers of all shapes, sizes, varieties, and colors. Throughout history, feathers have served as spiritual symbols for shamans and priests, as symbols of royalty for kings and chiefs, as symbols of healing, or a symbol of sacred power for cultures as far back as the ancient Egyptian, Asian, or Celtic eras. These cultures possessed abilities to communicate with nature in ways that have been overlooked or forgotten in our town time.

“Yet feathers are more than history. For many, they are mystical signs, messages, or opportunities. They are scraps of synchronicity in the flowing patchwork of universal meanings. Feathers appear in unlikely places as assurances of well being, as a comforting sign of abundance in the universe, and as unmistakable messengers of hope and encouragement. Their ephemeral grace makes them the perfect emissaries of spiritual and emotional freedom.”

I have an eye for feathers. I look for them when I hike. I gather them up and place them in my car, or in my plant Jack, or in a vase on the mantel.

I am not sure why I need to collect them. It goes back to my issues with ownership I guess. I think I just like looking at them and enjoying how the patterns and colors affect my eye, and how they feel across the back of my hand.  If i 'own' them perhaps I will have access to their magic when I need it.