Monday 24 October 2011

The Shaman's Garden

The young prince of Bush Turkeys is building a luscious, leafy mound beside the garden steps which lead from the road to the house.  He began this monumental task last Tuesday, and has been going ever since.  His first choice of location was on my front path.  He came and got me and showed me his fine work, and I told him it wasn’t very protected there, and showed him a spot on the front embankment, protected by trees and elevated to allow water to run off.  He must’ve liked the idea, because he moved his project up there.  Every now and then, on a daily basis, he will make some noise around the front verandah, and when I go out he runs to the nest to show me.  I tell him it is beautiful, and he puffs out his wattle and runs off.

Yesterday, I was sitting on the steps watching him work on the nest, when his chosen female came in for a look at the proceedings, her wings held out like a cloak.  He immediately prostrated himself on the ground.  Then got up and kept digging a hole in the centre of the mound.  When the female came onto the building site again, he would lie down flat in the nest, wings outstretched, covering the hole.  He was so still, yet I could see him quivering.  She went closer, digging around, her wings and feathers puffed up.  Suddenly, he leapt up, but she was too quick for him and, in a flurry of feathers, got away.

The young prince kept going at the mound, making it bigger and bigger.  Then, the beautiful female came over to where I was sitting on the garden steps, and laid down beside me.  The prince jumped on top of her, holding her wattle in his beak.  He wiggled about a bit, then jumped off and kept going with the nest.

I thought it was a lot of trouble to go to for a few eggs, but then I read that the female can lay up to fifteen!  I was also a little jealous.  No man has ever gone to that much trouble to woo me!!  Perhaps I’ve always given in too easily, and he hasn’t had to go out of his way for me.  I think I’m learning a lot from these Bush Turkeys.  Whenever the chosen female comes near, the male lies down.  She goes away, he gets up - always keeping an eye out for her, and lying down if she comes within sight.  The male does all of the work, as he is also the one to guard the nest.  It’s amazing, and truly awe inspiring to be this close to nature in all its glory.

However, the Bush Turkeys aren’t the only ones courting.  The Goannas (Lace Monitor Lizards) have been having their honeymoon on the roof of my back verandah, which I can see from the window in the loft.  They spent a couple of weeks up there last year!   When she's had too much, the female sometimes gets away by herself –inside my ceiling!  The male is too large, and can’t get in, so she's alone.  For a while, she was in the wall cavity above the bedroom window, and, at night, I could hear her breathing.  It was quite lovely.


The first time she crawled into my ceiling, the male came looking for her through the back door. I went out to talk to him –such a beautiful creature –and told him that his girl wasn't inside the house.  He went off, down the vine-covered post, and into the ferns.  After a few days to a week of solitude, the beautiful female emerges, and he takes her - many times!  Between sessions of sexual activity, they lie in the breeze on the roof, touching each other.  It is a beautiful sight, and I once again thank God and the Sacred Mother for all that I am witness to in this place.

I realised the other day that my house is a great metaphor for my own process.  It is set down from the road, under a great canopy of trees, palms and dracaenas.  The inside of the house is dark, but when one exits the back door onto the verandah, they come out into the light, with views into the distant mountains.  I too have gone down into the Underworld, and spent much time in the darkness, to emerge into the Light.  And now, my view of the world is much greater, and from a higher aspect, than before going into the darkness.  I am Shaman, and my Divine Purpose is to keep working in the dark, in order to help bring all in the darkness into the Light.

Love and Light,
  xxx