Happy Beltane! Welcome the Green Man & Messages from Eagle Spirit.
I truly do not know where to begin this story. It is becoming so intertwined, bizarre and amazing all at the same time with all of my other experiences! I think I will start with a dream I had about a week ago…
It was a dream of a dragon. Sadly I do not remember too much on the appearance of the dragon, but what I knew was that I had to remember the name. In my dream I was told it was an Ikaro (Icaro) dragon. As I woke from the dream I repeated Ikaro dragon in my head several times so I wouldn’t forget it. Of course I ended up fully awake and decided to get up and search the internet for “Ikaro dragon.” I had no idea if such a thing even existed. After a quick look I found something to do with a game but I knew that wasn’t it. As it was 12:30 in the morning I really didn’t feel like heading down a rabbit hole. Instead I went back to bed.
Two days later I felt the need to continue my search of Ikaro, which I soon learned is actually spelled Icaro. Icaro is basically a healing song is that given to shamans or shamanesses from plant spirits, usually after drinking a plant drink such as ayahuasca. Well, I’ve never even smoked marijuana (I’m a Rosé kind of girl), so I really don’t feel like going down the ayahuasca path either! However, I love playing with herbs as in making oils, bath salts, teas etc. The main thing I love to do is create essential oil blends. I guess you could say, this is how I communicate with plant spirit. I intuitively work with the oils, as well as researching about their different powers and healing properties.
Whilst I did not receive an actual song, I feel that in time, this will come, especially as I continue to work with the energy of plants.
A few months ago I became aware of the Green Man. The name appeared a couple of times and then left my awareness. I never ventured far with it. Again about a week ago, I was driving and saw a green car plate. “Green Man” popped straight into my head. I thought it was strange but felt perhaps it was something to take note of. As things go in my bizarre world, the Green Man made an appearance! Before I explain, I will travel back a few months…
I am blessed to live on acreage surrounded by a World Heritage site and state forest. In our Southern Hemisphere summer I started walking to a particular spot on our property where I found a tree that really called to me. I would go and sit with this tree. One thing that made this tree special was the eagle head on the trunk made from the tree’s bark. Eagles and hawks hold a lot of significance for me. They are often present and hawk spirit gave me quite a good lesson not too long ago!
When I first delved into the idea of animal spirit guides, Hawk spirit is the one that first appeared. We had to do a meditation to discover ours. Whilst the hawk did not appear in my meditation, it appeared in real life directly after. When I finished my meditation, I was called to go outside. I had to get something from my husband who was at the other end of our long driveway on his way out.
As I was on my returning walk to the house, I looked up and there it was. A hawk circling around. I quickened my step because I wanted a closer view of the hawk before he/she flew off. As I was walking towards the hawk I asked if this was my spirit animal, though I already believed it was, given the timing with the meditation. However, as confirmation, the hawk and Spirit left me a gift. As I stood in the place where the hawk had circled, there was a feather. It was a hawk feather! I was so amazed by such synchronicity. This special gift sits in my bedroom as a reminder.
Eagle spirit is very similar to Hawk spirit. Their messages are very similar. In many ways Eagle spirit appears to me more. I quite often see eagles, and the amazing thing is, when I ask to to see eagles as a sign for something, they appear. Over Easter I dreamed of 6 eagles! The day before Good Friday I saw an eagle. I knew I was being asked to keep my view wider than what I could see, because it really is about perspective. The ego gives you one perspective which is usually negative, filled with doubt and fear, whilst your heart will try to see things through the lens of love, compassion and understanding.
Back to my tree…I hadn’t been to my sacred place and I had felt the call on a few occasions to go and sit there again, but the weather has not been the most pleasant with so much rain. The call came yesterday, via the Green Man!
I follow a page on Facebook where I post my weekly readings, and of course others post theirs. There were two posts that left me absolutely speechless. I will share the excerpts from these posts, and the last one is the one that totally left me gobsmacked. My simple human mind is still grappling with it all but my spiritual self is just surrendering to it and trusting that it will all make sense, or not, one day! Here are the excerpts…
“I also do pick on message "go into forest. Go by intuitive walking. Stay nearby tree, which is calling you. And you will connect to spirit, who has message for you. Don’t be afraid of this connection. It won’t be usual one. You may even see this spirit. This message will be "eye opening" for you, and bring some long craved answers, that you look for regards question around family matters, that weights on your heart for long time."
This next one is the one that left me completely stunned!
“Sunday, is Belthane/ May Day and is a time of celebration of fertility, sacred unions, and rebirth. The Greenman is the God of the forest and wild things. His holiday is Belthane. Be aware and act accordingly. We are in the middle of a huge energetic shift.
"The Greenman is complex, he represents many things. Primarily he symbolizes the union of the human and plant worlds."
- Zera and the Green Man”
Zera and the Green Man! I have to say I was totally confused for a moment. I hadn’t written it, but there was my name, and my name is not a name I see often. Actually, I never see my name unless I’m looking something up. So here he is! The Green Man. I feel he is very much intertwined with my Icaro dream, and my work with herbs and essential oils, but he is also so much more than that. I did not realise he is associated with May Day, which is one of my most cherished and favourite childhood memories. Being born in Canada, we always celebrated May Day in elementary school. We would dance around the Maypole, weaving in and out with the colourful ribbons. I can still remember the pure happiness and delight I felt in my heart in this dance around the Maypole. It is something I always wished my own children could have had the joy of experiencing.
There are a few other things that are intertwined with the Green Man, but they involve other stories. Some long and some short. One day I will incorporate all of it together, somehow! The Green Man is an interesting figure, and goes by many names. He is found in ancient cultures. He is found in pagan traditions and he is even found in the churches of Christianity. He symbolises rebirth, especially in the plant kingdom as we see in spring when plants and seeds that were dormant come to life again. This is probably why some consider the Green Man to be Yeshua (Jesus), because he too was “reborn.”
So after seeing these posts about going into the forest and the Green Man, I knew I had to go and visit my tree, and it had to be May Day or Beltane as it is called. I didn’t quite know what to expect or what I would experience. Would I actually see the spirit of the Green Man? Did I want to see a spirit? For all of my experiences with the spirit world, I hadn’t actually seen spirits. I wasn’t quite open to it because there is a part of me that is a bit of a chicken! However, I did prepare for my journey to my eagle tree. Armed with crystals, essential oils, a rose flower as a gift and my Tibetan singing bowl, off I ventured.
I arrived at the tree and sat quietly for awhile. Then I played my singing bowl to the bush and the birds. I felt that perhaps the spirit of an elderly Aboriginal man was beside me for a short time. I sat quietly for a little while longer. The Green Man did not show himself, at least not in the way we think of seeing something or someone, but the Green Man was ever present. I then walked closer to the tree so I could touch it and I wanted to see the eagle head. To my surprise the eagle head was no longer there. It had disappeared. Perhaps the spirit of the eagle had spread its wings and taken flight. It felt like that was a message for me, to spread my wings and take flight. Well actually, as I write this, that is a message I have definitely received, on several occasions, but particularly now. I am sure that will be a message for many of you as well!
I did not “see” the green man this morning, but the message was, “Spirit is in everything and everywhere. It is in the light that It shines upon everything. Just because you cannot see Spirit does not mean It is not there. For without this light, you would not be able to see Spirit through its magical wonderland called, Creation. Spirit is The Light.”
The disappearance of the eagle on the tree also hi lighted the impermanence of everything and the ever changing nature of life. The birth, death and rebirth. It is in our lives daily. It is shown to us daily by the sun. It births a new dawn, a new morning everyday, and at night it leaves us, but only to be reborn in the morning. It is in the cycle of life. Everything is born to eventually die, and be reborn again in a different form.
Whilst I did not see the Green Man, his presence of course was in every living plant, rotting wood, fallen leaves and a variety of mosses on the rocks. He was in the still water in the form of algae. His presence could even be smelled in the air with the aroma of Eucalypt and another sweetness that couldn’t be identified. He was even present in the stench of froth on stagnant water. He appears from the underground fungi as mushrooms. He is in every blade of grass, weed and flower.
The Green Man provides us with food and plant medicine to heal ourselves, and in turn we will all eventually pay back our dues. When our time comes to depart this world, we will decompose and become the food and energy for the growth and regeneration of new plant life. Just as much as the Green Man gives us, he also takes. It is the nature of giving and receiving. It is the nature of life and death.
We, as humans are not separate from the cycle of life. We are a glorious part of it. We all walk this earth together and we are all connected to the intricate web of life. The sooner we all realise this then perhaps we will stop warring with one another. Perhaps then we will have respect for each other and all that exists on Gaia. Mother Earth was created for us, for all living creatures to live in an interwoven relationship. Even earth itself is not separate from the universe. Look at how the moon influences our tides, and even us as humans are affected by the cycle of the moon. Earth is intrinsically a part of our solar system, which is part of the Milk Way, which is part of many galaxies and constellations in a never ending universe.
So, today on the day of Beltane, the Green Man and Eagle Spirit encourages us all to expand our perspective, to look beyond our small selves to an ever expanding view of love, compassion, empathy and gratitude. It is time to embrace the state and action of “Ahava” which is the Hebrew word meaning, (to give) love. In Hebrew this is a verb not a feeling. As you give love to others, you also give love to yourself. Equally as you give love to yourself, you will also love others, because you will realise that you and everyone are one. We are not separate, from anything. With love we can heal. With love we can transform and create unity. We can transform this world into one of true beauty.
Happy Beltane!
Image courtesy of Wikimedia - Lauren Raine