When I first decided to start the Shamanism 101 course, I put it out to the Universe, or as I tend to say ‘the Great Whatever’, that I needed a sign that it was the correct path to take for me at this time. I asked to see feathers if the answer was ‘yes’, within one week.
Well, a few days later, I nearly ran into a display of feathers at the local Petsmart store. So, I started the course. Part of the requirement of the course is to have a feather, probably for smudging and directing energies – I haven’t gotten that far yet – but it is one of the few items I don’t have, that I need.
I found myself not wanting to *buy* feathers. I’m not particularly called to use turkey or ostrich or many of the commercially available ones sold in craft stores. For some reason, it *really* bothered me, and I have avoided obtaining a feather in this way. So, again, I asked the Great Whatever to send me some feathers, if a bird cared to donate them; I didn’t necessarily want to receive them because a bird lost a fight with a car or a cat or something.
Well, after a stressful week where I got a *surprise* roof on the house, the very evening they finished, I went out into the yard to look at the work, and I found 6 lovely feathers in the yard. I wasn’t sure what they were, but they were in lovely condition.
Turns out, they were Mourning Dove. Juvenile wing and tail feathers, 3 of each, perfectly matched. The next day, I went back out to the same place, under my native Texas tree I still have yet to identify, and I found myself staring into a nest, with a roosting Dove in it. We were eye to eye, and I snapped a picture of her.