36 - Lizard - Dreaming & 25 - Fox Camouflage flipped out while I shuffled Doubling today's Animal Medicine.

36

Lizard

Dreaming

Lizard . . . will you dream with me?

      Travel across the stars?

            Beyond the place of time and space,

                  There live visions from afar

Lizard sat lolling in the shadow of a big rock, shading himself from the desert sun.

Snake crawled by, looking for some shadow to coil up in and rest. 

Snake watched Lizard for awhile as Lizard's eyeballs went side to side behind his enormous closed lids. 

Snake hissed to get Lizard's attention. 

Slowly Lizard's dreaming eyes opened and he saw snake.

"Snake! You sacred me! 

What do you want?" 

Lizard calmly replied..

Snake spit his answer from his forked tongue. 

"Lizard, you are always getting the

best shadow spots in the heat of the day. 

This is the only big rock for miles. 

Why don't you share your shade with me?"

Lizard thought for a moment, then agreed. 

"Snake, you can share my shade spot, but you have to go to the other side of the rock and you must promise not to interrupt me."

Snake was getting annoyed. 

He hissed, "How could I bother you, Lizard? 

All you are doing is sleeping."

Lizard smiled knowingly. 

"Oh Snake, you are such a silly serpent. 

I'm not sleeping. 

I'm dreaming."

Snake wanted to know what the difference was, so Lizard explained. 

"Dreaming is going into the future, Snake. 

I go to where the future lives. 

You see, that is why I know you won't eat me today.

I dreamed you and I know you are full of mouse."

Snake was taken aback. 

"Why Lizard, you're exactly right. 

I wondered why you said you would share your rock."

Lizard laughed to himself. 

"Snake," he said, 

"You are looking for shade and I am looking for shadow. 

Shadow is where the dreams live."

Lizard Medicine is the shadow side of reality where your dreams are reviewed before you decide to manifest them physically. 

Lizard could have created getting eaten by Snake if he had so desired.

Lizard is the medicine of dreamers. 

Whether dreamers smoke you or dream you,

dreamers can always help you see the shadow. 

This shadow can be your fears, your hopes, or the very thing you are resisting. 

But it is always following you around like an

obedient dog.

If Lizard dreamed a space in your life this day, it may time to look and see what is following along behind you. 

It is your fears, your future trying to catch up to you, or is it the part of you that wants to ignore your weaknesses and humanness?

Lizard may be telling you to pay attention to your dreams and their symbols.

Make a dream log and record all that you remember. 

Be sure to pay attention to each individual symbol or recurring pattern. 

If you do not remember your dreams upon waking

in the morning, set an alarm for 2:00 or 3:00 Am, or drink a lot of water before you go to bed and allow your bladder to wake you up. 

Dreams are very important.

Pay attention to them.

Contrary:

If Lizard has turned up in the contrary position, you may be having a nightmare.

This is a sign of inner conflict. 

Look to the nightmare for a clue to the nature of this conflict. 

What are the feelings your nightmare causes?

Breathe through these feelings and let the sensations flow out of your body. 

See the truth in what your nightmare is suggesting. 

It could be the simple message that you are confronting your fears and therefore do not need to experience nightmarish events in your day-to-day life.

Another message of Lizard reversed is that you may need more sleep or dreamtime. 

It could also imply that you have a lack of dreams for your future.

Imagination is the door to all new ideas and creations. 

As you examine the dreaming process, you will find that the subconscious is processing all of the recorded messages it holds concerning the events you experienced during the day. 

These messages can be suppressed feelings bringing inner conflict, or they can be new ideas or goals, other dimensions of awareness, future events, warning signals, or desires and hopes.

In one sense, contrary Lizard is insisting that you look to your imagination for new experience. 

This is necessary when life becomes dull or full of boredom. 

On the other hand, contrary Lizard may also apply to those who dream too much, refusing to use the dreams as tools to manifest that same vision in their lives.

All levels of awareness are accessible through dreams. 

Remember, life is not always as it seems. 

Are you the dreamer? 

Or are you the dreamed ?

The lizard is a creature found in shady areas during the heat of the day, and is symbolic of the shadowy side of reality - the plane where that is coming into manifestation is being fashioned. 

This plane is sometimes referred to as the "Dreamtime" - the astral plane of constantly changing patterns and shapes.

Lizard is concerned with your dreams of the future and of formulating what you want to become physical realities.

Lizard is thus connected with your subconscious mind, and your hopes and fears.

It can help you to identify those recurrent problems that follow you around like your

shadow; they must be confronted before they will depart from you. 

Your aspirations must have emotion breathed into them to make them manifest.

Next time you encounter Lizard on your journey, look carefully behind you.

Record your observations in a log and note especially any symbols and signs so that you

can identify those that are recurring. 

Ask Lizard to help you to understand what you see.

Keep a dream log, too, so you can become aware of what is occurring 

both in

your dream state and your shamanic state 

of consciousness.

Overview:

Make your dreams come true.

Rekindle lost goals or desires.

Expand your vision.

Honour messages in your dreams.

 

25

Fox

Camouflage

Fox . . . 

      Where are you? 

          Under the ferns?

              Becoming the forest,

                    So I can learn?

Are you watching,

      Invisible to me?

Trying to teach me,

    To become a tree?

Wiley Fox has many allies in the woodlands, including the foliage, which offers protection and much medicine. 

Fox is seemingly able to vanish amidst the lush

undergrowth of the forest. 

This flora is Fox's ally. 

The ability to meld into one's surroundings and be unnoticed is a powerful gift when one is observing the activities of others.

Another natural gift of Fox is the ability to adapt to winter by changing colour, like the chameleon.

Its rich, white, winter coat allows Fox to blend into the snow when the leaves no longer linger. 

Fox medicine involves adaptability, cunning, observation, integration, and swiftness of thought and action. 

These traits may also include quick decisiveness, and sure-footedness in the physical world.

Fox's ability to be unseen allows it to be the protector of the family unit. 

If danger arises, Fox is johnny-on-the-spot. 

Nanih Waiya, Great Spirit in the Choctaw tongue,

honours Fox with the duty of keeping the family together and safe. 

This is accomplished through Fox's ability to observe undetected, without making others self-conscious. 

Fox is always concerned with the safety of family members and is an excellent talisman for those traveling far afield.

If Fox has chosen to share its medicine with you, it is a sign that you are to become like the wind, which is unseen yet is able to weave into and through any location or situation. 

You would be wise to observe the acts of others rather that their words at this time. 

Use your cunning nature in a positive way; keep silent about who and what and why you are observing. 

In learning the art of camouflage, you need to test your ability to pull this off.

One test of exercise that may be helpful to you is deciding to be invisible. 

In doing this exercise, you might try to visualize your body as part of your surroundings, full

of the colours of the location you are in. 

See yourself in your mind's eye, moving with

stealth and grace, unheeded by others. 

If you do it right, it works!

You can leave a party unnoticed or become as unobtrusive as a piece of furniture, watching the developing drama of the subjects you are studying.

While learning from Fox, you might also gain confidence in your ability to know instantly what will happen next. 

After observing for a while, you will become aware of a certain predictability in given situations and be able to quickly make your move. 

Fox medicine teaches the art of Oneness through its understanding of camouflage. 

This applies on all levels, from rocks to God.

With Fox medicine, you are being asked to see all types of uses for Oneness.

Much like the clowns at the rodeo, Fox can keep the raging bull from stampeding a friend or family member. 

Fox can use silly tactics as a brilliant camouflage move. 

No one could guess the sly power behind such ingenious maneuvers.

Overview:

Fox is associated with cunning, primarily because of its ability to observe the movements of others without being seen. 

As a power animal, Fox stresses the power of

adaptability and integration coupled with the quality of quick-thinking and decisiveness

when the time is ripe.

Power animals always express the positive aspects of the characteristics they share with their physical counterparts, and Fox is not exception. 

Fox as a power animal teaches not the cunning of deceitfulness, but cunning of discretion; not the wilyness of being sly, but the willingness of being unobtrusive. 

It also stresses the importance of waiting patiently for the appropriate opportunity to make your move.

It is possible that your principal problems derive from your desire to prove yourself, and to make your presence felt. 

If you are feeling threatened, or the victim of

controversy and criticism, or envy and jealousy, you are in need of Fox's help in becoming less noticeable and in achieving your aims unheeded and unimpeded by others.

Camouflage and be less noticeable.


Blend in.

Avoid being the center of attention.

Become protective when needed.

Contrary:

Watch out for wily Fox if this card has appeared reversed! 

Someone may be watching you, and trying to figure out your next move. 

If you look deeper, however, it may be that you are watching yourself to prove to yourself that you exist. 

If you have a "wallflower" to the point of disappearing, you may need to decide that you are worth noticing.

Contrary Fox is as foolish as it is cunning, and you may have fooled yourself into believed that your low self-esteem is due to your being born plain or having an ordinary life. 

This is camouflage of a different sort, in that you have camouflaged your true desire to experience life with friends, with you, and with purpose. 

In any case, you are put on notice to be aware of apathy and self-induced boredom. 

You may have to dig deeply to find what excites you enough to scurry across the wasteland of your dulled senses and live.

Contrary Fox may also be telling you that you have become too visible. 

In climbing to a place of recognition, oftentimes the envy or jealousness of others is thrown

in your face. 

If you are feeling attacked, withdraw. It may be time to assume the attitude of the hermit and deck yourself in the cloak of invisibility.

To right contrary Fox in this situation, call on Armadillo and name your boundaries. 

Then call on the family's protector to show you the art of camouflage. 

Once out of the line of attack, you can resume the role of being your "foxy" self.

Become Fox and feel the joy of knowing the playground of your life. 

You may just find the chicken coop full of intriguing morsels of delight.

Source: 

Sams, Jamie and Carson, David. 

Medicine Cards 

Santa Fe: Bear and Company, 1988