Transitioning

Journal Page for 52 Weeks of Pagan Art Journaling. Prompt: A Letter to Yourself in 5 Years.

Being a witch who works with all animals has always suited me but a few weeks ago I began to have this niggling buzzing in the back of my head wondering if I had a particular spirit animal. So, I did what this witch does when she has a questions she can't answer on her own; I asked the Universe.

Almost immediately, there was a desire to snatch up anything with a bee on it, to paint bees and was partnered up with a fellow artist who's very important title is Queen Bee. The Universe was giving me signs, but in the hustle and bustle of the move, I neglected to notice. Then the bees began to buzz about me a bit more often, in effect following me on walks in the park, hanging about while I was sitting on a bench near nothing but sandy riverbed; one landed on my hand and a light bulb of realization switched on in my brain.

These are my spirit animals; the bees. The mysterious, buzzing creatures of Spring and Summer. Insects who many people fear, despite my having never met a bumbling bee who, like an angry hornet, just stings you for the hell of it. Messengers of the Gods, travelers between the Otherworld and the realm of the living, bees are filled with wisdom and hold the secrets of communication. They are associated with life and death.

Shortly after the living bees began to keep me company, dead bees began to lay in my path. I found the first while walking home, laying in the shoulder of the road. I brought it home, set it on my alter with offerings of rose petals and honey and there it has stayed. Within days I had found several more, dead in the garden. I kept one more particularly lovely one, who seemed to have just layed down where I was intending to transplant my sage, and died.

Since the bees, I have encountered more dead animals then ever before. Many of them birds, but some smaller mammals such as hares and squirrels have been laying in my path as well. I say a few words over them whenever I come across them, and if the opportunity were to arise where was able, I would inter them and send them on their journey with offerings as I did with the bees.

I feel a transition forming on this crooked path of mine, this witch is being pulled and called in a new direction as it forks. I feel the call of the Wilds more strongly and Death has been leaving calling cards around. I find myself wishing to root around more in the muck, to get my hands dirty. I'm being drawn towards traditional witchcraft, folk magic, hedgewitchery. When spaced out and working in my personal art journal and during meditation, I've been scribbling sigils, though I know not what they mean.

I feel a renewed strength in myself, a renewed faith in my path. I hunger to learn more; to read, to experience. I wish to learn more about working with muck and bones and roots and the dead and dying animals who seem to be finding their way to me, though admittedly not with as much frequency as their living counterparts.

It all began with the bees.

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If you know of any informative blogs or books on the subjects of animal working, rootworking, bones or magical symbols, please, let me know and I will seek them out. It seems incredibly difficult to find books on Hedgewitchery or Traditional Witchcraft that are very good.