Feb: The Wisdom of Owls

Exploring quiet flight, super mobile necks, tunnel vision, exquisite ear and eye coordination, strong legs hand energy in beak, wing and feet.
Waiting, watching, being of the night, harbinger of death, transition, fortune.
Athena’s animal companion along with the serpent. Lakshmi’s vehicle for wise good fortune.


RESOURCES AND REFERENCES:
- Audio Book/Book: What an Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman - especially the first 2 chapters.
- Also Jennifer’s Audio Interview in Science Friday
- Short You Tube of BBC flight sound test of Owl - it’s so quiet!
- Poem The Path of the Serpent Owl

SNOWY OWL

From Lisa: Maria Popova, creator of The Marginalian, recently published a bird divination deck using images and accompanying verbiage from John James Audubon. The deck is titled An Almanac of Birds: 100 Divinations for Uncertain Days. I love her method of creating them; before sleeping each night, she would choose a bird that called to her, read through its ornithologic description, and select the words and phrases that spoke to something that was on her mind that day. She'd sleep on it and then as she describes would "upon waking, reread the ornithological text and a kind of message would come to enflesh the skeleton of the noted words -  a divination from the bird, partway between koan and poem"

This poem above and the image (to the right) of the Snowy Owl are Lisa’s favorites.

Recordings for 2/8:

Practice: From 7am - 8.50am https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/tqLkf-fAjzENm3kFZ0uFlstXwEQgPtK9tItAZP6zzPU0B4pLNBPuDJOGZqKOCBSh.eMSaTQ-ZuY83ezz3

Discussion: From 8.55am - 9.40am
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/2wQVemvFvFF_V1XyfkoHnikeJZ_IXzNvE3iRR7zGk53JNQrToEZBEKhSPypBVr5x.NP1_fIP0t7xgXvcW

X-tra Practice Resources:

Audio: Brahma Vihara and Bird Meditation - 20mins MP

Audio: The Path of the Serpent Owl - Dharma Chat (10mins) + Metta Meditation - Diana Clark

Zoom: Slow Vinyasa focusing on Necks - MP - 35mins

Athena’s Owl Image