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Follow the Bread Crumbs… to New Discoveries

Follow the Bread Crumbs… to New Discoveries

Last updated on: November 14, 2023 at 9:29 pm by Esa

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Follow the Bread Crumbs… to New Discoveries 2023-11-14T21:29:58-06:00 Esa

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We have all experienced it – Something catches our attention, a word, a color, an animal that crosses our path. We call them signs, and yet I see them as bread crumbs because we do not stop with what we see. We start looking at it from different perspectives. We dig deeper below the surface finding another piece to our puzzle. Bread crumb leads to bread crumb, down a winding maze of discovery.

Our Deities / Guides work often in this manner. Giving us pieces, but rarely the direct route to follow. This is because growth doesn’t happen in the knowing, it happens along the journey of discovery. The transformation of Self happens within each step – it is only at the end do we realize the full scope of that change.

I will admit that sometimes it can be frustrating. We get impatient, and even knowing all of this, we still long to know where we are heading.

Illusions and Trickery

Often, when I hear others talk about the concept of trickster Deities, it is generally with a negative or fearful tone. I think a lot of this has to do with more modern societal and media perspectives, then with the experiences of these Deities.

Many people who walk with Deities labeled as Trickster Gods, such as Loki, know that there is always meaning and purpose to their actions. They are leading and pushing us in directions we would not have gone on our own because there is something along the way that we need. There is a difference between trickery for malice and trickery for purpose – and our Gods always seem to work in the latter.

In my experience all Deities, no matter who they are, use a certain amount of illusion and trickery to get us to see something, or discover something we wouldn’t have on our present course. As humans we can get tunnel vision. Focused on the path we are walking, without noticing all the intersections crossing it. Intersections with side quests that we need to understand and see the big picture.

Mazes and Labyrinths

Follow the Bread Crumbs…

You can think of it like a spiral labyrinth. Each point leading us to a new discovery and deeper understanding. Sometimes we may feel lost in it, like it is taking us further from where we were, where we thought we were going. The closer we get to the center, the more the fog starts to clear and we can see how it is all connected.

To follow the bread crumbs takes trust. Trust in your Guide. That They are leading you here for purpose and surrender to the journey. Trust in yourself. Feeling your way through and trusting the connections your intuition as it brings each piece together.

You may not end up where you thought you would. That destination was your assumption though, and not necessarily the reality. Humans are trained to think ahead, to anticipate, which is not a bad trait – as long as we also have the ability to realize that we do not have all the answers or understandings to see a larger picture. The true larger picture is usually seen in hindsight and rarely in foresight.

Sometimes it might feel like it has plopped you down on a whole new path. Is it really though? – or is it an evolution of the one you have been on the whole time. Another branch that we need to grow in order to strengthen, nourish, and complete the path. I went from being a healer in my younger years to a death worker in my older. To some it may seem like polar opposites, but it isn’t. They are two sides of one duality. The first to understand how the body, mind, and soul work – how energy works – how to use it alter and change aspects in the physical world. In death work, we are using the same foundations but doing it with a deeper focus and perspective of the spirit/soul. Traditional healers work to prolong life and focus on physical world needs. Death Doulas https://365witch.com/deaths-emissary-seidr-and-death-dula-course/ focus on healing the soul, helping it through transformations, preparing it for the journey ahead and letting go of the past. My path did not change – I just needed to be one kind of healer first before I could truly understand and embrace the type of healer I have become.

You never know what you are missing, what you do not know yet, or perhaps even where your true path lays, unless you follow the bread crumbs though.

My Recent Breadcrumbs

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article The Darker Season is Just Beginning to outline some Appalachian/ Ozark beliefs when it comes to the darker months. In there I spoke about the Howler, an Ozark cryptid and legend.

That same night my husband was dragging me out into the darkness to listen to a sound he has never heard before. In the first moment of hearing it, it sounded very similar to some other recordings I had heard of the Howler. We listened for a bit and discovered it was one of the new animals that is now inhabiting our valley – but that first moment immediately brought my mind to the Howler – and the Howler’s name itself would be a clue later.

A few days later I saw a selenite mala online that stuck in my brain, but the next day I went back and it was gone. I saw others, but not that one. I knew nothing of selenite https://www.healthline.com/health/mind-body/selenite-properties#:~:text=Selenite%20is%20said%20to%20be,you%20connect%20to%20higher%20realms. – I am not a big crystal person – so I went and looked it up. I could see some positive aspects that aligned with where I am but nothing that stood out or really made me feel anything… except the white color.

A few days later I got my daughter a pack of bracelets that contained with various different stone and crystals. She has never been interested in jewelry before, but all of a sudden she wanted these bracelets. When it got here, this one particular bracelet kept catching my eye a white stone one with gray looking cracks in it.

Finally I decided to look it up… and the stone is called the Howlite Stone https://geologyscience.com/gemstone/howlite/?amp . I was slow on the uptake – it took various different steps to get here – but it all became clear.

Howlite Meanings

Howlite

As a Death Worker, the elements of fire and water play key roles in my practice. Howlite is formed from volcanic ash and its interactions with water over a period of time. Transformation, using the elements of water and fire work in much the same way.

The chemical composition form an amazing structure of interwoven tetrahedrons . This is where I get a little nerdy blending scientific understandings with spiritual ones, because I can see the reflections of both. It would take a lot more than an article to explain the concepts, and there are many, but here is a great article to get you started if you are interested: Quantum Gravity Research – Are we living in the matrix?

From a spiritual perspective though, Howlite has various different qualities depending on where you are looking. It does have some similar ones as selenite such as healing, calming, and enhancing spiritual connections. Unlike selenite, from what I read on both, Howlite has strong a connection to transformation – considering what I said above, this makes complete sense to me and a core aspect of my practice and spiritualism.

One particular aspect really caught my eye though – Harmonizing. Harmonizing is about understanding and bringing two seemingly opposing/ different sides into a cohesive, attuned and balanced state. This has been a common theme through this past transmutation of mine – but it also speaks to the current state of my Divine and myself. A different state of embodiment that I will get into another time.

Howlite also possesses energies that are focused specifically to the Ancestral Soul. Bringing to the surface and remembering past lives. Exploring the depths of ourselves. Enhancing Spirit Walking.

There are many reasons why I needed to make my way to this stone, and I have only scratched the surface. I followed the bread crumbs to this point – now it is time to explore and experiment to see where else this is leading. There is purpose here, I see it already from a knowledge perspective, but only the experience of it will give me the right wisdom.

Ending Thoughts

When something catches your attention, when it sparks a feeling deep inside you, when it just won’t go away – Trust yourself – Trust your Guide – and follow the bread crumbs.

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About Esa

Author, Oracle, Guide, and Teacher of the Death's Emissary/ Death Doula course. "You are building your own path, your own connections, and shaping your own destiny. We can inspire others through sharing - we can Guide through our own experiences - but each of us must walk our own path." You can read more about the author here.

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