Blue Fox Shaman

Fox: [singing] “By the time I get to Phoenix, he’ll be risin’…”

Bärchen: Are you channeling the soul of Glen Campbell, my dear?

Fox: Hah! No. Wish I had a voice like his, though. I’m getting ready to tell a story for the kids in the Soul Nursery.

Bärchen: Sounds cool!… Uh, what was that about a “Soul Nursery”?

Fox: You know, where all the souls start their journey… at least the part of the soul that’s in Non-Ordinary Reality. Why do you still look confused?

Bärchen: Uhh..

Fox: Everybody has a part of them that exists in Non-Ordinary Reality. Gotta be so, ’cause Reality grows out of Non-Ordinary Reality. C’mon, Bärchen, you know this.

Bärchen: I just hadn’t heard you put it quite that way before. I get it now. This must be the place where they teach the curriculum of the Collective Unconscious, just like family and school teach the Collective Conscious.

Fox: Uh huh. I’m going to be reading the story “Little Snow White” that the Grimm Brothers collected.

Bärchen: Now I get your little clue. You were thinking about the miraculous bird called the Phoenix, and you think of that when you think of the satisfaction of the soul’s longing, after it has passed through the flames of its self-sacrifice and has been purified.

Fox: Very good, Bärchen. But I prefer the story to the explanation, even if it was so nicely stated. We’re talking the Nursery here.

Bärchen: Gotcha. Hey! Any reason why I can’t come along and hide in the background and listen?

Fox: I don’t see why not. If worse comes to worst we’ll dress you up in baby clothes. Although that beard might be hard to explain…

Bärchen: Hah! Now I know you well enough to know you’re teasing… uh, right?

Fox: [winks] We’ll see. You might just look rather delicious in baby clothes.

Bärchen: I’m in trouble again, aren’t I?

Fox: Always, sweetie, always. [smiles]

[… in the Nursery of Souls, the day’s reading begins …]

Fox: Okay, settle down everybody! Billie, do not put your gum in her hair! Sit down now or I’ll turn you into a slug. [sotto voce] You’re practically there as it is… Let’s begin, shall we… [reading]

Once upon a time, in the middle of winter, when snowflakes were falling like feathers from the sky, a beautiful queen was sitting and sewing at a window with a black ebony frame. And as she was sewing and looking out the window at the snow, she pricked her finger with the needle, and three drops of blood fell on the snow. The red looked so beautiful on the white snow that she thought to herself, “If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window frame!” Soon thereafter she gave birth to a little daughter who was as white as snow, as red as blood, and her hair as black as ebony. That’s why the child was called Little Snow White. The queen was the most beautiful woman in the entire land and very proud about her beauty. She also had a mirror, and every morning she stepped in front of it and asked: “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all?” The mirror would answer: “You, my queen, are the fairest of all.” And then she knew for certain that there was nobody more beautiful in the entire world…

[… after the reading ends …]

Fox: Okay, everyone, time for your milk and cookies.

[… all the little Souls clear out, except for one …]

Fox: Yes, Olive, did you have a question?

Olive: Auntie Fox, what about the Mirror? What happened to it?

Fox: You’re interested in the Mirror that the Queen looked into every day?

Olive: Yeah, why didn’t Little Snow White get to look into it?

Fox: The story doesn’t say. But I agree, that is an important question. What do you think she should have done with it?

Olive: The Queen was very scary, but the mirror told her the truth. Maybe Snow White could have found out things with it too.

Fox: Something besides building up her own Ego, and growing more and more jealous every day?

Olive: I guess so. It just made me think.

Fox: That is a very good question, Olive. I think you should think about what you would want to do with a Mirror like that.

Olive: But, do I have a Mirror, Auntie Fox?

Fox: Indeed you do, and I think one day you’ll find it. But you have to be brave, like Little Snow White. And things may get hard for you, just like they did for her. But will you do one thing for me?

Olive: What’s that?

Fox: Never give up. Not until you find your Mirror. And use it to help others, okay?

Olive: I promise. Thank you, Auntie. Uh, can I go get milk and cookies now?

Fox: Of course! Bye, Olive!

Olive: Bye!

[… Olive leaves …]

Fox: You see, Bärchen, why I wanted to do this? Somebody had told me that they thought one of the Souls would become a Shaman.

Bärchen: I see!

Fox: That little one reminds me so much of you. Except you’ve grown kind of wrinkly of late. But I still love you.

Bärchen: Hah! I’ll take it. I love you too.

Fox: So, a question for you– how do you know whether you’re awake or dreaming? Or, maybe a better way to ask it is, how do you know which story you’re living in at the moment?

Bärchen: There was a time when I would have thought those were very different questions. But I get what you’re asking. I’m not sure I understand why you’re asking it, though.

Fox: I’ll try to clarify, but humor me for a moment.

Bärchen: Well, in one sense, who ever knows for sure. No, wait, I take that back. Who ever asks it, unless something happens that makes them wonder, and ask?

Fox: So, sometimes you “wake up” in the midst of a dream, yes?

Bärchen: Right. That’s when its fun to try to do something I know is impossible in Ordinary Reality. Like fly.

Fox: Everybody’s favorite, yes.

Bärchen: But then there are the times when I find myself asking “did I dream that, or did it really happen?” Not often…

Fox: Good. And then?

Bärchen: Yeah. But there are also times when I’m awake but the world seems different. Again, wait, let me re-phrase that… there are times when I see the world differently, even though I’m not aware of choosing to look at it that way.

Fox: Exactly. And sometimes that happens because of a story that you read, or hear. Sometimes it happens because of a memory, or even the memory of a dream?

Bärchen: Yes.

Fox: And how do you use your Mirror then?

Bärchen: When I become aware of that? Good question! I think it is more the fact that I know I have a Mirror, together with the understanding that I’m, actually, continually looking in that Mirror, even when I’m not asking it a specific question, that makes me realize that all of this comes from the same place. And now I know that that place, and the contents of my Mirror are from…

Fox: Don’t say it, Bärchen, the children are in the next room and you might scare them. Some things need a lifetime of preparation of the Ego before you dare think them at all.

Bärchen: Oh, right. Sorry! My lips are sealed.

Fox: How about relaxing those lips a bit for a kiss? I don’t think the children will mind if we do that.

Bärchen: Billie probably thinks its gross, but what does he know!?

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ΦΟΙΝΙΞ (ΑΥΡΑ :: ΒΡΟΝΤΗ) = The fabulous bird phoenix. The date-palm, Phoenix dactylifera. A palm-frond, as a badge of victory. A date. A musical instrument, like a guitar, invented by the Phoenicians. Perfume prepared from the fronds of the date-palm.
I Ching: 110:001 42. Increase / Increase
judgment: It advantageous to undertake something. It advantageous to cross the big river.
image: If you see good, imitate it; if you have faults, rid yourself of them.
alchemy: III. Phoenix and Dragon – 2. Identify
Tarot: Two ♥/Cups
upright: unity, harmonious partnership, mutual attraction, connection
reversed: imbalance, broken communication, tension, break-ups, disharmony, distrust

ΘΥΜΟΝ (ΟΡΟΣ :: ΛΙΜΝΗ) = Thyme (e.g. Thymus vulgaris)
I Ching: 100:011 41. Decrease / Decrease
judgment: Decrease combined with sincerity brings about supreme good fortune without blame. You can persevere in this. It advantageous to undertake something. How should this be carried out? You can use two small bowls for the sacrifice.
image: Control your anger and restrain instincts.
alchemy: III. Phoenix and Dragon – 1. Sense/Detect
Tarot: The Tower
upright: sudden upheaval or change, broken pride, disaster, revelation, awakening
reversed: disaster averted or delayed, fear of change
Rune: ᚨ Ansuz/Ash
poem: “Ash is ardent, straight and true, bright bedecked with heaven’s dew.”
keywords: spirit, breath, wisdom, stillness