A fox frequently visits me and Brigit and Gracie, my inquisitive cats, at dusk.
Near the edge, where forest meets grass, I discern the subtlest movement, described in my below poem as a “playful canine-feline soul — a claret-ochre coat, a mist-crowned tail wagging smoke-signal benedictions” to a presence beyond sight’s comprehension.
Yet her screech, akin to that of the bean sídhe, presages pain, deeply alive and tightly interwoven within the epigenetics of DNA.
This four-legged being is both betwixt and between wayfarer and mentor, dancing with the Great Spirit within the liminal heaviness of disconnection from people; fauna and flora; inner and outer worlds; and the cycles of life, death, and rebirth.
Will we simply toe this margin between sleepwalking and embodied presence? Or will we walk with the fox, engaging with creation?
Quiet reigns in this twilight, an intentional pause, an interstitial space where dark dances with light, slowly … gently … just is. I inhale, then a realized sigh of vibrating oneness enters my being, living blood of my body, both physical and otherwise. I am a multi-longing strand continuously woven, a conscious musical motif plucking Tapestry’s harp, a semibreve fox exploring: Playful canine-feline soul — a claret-ochre coat, a mist-crowned tail wagging smoke-signal benedictions of kinship and awe. Yet, a sleepwalking world spiritually hungry is starved of graciousness in the presence of Mystery’s flowing root. The severity of literal logic not balanced by a softness, or the beating rhythms of Sea, Earth, and Sky, will flatline heartbeats. But, as bean sionnaigh, I am Otherworld guide-trickster, quick to alchemize the Hustle-Bustle Clock World into Sacred Life Nourishment. Quiet reigns in this twilight, an intentional pause, an interstitial space where dark dances with light — that threshold of transformation.
Notes
In Irish folklore, the bean sídhe is a keening female spirit and death harbinger.
Bean sionnaigh is Irish-Gaelic for “fox woman.”
In the above picture, you will notice “River” (Card 10, Journey Suit) from The Rooted Woman Oracle, (author
and artist Hannah Willow).