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The Healing Wisdom of Birds: The Spirit of the Dove, by Lesley Morrison

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

The dove is one of those birds whose imagery seems universal. It is a symbol of hope, purity, and faith, but many people would never think to look any deeper into its complex and ancient past. While researching for my book, The Healing Wisdom of Birds, I poured through a vast pile of mythologies, goddess images, and religious associations centered upon birds and found a history of the dove much more intriguing than the modern day archetype.

If we cast an eye back toward the civilizations of ancient Crete, Egypt, and Greece, we can see the dove predominate as a cultural icon, harmonizing the apparent duality of sexuality and spiritual love. Although revered as a symbol of peace in many places, the dove was usually seen as the embodiment of the Goddess and her divine powers. In Mycenaean iconography, the dove and goddess motif appeared as early as the 16th century BCE. This icon later spread throughout Greece, eventually evolving into the Greek goddess Aphrodite, the world’s favorite deity of amour. Aphrodite (Venus in the Roman pantheon) had the dove as her primary bird companion—not as a symbol of hope or faith, but as the profound essence of fertility that springs from sexual and emotional love.

In the ancient Minoan pantheon, the goddess who overruled fertility and procreation had the dove as her sacred bird. The dove personifies the idea of union with the source of life that sexual energy and spirituality both strive to fulfill. It is an enduring symbol of the soul but at the same time reveals the connection between earthly love and the human need to reunite with the divine. Doves, like the goddesses they adorned, have brought together the fundamentals of the human experience in mythologies, art, and many religions, unifying divine love with erotic love into one spiritual experience. This reveals to us the undeniable relationship between the two aspects of human nature.

But later cultures downplayed the dove’s role as the sacred image of sexuality and, as time passed, alienated the dove from its primal symbolic foundations. The dove remains a lingering presence in the modern world, adorning holiday cards and church paintings, but the dove carries such a complex wisdom that is long-cherished and universally celebrated. As the epiphany of Aphrodite, the dove was a potent force of fertility and higher love. Later, this bird came to be the sacred bird of Bacchus, the Roman god of fertility, wine, and ecstasy. Many of these associations are distant today, and frowned upon by more "conservative" organizations and religious belief systems.

But why the dove? How does a quiet, ground-feeding little bird come to evoke such potent imagery from culture to culture?

It is not a high-flying predator like the hawk, or an entertainer like the blue jay, or a graceful swimmer like the swan. And yet its mythologies abound and its presence celebrated for its quiet, humble, and unrivaled purity. The dove mates for life, expressing that old-fashioned ideal of loyalty and true love. They are affectionate and amorous birds, and demonstrate unconditional love toward their companions and their young. The dove reminds the universal mind of the contentment and joys of domestic bliss.

But it seems to signal something higher and more esoteric than just domestic simplicity. It is a purpose to be found, an ideal to pursue, and a gentle nudge toward the light of something more divine than ourselves. There are, of course, many such birds that inspire the human heart to inner exploration, but the dove carries a unique place in the grand sphere of bird symbolism. In the Tarot, the dove is seen nesting in the goblet on the ace of cups card, gracefully depicting the everlasting life of the spirit and the quest for the Holy Grail. When we look at history’s spiritual avatars, like Buddha, Christ, Mother Mary, and many powerful deities in comparison, like Zeus, Inanna, Venus, and Hachiman, we find the dove perching nearby as a loyal companion and sometimes, an alternate form.

Many stories of divine visitations include a radiant white dove as a symbol of God, or alternately, the spirit of God. In the Bible, John the Baptist commented how the spirit of God descended upon him like a dove (Matthew 3:16), and most people know of the dove’s role on Noah’s ark, signaling dry land after the flood. Many cultures, even today, have symbolically released doves as a gesture of freedom, hope, and most predominantly the release of the spirit from the confines of physicality after death. A more contemporary ceremony involves the releasing of doves at weddings to signal the promise of fidelity, love, and a peaceful home (although this is not a practice that holds the doves' best interests in mind).

Although the dove has such an extensive symbolic past, the bird’s fame, particularly as the symbol of peace, was solidified in 1949 by Pablo Picasso, when the World Peace Congress in Paris chose his lithograph, La Colombe ("The Dove") as its emblem. From that point, the dove became the symbol of the peace movement, and has remained such an integral part of the human psyche ever since. Many people in the busy modern world walk by such birds, indeed all birds, with very little thought as to what they once stood for. Researching over forty birds for The Healing Wisdom of Birds, I was cast back in time when everything had some kind of otherworldly meaning, when each individual bird was once a god or goddess, or carried a powerful message to the human spirit.

I hope the distant past of bird symbolism finds a new light in the world. As they inch closer and closer to environmental disaster, birds need a voice in the desolate wilderness of civilization. So the next time you wander outdoors, cast an eye upward to see what wise and ancient creature may be watching you from its perch—it may just be a god in feathered guise.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2011. All rights reserved.

I'm a 28-year-old male. The following strange events just started up again after stopping for a while. Every night when I lie down after turning out the light, I feel an entity on my bed. I can feel the mattress pressing down like someone is going to lie next to me. This starts at the foot of the bed and works upwards. (I'm awake when this is happening.) When this happens, I get bad dreams. Once in my sleep, I felt like someone was holding me down firmly. I couldn't get up. I also see shadows in the dark. One day I woke in a deranged mood for no reason, and when I got up to go outside, I felt it leave my body. My mother is a medium and she tells me to put keys under my pillow or salt and water in a cup under the bed. I really want to know what this is, and if I need an exorcism or something. When I was a child, I used to see my departed grandfather and hear voices. When my girlfriend is here or a friend is here, it doesn't bother me at all; this only happens when I'm alone. My bed is secondhand; do you think I need a new one? What should I do?

Kanoa

Astrea:

It would be unusual for you to feel you are being hounded by invisible spirits except for the fact that your mother is a medium! Naturally, you've inherited her sensitivity to subtle forces.

This entity you're sensing needs your help. She has some negativity around her that she doesn't want, and she's turning to you for help with dispelling it. She has chosen you to be the person who helps her leave the earth plane so she can find her own paradise.

Of course your mother is right. The two things she told you to do are great for fighting night terrors and bad dreams. Your nightmares are unrelated to your experience of having someone near or inside your person. Those phenomena will have to be dealt with separately from the creature that is haunting you.

Getting a new bed isn't a bad idea. It's probably not the reason this is happening, but wooden furniture can harbor spirit energy. Try that first, but be prepared for this to continue no matter where you are sleeping.

Moving to a different room might provide a temporary fix, but nothing is going to happen for good until you confront this creature and find out how to help her.

You and your Spirit Girl need to talk about what's going on. As crazy as that may sound, as long as you take the usual safety precautions (which your mother can advise you on), you won't experience any ill effects. Tell her that you will miss her when she's gone (and believe it or not, you will), but that she MUST move on. Your bed isn't big enough for the both of you, and she is beginning to cause you distress.

She'll understand. Tell her that you'll do whatever it takes to help her, and be sincere in your offer. This may have to happen more than once for her to get the message, but she WILL get it. She's stuck with you until you release her, so get on with this so you can sleep better and enjoy sweet dreams.

If there is some reason you've chosen to deny your ability as a medium, now is the time to examine that. No matter how hard you try to ignore it, eventually you're going to have to accept that the dead are going to want to communicate through you. If you don't want to be a medium, too bad: you'll have to face the fact that you're gifted like your mom is, and most likely lots of other people in your family are too.

Often psychic ability gets stronger with each generation no matter how you kids try to deny it's there. If you embrace your ability, it will cease to bother you, for you will then begin to learn how to control it.

*****

Susyn:

It sounds like you have an unwanted entity near you that you need to rid yourself of. Your mother's suggestions on how to counteract this experience are designed more for protection or deflection, and won't work on the type of spirit that is bothering you.

This entity could have come in with your secondhand bed, but even if you dispose of the mattress and purchase a new bed, you may still have a problem. It's much as it would be if you purchased an item that contained insects hidden within it: once they have come into your space, you must do more than get rid of their vehicle to be rid of them. You are going to need a spirit exterminator to take care of this situation.

Based on your description of waking in a deranged mood only to have it disappear when you leave the house, it's apparent that this entity has chosen to remain in your home and has attached itself to you. This could also be the reason you don't sense it when other people are around.

It sounds like this is a discarnate spirit, which is a spirit that is trapped between the earth and spirit world. It could have been in the house you live in before you moved in, or come in later. Either way, you will want to begin with a major cleansing of your room. If there have been incidents in other areas of the house, you'll need to cleanse them as well.

Begin by purchasing a sage smudge stick, a box of sea salt and some medium size natural quartz crystals. I recommend you purchase three crystals for your room, and if you need to cleanse the entire house, a crystal for each of the remaining rooms in your home.

Beginning in your room, light the smudge stick and allow the wafting smoke to cleanse the air. As you wave the stick around each area, command in a loud voice that every negative, uninvited and troublesome spirit leave the premises immediately. Be sure to wave the smoke around windows, door frames and all electronic equipment and outlets. I would also smudge around and under your bed thoroughly since this has proven to be a problem area.

Once you've completed the smudging ceremony, fill a small plate or bowl with some sea salt. Then place one of the quartz crystals in the salt in an upright position. Set three of these metaphysical air fresheners in your room, and one in each of the other rooms you feel might need extra protection.

If you still experience problems after this, I recommend consulting an exorcist, psychic or Spiritualist professional to clear this entity from your home.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.