Dragonflies and Butterflies Tell Me I'm All Right...

Sitting on the lawn with a newer deck I’d recently purchased—Thoth tarot cards. I felt called to meditate on them, to learn them more. Instead of doing a reading. There is so much detail and information embedded in each card…a little overwhelming. I decided to just start…to choose just one card. After putting them in order, I asked the Universe to guide me to the right card to study. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked down and saw a hair sticking out from my deck…a sign:

I carefully found the card and looked at it…Ace of Cups.

I knew Aces stood for beginnings. Cups for water…emotions. I studied the picture but not a whole lot jumped out at me until later. Instead I opened Robert Wang’s book, The Qabalistic Tarot and read what it said.

“We begin the process of accelerating our own spiritual development, or return, by the invocation of our own Kether. This Kether unconsciously guides and directs us. The very act of calling attention to the "Light above our heads" brings about a subtle activity on the Inner Planes. It is a conscious affirmation of the Personality in manifestation of its mutability, and that the source of all true life is above. As the very Universe begins and ends with Kether, so all work of spiritual development, whether meditative or ritualistic, must begin with an invocation of the Highest.”

This might sound like mumbo jumbo, but I’ll try to explain from my limited knowledge. Kether is the very first, top point on the Tree of Life. Kether is the deepest and most fundamental expression of what God means. Honestly, I don’t think God can be put into words. Whether you call God God, Source, Divine, Goddess, it’s all the same. At the end of the day, there is a divine energy/light that is so amazing and powerful we can’t look at it directly and survive, but we come from it and long to return to it. “The source of all true life is above”…”as the very Universe begins and ends with Kether, so all work of spiritual development must begin with an invocation of the Highest.”.

The God name in Kether is Eheieh in Hebrew, meaning “I Will Be”, a name which has been likened in its sound and meaning to breath.

The Hebrew letters for Eheieh are read from right to left. After thinking about this card and then meditating, I wrote the following in the margin:

*manifesting “I Will Be” - Eh heh ye - giving breath to an idea…bringing an idea into existence

The first letter, Aleph, has no sound. It’s a silent letter. The second and fourth letters are Hey, and the third is Yod.

“Thus when any Ace appears in a divination, it stands for great power”.

The more I study this the more my mind is blown. Shirley Peterson’s The Secret Science of Numerology gave me a way to connect the dots. Everything in the Universe is made up of wavelengths of energy. Elements are the same, whether on Earth or the Moon, or the Sun.

"They are composed of basic molecules of energy. The ancients say this energy is made of God Himself: being the Creator of all there is, He had to create from the energy of His own ideas and the material of His own Being…each invisible force has its own set of vibrations, starting with low frequency domestic energy…sound, radio, television, radar waves, microwaves, infrared rays, X-rays, and gamma rays, all invisible around us but powerful when harnessed” (Peterson)

I knew instinctively I wanted these Hebrew letters tattooed on my arm. To remind me every time I look at my arm to think of what I want to bring in to my life and who I want to be as a person. Yet I wanted to add another component to the tattoo. I had heard about ‘unalomes’ and I loved the idea.

"The unalome symbol represents the path to enlightenment in the Buddhist culture The spirals are meant to symbolize the twists and turns in life, and the straight lines the moment one reaches enlightenment or peace and harmony. The dots at the end of the symbol represent death, or the moment we fade into nothing. There are multiple designs for unalome tattoos, or you can create your own and add your own elements, such as the lotus flower to represent new beginnings” From yogiapproved.com

Instead of a lotus flower, I wanted a dragonfly. The summer of 2017 I was struggling with post-partum depression after having my son in December 2016. I was drinking more, and so overwhelmed and depressed I couldn't see how things could possibly get better. My mind was so dark that I had started to believe there was no way out. The idea of slipping away became more and more enticing, to the point I had thought about how I would do so. I didn't mention how I was feeling to anyone.

My dad had put together a fishing trip for my family, and normally I would have been enjoying myself. But my nerves were so frayed with anxiety, and I was so tense and brittle I felt like I could easily snap. During the first day of fishing with my dad, we were in his boat, fishing. Dragonfly after dragonfly landed on my pole, on me. They were blue and beautiful. Mesmerized, I watched them. I felt like they were a symbol for something, so I looked it up.

“In almost every part of the world, the Dragonfly symbolizes change, transformation, adaptability, and self-realization.”

The dragonfly is iridescent...the magical property of iridescence is associated with the discovery of one's own ability by unmasking the real self and removing the doubts one casts on his/her own sense of identity.

They can be a symbol of going past self-created illusions that limit our growth and ability to change.

The dragonfly has been a symbol of happiness, new beginnings and change for many centuries. It means hope, change, and love.

Eventually my brother pulled me aside and after he asked what the hell was going on with me, I opened up and told him everything. I couldn’t stop the tears as he hugged me and told me it would be okay. He convinced me it was okay to get some help, and there was no weakness or shame in needing an antidepressant. His sage analogy made sense to me as a nurse; "It's no different than your brain having an infection. You just need an antidepressant for a little while." As our dad pulled up, I got in the back of the truck and I felt a little lighter, a little bit better. I laid on my dad's boat and stared at the night sky for a few hours that night, thinking, contemplating. I made an appointment with my midwife that week and started taking an antidepressant to get me through until I figured out why I was so unhappy. This memory is just one of several as to why dragonflies giving me so much hope.

I told my boyfriend [at the time] that I wanted to get a tattoo. That afternoon. I had gotten one before on my wrist from a local shop, and I told myself if they could get me in I was going for it. I called and they told me they'd had a cancellation and if I could be there at four, they would be happy to help me out.

Getting the tattoo didn't hurt at all. Once it was done, I looked at it and loved it. The artist commented the stress of doing this tattoo might have taken a few years off his life, which surprised me. I thought it was a pretty easy, simple tattoo, not realizing the fine lines meant no room for error on his part. That he would realize the significance of this tattoo for me and take such care meant a lot.

Whenever I see this tattoo, I think of my goals for myself, my future. It reminds me I'm a journey, and it's not always going to be straight and easy...there are and will be difficult times, but if I keep my faith in my spirituality and try to be the best person I can be, it will always be okay.