THE MYSTERY OF FEATHERS AND FLIGHT
Feathers fascinate humans. We love to hold them, wave them in the air, stroke our cheeks with them and even make bedding from them. Give a child a feather and the child will begin to play at being a bird in flight. We are all amazed by a bird’s ability to fly with something so fragile and yet so powerful. Humans envy birds their ability to fly, and we know that ability is tied to feathers.
Feathers are symbols of the accomplishment of rising from the terrestrial world, of being free of the gravity of the mundane world. They are symbols of balance and of the wind. They are commonly used to symbolize all creator gods and goddesses-those who breathe life into humanity.
A feather is actually a specialized skin scale. It has a central shaft with hundreds of filaments held together by an intricate arrangement of barbs and scales. A single wing feather can be made up of more than a million parts. There are four kinds of feathers-flight/wing feathers, contours, down, and filoplume.14
The flight feathers are strong and vaned. They are stiffer and larger. Flight feathers usually fall into several categories: Primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, coverts, and tail feathers. (Refer to the illustration on the following page.) Primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries lift and propel. They also can help reduce drag. They link us to those archetypal forces that can help us to achieve new heights in meditation and move beyond elements in our life that are dragging upon us.
Examples of the Different Types of Feathers
Primary flight feathers usually fall out in pairs, one on each side. Only when one pair is replaced does a second pair begin to fall out. This prevents the bird from becoming grounded and thus endangered. In this way flight is always available. Flight feathers thus reflect a rhythm of two, a rhythm that helps connect you to the feminine energies of creative imagination, birth, and intuition. It is not unusual to find that feathers come to you in pairs. You may find one on one day and then two days later find another.
Coverts are smaller, and they grow along the forward edge of the wing, making the wing thicker in front. This causes air to flow faster over the top of the wing, reducing the air pressure and providing lift. They can help align us with those forces that facilitate out-of-body experiences. (Refer to “Experiments in How Flight Occurs” on the following page.) Tail feathers are used for steering and for braking. They can help us to align with those forces that can help us steer our life and put the brakes on in those areas needing it.
Contour feathers are large and fern-shaped. These are often the feathers most commonly found. It is what most people think of when they think of feathers. They hug the outer body, giving it a rounded appearance. This enables air to flow freely past the body, thus making flight easier. This is why any feather can be used to access those energies that will enable our own personal flights, be they flights of fancy, inspiration, or achievement.
Down feathers are found beneath the contour. These are bits of fluff and they are exquisitely soft. This is what provides insulation against changes in climate. Some contour feathers have the fluff or down attached. Down feathers grow continuously, and thus they are symbols of continual protection. Even when the tips of the down are worn away, they become a powder that helps oil the bird’s skin. Down feathers can be wonderful tools for healing skin conditions, developing psychometry, and for stimulating the entire sense of touch.
They are also excellent for developing or controlling the gift of empathy. Empathy is an ancient healing gift with many variations. With empathy your body becomes an actual barometer for others. The aches, pains, emotions, and attitudes of others are felt within the empathic person’s body as if they were his/her own. This can create expressions of hypochondria if not balanced, but it can also be developed to the point in which you can take another’s illness into yourself. Then you heal it while it is within you. Empathic individuals need to be able to distinguish whether what they feel daily is from themselves or from those they have been around. Down feathers help in this discrimination process.
Down feathers also muffle the sound of flight, so down feathers can be used to help you accomplish and achieve without alerting others and thus encountering unwarranted resistance. They enhance secretiveness. They also help to quiet emotions, thoughts, and even pain.
The fourth kind of feathers are called filoplumes. These are usually clustered around the base of contour feathers. They often have a downlike appearance, and most experts are unsure exactly what purpose they serve. This mystery of purpose reveals their significance to us. Learning to meditate with these feathers and to align with the archetypal energies behind them will help you in discovering your own purpose in life. They can be used to link with those energies to help you uncover and explore the mysteries of your own life.
These four kinds of feathers serve three primary purposes: (1) they give great lifting surface without weight, (2) they can be fluffed by the bird to trap air and insulate against the cold, and (3) they provide a protective coat.
When a feather comes into your possession, it can help give lift to some area of your life. It can be used to help insulate and protect you against elements within your life. The kind of feather and the bird from which it comes can help you determine the specific elements in your life, from which it will help lift you and protect you against. For example, a dove is a bird that is often associated with peace. To the Hopi, it would lead them to sources of water. A dove feather can thus be used to protect your own sense of peace and help you to find that which will quench your greatest thirst at the time you encounter the feather.
EXPERIMENTS IN HOW FLIGHT OCCURS
Birds can move upward in two ways. By reducing the air pressure above the wings, the bird is pulled up. By increasing the pressure below its wings, it is pushed upward. Pushing and pulling are part of the aerodynamics of flight for birds. Movement is necessary. The bird must either move through the air with its flapping or the air must move past the bird.
Experiment #1: The Force of Gravity and Air Pressure
Fill a tin can with water, and then cover it with a piece of cardboard. Hold the cardboard tight against the top of the can, sealing the top, and then turn it upside down. Let go of the cardboard. The water will stay up in the can, held by the upward push (air pressure) beneath the can. The upward push of the air pressure is greater than the downward pull of gravity.
Experiment #2: Daniel Bernoulli’s Principle (circa 1738)
Air flowing over the top of the wing lifts a bird into the air. Hold a paper in front of your face and blow on it. This is air pressure. As you blow, the paper moves away because the air pressure is greater on your side of the paper than on the other. It moves toward lower air pressure. A wing does the same thing. As air flows across the top of a wing, the pressure is reduced on top. If the lift is greater than the weight of the bird, it rises. Next hold a sheet of paper by one end about two inches in front of your mouth. Allow the other end to lay limp over your hand. Blow gently on the top, and the loose end will start to move up. Blow harder and the paper will rise. This is what helps a bird to rise.
Feathers are, of course, necessary for flight, but every kind of flight requires a unique wing construction. The bone structure of a bird’s wing is similar to the structure of the human arm, except in the hand section. In the bird, what would be fingers in a human are fused and longer. This gives the bird’s wings greater strength, but it also reflects the idea that birds are the extended kin of humans.
Different birds have different styles of flight, and thus each bird is differently shaped. Fifty years ago, scientists could not understand how a bee could fly. Aerodynamically, its wings were too small for the size of its body. They now know that the bee moves its wings faster, giving it lift and flight. The penguin can’t fly, but in water it uses its small wings as flippers. It actually appears to fly through the water, just as other birds do through the air. The ostrich uses its wings as a rudder to help it steer while it runs at speeds up to 40 miles per hour. This should remind us constantly that, regardless of appearance, we not only have the capability of flying to new heights, but we each need to do it in the manner that works best for us.
There are four common kinds of wing structures. You should examine the wing structure of your bird totem to see what kind of flight it will help you with in your life:
1. Big, long broad wings give maximum lift and great ability to soar and glide.
2. Small, swept-back wings give great speed and the ability to maneuver.
3. Long narrow wings usually reflect lots of energy to flap and also an easy ability to glide.
4. Short, broad and arched wings give great power with an ability for fast take-offs.
For any bird, take-off and landings are the two most dangerous moments in the flight. This has great mystical significance, especially when associated with mediumship and the movement into new dimensions within your life. Little or a lax preparation will create problems. Learning to leave the body and to re-enter takes much time and practice. To open to new dimensions in balance and control is important to avoid unnecessary problems. Individuals-like birds-that do not learn appropriately or try to rush it, usually end up injured in some way. Birds can teach us how to accomplish this safely and easily.
Several factors affect your ability to take off and land in any endeavor in your life, just as they do with birds. The speed, the size of the wings, and the angle of the wings all have an effect. The heavier and larger the bird, the greater its need for some outside help to get off the ground. A condor, because of its size, either needs a strong updraft from a cliff’s edge, or it must find an upward-spiralling thermal to get enough lift. A loon can not take off from land. It must run across the top of the water to build enough lift. How does your bird totem successfully take off? This will tell you how best to initiate activities in your life. Do you, like the condor, need an outside source to give you the lift?
Landing is more difficult than the take-off. It has to do with ending stages and making transitions in your life. A fresh egg is safe while in flight until that flight is suddenly stopped by the ground. For a bird, the intended branch may sway, a gust of wind may roll the bird, and the legs must absorb the shock of the impact. This reminds us that no matter how good we are at flight we have to be able to bring that ability back and ground it. In the physical world, the environment often changes, and we must be able to adjust to those conditions. We must be flexible and strong enough to shift our energies accordingly.
In the next chapter, you will learn simple but powerful techniques for using feathers as a sacred fetish. These techniques will help you open your intuition and access the archetypal forces behind the bird and its feathers. It will help you to understand the language of birds. More importantly, they will help you to achieve new creative heights for yourself in any area of your life that you desire.
CONFIRMING THE FORCE OF FEATHERS
Before the exercises of the next chapter can work for you, you must first come to recognize how feathers are links, not only to birds but to the forces and energies of the air. Many traditions have spoken of the varied expressions of Nature. They have often described entire dimensions of life associated with the elements that are generally invisible to the human eye. These we know more commonly as members of the Faerie Realm-the fairies, elves, devas, and spirits that work with and around humans through specific elements.
Folklore and mythologies are filled with tales of beings associated with the element of air. These beings range in size from the tiniest of sylphs to great storm devas that move the winds and bring changes in the weather. They often appear delicate and those of the larger size may actually appear angelic. They are around when anything associated with the element of air is honored. Anyone who works with bird totems will have contact with them.
Fairies and spirits of the air often work through birds to assist humans in the initiation of air, the understanding of the workings and powers of the mind. Through birds, they help us in opening to wisdom and to everything discussed in chapter six.
Feathers are direct links to them. They call their forces into play. From the softest sigh to the strongest gale, the spirits of the air are found. Wherever birds live or are found, they are found as well. Many fairies and spirits of the air come to humans in the form of birds and other winged creatures.
Through them we can more easily connect with the archetypal energies of birds. Anyone who works with any element in nature has contact with the Faerie Realm of life---whether they are conscious of it or not. The more conscious of it that we become, the easier it is to work with any creature of their realm-in this case birds.
Many spirit totems that are birds are simply spirits of the air using the bird form to connect with humans more directly. Through feathers we can call forth birds or those fairy beings associated with the element of air. Through feathers, we can learn to make our wishes reality. They empower our thoughts, and through them we can invoke Nature to confirm this link for us. The confirmation process of a link with your bird totem or of an air spirit working through the bird is simple. Air makes possible the power of sound and the movement and activation of thought. When the connection with your bird totem is established or needs to be confirmed by you, simply perform the following five steps:
1. Choose a day on which the air is perfectly still. Take any feather, go outside and sit under a tree.
2. Allow yourself to relax and just breathe deeply.
3. Then slowly raise the feather above your head with both hands, and then lower it to just in front of your mouth.
4. Now slowly and gently blow upon the feather. As you do, move it with your hand as if it is being carried by your breath.
5. To enhance the effect, whistle a soft childhood tune that you remember upon your feather. If you have a penny whistle or flute, tie the feather to it and play the tune.
In just a few minutes, the air spirits and archetypal forces linked to the feather will become active. The tree leaves will rustle. You may see some leaves or dust swirl upon the ground. You will feel a breeze begin to pick up. Bird activity around you will increase.
This is a simple exercise, but it is one that helps awaken a realization of the force of air. It provides for you a quick confirmation that feathers are wonderful tools to connect with those forces and those spiritual beings that work with them. Having this confirmation makes the exercises in the next chapter more effective because you will have removed many doubts. You still may not understand exactly how it works, but you will know that it does.
Fetishes
A fetish is usually any natural object to whose energy you feel closely associated. It is a form and a focus to an expression of energy, be it an archetypal force or an actual spirit being, represented by the object. In the case of the latter, it is a symbol of the energy that the spirit being hopes to awaken within you. It is also a tool that facilitates a shift in consciousness so that you can more easily attune to the energy behind the object.
14. O’Connor, Karen. The Feather Book (Minneapolis, Dillon Press, 1990), pp. 4-5.