Tuesday, May 09, 2017

Totem Tuesday: Hummingbird Medicine


Totem Tuesday:  Hummingbird Medicine
By Felina Lune Kavi

“Like the hummingbird, we have the capacity to experience great love, bliss, healing and nourishment when we drink from the nectar that is available in our love relationships.  Yet that flower is also delicate; like our hearts and the hearts of the ones we love.  So it is important to go gently, carefully, and precisely to the heart of the flower…

In the end, it is actually your own heart you are drinking from.”
-Yollana Shore



Keywords: Infinite Joy, Illumination, Resurrection, Making the Impossible Possible, Sensual Pleasure, Finding the Sweetness in Life, Finding the Goodness in Others, Efficiency, Memory, Being Present in the Moment, Solar Energy, Service to Spirit, Essence of Beauty, Love in Right Relationship, Lightness of Being, Endurance, Timelessness, Sound Healing, Healing with Flowers and Herbs, Quick Response, Adaptability, Coexistence, Playfulness, Free Spirit

Hummingbird (Specifically the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird) is my totem on my Right.  In this direction, it is connected with the Divine Masculine within me…very much the Peaceful Warrior of my Mars Retrograde in Libra.  Though hummingbirds can get territorial when food sources are low, they usually only do minimal feather damage to each other in battle.  They will defend what is theirs...but they are lovers, not fighters.  Mostly, they are concerned with vibrant displays of courtship and finding enough sustenance to live another day.  So if you see bickering, jousting hummingbirds…plant more of the flowers that they like, or hang feeders in different parts of your yard.

With well over 300 known species of Hummingbirds, their evolution has coordinated with plants by evolving their bill shape to the shape of specific flowers.  This is why, in places like the Andes, 140 different species of hummingbirds can coexist.  This is one reason why they teach adaptability.  Another reason is that they can move swiftly in all directions and even come to a full stop, hovering in flight.  Their visual processing is so advanced that it allows them to sense all movements around them very quickly, and move accordingly to avoid collisions while speeding along.  

People with Hummingbird medicine learn to develop a similar sense of heightened awareness and adaptability, avoiding dangerous situations but also dealing with sudden changes with quick responses and strategies for overcoming obstacles in their path.  Hummingbird teaches successful coexistence among diverse groups by finding your own unique expression and medicine that contributes to the whole.

Among the smallest of birds (the smallest being the Bee Hummingbird), Hummingbirds have a spirit that is much larger than their bodies.  For example, their courtship dives, which produce a specific sound from vibrating tail feathers in some species, is the highest speed relative to body length for any vertebrate (twice the diving speed of peregrine falcons in pursuit of prey).  

Like songbirds and parrots, they also have the mental capacity for language learning (mimicry)…but their brain is larger in comparison to body size than any other bird.  Their hippocampus is up to five times larger than a songbird’s.  Hummingbirds have excellent memory.  They can remember where every flower in their territory is and how long it takes to refill with nectar after they have fed.  They also remember, year to year, where each feeder is…both at home and along their migratory path.  They learn which people fill the feeders and which ones don’t.  

By remembering their food source and the last time they visited it, they can plan with precision and visit hundreds of flowers each day to sustain their high metabolism.  This is known as episodic memory and was previously considered exclusive to humans.  People with this totem medicine often have excellent memories as well, or at least keep track of things well by writing them down.  They are efficient enough to be able to enjoy their lives and be present in each moment.

There are so many things about Hummingbirds that seem impossible at first glance.  And yet, they show us that even what we may perceive as impossible is, in fact, quite possible when you live in right relationship with your surroundings.  

Some see Hummingbird as a symbol of resurrection.  Because they go into a hibernation-like state at night, called torpor, but are revived during the day…it appears as if they die each night and are reborn each day.  During torpor, their metabolic rate drops to 1/15th of what it is during the day while they are foraging.  

We often observe hummingbirds flitting about from flower to flower, but they are actually only in flight about 15% of the time.  Often, they are perched…conserving their energy.  People with this medicine also learn when it is best to act and when it is best to be still and observe.  They will vary between sociability and introverted times of recharge, adapting between these states fluidly.  And if someone challenges their dreams as impossible, they will prove playfully that anything is possible.

Hummingbird flaps its wings over 100 beats per second and does so in a figure-eight pattern.  This pattern connects it to infinity and timelessness.  

Though Hummingbird remembers the past and has the visionary ability to recognize the future…this bird is a teacher of how to enjoy each moment in the present, giving and receiving in right relationship, and drinking deeply from the sweetness of life.  Hummingbird is a free spirit who illuminates where our unique medicine is and how we can use it in service to Spirit as well as in interconnected ways with all of Mother Earth’s creations. 

If Hummingbird is one of your totems, these and many other lessons will be prevalent in your life.  Hummingbird will encourage you to refine your mastery of this medicine.  If you see a hummingbird, but it is not one of your totems, respect it as a messenger for that time.  You may need its medicine for what is happening then or what is coming up in the near future.  Hummingbird may be contacting you to teach you how to lighten up and resurrect the joy in your life.  Or it may come to remind you that what appears to be impossible is actually possible.  However Hummingbird chooses to share its medicine, it is an inspiring creature teacher who will show us how to go straight to the heart of each matter and extract the essence of beauty and pleasure from life, even in chaotic times.

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