Heaven and Earth Designs

During this journey of mine the past several months I have asked several people that are close to me to send me things from their surroundings. These items are things of the Earth, of the hand and of the heart.

The above is a picture of those items that I have sitting on my desk and are near me at all times. Each of the items has meaning that is far reaching for me in it's purpose and design.

Near the top is 2 vials from Wolf of Anima which contains sacred water of the river and small bits of sand and stone. The small sachets are filled with Lavender and the small blue glass bottle is a miniature perfume bottle that belonged to my grandmother. Below that is a gift from a dear friend which depicts the tree of life (she has no idea how much meaning the tree of life holds for me). Then we have a piece of Larimar which is of my Husband's roots, then we have a small piece of wolf fur from Wolf and several pieces of Mogollon pottery which is about 1-5 thousand years old and incredibly sacred (also from Wolf). Then there is a river rock from that same dear friend (thank you Cindy) and then a gorgeous Chalcedony Rosette which is created by bubbling pockets of silica within super heated volcanic rock, part of the creation of their canyon (at Anima Retreat) 1/2 million years ago. The small round piece of leather is stamped by Cindy and is a turtle which also holds alot of meaning for me which again Cindy has no idea of the symbolism and I hope that she reads this:

A great deal of mythology exists in regards to the turtle. In the Far East, the shell was a symbol of heaven, and the square underside was a symbol of earth. The turtle was an animal whose magic united heaven and earth. The turtle is a creation of nature that carries its round shell over the ground, like heaven, and has a flat bottom, like earth. With a profile resembling a mountain and the turning motion of its toes, it seemed to be a depiction of heaven and earth changing constantly through the seasons.

The fact that the turtle represents Heaven and Earth is obvious in it's meaning to me but the turtle is also a reminder to take life at a slow pace and to savor everything.

My effort to gather these things has been very grounding and the gifts from these special people are significant in my journey with Anima and connecting with the very place from which I have come.