Moth Medicine

So much of my previous posts have been focusing on dreams that I think I've gotten a bit distracted by real world encounters.  I still have dreams to put up, but until then I've had a strange couple of days and I figured the best thing to do was to share.

I live in a place where part of the woods are still wild.  There are all sorts of creatures roaming around.  Though one morning I awoke to a huge moth sitting on my porch.

He was absolutely beautiful, so after I take a photo, because I am part Coyote in nature, I have to poke at him.  He takes this opportunity to rest on my hand for a few moments.  I try and shake him off because I need to get to work, but no luck.  So I say the hell with it and walk over to work...carrying this huge moth.  You would think he would fly away at this point.  Nope, just stayed where he was.  I got a few nice photos of him while he was keeping me company though.

Shortly after I get some decent photos he flies to my shoulder and rests there.  He's quite comfortable I assume for he stayed there the whole day.  I don't mean while I was at work, I mean the whole day.  I worked a full day, took two walks around the neighborhood, cooked dinner, did several loads of laundry, ate dinner and read a few chapters of a really awful book.  The only time he moved was when I accidentally whopped him with a tank top and he fluttered away in agitation before returning to my right breast side.  I found out later he was a Pandora Sphinx Moth.

When I was about ready to go to bed he flew up to the smoke detector by my bedroom door and refused to move.  So I prayed he wouldn't get attacked by one of the cats and headed off to bed.

In the morning, there he was, just moved a bit so he was on my purse instead of the smoke detector.  As soon as I put my purse on to go off to work he stepped onto my right breast side and got comfortable over the pocket of my shirt.  So what the heck, I took him to work for the second day.  Same as before, he sat there calmly as I made pouches and talked to all of the visitors to the museum.  The only moving he did was to migrate towards my shoulder.  I got a lot of compliments on him once people realized he was an actual moth instead of a brooch.

But that night was to be the last time he would be around.  At almost exactly 36 hours from when he first landed on me he went into death throes.  He fell off my shoulder and clung to my fingers for a good hour and a half.  I was strangely heartbreaking for him to pass.  Logically, I know that he was just a moth.  Granted, a really huge moth made of awesomeness, but just a moth.

But in a different light, he didn't feel like just a moth.  He knew he wanted to be with me, and refused to go anywhere, even on the brink of death.

I have him sitting on a paper towel in the living room right now.  He's dry and is sitting as if he's ready to crawl around.  It's kind of disturbing to the neighbors for some reason.  I am hoping to have him preserved somehow so I can keep him as he obviously had a bit of a message.

To top all of this off, another moth landed on me the next day after coming home from work.  This wasn't a Pandora, this was a Tersa Sphinx moth.  Now this one didn't stay for nearly as long, just about an hour before flying to a tree outside of my front door.  But something was definitely going on.

But what is the message exactly?  In a generic sense, moth medicine is all about sensitivity.  The biology of a moth is specifically tuned to pick up on vibrations and miniscule scents. It's about tuning into what most people would ignore.  Moths are also symbols of change as they go from caterpillar, to cocoon, to moth.  Some say they are omens of death.

Here's my take on it from a more personal stand point.  A good bit of the animal medicine that has come to me has some level of trickery or camouflage.  Snake, Coyote, Spider, Owl, Praying Mantis...

As much as moth is about being connected, take a look at the size of that moth...they're HUGE.  But how many times have you seen one?  They're out all the time, they're really common but this is the first time I've ever seen one.  I feel that part of Moth's Medicine isn't just being connected, but not using your sensitivity to push your weight around.  You can still be who you are, and fulfill your purpose in the world without being in the full spotlight.  The thing about being sensitive to things is that the Moth is also very delicate, even for its size.  So for sensitive people, sometimes having everyone know that you're sensitive can be just as damaging to one's self as having someone pick up a moth by the wings.

I do feel that changes are coming, and if I am to honor Moth and need to pay more attention to those feelings instead of just brushing them off and waiting for others to notice before I speak up.  More importantly, I need to embrace the fact that I am connected to the unseen...even if it often makes things uncomfortable or awkward.   The medicine of Moth is also to roll with change, rather than stay a caterpillar forever.  So here we go, it's time to open up some wings and see if there's a breeze!