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Glider - Soaring Through Life
Keywords:
Soaring through life. Comfort. Letting others in. Being helped and helping others. Bonding. Tree magic, worship and healing. Marshall your focus. Know your destination. A good chat. Sharing your problems and praises.
General Description:
Gliders in Australia consist of the arboreal, marsupial gliding possums, from the wrist-winged gliders to the greater gliders. They are known for their ability to glide from tree to tree by extending flaps of skin between their forelegs and backlegs. This gliding is called 'volplaning', and some gliders and volplane up to 150 metres. Gliders also tend to have a prehensile tail used to help them balance. Their diet is diverse depending on the species featuring leaves, flowers, nectar, insects and small vertebrates.
Most gliders live in social groups of 3 to 10 animals and often scent mark each other for identification purposes. This social network also enables them to keep warm in winter, where they often sleep together in tree hollows. Gliders are often very vocal and gregarious, and gurgle, hiss, scream, shriek, yap and snort when communicating, they are also usually quite smelly.
Lessons and Challenges:
The glider has a warm and gregarious energy, and teaches us how to interact with others in ways that benefit and comfort us. Glider is a great animal spirit to work with if you want to focus more on your ability to bond meaningfully with others; particularly if your insecurities or fears are holding you back from opening up or allowing others to give comfort to you.
Glider represents a time of helping others, and being helped by others. At best, it represents true community development and involvement on the small scale, where families and/or friends are brought together to share a common goal or aim. Whether this is coming together for a job or development, or whether it is coming together to provide aid or assistance to someone in need. Glider reminds us that no person is an island, and that it is through our interactions at this time that we will be nourished.
Letting others in, or giving ourselves permission to be vulnerable around others is something that many people struggle with. Glider can be a powerful energy in learning how to trust in ourselves and others, so that we may open up to receive the full benefit of relationships and friendships.
Friendship is not just about sharing your problems with someone else, it's also about sharing the good times. Glider reminds us that a balance in our friendships is crucial for their health. Don't just laugh with your friends, be strong enough to cry with them too. Conversely, don't just always talk about your problems, or their problems; remember to go out and have a good time as well. Share more of yourself emotionally, in a balanced manner, and you will find that your genuine friends will return the favour.
There is obviously an emphasis on friendship and bonding with glider energy, and at a more mundane level, glider brings into focus the benefits of a good chat. Sometimes it's good to just sit with a friend, or friends, and talk for hours. If you find it difficult to meet with people in real life, consider talking online or on the phone. Talking can be healing, as simply the act of allowing yourself to sit down and relax with a friend and chat, can be beneficial and help to strengthen friendships.
Glider is not a scatty energy. Gliders in real life must be focused in order to be aware of exactly where they will land before leaping. Likewise glider energy teaches us that it is important at this time to concentrate and marshall your focus; particularly in regards to any important decisions you are making (either internally or externally). Make sure you are aware of what you are leaping into, before you do so!
Glider tells us to be savvy, we have the skills to see what is going on around us, and we even have the skills to take comfort in our friends, there is no reason why we cannot be fully prepared before any major decision.
There is a sense of comfort with glider energy. Those who want to work with animal energies or guides but feel a bit scared or insecure will find glider energy to be tremendously reassuring. Glider energy provides comfort, and encourages comfort. Glider can also teach the skill of self-soothing, for those who are not very good at taking it easy on themselves.
One of the more joyous lessons of glider, is that it teaches us how to soar through our lives with a sense of freedom and empowerment. It is only once glider knows its goal (i.e. the tree it is aiming for), that it can soar freely on the winds, dancing its body masterfully through the air. Likewise, once you start to know more about yourself, your destinations and the reasons behind the decisions you are making, you will find yourself in a more empowered position. You will be able to soar through your life.
Glider draws attention, holistically, towards tree worship, tree magic and tree healing. Consider looking into the symbolism of trees that you like, or that you take notice of. Consider investing in the future of trees by planting some with local groups, or by helping those trees you see around you every day by nourishing them with water or pruning, and saying a hello and thank you. Trees shelter us, support us and nourish us, but we often forget to remember just how important they are in our lives. Glider prods us gently in the direction of remembering that we can be grateful for trees, even as we exploit them.
The Shadow Aspects:
Those who fear or dislike gliders may find that they something blocks them from accepting the comfort and help of others. They may feel unable to let others in, they may fear how others will react to what they're really thinking, or they may simply see comfort as a form of charity and maybe an unwanted form of weakness. Glider challenges people to see what comfort and letting others in for support is not a sign of weakness, rather, it is a sign of strength. Having the courage to show others who you really are and what you really need will nourish you at this time. Talk to others, share yourself with them, know what it is to be looked after by others and the universe.
Communion:
Like all animal helpers, this animal will only appear when right and appropriate, and cannot be forced to visit you, commune with you, or share messages with you. Glider is a very friendly energy, and one that I would recommend beginners who are quite scared or fearful try to meet. Glider energy is chatty and vivacious. It is usually reassuring, friendly, and also very easy to read and understand. Glider in my own experience always 'talks,' whether it's in its own sounds, or in my own language. I have also met other people who find that glider in visualisation is charming, comforting and very tolerant of mistakes.
Glider has a joyful energy that reaches out to you, if you give it a chance. For those who have problems 'meeting' animals, glider is a good place to start. To really benefit from glider energy, consider visualising a forest of flowering eucalyptus trees at night time, or if you are able, offer eucalyptus blossoms to really cement a bond with the energy.
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