Bowerbird – Gifts
Keywords:
Accepting and receiving love and gifts. Making something for others. Positive materialism. Care of possessions. Making and decorating a home. Home maintenance. Romance. Luxury. Courtship. Wooing your partner. Celebrating your gifts and the gifts of others.
General Description:
Bowerbirds are incredibly intelligent and creative birds. They are known for their ability to build and maintain extensive, elaborate and attractive bowers. These bowers are built by the male to attract the female, and different species (and sometimes even individuals within that species) often display different decorating tastes. The satin bowerbird in Australia seems to prefer the colour blue, and will decorate its bower with blue pieces of glass, blue pegs, pen lids and flowers, as well as many other blue items that reflect its tastes.
Bowerbirds predominantly live in forests and actively feed on fruit, flowers, insects, stems and leaves when not maintaining the bower. The bower is not a nest, however, and after the male has attracted a female to the bower and she approves of him, they will mate and she will build her own nest and raise the chicks on her own. Bowerbirds are usually quite solitary, but others form flocks in winter.
Lessons and Challenges:
The bowerbird has many joyous lessons, but they are still quite a challenge for some people to learn. One of bowerbird’s significant lessons is that of accepting and receiving love and gifts. It is not just enough to give, but also important to have the grace and self-acceptance to receive and see yourself as being worthy of the gifts and joy of others. Bowerbird can help you to learn to how to accept joy, positivity and gifts from others while also learning how to accept yourself.
Materialism has its downsides, but at the same time, it is also possible to nourish the spirit with positive materialism. Look at the gifts that you have received from others over the years, what is important to you, why is it important, what does it represent? Ask yourself what they reflect about you and your environment. Do they hold memories of the people you love? Or are they just ‘objects’? Consider investing more energy into the. Ask yourself if you take adequate care of your possessions.
Sometimes it’s important to enjoy a little luxury, or at least a sense of luxury. Value what you have around you. Consciously take the time to examine the objects that you value, and also the gifts within yourself that are important. We can only enjoy a little bit of luxury if we take the time to become aware of it.
Gift-giving is an important theme with bowerbird, and consider taking the time to make something for others. It may be a gift, a card, some food. It may be a care package for people you have never met before, who could benefit from such giving.
Because bowerbirds invest so much time and energy into their bowers, there is an emphasis on making and decorating a home. Granted a bowerbird’s bower isn’t a ‘home’ (the female makes the nest elsewhere), but it does place considerable emphasis on decorating and maintaining and making a place that you care for and want to spend a lot of time within. It also includes taking the time to maintain and decorate an office space, or other places that you spend a lot of time around.
There is an emphasis on themes like romance, courtship and the wooing of your partner and also of friends. Take the time to show them you value them, plan special occasions, consider what the people around you enjoy and see if you can find a way to bring more of that to them. Likewise, there might be people around you right now who are trying to bring more courtship or romance into your life, accept it as it will be a helpful to you right now.
Bowerbird teaches us to celebrate our gifts, and the gifts of others, and not just on a material level. We are all people that possess varying gifts and abilities that can be used in some way to nourish our own spirits, and the spirits of others. Take the time to write down or think of those gifts and abilities that you have and can share with others. Think about the people around you and what they have shared with you. The world is filled with gifts, it is up to us to shift our awareness so that we can see it.
The Shadow Aspects:
Bowerbird comes into your life as a shadow aspect to let you know that you’re going to lose something or someone important to you if you’re not careful. If it’s a person, you are not treating them with enough care and romance. It doesn’t need to be your partner, it could also be a friend or a work colleague. Make sure they’re cared for, buy them treats, give them your time, let them know that they’re worth the effort you give them. Additionally, if it’s a project, make sure you take the extra time to see it through and give it the patience and skill that it needs.
The shadow energy of bowerbird can, by contrast, demand that you stop being materialistic. Materialism should be cultivated in moderation, often as a way to make us and others feel loved, cared for and happy. Excessive moderation hurts our funds and the people around us, especially if we are spending too much time on material objects (like video games / tv / computers etc.) and not enough time with real, loving people.
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. Bowerbird spirit can be quite shy, but once befriended (bowerbird may require more than one visualisation or journey) can be a gregarious and reassuring helper spirit / animal energy.
Female bowerbird in interactions tends to teach more about motherhood, and how to be more selective about environment, home, partner, and friendships in order to maximise spiritual nourishment. Female bowerbird can also be integral for teaching one how to learn how to accept. Male bowerbird is often more concerned with aesthetics, creation and maintenance of creation, and how to give more freely. It’s best to research the type of bowerbird you are contacting in order to figure out the best items or objects offer. For example, satin bowerbird tends to love blue objects, but others may like different items. Instead of foodstuffs, decorative items are often better received.