Course Six: Spectrum, Part 2 259
represents transformation. Flutterbies and Moths are
among the very few creatures that can see ultraviolet
(black light), and a number of flowers have developed
ultraviolet fluorescence to attract them.Hummingbird
Tiny Hummingbird can fly
fast as lightning in any direction—
up, down, backwards, and forwards.
He can even stop instantly and hover motionless. I
once asked a Quechua Indian Shaman in Peru why
there were so many images of Hummingbirds carved
in the rocks and woven into tapestries. He told me:
“The giant Condor soars at the top of the sky. He
thinks, ‘I am the lord of creation; all the world and all
creatures are beneath me.’ Then, suddenly there is this
tiny little thing going zip! zip!—so fast he can hardly see
it—flying circles around him. ‘What is that?’ he won-
ders. It’s Hummingbird. We, the people of the land, are
like Hummingbird. The great Inca lords and Spanish rul-
ers don’t even notice us. But we are everywhere.”Lizard
Many Lizards have long and beautiful
tails that are only loosely attached to
their bodies, designed to break off
easily. If a predator catches such a
Lizard, he finds himself holding nothing but a wrig-
gling tail, while Lizard himself escapes under a rock.
Over time, Lizard will grow himself a new tail. A wise
Wizard will always have a “lizard tail”—something
magnificent he is very proud of, but which he can
abandon with no harm in an emergency. Because he
likes to bask for house on a sunny rock, Lizard is con-
sidered to be a great dreamer, and his magick can help
you enter the Dreaming.Peacock
Peacock is certainly the
most spectacularly ostentatious
(showy, flashy, gaudy) creature
on the planet! Who can possi-
bly rival his display of a 6-foot
diameter fan of brilliant irides-
cent eyes? But he pays a heavy price
for his magnificence, as his glorious tail weighs him
down when he flies, and the beautiful Peacock is eas-
ily spotted and caught by predators. But in his sacri-
fice, he ensures the survival of his wife and kids, who
go unnoticed in their drab camouflage.
In Greek legend, Peacock was the bird of Hera,
jealous Queen of the Olympian Gods, who used him
to watch everywhere. The all-seeing eyes in his tail
came from Argus, the hundred-eyed Titan. In the East,
Peacock represents royalty, dignity, and authority. The
Roman poet Ovid said he carries the stars in his tail,
symbolizing immortality. His harsh, eerie cry is said to
foretell rain.Possum
Morning Glory says: Possum is
a very creative anachronism (an-
cient survivor). She has been waddling
this Earth since the days of the dinosaurs.
Possums have seen many mighty creatures
go extinct while they are still quietly living
their short little lives. When you are a Pos-
sum, everyone is against you...even your own kind.
Possum is a solitary animal, not part of a social group.
Only the mother and babies have a link, which disap-
pears when they are old enough to be on their own.
How can such a defenseless creature survive this
long in the harsh world? The answer is Possum Magick.
Possum has three tricks: 1. She is a very good mother
and fights for her babies; 2. She will eat anything; and- She will faint when a predator attacks her, appearing
to be dead. For this last reason, Possum is considered
to be a trickster. Possum teaches us the power of sur-
render. She lives lightly on the Earth and doesn’t
need pride, courage, or intelligence to have
both wisdom and evolutionary success.
Raven
Raven is the most intelligent
of all birds. Many remarkable ac-
counts testify to his cleverness. Raven is the Mes-
senger and the Magician, and he represents all things
magickal. Raven is a wise trickster in Native American
lore who carries our magick to its target and our prayers
to the Gods. Odin, one-eyed chief of the Aesir (the
Norse Gods) and master of magick, has two Ravens,
named Huginn (“thought”) and Muninn (“memory”).
They travel throughout the world and report back to
him all they see and learn. Raven offers wise counsel
to those who can understand him. Because of their
natural tendency to fly home to roost in the evening,
Ravens guided seafarers to port. But if all Ravens sud-
denly leave an area, it is a sign that drought
or famine is soon to follow.Serpent
Other than her sinuous shape,
the thing that has most impressed
people about Serpent is her ability to renew herself by
shedding her entire skin—apparently achieving immor-
tality. Some Serpents do live a long time and get very
big—30 feet or more in the case of Python and Ana-
conda. And remains have been found of a huge Creta-
ceous Serpent (Madtsoia) that could take a dinosaur!
For all the power in her mighty muscled body,
Serpent’s head is actually quite delicate and vulner-
able; her jawbones have multiple hinges to swallow
prey much larger than herself. To avoid injury, there-
fore, Serpent immobilizes her prey and kills without a
battle, either by relentless constriction or by rapid in-
jection of deadly poison. Her unblinking lidless gaze
appears to hypnotize her prey into immobility. Serpent- Spectrum 2.p65 259 1/15/2004, 9:31 AM