Call of the herd
That liminal call is ever present along the Antlered Path, yet occasionally will shake us more fully into ourselves and the wider, sacred community of deep belonging.
Can you hear the call?
A vibrant nudge. A signal to rise
not fall.
Can you hear the call?
The drumming,
the shifting,
Can you feel it
bringing you back?
Back to the sacred leys,
following the deer.
Can you hear the call?
The light in the path,
the dappled glow
of Other
in the antlered Grove,
a space to know.
Liminal spark
that ever hovers.
Hello deer ones.
I woke really early on Friday morning, ‘again’, but this felt different. In between my wakeful and sleep states I could feel and almost see an antlered woman with a real impatient energy around her. Reminding me to follow the call of the herd. It’s not important how - just to honour the call.
My ego self started to try and work things out and then I let it go….I just felt into the space. This is different from my usual sensing of the sacred herd, the community of Antlered allies who connect me to my soul and path. This was a ‘definite nudge’ with a feisty maiden energy that had me in a state of alertness as if ready to pounce!
Hence why I am sharing this post rather than something else at this time…
I will often sense the herd on my walks - the flicker of light through the trees as I pause and connect to spirits on the land, or a literal, physical glimpse of a deer as she or he quickly moves through hedgerows or trees. That knowing that one is being watched and ‘spoken’ with from the antlered ones. A reminder, a knowing that the herd or community is close by.
I noticed the phrase as I waking yesterday of - ‘feeling the call of the herd’ beating through my mind. My heart.
We know that the sacred deer mother, goddess, is rising, yet we are not sure of her completely because we had lost her for so long. We know the antlered allies are communicating in so many different ways across time zones, across his-and-herstory, across thresholds, across diverse ecosystems. We are all here along this antlered path because we all feel some kind of call of the antlered herd. Even if we are solitary. We all resonate with the deep medicine of this coming together and are longing for it to be more of a visceral reality. I sense this.
So this post is from my soul, my heart and the call of the herd.
Let’s see where the call takes us. I also share a guided meditative connection on audio - inwards to the antlered hearth and beyond for you to communicate with the herd and feel it’s nourishment. If this feels right to do so.
Welcome to this moment, this antlered space
Let’s come together and breathe deeply, earthing ourselves with steady rocks and roots, yet opening to sacred shifting possibilities, between the blossoming Hawthorn, the budding Oak and the simmering cauldron of renewal that reflects the cosmos.
For I sense there is a little bit of brewing and transformation afoot too.
She calls from deep within yet from the places in between
Who is this who calls to me - is it my inner voice, my spirit, is it a spirit ally, is it the voice of the herd, the antlered Goddess?
Many people who I have connected with through the Antlered Path have said they have dreams or meditations where they feel a ‘call’ or a voice that they sense to be linked to the Antlered Goddess. From her essence. They feel motivated to find ways to honour her, to follow her call, to work with deer spirit. It is activating, motivating and also a sure, deep longing.
Longing within the soul, to honour one’s own ancient wisdom and that of the spirits. To fully resonate with the energy pathways of the earth. It feels very much about path-working, whether by dreaming, walking, journeying - moving energy to clarify the call. To keep the call alive. To grow, to show up. To follow, follow, follow her light.
I very rarely sense her in a humanoid form but sometimes see an outline of human body and deer head. A typical kind of zoomorphic representation that enables the mind, the conscious awareness to focus and connect in a way that makes some kind of tangible sense of the overall energy of the being.
There are many depictions of horned and antlered Goddesses with human features and antlered heads. I have been reading about a Deer Goddess known by the name of Carvonia. She was linked to Central Europe, with key evidence for her worship being found in Slovenia.
Like Elen, Carvonia could represent movement, protection, and the liminality of the wild. Echoes of her presence may be found in the many horned goddesses or women of prehistoric Europe, where cervid imagery was sacred and intertwined with female deities of the hunt and fertility.1
Would you like me to share a post that explores more of the different depictions of antlered Goddesses and proposed links to certain geographical areas of Britain and parts of Europe? (As sacred embodier of those places). Let me know in a comment below.
