Stillness 9-29: Have you come across a deer in your walks lately? I have, on several occasions: a solitary buck one day, a small family on another, and even a herd in the distance, that I saw by the light of the almost full moon.
The goddess of the moon, Artemis, is often depicted with a deer, symbolizing her sensitivity, her intuition, and extraordinary grace. The guidance, if you see a deer, is to be both determined and kind. To be vigilant and peaceful. To be flexible and strong. Deer calls for you to be gentle with others and the world around, but most of all to be gentle with yourself.
Betrayal is the worst sin, according to Dante, as he describes it in his journey into the Inferno. In his underworld, the traitors—those who betrayed people they loved or their country or their God, were irredeemable. There isn’t one of us who hasn’t experienced the terrible aspect of treachery in big or tiny ways. We’re betrayed constantly and relentlessly, and each betrayal scars us in ways we are hardly aware of. There seems little reward for being good or punishment for the traitors. What can we do? We can stew, or resent, or go mad at the injustice of it all. Or we can remember this great truth: there is one person who will never betray us. That person is ourself.
Don’t get stuck in someone else’s ideas of justice or righteousness. in the end, we can only be true to ourselves. Because of their antlers, which grow and shed and regrow, deer symbolize a magical ability to regenerate. This alchemical experience shows we are in touch with life’s mysteries. Beyond instinct, beyond vigilance, lies our intuition—our inner knowing. Know thyself.
Deer calls on us all to trust that inner knowing. Don’t put your faith into anyone or anything outside yourself. Trust the country that’s within you. Trust the love that’s inside you. Trust your truth. Trust yourself.