The Howl Blessing

I often spend the full moon howling on my roof...perhaps wanting to connect with my wolf nature, or perhaps feeling lonely under the bright sky. For a long time, scientists didn’t understand why wolves howled though according to Barry Holstun Lopez , an author and researcher, howling happens the most in the winter months because of courtship and breeding. They have also found wolves do not howl at the moon specifically but that they tend to be more active on brighter nights. Many studies have come out saying there are many reasons why wolves howl including finding a mate, assembling the pack, or sending a warning. A Christian Science Monitor article noted points out there is “a correlation between the number of times that a wolf howls and the strength of the relationship with other members of the pack.”

Turns out, wolves howl to stay connected and this perhaps explains my rooftop behavior, though according to the studies linked above there are many other reasons why wolves howl:

· Find one’s pack

· Marking territory

· Signal alarm

· Find a mate

· Scare enemies

· Communicate position

· Stress or fear

· Confuse enemies and prey

· Upon waking, as a yawn (I want to start doing this)

The link between women and wolves has been unbituous since Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes' book Women Who Run with the Wolves, I turn to her this full moon for New Year wisdom about the howl. A Facebook post that moved me...and speaks to our own reasons for the howl.

Dear Brave Souls: Blessed New Years to you and your loved ones, furry and human, sky, earth, water, and more. May all be made new and start from best intent, best plan...

La Loba: This first night entering the new year, comes now before our sights, into our baskets of water held out to the heavens...

the supermoon, that is, the wolf moon, named after wolves howling to summon one another.

Tells us...I say...

SUMMONS FROM LA LOBA

I CALL HER 'LA QUE SABE, SHE WHO KNOWS...'

For those with ears to hear, eyes to see...

The howl is the call to Rest and Create. Both. Not one or the other. Both now.

The howl is the call to Reconvene Gentleness and Fierceness: Both. Not one or the other. Both now.

The howl is the call to Keep no collections of grievances petty and large. Throw that dung list away. No wolf drags a long bag of yesterdays behind them today.

The howl is the call to instead, build your list of effective solutions within your reach, and if not practice your trapeze flying.

Wolves are the masters of the flying leap that lands square. We can do this.

The howl is the call to choose one goal.

The most life-giving, the most life sparing. Not one or the other, both. Both. Like a true wolf would do.

The howl is the call to Focus. One thing to shelter, build in beauty, end, begin, one thing at a time.

The howl is the call to Collect your tendernesses and strengths. Both. Not one or the other. Both. Like a true wolf.

The howl is the call to not bathe nor clothe thyself in fears, for they weaken the child spirit, Who is your Creative Force.

Wolves stand before and protect their pups, not place them in the teeth of predators.

The howl is the call to Love everything one can, truly so, with dedication, not passing over, not saying yah, yah, but seeing the bee as equal to the butterfly, the human as equal to the precious waters, the air, the creatures equal to the mountains.

And visa versa.

La Loba, La que sabe, whom I name She Who Knows, says so... in her long, long howl 'at the first Full Moon of this New Year.

All good come... All good come now both and all.

All. Good. Now. Come....

May it be so for thee May it be so for me May it be so for us all, Each in her and his own way, as each sees fit.

Aymen Aymen Aymen

and a little woman...

This comes with love, dr.e