This new fox sighting was in broad daylight; it was about 2:30 or so in the afternoon and I was on my way back from the supermarket (mile there and mile back, a stretch of the legs for an often otherwise computer-bound femme). I was walking west on Leroy Avenue and about 2 blocks from my house, just coming up on 81st Street (I live on 83rd) and there trotting across my view from left to right was the fox. Not running but not dawdling either. Someone in the cul de sac that is 81st Street at that point was cutting their grass and perhaps that disturbed the fox. The fox trotted from the cul de sac across Leroy Avenue and disappeared behind one of the houses on my right, toward the north.
I was amazed to see it under such circumstances. It sure was pretty - looks healthy, young and sleek, full-furred. I love the colors of its fur.
So now that the fox sighting on my deck awhile back has been confirmed to not be a one-off occurrence, I got to wondering about why I'm seeing the fox. I'm not normally a superstitious sort, but I did take seeing that fox as an omen of sorts, just not one I can fathom. Seeing the fox again last week did remind me, though, about something I had tucked away in my research archives some years ago from a National Geographic - about the Dogon and fox divination. So - I'm wondering if the fox is trying to tell me something and, if so, what the hell it's trying to tell me! Ach! Here's some info on the Dogon and fox divination:
First - check out this great photograph by John Fletcher of a Dogon Diviner examining fox tracks made on a divination "board" drawn into the sand the night before.
From the National Geographic article:
Fox Divination
One evening, as the sun began to set, a Dogon priest called a "diviner" traced an intricate drawing in the ochre sands that lie at the foot of Bandiagara Cliffs. A series of six connected squares and an elaborate set of symbols were drawn in a pattern that represent the potential futures of the family, the village, regional peace and harmony, life and death, and the wishes of God.
The diviner next placed tiny sticks in the sand panels, representing God and the family. Several "I"-shaped tracings symbolized peace and death. Small heaps of sand with minute holes represented other concerns: harmony within the village, illness, next season's harvest, even one's own mortality.
As the diviner priest drew the patterns into the sand, he chanted to invoke the sacred fox to come weave a path of prophecy for his village across his creation:
"Fox, tell me please
is there something?
Will there be shame next year?
Fox, speak clearly.
Let the people coming to the field
stand eye to eye.
Throw your traces.
Give me your nails to mark the sand.
Be clear. Whatever you see, tell me
Give me your footprints."
The Dogon priest finished his chant as the last light of the day lingered in the western sky and then disappeared. The priest returned to his village. Nightfall invited the fox to visit the sacred Dogon markings.
At dawn the following day, sunlight traced the shadows of the fox path across the sand drawing. Indeed, the fox had visited in the night during our trip and with its tracings had foretold the future of the village of Yougou Piri. With these fortuitous markings, the fox had symbolically acted out the ritual of an oracle, a Dogon tradition that keeps life in balance for yet another year.
A description of the fox divination ceremony from mapsofworld.com:
Mali divination ceremony is an ethnic ritual practiced by the Dogon tribe in the country. The Dogons inhabiting the Bandiagara Cliffs in southern Mali claim themselves to be the channel between earth and heaven. There are about 300,000 Dogons spread across 700 villages in the Bandiagara region.
The Dogons practice many mysterious and intriguing rituals, which attract anthropologists, historians, scholars, and social scientists to their villages. Fox divination is one such ceremony. Fox divination ceremony is undertaken to foresee the future of the Dogon tribesmen and Dogon villages. This divination ceremony of Mali is performed by the ‘diviner’ or Dogon priest.
The Dogon divination ceremony begins just before sundown in the evening. The ‘diviner’ begins the ritual by drawing six interconnected squares in the sands at the foothills of the Bandiagara Cliffs. Together with the squares an intricate pattern of symbol is drawn that represent God's wishes, life and death, regional harmony and peace, and future of the families and the village.
Subsequently, ‘l’ shaped drawings representing peace and death are traced. Then, the Dogan priest places tiny sticks representing God and family in the sand panels. Thereafter minutely holed small sand mounds representing next harvest, village harmony, sickness, individual mortality are made.
All along while drawing sand patterns, the priest chants prayers appealing to the fox to come and foretell the future. The prayers finish just before darkness and everybody returns to the village.
The following morning all villagers gather at the site of the ceremony to discover footprints of the fox across the sand drawings made by the 'diviner'. The path of the fox foretells the future of the village for the forthcoming year.
5 comments:
Hi, I came across this post via a Google search. I saw a random fox (then later, two) at a place I've passed hundreds of times before, at the same time of day. It seemed so random that I was sure there was a message for me, but I'm stumped as to what it is! Did you ever figure out what it meant for you? BTW, I LOVED the information about the divination ritual! I've never heard about it.
I haven't yet figured out what seeing the fox twice in about 4-5 weeks in this urban suburb means. I've been dealing with lots of changes in my life since last November and under a tremendous amount of stress. My intuition tells me the fox sightings are somehow connected to what's been happening in my life.
As a species canines have a very ancient history of connection to the oldest goddesses and some are even gods (Anubis, for one). I posted about a dog-faced saint here, I don't remember when or what the saint's name was, but my vague recollection is that official church explanation for the dog-saint was the saint (purportedly an actual man) was a healer and was kind to animals and that's how he became associated with the dog. Baloney! My hunch is that the Church probably converted an ancient female canine religious icon into a "saint" to give it the official Roman Catholic gloss.
Dogs and wolves (perhaps other canines too) are anciently connected to death, the underworld and the after-life as traditional carrion eaters - a rather gruesome thought but to the ancients they and other carrion eaters performed a necessary function. And those people were a lot smarter than we are today, we who let our bodies moulder away inside metal tubes buried underground, taking up valuable real estate! The ancient peoples realized that when a person died that person was no longer in the body and it didn't matter what happened to the body, it was just an empty shell. The person remained and, in some cultures, would return in due course as a new-born infant. The canines, associated with the extremely powerful triple-goddesses of the oldest times in human memory, were said to walk alongside her and thus, heralded her invisible presence when she came to "fetch" the soul of a deceased person.
In more 'current' traditions, I believe foxes are associated with the "trickster," well known in Native American stories. Also, I believe that a fox's tail was considered a lucky charm or talisman in some cultures.
If I do figure out what my personal omen means, I may post about it if it is not too revealing :)
very interestubg, I too saw a fox last eek just as I pulled into my open air carport the headlights cuaght it as it was jumping over or through the barbed wire fence about30 or so feet away which is the boundary between my yard and alarge field. It appeared to be a red fox, and very healthy with a bushy tale and I could se the white fur on its neck ect. It's jump was graceful and quick but it did turn briefly and look in my direction before leaping. I have lived here for 2 years and have never seen it. I too took this as an omen. Interestingly earlier that afternoon on route to the beach I had stopped to get gas and two large eagles circled around and then flew over my head towards the south ( they were not far overhead either.) The beach trip was significant and yeilded orbs or lights int he sunset photos I took. Never had that happen before. On my return home is when I saw the fox.
Steven farmer's oracle deck credits fox with adaptability and being open to opportunity. But I am still searching. With fox on my mind this past week I stumbled upon 2oo4 best of photos posted on the coast to caost am site and there is a funy YOUtube videoa about a fox who keeps licking a frozen glass screen door. I watched the video a couple of times. It felt like the fox was looking at me and communicating to me. then last night... i happened to catch a movien on tv starring richard gere who portrays a journalist in Saravjeo. He is on pursiot of a notorious killer from the Bosnian war called the FOX. This cruel and sly man tortured and murdered many and got his mname becouse of his penchnt for hunting FOXES. Of course actual foxes were shown in the movie and the last image portrays him being chased ( much like the doomed foxes he hunted). disturbing but good film and based on a ture story. I had not heard of it before and could not believe the synchornicity of it.
So like you and the other bloggers who have written you. the meaning of the sudden presenceof "Fox" in my life mens something significant. I am on alert. I am paying attentionand doing my best to "adapt" an be ready ofr opportunity. But this omen must mean more. If you in reading this story have any insights please post. here. I will save this site in links. ---And than your for the Dogon fox ceremony tradition info. Very interesting. Only gives more weight to the meaning of the sighting and subsequent connections. 10/7/2011
very interestubg, I too saw a fox last eek just as I pulled into my open air carport the headlights cuaght it as it was jumping over or through the barbed wire fence about30 or so feet away which is the boundary between my yard and alarge field. It appeared to be a red fox, and very healthy with a bushy tale and I could se the white fur on its neck ect. It's jump was graceful and quick but it did turn briefly and look in my direction before leaping. I have lived here for 2 years and have never seen it. I too took this as an omen. Interestingly earlier that afternoon on route to the beach I had stopped to get gas and two large eagles circled around and then flew over my head towards the south ( they were not far overhead either.) The beach trip was significant and yeilded orbs or lights int he sunset photos I took. Never had that happen before. On my return home is when I saw the fox.
Steven farmer's oracle deck credits fox with adaptability and being open to opportunity. But I am still searching. With fox on my mind this past week I stumbled upon 2oo4 best of photos posted on the coast to caost am site and there is a funy YOUtube videoa about a fox who keeps licking a frozen glass screen door. I watched the video a couple of times. It felt like the fox was looking at me and communicating to me. then last night... i happened to catch a movien on tv starring richard gere who portrays a journalist in Saravjeo. He is on pursiot of a notorious killer from the Bosnian war called the FOX. This cruel and sly man tortured and murdered many and got his mname becouse of his penchnt for hunting FOXES. Of course actual foxes were shown in the movie and the last image portrays him being chased ( much like the doomed foxes he hunted). disturbing but good film and based on a ture story. I had not heard of it before and could not believe the synchornicity of it.
So like you and the other bloggers who have written you. the meaning of the sudden presenceof "Fox" in my life mens something significant. I am on alert. I am paying attentionand doing my best to "adapt" an be ready ofr opportunity. But this omen must mean more. If you in reading this story have any insights please post. here. I will save this site in links. ---And than your for the Dogon fox ceremony tradition info. Very interesting. Only gives more weight to the meaning of the sighting and subsequent connections. 10/7/2011
Hi Suzanne,
I have not figured out what the "message" was in my fox sightings of 2010, but I'm pretty sure one is there. I'd been going through much emotional turmoil at the end of 2009 into 2010. Those two fox sightings I had - after living here 20 years and never seeing one before - or since. I knew it was more than just random chance. Seeing the fox (I think it was the same one) 2x in the space of a few weeks, well, both times I just felt awe and wonder to see such a beautiful animal in a place and at a time when I would never expect to see such a thing! For a few moments, it was like I was taken out of myself, or just forgot to be so self-absorbed, maybe.
In looking back, those sightings took place during the end of April and first part of May, 2010. About 3 years earlier, in May 2007, I saw the only blue bird I've ever seen in my life hanging around the concrete birdbath in my backyard! He was such a beautiful, indescribable blue. He was definitely a bluebird, not a bluejay. I've got families of jays in my yard for many years now because they love the peanuts I throw out, and the jays are much larger and also have the black and white markings on them. Even the female jays are colorful. And they are LOUD. They always signal their presence and let me know to come out and feed them! Anyway, the bluebird was around for only three days, and then was gone, on his way to the north, probably. I have not seen another blue bird in my yard since then.
So, perhaps there is something about the changing of the seasons that is going on in May? In my Wisconsin climate lots of animals and birds are passing through going north for the summer season, and this time of year I see many passing through going south for the winter season! Right now I'm hosting a large flock of robins on their way south. A few always stay and winter-over in the neighborhood. There are lots of crabapple and wild-berry trees that retain dried fruit all through the long winter well into March and even April, so the birds have food.
Or perhaps there was a whole lot more going on, and only now am I starting to pick out little particles of meaning from those events. In the spring of 2007 Goddesschess started two new areas of endeavor. This blog was started, for one thing - near the end of April 2007 actually! And we also sponsored our very first prize money for a women's chess event (the 2007 U.S. Women's Chess Championship Goddesschess Brilliancy Prize). That was a major change and commitment for us. Putting our money where our mouth is, so to speak :)
So, in hindsight, seeing that bluebird was probably a good portent, a sign from the Goddess that we were on the right track with what we were doing.
The fox sightings are more enigmatic. I am not the same person now in October 2011 that I was in April-May, 2010. I've gone through a lot of interior re-arranging of the furniture, so to speak. For many years, I had an idea of how my life would probably go as I went into my golden years, and I was happy with that vision and I wanted that vision. As it turned out, that vision was turned entirely on it's head! I can't begin to describe how that felt, but the result was, as noted, a lot of emotional and even physical turmoil in my life near the end of 2009 and the beginning months of 2010.
Wow, now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, I've changed a lot since that time. First, internally (mental and emotional and confidence-wise), and now the exterior, I'm changing physically - in an almost dramatic fashion. Hmmm, it just occurred to me that I'm "dropping weight" like I'm throwing off all those tired old thoughts and emotions.
Hmmm... Suzanne, just wondering, are you a Shaman?
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