I had plans today to play a game with a friend, but after 2 hours I quit because I wanted to get some writing done. I sat in front of my blank document and couldn't string together a single coherent sentence. My fatigue was acting up because it's raining here (though it's not a thunderstorm or wind storm, which triggers pain, it just leaves me feeling flattened), with stocking neuropathy driving me nuts. So I thought a nap might be in order. I took one, and still wasn't up to writing. So I decided to meditate and check in at my landing zone.
I've been in pretty bad shape the last couple weeks. It's nothing major, it's just that the weather has been stormy, and anytime there is a fluctuation in the barometric pressure, it triggers my pain; the rain itself triggers my fatigue. Add in that I have been pushing to get this blog up and my book manuscript to my publisher (so it could be released on their blog chapter by chapter every Friday), and it's been a recipe for exhaustion. I've meditated and done reiki on myself to keep my practice going, but I haven't really done much with going to my landing zone and interacting with my allies. So when I arrived there, after my usual cleansing and a brief reiki session, I found myself with a cat in my arms, licking my nose (Cat is my primary ally). Cat tongues are very rough, even there! Other allies were around me; apparently my intention had echoed so they knew I was coming. And that reminded me that I had wanted to write about allies.
One of my allies is a shapeshifter who takes the form of a horse most of the time, who has been around since I was a child. I named her Silvermane (I didn't say I was a very creative child) for her flowing white mane and tail. She takes the form of a glowing grey Arabian horse… and apparently she had gotten into a patch of cockleburs, so her mane was standing out to the side with them. I asked her why she didn't simply shapeshift and take them out, but apparently they stay with her horse form so she can't just remove them in a shape with fingers. Of course she has other ways to get rid of them, but here was a handy human with functioning fingers to untangle them. I applied some conditioner I made out of energy to her mane, made a comb out of energy and began working on the burrs while I listened to everyone catch me up on what was going on in their lives, and gave them details on what had been going on in mine, filling in the gaps for when they didn't have a representative observing me.
And that leads to the thing that I wanted to communicate to everyone. Allies have lives, they have things that they get into. They have their own problems, their own families, and that they are willing to help us out is a great gift. It's one that many people do not return. Somehow, while the books I've seen will talk about doing jobs for beings like deities, they never bring up pulling the burr from a wolf's paw, setting a broken bone on a deer. These are things that perhaps aren't literally what happens to the being, but are representations that make sense to my mind and that I can fix, and in so doing assist with the actual problem.
It's especially rampant when people suggest getting animal allies - somehow the fact that these great spirits take a form that has four feet or wings, or no feet at all, short circuits people's brains and makes them think they aren't as important as we are. It's frustrating for them, and exasperating for those of us who know better. Spirit helpers don't exist just to assist us in most cases. Sure there are those that are essentially formed out of your own soul substance, and those are less likely to get into their own forms of trouble or need assistance. But when dealing with actual spirits, they are people just like us. They have needs, just like us. And just like us, they will eventually leave a user. It's happened to me.
When I started out I functioned heavily on an elemental system, with one ally for each element. For water that ally was dolphin, but I never did anything with her unless I, the all-important practitioner, needed something. It wasn't often; water was an element I had a decent handle on, comparatively speaking, so I never noticed the growing distance. I never thought of her, just always assumed she would be there if I called. Since my practice spent about 12 years not really going much of anywhere, it wasn't an issue. But I got serious about things again, and one day I went to my landing zone and called my allies together to see who even answered anymore. I received a summons to the water, where dolphin met me. We had swum together a few times in the intervening years, but I didn't do anything for her, nor did I ask anything of her. She basically told me that she was leaving my service, no hard feelings on either side, but she would no longer answer my call. It was totally fair, and I understood and wished her well. I could probably go find her just to catch up and see how things are, I'm sure she would receive me as a casual friend, but only as that.
It was a real wake up call for me, and a reminder that relationships take maintenance, just like they do with humans: there is a give and take there. If you find that your helpers never need anything from you, there's a good chance that they are extensions of you, which is totally fine. But it's probably a good idea to check: the ally will appreciate both being asked and any help you can give.
What sort of tasks do I get? Most of my helpers are animals, so there are a lot of animal care type things; I haven't figured out if they are real or not. Sometimes I'm aware that my brain is processing something allegorically and I am relating to the task that way, like combing the cockleburrs out of Silvermane's mane, and the burr out of the wolf's foot (and I did not ask questions about how the two got them at the same time…). Sometimes I know that an injury is real, even when it is presented as the broken leg of a fawn that needed the bones pulled straight so it could be healed. What it was that I actually aligned I will never know; I just knew that it needed doing, it was painful, and I helped. More often I get sent on journeys to collect things or gather information for various beings. I now try to make a point of making every assist I receive from my allies either a trade or part of a sequence of exchanges: a gift for a gift.
I hope this helps you deepen your relationship with your own allies should you have any. Gaining the actual friendship of my allies is one of the most worthwhile things I have ever done.
Kethesa (KEep The HEart SAcred),
Asra Lokakona