Heron and Egret Empowerment

Egrets and Herons are very large wading birds with long sharp
beaks and tall skinny legs. They fly slowly with steady flaps of
their wings, and with their necks retracted s-style. Egrets are
white while herons are blue-grey. Their cry is a low harsh
croak.
They nest in trees beside water lands, building large platforms
of sticks and twigs about 20 to 40 feet off the ground. In
April they breed and lay 4 greenish blue eggs. The chicks are
aggressive and frequently not all survive to leave the nest.
After about three weeks they try wandering along branches,
returning to the nest to feed. A week later they are hunting for
themselves.
Herons are part of the wetland ecology. Minnows, frogs and
crustaceans flourish in the aquatic plants such as eelgrass.

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Meadow voles, like mice, live in the dryer grass of winter.

Crickets and grasshoppers are also eaten. Some egrets perch on
water buffalo and eat the insects stirred up as the beasts move.
A heron stalks its prey, and can wait patiently while its keen
eyes watch the pool depths, before swiftly striking. Herons have
few natural enemies. Eagles will take the chicks but avoid the
long beaks of adults. Humans can harm the eggs with insecticides
in the food chain.

Myths about these birds

In Welsh the heron, crane and stork were all called creyr. These
birds were seen as a symbol of life and death. They brought
babies, like the stork of the Netherlands, but also were an ill
omen of death. Warriors would put heron images on their armour
to scare the enemy. Crane-headed goblins were thought to haunt

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marshes. Some heron images show up on pre-roman celtic coins.

They are shown riding or perching on ponies. This could be
similar to egrets in Africa that perch on water buffalo to eat
the insects stirred up by them.
In the Irish legend of the Cailleach an Teampuill (the hag of
the temple) her four sons appear as cranes who can only regain
human form by a sprinkle of bull's blood. There was a taboo on
the eating of cranes and herons, for the birds might be the souls
of the departed, and by eating anything linked to death, you
would soon die or at least be forced to stay in the otherworlds.

Egyptian:
Phoenix(Bennu)
Appearance: The
Bennu bird was a
large imaginary bird
resembling a heron.
The bird may be
modeled on the gray
heron (Ardea cinera)
or the larger Goliath
heron (Ardea goliath)
that lives on the
coast of the Red Sea.
It had a two long feathers on the crest of it's head and was
often crowned with the Atef crown of Osiris (the White Crown
with two ostrich plumes on either side) or with the disk of the
sun.

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Meaning: The Bennu was the sacred bird of Heliopolis. Bennu

probably derives from the word weben, meaning "rise" or "shine."
The Bennu was associated with the sun and represented the ba or
soul of the sun god, Re.
The Bennu was also associated with the inundation of the Nile
and of the creation. Standing alone on isolated rocks of islands
of high ground during the floods the heron represented the first
life to appear on the primeval mound which rose from the watery
chaos at the first creation. This mound was called the ben-ben.
It was the Bennu bird's cry at the creation of the world that
marked the beginning of time.
The Bennu was also considered a manifestation of the
resurrected Osiris and the bird was often shown perched in his
sacred willow tree.
The Bennu was known as the
legendary phoenix to the
Greeks.
Herodotus, the Greek historian,
says the following about the
Bennu:
"Another sacred bird is the
phoenix; I have not seen a
phoenix myself, except in
paintings, for it is very rare and only visits the country (so they
say at Heliopolis) only at intervals of five hundred years, on the
occasion of the death of the parent bird."
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Herodotus goes on to record that the Bennu bird came from

Arabia every 500 years carrying his father's body embalmed in
an egg of myrrh. This Arabian bird however was said to resemble
an eagle with brilliant gold and red plumage. Before the phoenix
died it built a nest of incense twigs and laid down in it and died.
From its body a small worm emerged that the sun's heat
transformed into the new phoenix.
Another story says that the phoenix rose again from the burnt
and decomposing remains of his old body and took these to
Heliopolis, where he burned them.
The planet Venus was called the "star of the ship of the
Bennu-Asar" (Asar is the Egyptian name of Osiris). The Bennu was
also sometimes associated with Upper Egypt.

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Shamanic Meaning of the Heron

Some people think the heron's spiritual qualities include strong
independence, patience, determination, keen alertness, success
in the hunt, aggression, and the ability to walk in two worlds,
along the magical edges of things.
A heron is comfortable in water, mud, sunlight and the offshore
wind, so the elements are at its disposal. Fairy folk who love the
fringes will honor this totem.
The creator gods and goddesses who needed assistants to
find the earth when all was hidden under the waters of chaos, in
trans-siberian lore, used birds such as diving loons, eider ducks,
and cranes.

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How to heal with this attunement

Just say aloud (name of system) once and let the energy flow through your
hands and heal as you usually do.
How to take down this attunement
Just say aloud I am now accepting the attunement to (name of system)
from (name of teacher) in a way that is good for my health and spirit. So be
it.
And relax for a few minutes. You may sense energy tingling in your hands or
warmth, or if you close your eyes and let your mind drift away, you may see
unusual pictures. It really doesnt matter. It works even if nothing is sensed
at all.
How to give this attunement
Just say aloud I now attune (name of student) to the energies of (name of
system) in a way that is good for both of us, in health and spirit. So be it.
Or you can put the attunement in a chi ball of imagined energy and let the
student pull it down when convenient.
Best wishes and love and light,
Stewart

Disclaimer: This energy system is intended for relaxation and wellness and
spiritual growth, but people with medical problems should of course continue
to see their doctors and get medical advice from a professional

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