Click, Click, Click

 A few weeks ago I was having some difficulty falling asleep, and I thought to myself, "If only I had someone to tell me a bedtime story." My next thought was something along the lines of, "Dude! You're a Shaman! Ask the spirits for a story, duh!"

This wasn't such a new idea. On numerous occasions I had asked the spirits for a story, particularly tree spirits, who can be quite loquacious once you get them talking. For a couple examples of stories from trees, here's one from Grandmother Cedar, and here's a comic I drew of a story told to me by a tree while on a Vision Quest about the Oak Bear.

Now, in the same manner as when I'm doing card readings or shamanic healing for others, the stories don't usually come in words. I may get a phrase here or there, but for the most part I'm shown the story unfolding before me like a movie, and it's up to me to come up with the words to describe the visions. 

So, this particular night I turned to Elen of the Ways, known as the "Horned Goddess" because she is depicted with reindeer antlers and is the guardian of the "Deer Trods." I have been working with her for a little while now, and she often shows up in times of personal uncertainty to soothingly wrap me in a reindeer-hide blanket, to let me know everything is okay. Being such a calming presence for me, it seemed only natural that she be the one from whom to request a bedtime story.

Before getting into the actual story I want to give a little context. Besides all of their other amazing adaptations to life on the planet, particularly in the North, reindeer have a peculiar set up in their feet where a tendon slides over a bone in a way that creates a clicking sound, You know -- "Up on the rooftop, click, click, click!" I'll leave it to the story to tell you the how and why. So, from Elen of the Ways comes this story...

When Reindeer's Life Began to Click

It was the baby reindeer's first winter. When the snow began to fall she wasn't sure whether to be excited or scared, so she ran to her mother for answers. Her mother smiled at the quizzical look on her fawn's face and went on to explain "snow." 

"Remember when the velvet came off the antlers of the adult reindeer? Every year the velvet begins to fall from the antlers of Gabba, the great, white Reindeer Goddess, and the hair that falls from the velvet turns to powder and blankets the land to bring rest to the world."

Of course this new, exciting, magickal occurrence did not bring rest to baby reindeer who began to run and leap and prance through the snow with such exuberance that she failed to notice the rest of the herd slowly moving away in its migration, soon to be lost to sight. 

When she began to tire and turned to flood her mother with more questions, she found herself quite startlingly alone, which, for a child of the herd, is the most frightening thing in the world. 

With no idea which direction her people had wandered into the gathering flurries, baby reindeer just sat down and began to cry. 

"Why the tears little one," asked a strange voice. Baby reindeer looked up through tearful eyes to behold the biggest reindeer with the grandest antlers she had ever seen, with fur so purely white that she could have sworn every hair contained a hidden rainbow. 

"Where is your family little one, or is that the source of the tears? Let's see if I can help..."

"...Take a deep breath and close your eyes."

Baby reindeer did as she was told... almost. She reopened one eye the merest of cracks to see the Reindeer Goddess kneel, cock her massive head to one side, then with one fluid motion she swung her great antlers so that her brow tine, the front-most part of her antlers,  seemed to pass through every one of the baby's feet. 

Baby reindeer shot straight up into the air, though whether from the shock and fear of personal harm, or from feeling like a bolt of lightning had struck each foot simultaneously is hard to say. Yet there was no pain, and when she once again landed on the earth she heard an unfamiliar "Click! Click! Click! Click!" She took a couple steps... "Click! Click!" She began romping again as she had at the first falling of the snow, only this time every step carried a sharp and resounding 'Click!' Her dance had become a rhythm section. 

So engrossed in this new discovery was she as she danced and danced  and danced, that it wasn't until she stopped to catch her breath and thank the Reindeer Goddess that she noticed the goddess was no longer there. 

Now, not only did she feel alone, but abandoned as well, as she sat down in the snow to cry over her plight. But before she had the chance to cry even a single tear, she heard something. At first what sounded like static got louder and closer, and as the volume increased, the sound coalesced into a series of clicks - hundreds of them! Shortly, vague shapes in the midst of the still falling snow began to sharpen into the well defined form of her herd, with her mother leading the way. 

Baby Reindeer verily flew to her, prancing and clicking all the way. Her mother bent down nuzzling the young one with her nose, and licking the place on her crown where her first antlers would soon emerge. 

"When I realized you were no longer with us, I panicked little one, and in my panic I froze, uncertain and unable to decide which direction to seek you out. Then came a strange flash, like a lightning strike, and I began to hear a continuous clicking noise. I took a step in that direction, and so too did my foot click. Soon the entire herd had figured out what was happening, and moved as one, back in your direction." 

"Mama, it was Gabba! She was here! She fixed it so I, nor any other reindeer, will ever get lost again! Even in the worst snowstorms we will always know where the rest of our family is!"

And off danced the baby reindeer into the snow, knowing she never need worry again of being separated from her herd - her family.