Signs, Synchronicities, Bees, and Ladybugs
They're everywhere! Yellow Brick Road.
Maybe it’s time to stop reading through the lines, and start seeing the signs.
Signs can show up in the following ways:
Numbers
Animals
Dreams
Synchronicity
Losing/Finding Items
Reoccurring language, words, or phrases
People appearing/reappearing in your life
Everyone is intuitive. Part of being infinite (even in finite, corporeal form) is that your stored knowledge of how to be human with a purpose is also infinite. Additionally, many of us have very strong spiritual teams, transitioned loved ones, and ancestors that are both present and persistent in comforting, humoring, and protecting us. So if you’ve ever felt like Spirit or The Universe was trying to communicate with you, but you had no idea how or why or what they intend to communicate, then you’re in the right place.
I found this list from Leo Carver on Chopra dot com which outlines 4 simple ways to recognize signs from The Universe. They are as follows:
Cultivate the Desire to Receive - Are you a naysayer? Do signs even resonate and what is your purpose for asking for them?
Pay Attention - Attentiveness is what makes the search for answers worthwhile.
Make Notice of Reoccurring Experiences - The Universe loves hammering a point home. You’re more likely to note something that occurs over and over, and things that show up over and over out of nowhere are probably asking for your attention.
Fine Tune Your Sensitivity - The point of signs is not to blame or count on the external, but to draw you back inward and take notice of how you’re processing a person, place, or opportunity while in transition or transformation.
Signs are only as valuable as our desire to receive them. If you want them, they’ll be there and what you do with that information, passing feeling, or intuitive hit is up to you and is your responsibility.
I Bee Knowin’
This time last year, almost to the day, I went on a deep-COVID coffee and tarot date with my friend Stefanie. We read each other’s cards, cried and laughed and rejoiced in being reunited in such a horrible time. On our walk home, Stefanie mentioned that she noticed there were bees surrounding me the whole time we were at the bagel shop.
Stefanie mentioned the bee spirit is a totem for being fulfilled in community-based work. Bees, in service of the community and delicate ecosystem, protect the queen. Shortly after, in the month of October, my work took off in a direction that could only feel like fate leading me right here into your inbox doing what I love most. Waxing poetic about weirdo shit. For what it’s worth, I gained 30k followers in 6 months by undressing myself and offering more than photos of me being hot and staying small because I was afraid of being weird. Afraid of going against the “brand” and no longer booking clients or appeasing my modeling agent.
I gained traction by removing the mask and approaching the communities I represent with humility. And for once in so long, I felt I was doing something that mattered because every post I made, every story I wrote, was about more than just me. The bees didn’t help my path reveal itself; I did. But they wanted me to know it wouldn’t happen alone and I heard them.
My desire to receive message “from the other side” was a mix of curiosity and hopelessness. I was cracked wide open. In the process of piecing together my life after a fresh breakup, my career being flipped on its head, and the context of a global pandemic and literal race war, I sought answers beyond my five senses - and they started seeking me.
I went through a “spiritual awakening” as the 444 patchouli girlies call it, and it opened up a world of hope I never imagined. And then the synchronicities were everywhere. Repeated numbers on the clock and receipt totals constantly, a song coming up on shuffle that I was just thinking about, a random and gentle waft of perfume that was exactly what my late grandmother smelled like before Sunday service. I would think of a white butterfly in my meditation one morning and see one with my eyes just hours later on a walk. I didn’t understand any of it, but I was overwhelmed with the idea that something infinite, unbiased, and true was enveloping me in protection - the Universe, god, whatever name fits. And that was enough.
My friend left me with one final question that day which lingered for some time until I understood what it meant. “Do you ever ask for signs? Something only you would know?”
I sure as hell started. Now, I am not only looking for signs all the time; I am always asking for them. Loudly, clearly, and with an open center. I ask for the random scent of Yellow Diamonds. The number 8 repeating. My birth time. A fake rose in an unexpected place. Something that is likely to appear, but unlikely to mean literally anything to anyone who isn’t looking for it. And then most often, my guides and ancestors and the big ol’ universe send them to me because we have an agreement. It’s our secret code.
The naysayers of signs and synchronicities might say “but that could happen/be experienced/show up to anyone,” to which I answer: that’s the point. I don’t need a flashing billboard with “YOUR DESTINY, NEXT EXIT” on it. Our lives are a sequence of small ripples and signs occur in those ripples as a reminder that the apparently “small” or insignificant matters. It’s comforting to think that the same sign might be activating all of us to show the fuck up.
If something happens that strikes you as totally odds-defying, chances are the Other Side has just worked its magic. - Laura Lynne Jackson
Last Friday night, I went to bed sobbing. A wave of old stuff washed over me out of nowhere, an old sorrow for what would never be. Like clockwork and without coincidence, it was the same shit I was desperately trying to unlock last fall (when I saw the bees) without the clarity to do so. As I stood in the shower having my emo moment and feeling the tears merge with water, I asked my guides to show me unconditional love.
My hungover ass woke up on Saturday morning, feeling a bit silly about how dramatic I had been the night before, and ordered McDonald’s breakfast as one does (a SEC McGriddle puts me right back in order). As my delivery driver hands me the bag, I noticed my meal was accompanied by a red, polka-dotted friend. A ladybug rode a gust of wind, up the walkup, and straight to my doorstep.
How cute! Later in the day on an anxiety walk, I see a mural painted by the children of a local elementary school, a ladybug gently cradled between two hands. And then a t-shirt with a ladybug on it. And then an Instagram story with a ladybug on it. And then an image of a quilted Chanel bag with ladybug details. Since the guides were clearly trying to communicate something, I looked up some general information about ladybugs and if they were connected to any spiritual practice.
In almost all traditions, a ladybug landing on you or appearing repeatedly is a sign of good luck, abundance, fortune, true love, and innocence. A very welcomed affirmation that my manifestations for intimate connections and career expansion are coming.
Down the rabbit hole of Google, I found that in Norse tradition ladybugs were referred to as “Freya’s Hens.”
Who is Freya? Well, she was simply everything milk and honey, with a side of fiery passion. Her name literally translates to “lady,” and she is one of the most venerated pagan goddesses. Despised by clergy members and Christian authorities, hatred has actually kept the figure of magic from fading into obscurity. An irony most pleasing to my spirit.
Riding on a chariot of two cats to represent intuition and its power to go the distance, and draped in a magical cloak; Freya was the goddess of love, lust, fertility, war, death, gold, and witchcraft. Lending her infinite knowledge and beloved cloak to whomever was in need, she is credited with teaching very powerful women very powerful manifestation techniques. Something interesting to note about Freya is that she was a representation of love and charm, while simultaneously watching over battles and war.
We tend to put harsh, wide distances and rocky terrains between the territories of love and war, and yet Freya’s mythology implies the necessity of one residing over the other. On her chariot, Freya traveled the world in search of her long lost love and wept tears of gold which formed into ladybugs. She traversed the chasm of loss and suffering over and over, unflinching at the battles she encountered along the way, because the love she knew awaited her was worth it. We will face necessary conflict even in the safest loves we know, including the love we hold for ourselves.
There is something to be said for the gift of sorrow and the internal wars we wage to crack ourselves open and let light in. Ladybugs are the epitome of sweetness - rising in the summer time with their small round bodies and bright color. Though, they may land on us when life isn’t so sweet or bright or adorable. When we’re suffering from a ruptured heart, crumbled foundation, and weary spirit. When we are crying in the shower over past hurt we just can’t seem to shake. But what we manifest often unravels when we do. When we decide we are committed to the irrefutable pursuit of love and desire at all costs, and are willing to give up what is necessary and travel the distances required to find love’s meeting place.
These are some things I learned by way of silly signs this week. And I can’t wait for the mysteries I’ll uncover about The Universe in the next. xx
Gorgeous.