“A peacock encounter may show that you need to put yourself outside your personal boundaries and ready to shine out. “ (Clifford, 2021)
Image:@calebminear
Erika believes that ideas, people, and 'things' come to us sometimes based on our intention we put out into the world, and sometimes as direction from the Universe.
As we began the conversation around starting our own consulting business, while we were still going through school, we played with names for domains, but did not entertain how we would represent the field we work in. Most everyone in the field of vision uses the very obvious choice of eyes in a variety of forms. One thing to know about us both is -likely the reason we make a good couple- neither of us ever done what is obvious, most accepted, or expected. Therefore, when we decided to use the domain we owned for years to put in our request for a business license, it was no surprise that Erika got this urge (gut feeling) to use peacock feathers instead of eyes. And when Erika gets a gut feeling, you trust it!
Using Unsplash an online depository of free images, she began browsing. Both of our favorite colors sit around the blue and green spectrum, with Erika’s most recent favorite being purple. Did you know peacock feathers are dominant in those colors? This sealed it, but not until Erika reached out to her friend whose family in Native American, to ensure, that by using a feather we are not insulting the people and the very land which we occupy.
You might be wondering, ok, you decided on a peacock feather, before actually knowing it’s meaning around the world? Did we mention we never do what is expected? Yes. We did. Then we did research after the fact. And you won’t believe the amazing coincidences that came with this research.
Garth Clifford of World Birds compiled an amazing resource on the symbolism of peacocks across cultures. We will use his work here to highlight just a few to show you the connection between what we hope to accomplish and bring to our clients and the symbolism.
First a few key elements across the cultures:
Hinduism: goddess of compassion, fortitude, showing supportiveness
Ancient Greece: eyes of stars, evil eye, observance
Persian: earthly form of Phoenix
Native American: self-confidence, self-esteem, dignity, knowledge, guidance
Muslims: healers, guardians
Christians: hope, charity, faith
Celtic: transcendence, freedom
Now how does this symbolism mash with our work in rehabilitative and educational work?
When we work with clients, let that be a child aged three or an elderly adult who is struggling with their vision loss, while also declining physically, our goal is to let them see their strengths. Work in the field of vision must be reliant on getting the client to embrace their (new) normal and assist them in (re)claiming their powers. (Must insert here, that there is no such thing as normal, but a setting on a drier. We mean typical for the client.)
For children born blind (congenital vision loss), we need to get them to believe in themselves, to gain a solid foundational self-esteem (how they feel about themselves) and self-worth (what they believe the world thinks of them and their feelings about it) while guiding them to acknowledge their strengths, abilities, and also areas where improvements are needed to be made. Guiding them to knowledge and being supportive is how we assist them to gain freedom within a highly visual world.
Working with adults, who have advantageous (acquired) vision loss due to an accident, aging, health, or a hereditary disease, we assist them in realizing, that vision loss is just a shift in the matrix. It starts with changing their own biases about what they believed about visions loss or being blind for their sighted years. Reframing their thinking about what disability means to them and as a social construct. Help them discover new ways of being independent. Reigniting their passions for the things they used to love to engage in or direct them toward options that might turn into new passions. Finding a purpose and the trickle of hope is the hardest for adults who are experiencing deep, painful despair. Giving them small victories of finding the bottom stair with a cane, getting them to get the mail from a mailbox on their rural road, showing them how to make a phone call using Siri, might seem like DUH-moments to many, but for people who did not receive services for months or even years are little rays of sunshine in their darkest moments.
Therefore, that never wavering gut feeling to embrace the peacock feather, is nothing short of a divine intervention.
References
Clifford, G. C. (2021, May 12). Peacock symbolism & meaning (+totem, spirit & omens). World Birds. https://www.worldbirds.org/peacock-symbolism/
Minear, C. (2015). [Peacock feather close-up]. Unsplash: Photos for Everyone. https://unsplash.com/photos/BwMtUpBYLIs
B&W Image by Erika, with the digital help of Jennifer!
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