The Prophecy

The Prophecy: Light in the Shadows

by Sara Naeem

What is keeping a romantic connection from manifesting into my life? Is there a block? Is it a curse? Is there something I’m not seeing? Do I need to do something differently? A quarter of a century years old and still single to this day. I need answers. It’s late at night and I’m sitting down to read tarot as the snow falls from the cloudy sky. As I shuffle my tarot deck, I feel eyes piercing into the back of my head. I know there’s nothing directly behind me, but I still turn around to look out my back door behind me. No one. Nothing. After I finish asking the cards my questions, a bunch of them fall out on the table in front of me. I sit there staring at them, utterly confused. The cards are showing me fear, stress, restriction and torment while simultaneously showing me love, abundance, joy and healthy, flowing emotion. I’m trying to decipher the message being conveyed to me through Divine Source. It’s my own energy I tapped into, after all. I should know. I decide to give up and find myself getting up to head to bed instead. On the way to my room, I randomly glance at the time on my oven and see 11:11PM. I think nothing of it and fall asleep.

~

It’s cold and snowing heavily as I walk outside during the day. It appears I’ve come across an old book. As I approach it, the wind opens the book up to page 22. All it says on the page is “The illusory morning shall appear as an awakening light, but its truth shall reveal itself in the shadows of the night. The paradoxical creature shall deliver the sight.” What is it with these contradictory messages? I close the book and continue walking in my backyard, searching for a sign to get the answers that I seek. Right there. I see a barn owl, sitting on a perch, asleep. I observe its white face and chest and its dark brown wings and back. Suddenly, I realize that this is a paradoxical creature. With its contrasting light and dark colors and its nocturnal nature, where it sleeps during the day and is awake at night. I start hearing a faded sound coming from a distance. To my surprise, I find that my alarm clock has been going off. As I reach for my alarm to turn it off, I notice the time is 11:11AM. Yet another contrast, having seen 11:11 at night and then again in the morning.

I make my way downstairs and sit on my couch to reflect on this. The contradictory message that I got from the tarot cards, the prophecy from the book and then seeing a barn owl… Then it hits me. The illusory morning was my dream showing me an illusion of daytime. Within it, I saw the paradoxical creature, the barn owl, which was asleep as if it is night time, when it is dark. This has to mean that I will find all of my answers through the owl, since the prophecy said that it would deliver the sight! What could the prophecy mean by the shadows of the night? Perhaps I’ll have to actually go outside tonight instead of through a dream to figure this out.

It’s currently dark enough during this cold winter season and well past sunset. I put my coat, scarf, hat and boots on and decide to head out. I walk down the path past my backyard where I saw the owl in my dream. I look around and don’t see anything. I keep searching and looking up at trees to find it. I have this feeling that I need to go farther down the path into the darkness, even though I’m hesitant, but I follow my intuition and continue down the path. I hear a rumbling in the bush next to me and then see the same owl I saw in my dream emerge with a dead animal in its claws. Its eyes are wide open and are the brightest thing around in the dark. It looks directly into my eyes and I remember that piercing stare I felt at the back of my head the other night while I was reading tarot. It feels exactly the same. My mind and body are suddenly taken over by fear and anxiety, feeling stuck with no way back to safety. I feel like I am under the control of this owl, who seems like a threat to me at the moment, considering I’m seeing it in its scavenger form. I screech as it swoops past me, inches away from my face, leaving behind one of its white feathers with me. Heart racing, I catch the feather midair and run back towards my house.

I drink some water and sit down to catch my breath. I know that everything that happens has a meaning and intention behind it. So, I look at the feather and try to think about what it symbolizes. Connections need to be made. I backtrack and think about where all of this started. Me sitting at my table asking my tarot cards for answers with regards to my love life. I asked if there were any blocks or something that I needed to see or do differently in order to allow for a romantic connection to come into my life.

I come to realize that it’s me who’s in my own way. I’m my own block. I’m both my problem and my solution. I’m choosing to be blind and not see myself. The fear, resistance, hesitation, stress, torment comprise my darkness while the love, joy, abundance and flow of emotions comprise my light. My guardedness is not allowing me to be open to receiving and I’m instead stuck in the restrictive illusion of my mind. I’m scared of losing control and being hurt, therefore refusing to surrender and trust. I do, in fact, need to do things differently. Yin and Yang. Light and shadow. I’m my own answers. The white feather found in the dark is a testament to this. 11:11 is a reflection of two sides, which can be seen as 2:2. Page 22 of the book of prophecies. AM and PM. Morning and night. Illusion based in the denial holding me back versus reality based in facing my truth. I have been asleep during the day, just like the owl, unable to see my darkness in the light. Now I must also see through the darkness like the owl. There is light found in the dark. I must go further within myself, into the dark, to find it. Reflection.