Flight of the Hummingbird
by Carlisle Bergquist, MA, LCMFT

Enjoying the warm sunshine while contemplating one of those forks in the road we always hear about, a beautiful green Anise hummingbird navigated through the red blossoms of a succulent carefully positioning itself to extract the nectar from each flower before it moved on to the next.  Then, hovering directly in front of my face at eye level, a bright crimson-orange flash came from the hummingbird’s breast followed by several more as it danced before me in the sunlight.  Perhaps he was contemplating what sort of flower I was, but each time his vibrant burst went right inside me as potently as if Commander Kirk had blasted me with a Phaser.  It stunned me.  I took it as an affirmation that my decision was correct still it would take several years to realize the complete significance of that colorfully illuminated encounter.

In Andean mysticism, I later found out, the hummingbird represents the North, the wisdom position on the medicine wheel.  It is the symbol of the soul.  It demonstrates its courage and wisdom in the vast migration it makes each year from the jungles of Brazil to the hills and valleys of North America.  With its tiny body and diminutive wings, it flies across the expanse of ocean traveling on what seems like only the will to fulfill its ancestral destiny.  Along the path leading to my fork in the road, I read like a sponge absorbing every mystical and esoteric text I could find.  One book called Healing States by Stanley Krippner and Alberto Villoldo, spawned an earlier flash from the soul.  Now, like the hummingbird on little wings, I was fluttering towards destiny on my epic journey.

The awareness represented by the hummingbird is the realm of archetypes and the sacred.  It is the ability to perceive the mythic in the mundane.  For example, your physical presence is sitting in front of your computer right now as your mind interprets the symbols on the screen into words, phrases, and concepts; but, who’s reading, who’s observing through the mind and the body?  Like a hummingbird darting from flower to flower, your soul—indwelling consciousness—is experiencing this, it draws the nectar of meaning that connects to your life and ultimately that connects you the reader with this author across time and space.

So, what happens when we shift our awareness to the perspective of the hummingbird?  If we look at our lives from the perspective of being the soul within, our journey changes from solving day-to-day problems, to experiencing an adventure.  Life changes from cycling through the same old worries, to discovering what each day offers.  Clearly, it takes a little practice to let go of the control we “think” we have in our lives and learn to trust that everything has a purpose on our great adventure.  We may need to attract the inner hummingbird into the garden of our everyday awareness.

We need hummingbird feeders for our inner landscape the same as in the flowerbed.  Think about the things that feed your soul, things that draw you out of your personal sense of self and connect you with a broader vision.  Maybe it’s reading an inspirational book, or writing one; perhaps it’s listening to uplifting music, or seeing the multiple shades of green as you gaze across a park.  It could be a meditation practice or simply noticing the way the colors blend in a favorite painting.  Everybody is different but everyone has a doorway to his or her inner world.  When we feed the hummingbird within us, it becomes easier to see the events in our lives as interesting lessons, part of the discoveries on our grand life tour. 

We starve our inner hummingbird when we stay in our head, in our thoughts.  If the tiny bird analyzed its stature, it would determine that it could never fly with such small wings nor could it store enough energy in its minute body to make a transatlantic flight.  It doesn’t question, it moves towards its destiny.  Hummingbird consciousness draws the big picture; it gives the inspiration that changes lives knowing that the mind and body are tools it will use to accomplish the task.  If we realize the magnitude of the possibilities we embody, we need not look so cautiously before we leap.  We just need to take off trusting that our soul will find the route and provide everything that is required even if we don’t know exactly what we are doing.  A well-fed inner hummingbird will surely guide the way.

My encounter those years ago, both literally and figuratively, called me to an epic journey just as the Andean tradition describes.  It led me through the fork in the road to graduate studies and eventually to Brazil where I met nearly everyone described in the book.  Calls from hummingbird are easy to overlook at first.  The mind will tell you that it isn’t real, your body will tell you, “you can’t pull it off.”  Nevertheless, callings are persistent.  If you don’t listen the first time, they get louder.  If you never listen, they turn into a nagging “could have been.”  If you’re lucky, it will zip right up in front of your eyes and flash you awake.  In whatever manner you perceive its message, before your mind talks you out of it, be thankful, respond, and prepare to take the fight of the hummingbird.

Hummingbird Feeders:
The Four Insights, by Alberto Villoldo
Masters of the Living Energy, by Joan Parisi Wilcox
Vantage Quest VI, a brainwave entrainment CD for deep trance meditation by this author.