[Wildspeak] The Vilka - part one.
Jan. 22nd, 2010 09:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonvoiceI’ve written to people in the past via email and comments about how to actually work with the vilka, but I’ve been thinking about doing a more generic series. But I thought I’d write about what the vilka actually are first.
Everything is connected.
In Vilturj, this connection is called the vilka, or web. And every individual strand of connection is also called the vilka, that which creates the web. They are long connections of energy between everyone we have ever met, every animal, every plant, every land and sky spirit. They can never be broken or severed, not on death or illness or even deliberate magical workings. They can only be harmed, blocked, forgotten and abandoned. And of course they can be reinforced, contributed to, warmed, acknowledged and used to contribute to our continued health and longevity.
These webs are many. We – each of us – have made millions of connections throughout our lifetime whether we know it or not. Every blade of grass we have stepped on, every person in a crowded shopping centre that has brushed up against our energy, and every tree nearby with every step we take through the forest. They are made with people we love and people we hate or loathe. They are made online, offline, through writing letters and making phone calls, and even through repeatedly seeing certain people on television. They are made with ‘real beings,’ and also beings that are willed into existence through collective intent, such as pop media characters, shamans who become gods in the stories we tell, gods who are knowingly created instead of accepted as being pre-existing.
Were we to try and think of how many connections we had made from birth, it would not be possible to capture them all in our minds. Were we to see the strands as light and step back and look at our world from a distance, it would be a glowing ball of light and connection. Because everything is connected.
We are never alone.
There is the saying, or concept, that we are not just created through our perceptions of ourselves, but also by how those around us perceive us. In this, we believe that the vilka, and the health of our vilka, informs our own personal health. If our important connections are poorly maintained, unhealthy, damaged and blocked, we are unhealthy, damaged and blocked people. And if we take the time to maintain the connections to the people, animals, trees and land spirits we encounter the most, we become healthy, bright, whole and flowing.
In Vilturj, the vilka is used to explain situations such as knowing who is calling before we have picked up the phone. When we look up to see someone looking back at us, when we talk about someone for the first time in years, only to see them the next day, we are obeying the vibrations of our vilka.
When a shaman finds a soul fragment by ‘instinct,’ they are unconsciously or consciously following the vilka. They strengthen it, when they narrow their focus to the individual strand of vilka. They find it by sifting through the other connections they have made. And they find what they’re looking for, by following the vilka in the same way a person follows a piece of string through a forest back to their own destination. There are shamans who do all their work only by and through the vilka, spider shamans, sitting squarely in their own webs, plucking the energy of others to bring about health or illness.
Everyone can work with the vilka on an energy level, to strengthen or weaken connections. It is through this work that we can release focus on people who are toxic to us, block energy from those who are hurting us, send compassion, warmth and healing energy to those who are in danger, and even curse those who have transgressed against ourselves or our community. We work on our vilka unconsciously, all the time: Every time you think fondly about a friend you haven’t seen in some time, every time you pass a tree and remember that tree from last time, and the time before, every time you step on the same patch of grass at a park or in your back yard, every time you see the same spider hanging in the corner of your house, but allow it to stay there.
It is thanks to spider that we are all connected to one another. Navigating our own webs, or caught firmly in someone else’s. It is thanks to spider that we are never alone, no matter how much we wish to be, no matter how much we feel we are, at any one time. It is thanks to the vilka that at any one time, we belong firmly anchored while creating new anchors all the time. And it is thanks to the web that we are surrounded by the shining lights of many others, both sustained and drained by them, building stronger webs with every day that we live our lives.
In Vilturj, we say thank you to Vasilia for this gift, She who presides over the stars, the gentler breezes, and all spider wisdom.
Everything is connected.
In Vilturj, this connection is called the vilka, or web. And every individual strand of connection is also called the vilka, that which creates the web. They are long connections of energy between everyone we have ever met, every animal, every plant, every land and sky spirit. They can never be broken or severed, not on death or illness or even deliberate magical workings. They can only be harmed, blocked, forgotten and abandoned. And of course they can be reinforced, contributed to, warmed, acknowledged and used to contribute to our continued health and longevity.
These webs are many. We – each of us – have made millions of connections throughout our lifetime whether we know it or not. Every blade of grass we have stepped on, every person in a crowded shopping centre that has brushed up against our energy, and every tree nearby with every step we take through the forest. They are made with people we love and people we hate or loathe. They are made online, offline, through writing letters and making phone calls, and even through repeatedly seeing certain people on television. They are made with ‘real beings,’ and also beings that are willed into existence through collective intent, such as pop media characters, shamans who become gods in the stories we tell, gods who are knowingly created instead of accepted as being pre-existing.
Were we to try and think of how many connections we had made from birth, it would not be possible to capture them all in our minds. Were we to see the strands as light and step back and look at our world from a distance, it would be a glowing ball of light and connection. Because everything is connected.
We are never alone.
There is the saying, or concept, that we are not just created through our perceptions of ourselves, but also by how those around us perceive us. In this, we believe that the vilka, and the health of our vilka, informs our own personal health. If our important connections are poorly maintained, unhealthy, damaged and blocked, we are unhealthy, damaged and blocked people. And if we take the time to maintain the connections to the people, animals, trees and land spirits we encounter the most, we become healthy, bright, whole and flowing.
In Vilturj, the vilka is used to explain situations such as knowing who is calling before we have picked up the phone. When we look up to see someone looking back at us, when we talk about someone for the first time in years, only to see them the next day, we are obeying the vibrations of our vilka.
When a shaman finds a soul fragment by ‘instinct,’ they are unconsciously or consciously following the vilka. They strengthen it, when they narrow their focus to the individual strand of vilka. They find it by sifting through the other connections they have made. And they find what they’re looking for, by following the vilka in the same way a person follows a piece of string through a forest back to their own destination. There are shamans who do all their work only by and through the vilka, spider shamans, sitting squarely in their own webs, plucking the energy of others to bring about health or illness.
Everyone can work with the vilka on an energy level, to strengthen or weaken connections. It is through this work that we can release focus on people who are toxic to us, block energy from those who are hurting us, send compassion, warmth and healing energy to those who are in danger, and even curse those who have transgressed against ourselves or our community. We work on our vilka unconsciously, all the time: Every time you think fondly about a friend you haven’t seen in some time, every time you pass a tree and remember that tree from last time, and the time before, every time you step on the same patch of grass at a park or in your back yard, every time you see the same spider hanging in the corner of your house, but allow it to stay there.
It is thanks to spider that we are all connected to one another. Navigating our own webs, or caught firmly in someone else’s. It is thanks to spider that we are never alone, no matter how much we wish to be, no matter how much we feel we are, at any one time. It is thanks to the vilka that at any one time, we belong firmly anchored while creating new anchors all the time. And it is thanks to the web that we are surrounded by the shining lights of many others, both sustained and drained by them, building stronger webs with every day that we live our lives.
In Vilturj, we say thank you to Vasilia for this gift, She who presides over the stars, the gentler breezes, and all spider wisdom.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 01:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 01:41 am (UTC)I like it too, and I've decided to start integrating more of this into my life again. I used to do so much of my 'work' through the vilka, but stopped a couple of years ago. Time to start again, I think.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 01:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 02:41 am (UTC)Might wanna filter me out to save your time and energy first XD
(So in other words...I really enjoyed this post ;) )
no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 02:42 am (UTC)Is Vasilia at all related to Vasilisa, or do they just have similar names?
no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 02:44 am (UTC)Yeah, they're related. We consider Vasilisa to be the folkloric equivalent of Vasilia; just as Baba Yaga is the folkloric equivalent of Vavale.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 03:05 am (UTC)That is wicked cool!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 02:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 04:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 05:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 07:40 am (UTC)So neat. :D Links are one of my favorite topics, and something I feel strongly about/love working with. Hearing about it from a different cultural standpoint is awesome.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 11:47 am (UTC)It's be interesting to try and work with this in some way, instead of just being aware of it as most people are.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 12:40 pm (UTC)