Wasp Woman

I had a dream while in the Moon of Welcome about a wasp flying around my face. When I wrote about that on here, it sparked aconnection. As a baby I was asleep in my cot when a wasp flew in for no reason and stung me on my face. This would likely have been in my first Moon of Welcoming year, which made me wonder if it might be my totem for the Moon of Welcoming.

I sent Wapeyit a question about this and she answered it in this lovely post.

But I don't really like Wasps.

Not surprising really when I grew up with this story of being stung.

So now I have to sit back with this a little and I am thinking about wasps. Not many people like them really. I have had a few run ins with them over the years. Some times they fly into our office at work (now I wonder if they were coming in to say hello to me... and I was sooo ungracious to them!) and you don't want to know how that tended to turn out for them, if they didn't want to leave.

One time I got on a bus to go to work, quite a few years ago now. I went to sit on a empty chair, but what I didn't realise was that the reason it was empty was because there was a wasp sat on it. Of course I sat on it and it stung me. In fact it got me very close to my privates - on that little area of leg that you sit on when you sit down, and that also rubs between your legs when you walk. It was not a good day!

Not surprisingly I remember what job I had at the time and it was the job I had when I had my nervous breakdown and that definately had a link to where the Wasp stung me, and I sure needed all the power of the wasp totem.... In fact it may even have occurred during the Moon of Welcome ....

So I had a little look at what the Wasp means as a totem and I found this page. There is so much information here!

Basically we all know the grumpy character of wasps and we all know what waspish people are like. But did you know that if you get stung, you are being stung by a female wasp and that it's stinger is actually it's sexual organs? Wasps are all about Warrior Woman Power. Not Girl Power. There is nothing girly about wasps!

There are many different types of wasp, some are solitary and others are hive based so wasps work well by themselves and as teams. They like a variety of food, preying on bugs and ruthlessly pursuing sweet things (very keen on the sweet things - not so keen on eating bugs...). The wasp is also a very creative animal, it takes wood, turns it to pulp and then turns the pulp into paper, which it then uses to build it's hive. They are pretty incredible animals really...

I definately needed all the help I could get from Wasp the last time I remember being stung. It was a hard time for sure. And given the cause of my woes (nasty man) the placing of the sting was very appropriate as well.

I guess I have got to stop being a little scared of them now really....

...but I think some healthy respect is fine!

So it makes me think about other times I have had run ins with animals..... The time I sat on two ant nests within a week (both biting sorts unfortunately). The time a horse bit me on the cheek (it looked like a love bite. Unfortunately we went on holiday shortly afterwards - and there it is in all the photos). It also makes me think about good things - like all the birds that got trapped in my parents conservatory (and one even flew ito their bedroom once as well). I seemed to have a knack of catching them in my hands. I would then take them outside and let them sit there until they felt able to fly away. And then there was the time I picked up a piece of mould (I was a right tom boy) that turned out to be a bat. Oh and the time I picked up a handful of sand and it turned out to have a baby flat fish in it. I also used to catch grasshoppers as a child, just so I could look at them.

I have had so many encounters with nature that they could all be symbolic or not, but I know I shall be keeping a look out for old friends as I walk around the wheel....