Aristotle is the Dog Who Changed the Story
Some readings stay with me long after the person has walked away.
I may not remember every stone that landed on the cloth or everything we talked about. I have been working with my crystals in Geomancy readings since 1987 and have given many readings over those years. But sometimes there is a moment in a reading that changes the story.
Aristotle was one of those moments.
There are many stories contained within my Medicine Wheel.
In Air, the sword is the tool of the element. On one side of the sword is the Sun and on the other is the Moon. For me, the Sun side is conscious. It relates to the things we know, or that are coming into our awareness. The Moon side is more reflective and unconscious.
In this geomancy reading, the Significant Other stone wasn't sitting in the Sun, where everything would have been brightly illuminated and completely clear, and honest with a “nothing to hide” relationship between my client and her significant other.
It was in the paddock beneath it.
I have always had a beautiful picture of that paddock in my mind. I imagine the Sun creeping over the hill in the morning beginning to illuminate the land below. I see groups of people gathering there for millennia, working together, holding hands, dancing, kids playing and tumbling around in the paddock simply because it is a beautiful place to be in the Sun on a glorious morning.
That Significant Other stone might represent your lover, your partner or someone else who is deeply significant in your life.
And in this woman's reading, her Significant Other had landed in the paddock under that sun and in my imagination they were going to have some fun together.
Looking at where the stones had fallen and the positions they had taken, I interpreted what I could see:
Your “significant other” is willing to help get the cogs moving, so you can work the paddocks together.
I was seeking to find a metaphor my client could imagine. I didn't know who that Significant Other was.
She did...
She looked at me and asked: “Could it be my dog?”
Absolutely, it could. His name was Aristotle.
She was away at the festival and was missing her beloved dog. As she began talking about him, something interesting started to happen.
She told me about the way Aristotle used his nose.
It was years ago now, so I don't want to put exact words into her mouth, but I remember her describing the way he worked an area very carefully and systematically, almost as though he were working a grid.
He didn't just charge around following a smell as other dogs might. He was methodical, and she told me he was careful not to disturb evidence.
Suddenly, the words I had used to interpret the pattern on the cloth “This significant other is going to work in the paddocks with you” had a completely different story attached to them.
This is where a Geomancy reading becomes really interesting for me. I hadn't looked at the Significant Other stone and thought, dog. I didn't know Aristotle existed. I didn't know how he used his nose.
She hadn't sat down and asked me whether she should train her dog for scent work.
I had simply looked at where the stones had landed on my Medicine Wheel and interpreted the pattern I could see. Once she recognised Aristotle in that pattern, we could look again.
We began exploring the other patterns around the cloth and talking about the possibilities they might hold. Could Aristotle's natural ability with scent be developed? Could he potentially be trained to work with her on the land? We talked about scent work involving feral animals, not the main pests that dogs might commonly be trained to detect, but other animals or signs that could be more difficult to find and eradicate.
I could see her becoming excited as we explored the possibilities. We weren't deciding Aristotle's future. We were looking at a pattern on a cloth and asking:
What might be possible?
When someone's life appears in the stones
This is one of the things I love about my Geomancy readings. The stones don't land in neat little rows and give me sentences to repeat.
They form patterns.
I interpret those patterns through where the stones have landed and how they relate to one another across my Southern Hemisphere Medicine Wheel. Each crystal has its own stories and relationships. Where it lands on the Medicine Wheel adds another layer. The stones surrounding it change the pattern again.
Then, sitting opposite me, is another whole story the person whose life I know very little about. That day, I could see a Significant Other walking in the paddock with her. But I couldn't know that somewhere in this woman's life was a beloved dog called Aristotle, who already moved across the land with his nose in a careful, structured way. She knew Aristotle. That was the piece of the story she brought to the reading.
Once she recognised him, we could explore the pattern together.
Aristotle changed the story for me that day. He changed the way I understood my Significant Other crystal rune.
His person left with a new possibility to explore. And all these years later, his story still makes me think about something much bigger.
What becomes possible when we stop assuming we already know the role of an animal is or a crystals role in our life, for that matter?
Dogs have extraordinary abilities that we humans don't possess. When those abilities are understood and developed, people and animals can work together in remarkable ways, helping us understand and care for the land, finding feral animals, or detecting signs we might otherwise miss.
I don't know whether Aristotle ever became that dog. I never saw his person again after the festival.
But perhaps that isn't the point.
For a little while, sitting together over a cloth covered in crystals, we both could see a possibility.
She could see something more in Aristotle.
And Aristotle helped me see something more in my stones.
My crystals really do work well together. Again and again they remind me not to make things too serious, not to take everything too literally and not to assume I already know the story. I am open to the feeling of the pattern. A lot of my intuition has developed through working with these crystal runes.
For me, they work with my higher self. My part is to relax into that relationship and trust them.
They are working with the higher self of my client as well. I do trust the crystal runes. One hundred percent. Aristotle reminded me once again how right they are.
Maybe that is one of the gifts I am most grateful for as a Geomancer. I can usually find another side to my client's story and another side or another character with the crystal runes themselves.
On this continous learning journey sometimes changing the way we see something is where an entirely different story begins.
It is fun to let the crystal's help us do that.
She looked at me and asked: “Could it be my dog?”
Absolutely, it could. His name was Aristotle.
She was away at the festival and was missing her beloved dog. As she began talking about him, something interesting started to happen.
She told me about the way Aristotle used his nose.
It was years ago now, so I don't want to put exact words into her mouth, but I remember her describing the way he worked an area very carefully and systematically, almost as though he were working a grid.
He didn't just charge around following a smell as other dogs might. He was methodical, and she told me he was careful not to disturb evidence.
Suddenly, the words I had used to interpret the pattern on the cloth “This significant other is going to work in the paddocks with you” had a completely different story attached to them.
This is where a Geomancy reading becomes really interesting for me. I hadn't looked at the Significant Other stone and thought, dog. I didn't know Aristotle existed. I didn't know how he used his nose.
She hadn't sat down and asked me whether she should train her dog for scent work.
I had simply looked at where the stones had landed on my Medicine Wheel and interpreted the pattern I could see. Once she recognised Aristotle in that pattern, we could look again.
We began exploring the other patterns around the cloth and talking about the possibilities they might hold. Could Aristotle's natural ability with scent be developed? Could he potentially be trained to work with her on the land? We talked about scent work involving feral animals, not the main pests that dogs might commonly be trained to detect, but other animals or signs that could be more difficult to find and eradicate.
I could see her becoming excited as we explored the possibilities. We weren't deciding Aristotle's future. We were looking at a pattern on a cloth and asking:
What might be possible?
When someone's life appears in the stones
This is one of the things I love about my Geomancy readings. The stones don't land in neat little rows and give me sentences to repeat.
They form patterns.
I interpret those patterns through where the stones have landed and how they relate to one another across my Southern Hemisphere Medicine Wheel. Each crystal has its own stories and relationships. Where it lands on the Medicine Wheel adds another layer. The stones surrounding it change the pattern again.
Then, sitting opposite me, is another whole story the person whose life I know very little about. That day, I could see a Significant Other walking in the paddock with her. But I couldn't know that somewhere in this woman's life was a beloved dog called Aristotle, who already moved across the land with his nose in a careful, structured way. She knew Aristotle. That was the piece of the story she brought to the reading.
Once she recognised him, we could explore the pattern together.
Aristotle changed the story for me that day. He changed the way I understood my Significant Other crystal rune.
His person left with a new possibility to explore. And all these years later, his story still makes me think about something much bigger.
What becomes possible when we stop assuming we already know what an animal's role is?
Dogs have extraordinary abilities that we humans don't possess. When those abilities are understood and developed, people and animals can work together in ways that help us understand and care for the land including finding feral animals or signs that might otherwise be difficult for us to detect. I don't know whether Aristotle ever became that dog. I never saw his person again after the festival.
But perhaps that isn't the point.
For a little while, sitting together over a cloth covered in crystals, we both could see a possibility.
She could see something more in Aristotle.
And Aristotle helped me see something more in my stones.
My crystals really do work well together. Again and again they remind me not to make things too serious, not to take everything too literally and not to assume I already know the story. I am open to the feeling of the pattern. A lot of my intuition has developed through working with these crystal runes.
For me, they work with my higher self. My part is to relax into that relationship and trust them.
They are working with the higher self of my client as well. I do trust the crystal runes. One hundred percent. Aristotle reminded me once again how right they are.
Maybe that is one of the gifts I am most grateful for as a Geomancer. I can usually find another side to my client's story and another side or another character with the crystal runes themselves.
On this continous learning journey sometimes changing the way we see something is where an entirely different story begins.
It is fun to let the crystal's help us do that.